It's the middle of spring break and my bed-mate's alarm goes off. Daylight Savings time began a few weeks ago, but it's never light out at 4:30 a.m. I help Meg load her bags into the van and drive her to the airport for her day-long flight across the country. Final destination: Philadelphia, where her older sister would pick her up and eventually they would travel south to Virginia/Maryland for their oldest sister's wedding. As is tradition when Meg leaves me alone with the children, I stop at VooDoo Donuts on the Eastside for a sugary treat. I return to my bed by 6:00 a.m., but I fail to fall back asleep. And thus began my week as a single parent.
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| It's never too early for pajamas! |
I honestly would have preferred to have had the kids while they were in school--especially since it rained every single day that Meg was gone (sometimes all day). We tried to play outside when we could, and I wanted to go on a hike but it never worked out. We watched lots of movies (Dad's Inappropriate Movie Night is super easy to facilitate while the lady is away and Ian is more willing and able to participate), ate lots of fried food and animal flesh, and played many hours of video and board games. We did get out of the house on the Saturday of spring break, although it was raining, to drive Aaron to a game store so he could compete in a Pokemon league. I told the younger boys that we would go to OMSI for the few hours before needing to return to pick up Aaron, but as we drove by and noticed a line about a half-mile outside the building, we just drove home and made a birthday cake for Edward. After picking up Aaron, we returned to a line-free OMSI and stayed until they closed. We also visited the nearby and newly-opened Oregon Heritage Rail museum, but it had hardly anything to look at, nothing to touch, and no ponies to ride. So we left, completely unimpressed.
Edward's birthday was on the last day Meg was gone, but that didn't stop us from celebrating. We drove to Sweet Tomatoes in Clackamas to feast on pasta and pizza and soft-serve and green jello. All of the boys claimed to be full when we left, but they were scrounging around for food once we returned home.
Ian and I got to spend two days at home, where we worked on a couple of pre-school lessons, went on a couple of field trips: Monday was a trip to a landscape company to shovel pea gravel into our DIY buckets, which we brought home and patched our existing garden paths and built a new one that makes it easy to access the hose outlet; Tuesday was a trip to Oaks Park for roller skating lessons. Ian struggled to stay upright, and he improved throughout the day, but his unwillingness to let go and skate independently prevented him from learning even more. He got super frustrated and wanted to go home early, but when I asked him if he ever wanted to return, he said he did and that he had fun. I'm not sure what to believe.
Meg spent Edward's birthday in airports, mostly Philadelphia. Her plane was delayed so much that I was unsure she would make her connection in Phoenix. Watching her flight virtually fly across the country on my laptop was like watching your favorite sports team trying to overcame a late game deficit. It looked like she would make it, since her flight out of Phoenix was delayed (probably to accommodate her and the other few passengers continuing on to Portland) and she didn't call to inform me that she would be spending the night at a Phoenix hotel. Nevertheless, by 12 midnight and my fourth pass around the terminal, I spied Meg and was able to find a spot to load her and her luggage, but not before sharing a heartfelt embrace and her collapsing into her seat and expressing her gratitude for making it home.
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