Single Daddy Diary; Entry Five

Dear Log,

I did it.  We did it.  Lauralee came back to us today in all her 4-days-of-girls-camp glory.

Today was still a fun day.  I mobilized my little army of house cleaners -- who had spent most of the week as a little army of house clutterers, and we got to work reassembling the house to something approaching the condition it was left in on Monday.  We were planning on Laura being back around noon....but as you have seen during this week, Log: nothing really goes according to plan.

Upon informing Emma and James that we needed to clean up the house, I got their standard reactions: Emma seemed willing to help on the surface, but regular progress checks showed that we was spending 4 minutes of playing with toys for every 1 minutes of cleaning up toys.  James' reaction was more stark: demand help from Dad (denied; Dad's still got dishes to do), then throw himself down on the floor and hope to high heaven that the toys magically clean themselves up.

For her part, Mia did pick a lot of things up....then toddled off to a random spot in the house and dropped them again.

When we got the text that Laura would be home an hour earlier than we had thought, we kicked it into high gear, and for just a minute, we all worked together in the spirit of peace, harmony, and not wanting Mom to find out what a mess we'd made.

We got pretty much everything straightened up and got the text stating that Laura was ready for pickup - we all looked like a little happy family.  Then, while running around the van to get inside, James totally biffed it on the concrete and scraped his knee.  Great.  Then the trauma of applying a cold rag (oh!  it has to be a "boy" wash cloth...don't you dare try to use a Sleeping Beauty washcloth) and a bandaid (oh! it better be a Cars bandaid because those skin-colored bandaids are no good).

Lauralee was the last leader to get picked up at the park, with her head hanging down, kicking a can down the gutter.

Conclusions:
I am very grateful for this experience.  I enjoyed interacting with the kids in new situations.  I think being with them all day taught me some perspective on what type of behavior is annoying, and what type of behavior is just normal.  I would be a horrible stay-at-home dad because I only wanted to relax during those quiet times when the kids were content (or asleep) -- in reality it's during those times that laundry can actually get folded with out Hurricane Mia wiping them out or floors can be vacuumed without somebody creating a crumb trail directly behind you.  At work when I get a "break" I don't have the option of throwing on some lounge pants and watching Saved by the Bell reruns on Netflix.  I'm more productive at work than I would ever be at home.  I love my wife and am glad we can do all this together.  Shout out to my wife who battles the kids alone while I'm at work.  And shout out to all those single parents who don't have a tag-team partner.  I'm glad that Laura is the Hulk Hogan to my Macho Man Randy Savage.

Exit Interviews:
I asked James and Emma few questions to sum up their week.

What your favorite thing you did this week?
James: Doing puzzles with you.
Emma: Getting Slurpees as a family

What did you miss most about Mommy?
James: When only Dad was here and Mommy was at the park.
Emma: Her love.

What was Dad really good at this week?
James: Cleaning up the playroom.
Emma: Doing fun stuff with us.

What was Dad really bad at this week?
James: I can't remember.
Emma: Yelling at us.

Would you ever like to do this again?
James: Uh-huh.
Emma: Yes.

Who is nicer at home?
James: Mommy and Daddy.
Emma: Both.

I think James summed up the week best when he said, "Daddy, I want you to stay home every day but I also want Mommy to come back."

Farewell, Log.  It's been nice chronicling this week but I have some Saved by the Bell episodes to watch.