Bracing myself

In about 60 hours, Ken will leave for his annual 4-day canoe trip on the upper Delaware River. I recall last year's trip being a blur for me because I had a newborn (Henry) and a 2.5yo (Padraic) and was still trying to figure out exactly how to juggle both their needs by myself. To make matters more interesting, Ken's trip was Friday through Monday, and Padraic didn't go to day care on Fridays or Mondays. So it was four solid days of Mommy + the boys. I seem to recall coming close to losing my mind on days one and two, but somewhere around the end of day two or beginning of day three I got into a groove. To the point where when Ken returned, I wasn't as ready to flee as I had expected to be.

Let's hope that is the case this time around.

Our schedule will be different this year, anyway. Ken leaves on Thursday morning and gets home around suppertime on Sunday. So I just have to get the boys to day care and myself to work on Thursday, and then during the workday I need to make sure I retain some bit of sanity to use that evening until the precious hour when both little doodles are snug in their beds. On Friday I'll need to get Padraic to day care, but heck, I'll throw on sweats and a baseball cap, grab Henry out of his crib in jammies, and just head on up there and return home quick as a bunny. Then I'll have my usual work-at-home day with Henry and go get Padraic in the midafternoon. Friday evening will probably seem looooooooong. We'll survive.

Saturday we are meeting up w/my parents and sister partway out the good ole PA turnpike to have lunch and celebrate my dad's upcoming b'day. (He'll only be 56!) That oughta be fun and keep the boys amused for several hours. The drawback is that they tend to sleep in the car, which is good for while we're in the car; not so good for once we get home and Mommy is tired but they are not. We'll work it out.

Sunday I plan to do not a thing outside of this house, unless absolutely necessary. OK, maybe I'll splurge and take the boys out for McD's or ice cream or something. If I am feeling really bold, I might take them to Linvilla Orchard and let Padraic pick out a pumpkin that doesn't have a hope in hell of making it to Halloween (but it would still be fun to get it). We'll see. A lot depends on the weather and how thinly worn my nerves are by then.

Ken and I are such opposites at the childcare thing. When I travel for work, he thinks the hardest days are the ones where he has to get the kids ready for day care and then get himself to (and through) work. I think it's harder to spend the whole day trying to come up with things to keep the boys entertained and that don't make me bored out of my own mind. This is why we make such a good pair. Or at least one reason why.

Anyway, so I am bracing myself and starting to plan for what supplies we might need for the four-day Daddy absence. Number one on the list? Chocolate. In its many forms. Bars of chocolate. Hot chocolate mix. Chocolate ice cream. From there, I'm not sure. I think we probably should have diapers for Henry, but other than that, just chocolate.