Flying Solo

Well, the last 48 hours or so have definitely been interesting. For the first time since the boys were born, Gina is out of town and I am with them all by myself. Gina has become a pro at holding down the fort while I am away, but I had never taken on the “around the clock” duties by myself until now. So, how am I doing? I would say I am doing pretty well so far. I mean, I am writing this blog post, so I must have things fairly under control.

I had to teach this morning, and I had a faculty meeting yesterday, so we had a baby sitter come in and watch the boys while I was at work.  Getting to spend so much time with the boys has been great, and we have managed to have a lot of fun. On Tuesday, we took a long walk outside and had a great time naming all the things we saw … puppy, car, light, truck, bus, ball … the list goes on and on. The walk took a little of a negative turn when Nate stumbled and fell on the sidewalk. His feelings were hurt more than anything, but there was a fair amount of crying on the way home. Yesterday we ran errands around town, which included a stop at Hobby Lobby, the post office and the grocery store.  We liked the grocery store the most because they have those cool buggies for kids with a steering wheel. Our mode of transportation on this particular visit was a space shuttle, but Sam still called it a bus. For Sam, calling a four-wheeled motorized vehicle a bus is the highest honor. If you are an automobile of any kind and Sam calls you a bus, then you have his ultimate affection. And if you happen to actually BE a bus, well, you will be his obsession. And if you are a car or bus and you can actually read this, then I definitely am watching too much Disney and probably need medication.

Anyway, the major events of the day have gone off without a hitch. They are both taking good naps, sleeping well at night and eating great at mealtime. I have managed to have them fed and dressed by the time the babysitter gets to the house (which was 7:00 this morning … ouch!), and neither of them are walking around with boogers in their noses or food all over their faces. This is a win in my book. More than anything, I have a renewed appreciation for Gina and how much of a rockstar she really is. I mean, last year when I was traveling all over the country for conferences and job interviews, she gladly took on the parenting responsibilities by herself. And this was while she was finishing her dissertation. Parenting is hard work, parenting twins is even trickier and parenting twins alone is exhausting. There is nothing like a glimpse of the “big picture” to see how blessed I really am.