Fourth Day Without Daddy

7:15 AM: “Mahmmy! Mah-mmy!” It looks and feels like it’s gotta be 5:30. But no. Time to start another day! Two more days without Roy. Three down, two to go. You can do this! “Good morning Owen!” “Mahmmy!!!” Let’s go get James up!

James, curled up in a ball, “Hi Mommy. I’m a little wet. Guess I just need’a splash off in the tub. NO PENISES!”

A quick feel around his bed proves that “little wet” was a grave understatement. James, and his bed, are positively soaked through.

So much for the pep talk.

8:00 AM: I decided to make pancakes for the boys. They love them and it means I’ll have lots of leftovers for tomorrow. This recipe is the BOMB for letting me justify pancakes for the family. Out of a double batch James eats 4, Owen eats 3, and I have 2 with an egg. (Does anybody else make a fried egg and chop it all up/mix with their pancakes? Drizzle a little syrup and it’s SO good.

8:20AM: The boys, adequately fed, disappear. FOR AN HOUR. This is miraculous and amazing. I do the dishes and settle in on the couch with A Prayer for Owen Meany, my gigantic task of a read. I’m so close to finishing!

9:20AM: Is it possible that the boys are still upstairs and I am still on the couch reading? Still not finished the book, but maybe later today… Coffee makes its first appearance.

9:30AM: I start thinking about the kitchen. This happens when I have had coffee and am left to my own devices for too long. I realize I have every ingredient on hand to make the butternut squash gratin from a DNI last fall. I can make it now and just pop it in the oven 20 minutes before suppertime. Heck yes.

9:45AM: Owen finds his way into the kitchen, sees that I’m hard at work, and immediately drags in a chair so he can “help”. (Owen helping is really just Owen dropping dishes into the sink or Owen trying to grab sharp knives.) I attempt to keep him safely busy with menial tasks, but ultimately have to provide some boundaries. And then re-provide. And RE-provide. And then when I pick him up off the chair because he’s too content to ignore me he shouts “NO!” and sinks his sharp little fangs into my pants. Monday Corner #1.

10:15AM: James is bored and annoying Owen, who is bored and annoying James. I am wrapping up my casserole and have promised outside time once I’m done. Just before I sprinkle the gratin with homemade shallot crumbs I hear a yelp and cries. Owen has bitten James on the arm hard enough that skin is gone and I can see each individual tooth mark. Monday Corner #2.

10:20AM: Owen tells James that he’s sorry. I encourage James to respond, “it’s OK Owen.” James looks at me and whispers, “But it’s NOT OK.” Which is completely correct.

10:30AM: Shoes are on, contacts are in, dump trucks are located. We head outside. It was damp this morning and I warn James that he may not want to bring his menagerie of plush friends outside unless he is fine with them getting a little wet. He ignores me and heads outside. 3 minutes later he is shrieking and wailing because the butt of Jack the stuffed dog got wet. Owen is content to push his dump truck around. I convince James that his dog will live, metaphorically speaking, and, no, I’m not packing us all up to go put him in the dryer. He can wait until we are ready to come inside.

11:00AM: The boys have settled down. I FINISH OWEN MEANY! I am so excited that I tell James this happy news. I show him the 627 dense pages of small font that I persisted in completing. “Now I can finally take this book back to the library James!” He looks at me incredulously, puzzled. “So you’re only going to read it ONE TIME???”

James, who rereads everything until it is completely committed to memory, is not impressed.

11:45AM: We head inside for lunch. I make PB&J for the boys (SB&J for Owen) and warm up curried chicken and apple soup for me. Attempting to replicate the amazing Wegmans soup—this is not as bright or sweet, but it is very good just the same.

12:10PM: We sit down to lunch. James is ravenous, despite eating half a batch of pancakes this morning. Owen eats his peas and smashes the bread.

12:35PM Owen is making his pooping face at the table, but it turns out he is just listening uber-intently to “Let It Go” from his kitchen chair. (Thanks to niece Abby for introducing him. Idina, you’ve captured another soul.) Still, it’s nice to listen to something other than “Life Is A Highway”.

James is complaining about not wanting to go alone to check on the state of his dumb DAMP dog “Jack” (Thanks to niece Abby for introducing him.) in the dryer. I’ve assured him I’ll go as soon as the washer is done, but "that’s not soon enough!"

I’m pretty sure that somewhere between 12:35-1PM Owen ended up in the corner again. At least once.

1PM: Owen goes behind bars down for a nap. James and I do kindergarten. He has learned to love school and I love it too, most of the time. But my patience is thinned from exhaustion and his focus has been thinned by the biting. We agree to some space at 1:30 and he retreats to his bedroom with an armload of books to memorize.

1:45PM: I fall asleep.

2:45PM: Owen is awake. James is too, obviously. I get awake so I can get them up and put on their shoes to rescue the two kids we pick up from school on Monday afternoons.

3:15-4:15PM: Teach lessons while Elmo babysits the kids. I feel badly about this, but my options are few.

4:15PM: Go back outside until dinner time. We go to the playground, which is overrun with YMCA after-school kids. They are loud and busy. James the kindergartener hates it. Owen the not-quite 2 year old loves it, until a 4^th grade girl screams at him for touching a small bouquet of flowers she left on a park bench. She really let him have it, apparently doing a better job of teaching him a lesson than anything I’ve used to keep him from biting. Owen buries his head in my shoulder, sobbing, as she berates him repeatedly for “should have knowing better.” I, to my credit, refrain from chewing the 4^th grader’s head off and feeding it to crocodiles.

5PM: James has had enough extroverting for the week and we head home for supper. Owen happily eats as much squash gratin as I do and James pukes it up twice onto his plate. I suppose that’s what you call a mixed bag.

6PM: Our Jesus Storybook Bible is about Jonah and the Big Fish. This leads to a LOT of questions about large-fish anatomy. It’s been a long time since that I dissected that sturgeon in biology. I wasn’t much help, but you know what was? You’re right: YOUTUBE. I just had to make sure we didn’t end up watching graphic shark-attack footage. (Easier said than done, you bloodthirsty culture!) Shark videos led to watching the second half of The Jungle Book, which is a great movie. Tigers, elephants, and man cubs, oh my!

7:30PM: BEDTIME! James and I make a pact for the following day: he will be a better listener and I will be more patient. We shake like real men to seal the deal.

8PM: I do the dishes, mock-straighten the livingroom, and collapse into bed. Day one of Daddy’s trip gone, one more to go.

I have lots of books to update on the blog, but I am too tired to type them out. Like I’ve been too tired to type up the October DNI. Let’s get Roy home and I’ll see what I can do about getting everything up to date.