Sunday, December 5, 2010

Daddy Vacation

E Ben took a much-needed Daddy Vacation to San Francisco this weekend (actually he was gone for 75 hours, but who's counting?), which means that I was on duty while he was away. This is the longest stretch of time that I've been in charge of childcare, um, ever (I never had Jude for this long). I think I did well. I had a lot of help from Terry, who stayed over at our house on Thursday night and took Ada for a sleepover on Saturday night. And I sent Jude to school on Friday morning, so I didn't even have him the whole time. Also, the weather was beautiful here in Portland this weekend, clear and cold, which made it easier. Still, it was a challenge for me. Taking care of the kids 24 hours a day is a lot of work.

Here are some highlights from the weekend (no photos since Daddy had the camera):
  • Long walk outside with both kids after picking Jude up from school on Friday afternoon. We hit two parks, and Jude got to practice his "May I Pet Your Dog" script (from his current favorite book).
  • Movie Night (with popcorn) on Friday night. We watched Little Bear Movie, which Jude had never seen before and loved.
  • Cornett Baking Day on Saturday morning (hosted by Cornett and Company 2). Jude played with his cousins, decorated cookies, and ate quite a few treats as well. Then he came home and took a nice long nap.
  • ZooLights on Saturday evening. We met some friends from Jude's school, and walked around in the dark and cold for about two hours. Jude loved the lights and he also loved looking at the elephants. The baby elephant Samudra (born the same weekend as Jude) was sleeping when we got there and it was SO cute.
  • Saturday Night Sleep. Everyone slept well Saturday night! Ada slept almost all night long at Nini's house, Jude had his usual good night's sleep, and I slept for almost nine hours uninterrupted! It was my best night's sleep since before Ada was born.
  • Sunday Productivity. After a full night's sleep and a pot of strong tea, I was really energized on Sunday. After playing with Jude for a few hours in the morning, I put on a movie for him to watch and cleaned the whole house! Well, as much as I could do in an hour, which turned out to be quite a lot. It felt good to do some of the work around the house that I've been too tired to tackle until now.
  • Bonding with Jude. These days, I'm Jude's third favorite person (after Daddy and Nini, not necessarily in that order) and it is hard to spend quality time with him when others are around. We had a great 24 hours together, just the two of us. We played games, read books, had an adventure at the Zoo, and in general had a fun time. I loved spending some time alone with my boy!
The weekend went as well as I could have hoped (actually much better than I expected), and I have to say that, after this, the thought of having the kids for a few hours doesn't seem as daunting. Still, I'm looking forward to my first real Mommy Vacation! I don't know when that will happen (it will be sometime after Ada is weaned, for sure). Maybe in the spring?

3 comments:

Jones Team said...

You go, girl! I have not done any full nights 100% alone with both girls... I don't think... even in the US my folks helped a lot (though I have done one or the other alone). Sounds like you and Judey had a good time!

peg said...

i am looking forward to joining his favorite person group!! love ama

Natalie said...

Wow, you guys did a lot of fun things - sounds great! (Too bad we didn't run into you at Zoo Lights Sat. night ;-)