for daddy, while he's away

For Daddy's sake, a record of our week without him:

SATURDAY
- Sean went to sleep (without crying) without me having to lay down beside him; I was rocking Ben in the rocking chair in the same room.

SUNDAY
- Due to road construction and an accident on the bridge, it took an hour and a half to get from the restaurant in New Albany to Mamaw's house in Louisville. Not a big deal, ordinarily, except that Sean decided halfway there to have his first bout ever of constipation, so the last thirty minutes of the ride Elaine and I got to listen to him moaning and groaning and turning red in the face, all the while straining out, "Diaper change!" and "Big diaper!" and "Hurts!" I'm sorry, but how do you not laugh at that? Fortunately, within ten minutes of getting to the house and him walking around, he did, indeed, manage to fill his diaper quite well. And I have to admit, I could see how it might hurt. Ouch.
- Sean went to sleep (without crying) without me having to lay down beside him; I was, once again, rocking Ben in the rocking chair.
- Ben made his first "real" crawling motion by actually moving a knee forward before falling onto his belly.

MONDAY
- Made it all the way from Louisville to St. Louis with only one hour of crying fits from Ben. The rest of the trip was golden.
- Ben managed to pull himself up onto his feet quite easily using the coffee table (maybe I should have pushed him back down? I don't want him walking yet!).
- After being home for several minutes, Sean was in the middle of playing upstairs in the living room when all of a sudden he looked up and yelled out, "Daddy, where are you?" Just about broke my heart. He did it a few more times later in the evening.
- Ben was asleep and in bed by 7:15 and Sean was in bed and asleep by 7:45. Sean went to sleep (without crying) after only a few minutes of me laying down beside him and then having to get up to go take care of Ben.

TUESDAY
- My first morning of single-parenthood and I did, in fact, manage to take a shower. And I still had happy (and alive and well) children afterwards!
- We spent three and a half glorious hours at the park doing nothing but playing (Sean did), talking (I did) and eating (we all did) with Lori and Jonah. I had a blast, and if the color of the bathwater tonight was any indication, I can pretty safely say that Sean had a blast too. That kid was d-i-r-t-y.
- Ben had peas for the first time, and only a few funny faces accompanied it.
- Ben was asleep and in bed by 7:15. Sean once again went to sleep without me laying down right beside him; he just wanted me to leave the door open. Four nights in a row--looks like he might finally be losing that need. Sorry, Chris. I know that's something that you wish you could be around for, but I have to admit that it sure has made single parenting this week much easier.

WEDNESDAY
- Nothing like waking up to a chipper baby at 5:45 in the morning. And why am I still awake at this hour, come to think of it?
- I am now completely convinced that other than a few interesting facts about obscure South American animals, Sean can learn nothing of value from watching Diego. He certainly won't be learning any extraordinary adjectives. "Windy wind," "rocky rock path" and "muddy mud"? Somebody's got to be able to do better than that.
- Ben had two major accomplishments today: 1) he pulled up onto his feet again using the coffee table, and then he actually started cruising a little bit; and 2) he managed to do a "2-step" crawl on his knees before he went down to his belly. So I guess you can say he's crawling now!
- I think Sean has gotten cuter and sweeter this week. Almost every time I do something for him, he says, "Tane tu, Bobby." Almost every time I ask him to do something, he says, "OH-TAY, Bobby!" And almost every time we've been playing together and I've done something like hit a baseball, he claps his hands together and says, "Dud dob, Bobby!"
- The hardest part of the week so far happened tonight while I was fixing supper (any surprise? That's always the hardest part of the day.). Both boys were fussing and/or crying anyways, and in the middle of it I managed to trip over and step on Sean, and then he managed to burn his hand a little bit on a pot lid while I was holding him. He's never even tried to touch anything on the stove before, so I don't know what possessed him to do it then.
- Other than the above episode, the boys have been so good that I'm convinced that Chris has been praying *really hard* for me this week. And if that's the case, I am beyond grateful.
- Mark it down: FIVE nights in a row now for Sean laying down on his own. Amazing.

THURSDAY
- The theme for today was "fussy baby." Ben's not feeling well, apparently. He was a little feverish yesterday, but it wasn't any big deal. Today, he was hot, had a temp of about 100, wouldn't nap unless I was either holding him or laying down with him, wasn't interested in food (he gagged and threw up after one bite of peas--yuck) and wanted to be held pretty much all day long. I'm hoping it's teething and it will soon be over.
- When I was helping Sean say his prayer tonight, we were going through everybody that he was thankful for, and I mentioned Daddy. He got a sad little look on his face and turned to me and said mournfully, "Daddy yost." I had to assure him that, no, Daddy was not lost, he's just gone for a few days. The kid's going to break my heart before the week's over.
- I'm pretty much giving up on my plans for a super-clean house before Mom & Dad get here tomorrow. Between a clingy baby today and errands and volleyball tomorrow, I'm pretty much out of time to get the house completely in shape. I think they'll understand. But hey, I'm caught up on laundry. That's easy to do when you have one less adult in the house (not that I prefer it that way, honestly!).
- Night #6 for Sean. Chris, maybe you should've gone out of town for a few days a long time ago.

FRIDAY
- I was awakened at 2 or 2:30 by a hotbox posing as a baby. Ben's temp had spiked to over 100, but the little guy was happy as a lark and ready to play. I gave him Tylenol, stripped him down his diaper, and waited out his perkiness. It took a few hours, but he finally went to sleep, his fever broke, and he was doing better by morning. Not 100%, but better.
- I managed to get a few hours of one-on-one mother-son time with Sean. Margot came over and watched Ben while Sean and I ran some errands and went to lunch. It wasn't anything amazing, but I think Sean enjoyed having Mommy all to himself for a while, something he hasn't had at all the last few days with Ben not feeling well. I know I enjoyed it. We even made a lunch date out of it.
- All afternoon, Sean couldn't wait to go to volleyball tonight and play on the "baby playground." According to Lindsay, he ended up rolling in the sand, playing with the sand, rolling in the grass. Needless to say, the bathwater was once again quite disgusting.
- The highlight of volleyball for Sean, though, had to be when Marshall let him sit on his motorcycle...and then started it. Sean's eyes were as big as saucers and he was wearing his super serious "this is so much fun it's beyond cool" face. I think Marshall's his hero. We definitely at least know who to blame if he ends up buying a motorcycle later in life.
- And the highlight for mommy was coming home and seeing Mimi and Poppy in the driveway. The week's been pleasant, the boys have been fantastic, but I'm ready for an extra pair of arms to hold a baby and play with a toddler. Now just one more day and Daddy comes home.

P.S. I somehow failed to make mention of this when it happened earlier this week. Sean found a container of play-doh in the basket of toys in the kitchen and wanted to play with it one afternoon. So I get him set up at the table and he starts playing away while I go about my business in the kitchen. A little while later I walk over towards him and notice that he's been rolling the play-doh into little balls and throwing these little yellow pellets all over the floor. I think he would have rolled up that entire container of play-doh if I hadn't caught him. Goofy boy.