Andy is on his way home today after being out of town for 8 days. After a short "I am an independent woman and I'm doing it for myself" phase, I crumbled and admitted defeat. I even hid from the kids one day. They were driving me up the wall so when I heard them barreling up the stairs after playing happily without me for exactly 3 minutes and 32 seconds, I ran into my room and hid behind the bed. I would have had a moment of peace if Lucy hadn't given me away by saying "Hi! Hi Mama!" and giving away my location. That was a low point, I admit.
It hasn't been all bad. As long as I kept the kids busy, we were all happy. The tour of the fire station was the highlight of the week (perhaps the whole summer) for Ace. Fireman Frank could not have been nicer. He took an hour and a half out of his day to give us a great tour, he answered all of our questions and he gave all the kids helmets and coloring books and crayons. Ace floated out of the fire station on cloud 9. He has not taken his firefighter pants off yet.
Hayley had her last swimming lesson and was very proud to graduate from the Pollywogs with honors.
Julia enjoyed riding Ace's bike around the track at Hayley's school, she is so confident now that I can't keep up with her. At the beginning of the summer she went so slowly that I could stand in one spot for a few minutes before I had to take a step to catch up to her. Now she leaves me in the dust.
Lucy has been kind enough to save her official first steps for when Andy returns, but we've had a lot of close calls. She takes a step or two and then a stumble before she plops down and decides it is faster to crawl. If she weren't always in such a hurry, I bet she would be walking by now.
Honestly, the worst part of the week was trying to keep up with all the things that Andy does around the house that I take for granted. He does a lot of big things, like calm Ace down after he has a nightmare about lobsters, or watch Bill Dance Outdoors with Lucy at 3am when she has teething trouble. But there are also so many small things that I don't even notice. For example, our hot water heater leaks so we have to keep a pickle jar under it to catch the overflow. If we forget to empty it, we end up with a puddle of water on the basement floor. Guess who never remembers to empty it? Yep, I had to mop the floor twice while Andy was gone. I really missed him when I found a dead mole by the back door. You see, my plan of action when I find a dead rodent near my house is to go inside and alert Andy to the situation. This time I had to get out the snow shovel and move the little twerp myself. I stepped on a snake in the process. I'm still shuddering from that experience. So, Andy, come home soon, I kind of like having you around.
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