When my husband mentioned going to Vegas for a weekend for a friend’s stag, my first thought was "How am I going to manage my kids alone for 2.5 days??!!". Well, that weekend was this past one and I survived! Mind you, one night I got a sitter and my family helped me too…but for 90% of the weekend it was me, and to my surprise, it was good.
In my mind, my kids are still babies, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that that phase (a delicious and brief one that can also be exhausting and mind-numbing) is coming to an end. This past weekend allowed me a brief glimpse into the not-so-far future where I will hang out with my kids, sharing meals, laughing about their stories and revelling in their companionship. That’s the relationship I had with my mum and I am eager to share that precious love-filled friendship with my kids.
This weekend allowed me to spend rare one-on-one time with both of my kids. On Friday, my daughter and I went to Indigo where we huddled over our coffee (mine) and strawberries & cream frappacino (hers) and giggled about her first day at school the day before. We then got a magazine for me and a fairy book for her and sat quietly for a few minutes reading and sipping – biding the time sweetly until she reminded me – "It’s time to get Bha (her occasional nickname for her brother)!" What fun!
Today, my daughter was not feeling well so my son and I went to a birthday party on our own. The whole ride there we chatted about his new Transformers, the various bad guys in Spiderman (always an animated conversation in my house), and the multiple possibilities of what flavour cake it would be at the party (for my son and me, it’s chocolate or nothing) and what may his loot bag contain. My son is very verbal, and relished the opportunity to fully express himself without his little sister pinching him or interrupting.
My husband is back and I was thrilled to see him (and pass off the kids to him so I could take a much-needed nap)…but I also feel secretly happy about the precious moments shared this weekend.
My husband use to have a job where he travelled alot and I enjoyed my time alone with my son. Mind you I only have one. I also spent tons of time alone with him at the cottage.
The hard part was actually when Dad would come back! We had gotten into our own little special routine for 2 and when Dad arrived we had to juggle to fit him back in!
Hubby travels less now and that is a much better deal but I do miss my mommy and son time. Epecially as he is getting older and heading into high school and hanging with mom is not really “cool”.
We have a tradition of buying 2 copies of the newest Harry Potter book and reading them together at the cottage. I’m looking forward to doing that next month. Kind of poetic…the last HP book…he is going off to high school…
“Leaving Mommy’s Garden” as one book on child development put it.
*sigh*
i always stress when the husband’s away…but we always end up having such good quality time together!
I love those moments! Definitely cherish them!
oh i spent last summer for 3 weeks alone with my 2 youngest daughters.my husband and 2 eldest were on holidays.i was so glad when they all got back home.i enjoyed my time alone with little girls but boy was it hard.
Ohhh! I had the same kinda thing this weekend. Josh was away. It was BRUTAL but wonderful — just me and the monkey. I’m so glad to have him home, though. Little did he know he was coming home to a newly STUBBORN, SCREECHY monkey!