Before me and before Cally and Hazen, John used to teach a mountaineering course for UVM students in Peru every May or June. Once Cally was born, I knew that I couldn't handle being a single parent during the busiest part of my school year. Even with the extra cash that he makes doing these trips, I knew the limits of my sanity and asked that he wait a few years. For the past few years, he's tried to get a trip to the Cascades to replace that trip (as it would require him to be away for about half the amount of time for the same pay), but he never got enough students. He says the Cascades aren't "sexy" enough.
Now that the kids are older, I felt like I could handle his being gone, especially if he didn't go during my last two weeks of school. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to do it without help. So, I called in the reserves (both sets of grandparents and a set of god parents). And it made all the difference.
Grandma and Bumpa came in as the first set of reinforcements. I needed coverage so that I could run half of the Vermont City Marathon and so they got to be a part of all sorts of Memorial Day fun. The kids ran the 1/2 mile Yam Scram on a chilly, but lovely day on the waterfront:
They held down the fort while I ran my part of the marathon:
We got to play with the cousins in Stowe:
We went the Memorial Day Parade where the kids literally got "rained on" by candy:
We had a fun dinner out at the Jericho Tavern:
And they got to be here for Cally's first lost tooth!
It was so great to have them here to meet Cal at the bus, pick up Hazey at Poker Hill, and do the drop offs on Tuesday morning after the weekend. Cally and Grandma snuggled and read most of the BFG by Raold Dahl and Hazen wore Bumpa's arm out by having him pitch baseballs to him.
On Wednesday, Nana and Grandpa arrived to help me out with pick ups and drop offs. They arrived with homemade fried chicken and potato salad. They were so excited to be able to walk Cal to the end of the driveway for the bus on Thursday and Friday morning and meet her at the bus in the afternoon.
They offered tons of snuggles and reading, as well. It's so fun to see both the grandparents and the kids light up around each other. Their help was invaluable. It made my mornings so much less hectic and was great to have company. That said, it's hard not to feel self conscious about the kids behavior, the cleanliness of our house, and how our yard looks. I don't think I'm unusual because I want the grandparents to think their grandchildren are perfect..... but the reality is that they just aren't. We all have our highs and lows. Having an audience makes me all to aware of all of our shortcomings. I tend to take it too personally and put pressure on myself when they misbehave or the messiness of our life is under the spotlight. Fortunately, both sets of grandparents seem to get it. They have so much less chaos in their lives, so it must be quite the culture shock to spend a bunch of days with us!
Cal got invited to her first sleepover at Celine's house. She's been pretty "anti" sleepovers for the past six months and I was pretty convinced that she wouldn't actually make it for the sleepover part. When I dropped her off, she was having second thoughts and whispered that she wasn't sure about being there for the night. I assured her that I'd be happy to pick her up as long as it wasn't too late.
I didn't end up hearing from her until the next morning. The first thing she said to me when I picked her up was, "I think I'm ready to have a sleepover with Tom and Cara". The last sleepover with them hadn't gone all that well, so I was so happy to be able to pass that along to them. In fact, they were scheduled to watch the kids for much of the day on Saturday because I had a shower to attend and they had all sorts of fun things to do with them.
The kids had a great time an an Energy festival, walking in the stream, and having dinner with Tom and Cara while I went on a mountain bike ride, attended a shower, got a pedicure, and had drinks with a friend. It was the perfect "me" day.
The kids and I spent the following rainy day watching the movie "Annie" and going to Echo.
The rest of the stint of single parenting went pretty well. Morning were hectic and school started to get really busy for me, but the kids "get it" when I explain that I'm frazzled or stressed by all that needs to happen. I worked hard to set myself up for success, like setting the coffee on a timer and making lunches the night before.
I felt like we worked well as a team, but we definitely missed having John around. It's when he's gone that I realize how much he does in the mornings and how much stress he takes off of my plate by doing drop offs almost every morning. Not to mention all the hugs and love we were lacking from him.
