Enough of You Mommy...

This past week Jason was out of town.  Part of his sixth grade teaching duties is to chaperone them on a week long over night outdoor education camp.  I have to say this, and yes I will sound old and bitter, but we never got to do such awesome things when I was a kid!  I wasn't too worried since Jason's wrestling coaching schedule left me feeling like a single mom most nights anyway.  So I had this, right?  My plan of action was to keep the little boogers as jammed packed entertained as possible so they would be distracted and crash at nap and bedtimes until my wonderful mother-in-law flew in on Wednesday to help.  My big fat prego booty just had to survive until Wednesday...

The first two days weren't so bad.  We went on fun outings, had play dates, ate dinner with friends.  But I was already seeing the side effects of a daddy-less home.  Marcella had become incredibly clingy.  She felt the need to be touching me at all times, which was particularly interesting when I wanted to go potty.  If her little precious finger left my body for a second, "momma, momma, momma, momma..."  and so on and so forth, you get the picture.  Adelyn had grown particularly found of the word, no.  Enough said. However, it started getting interesting Tuesday night.  We were leaving a friends house at bedtime and had discovered that the binky was missing.  Not a big deal since we just had to make it the short 5 minute ride home to the spare but Marcella felt passionately differently than I.  That was the longest 5 minute car ride of my life.  When we got home, I had to football hold two screaming toddlers inside to take a bath before I could put them down for the night.  Normally, I would skip the bath but they were filthy.  A scummy, stinky filthy that I just couldn't ignore.  So, I wrestled the crocodiles to nakedness.  But before I could get Marcella in the tub she ran off butt naked to go retrieve her blankie.  Not a big deal except she then proceeded to then accidentally pee all over it.  This is when I discovered just how attached my tiny nakie hiney was to her little pink blanket.  I have never seen such a physical and verbal display of frustration and disgust.  And naturally, Adelyn had to join in for giggles.

I thought "I'm pretty smart.  Adelyn has one just like it, only it's yellow.  She couldn't care less if I gave it to Marcella.  I'll turn off the lights and she will never know the difference."  Wrong.  The force is strong with this one and she sensed immediately what I was up to.  The physical dramatics got so intense that I had to remove her from her crib in fear that she might break it and her head.  I rocked that wailing one year old from bath time till 11 p.m. when the blankie was finally clean and dry.  I am not kidding, as soon as the silky edging touched her fingers she was snoring.  Now when I pray before bed, I ask God for things like protection, health, safety for my family, world peace and that nothing ever happens to that little pink monogrammed blankie.  I have experienced a wrath like none other.

The rest of the week, thanks to my mother-in-law, was survivable.  But my kids were in rare form.  I felt like I needed to explain that my kids weren't always this bratty, sensitive and out of control. I loved that I was going through this...

While getting pictures from Jason like this...

When daddy finally arrived that Friday afternoon, the girls had had their fill of their momma.  The girls faces were priceless when their hero burst through that door.  The noise level went up about ten notches from all the babblings of Marcella, the "I missed you soo muches" from Daddy and the ramblings from Adelyn about how Daddy can never go to work again.  The only thing he couldn't figure out was why Adelyn had started calling Marcella "Linus" but I told him I would share that one later ;)

It was good that Jason had a week away.  I struggled but survived and the girls and I have found a whole new level of appreciation for the man we call "the daddy".