Mom's week

Pardon this post if its not well written, trying to knock it out quickly.



This week Lela is in New York. Um, I don’t know if you saw my blog previously about Dad’s riding the struggle bus occasionally, but that was referring to specific events, not a week. So first and foremost, please all keep Emma in your prayers as we hope to make it through the week alive. While absence does help the heart grow fonder, it also reminds some of us how much we don’t have to do on a regular basis! I can handle the nuts and bolts of a Mr. Mom week, feeding, reading, playing, making sure Cooper doesn’t eat Emma’s toys (and thus get murdered), trying to get our little girl who now likes to stand and cry for 10 min before sleeping to bed. Yep got it. But when you combine that with all the little things it can at times be overwhelming, probably because as a man my mind can only open one drawer at a time and thus I miss a lot. For example, Emma had boycotted naps Monday and was sort of tired and cranky. For Emma, 2 things above all else can kind of get her to zone out and chill – going for a walk and reading (As you may have guessed Emma can’t yet read, so that means me reading to her). I didn’t feel like reading to her that early so I thought to myself – ‘self, we should go for a walk. And just to add some adventure, let’s bring the sometimes borderline insane dog that resides in our house with us and see if for the first time ever I can hold a leash and push a stroller.’ Lela usually handles the stroller and I the dog as Cooper is now up to 75 lbs and may tear her arm off if he sees a rabbit he wants to play with. Anyway, normally when I suggest that to Lela, she reminds me of things like sunscreen, what to wear, and many other things that I may forget, so some items may get forgotten since she wasn’t there. First, I may have forgotten to get socks and by the time I remembered them cooper was already wromping in the back yard and I didn’t want to get them. Since my feet get tired with sandals, I decided I would just go sockless which probably means that my shoes should be quarantined for a week (which is extra fun since Emma’s new favorite toys are shoes, yummy!). Second, I may not have had a visor or hat or glasses to help shield me from the sun, which was also not fun since there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Third, as I had more than one duty, I didn’t notice that Cooper’s leash was getting a bit loose which may have caused him to get off leash and wromp around. Picture a lovely day in Shawnee with people out in their front yard doing various things with children and then this crazed looking dog wromping aimlessly around them and a 10 month old Wasian leering out of her car seat to watch while her dad runs around apologizing to people while trying not to swear at his stupid dog and tries to get the dog to stay still for 5 seconds and threatens said dog’s life several times. I mean, not that the last thing would ever happen, I am talking about if these things hypothetically happened in the first 36 hrs Lela was gone, so you get the picture. Its not that Lela tells me to do these things every time, its that everything is a bit off without her. I would equate it to living without a safety net, even if you don’t use it, you still probably perform better just knowing its there.

As an aside, if we did go for a walk and it went better than I expected, I may have needed a drink afterwards and by drink I mean a whole bottle of Baileys. I wouldn’t actually do that as it might be bad Mr. Momming to be wasted while you are home alone with the child, but the thought may have entered my mind. Again, hypothetically.

Obviously there is the effect it has on Lela and Emma too. When Lela was in busy season and seeing less of Emma, she was just off for those 3 weeks. She was mostly sick during them, but there was a non sick aspect to that too. She was much the same Monday. Of course if she had a great day and came home and we laughed and played for 3 hours of nonstop fun I wouldn’t ever mention that to Lela as if I said that over the phone I may get hung up on by lela as she goes to coworkers’ rooms to threaten their lives if they don’t let her leave NYC now, but it didn’t happen so it’s a moot point. Obviously its hard on Lela too as if she never had to miss a day in Emma’s life she would be happy, but looking at the bright side there are a lot worse places for her to go than NYC. One definite bonus to her being there is it has inspired some new songs for Emma and I, so she has been getting to know Jay-Z since he’s all into that New York thing. Emma might also sport a dew rag every now and then and we might have other shenanigans going on. I have also watched various 30 for 30 episodes on ESPN. Hank Gathers and Nelson Mandela may or may not make me shed a tear even though I know how it all ends. Yep, sappy dad style.Plus I learned that Hank Gathers was at USC until George Raveling came there from Iowa, which just goes to prove that life and sports are all dependent on Iowa. I know none of you care about this, but just wanted to give you a glimpse into the mind that Lela gets to enjoy every day.

Overall Emma is doing great though. She crawls everywhere at the speed of light and walks herself around every object possible. Her mobility is especially fun since Cooper is shedding like a mad dog even though I vacuum him twice a day (yep, he has grown to like that) Lela being the super mom she is also discovered that she could put Emma in the bath tub in the morning (which we never use) and that keeps her contained with her toys. Very helpful, especially since being by myself this week is less than easy!

Anyway, in honor of all that mom’s do, I think this should probably be Mom’s week, so I have declared so accordingly.