When the time approached for her to be delivered, she brought forth...
Oh wait, that's not it.
When the time approached for him to leave, I got out of the house - with friends, to Target, to the bathroom, well, anywhere - keyword being by myself - for the 3 days leading up to him going. I was gearing up for what I thought would be the worst week of my life and those grays I'm dreading would for sure make their appearance. I do most of the kid-care because I'm at home with them, but we are a team after 5 pm every day. Also, I've developed this morning habit of sitting like a lump for a good 10 minutes after I wake up and drinking the coffee he's made, while he makes their breakfast. Not to mention that I would just plain miss the man.
But I was praise the Lord so wrong! Well, I did miss him a little. But...
The week went fine. You know how you just sort of Woman Up and do the things you don't want to do because YOU are the woman to do them? That's what I did. Mix that together with the serious miracle of no one breaking any bones or appliances breaking down and toss in the following rules, and ta-da.....One Great Week!
So....The Rules for When Dad's Gone in no particular order:
1. No heroics. This includes makeup, blogging, laundry, all of it.
2. Move all clocks forward one hour. Bedtime comes early and no one knows but me.
3. Facepaint free-for-all every day.
4. TV is our friend. Obscene amounts of TV is our BFF.
5. As long as they eat, it doesn't matter what they eat. Call any meal - including hotdogs and halloween candy - a Win.
6. Go to bed with a movie as soon as the kids go to bed every single night.
7. Bathing is optional.
8. Unless done so by the nanny, toys will be picked up once and only once. Right before Dad gets home.
9. Midweek, schedule an evening with Grandma and Grandpa.
10. When all else fails, remind yourself of the serious equity you're earning this week for a trip to the Bahamas, or ok fine, to the spa as soon as he gets back!