Eight days down, four to go

I've been flying solo here for eight days now while Funnydad flies around Asia on business. After more than a week of single parenthood, I've hit a bit of a wall. The tag team of fatigue and loneliness visits every time he travels, and this time it tracked me down a little later than it has in the past -- a delay that lulled me into a false belief that perhaps I was getting better at managing this travel thing, or maybe having a job tempers the stress. Yeah, not so much.

While cooking dinner this evening, the laughter of baby cows and penguins (their game tonight, don't ask, I don't understand it either) turned to silence. Every parent knows silence is bad news, and after a couple of minutes when I peered out from the kitchen I found them playing with the paper towels I'd bought today (but had foolishly not yet put away). Instead of yelling which a) was my first instinct and b) would have made all three of us upset, I had them help me collect the un-rolled rolls and put them away, and told them they could play in the ones they'd already torn off. I tried to be clear that this isn't normally allowed, but I kind of blew it on consistency by letting them play with the mess they'd made -- but, I mean, come on, I wasn't going to use them at this point and they were having so much fun. At that moment the peace of being permitted to fix dinner undisturbed while they romped in and "ice skated" on paper towels was worth way more than a lesson in waste and proper behavior.

Funnydad returns on Wednesday and all four of us can't wait. He's got lots of stories to share about the unbelievable size of Tokyo and the unbelievable smog in China. He's off to Singapore next where he's going to be sure not to chew gum. Meanwhile, hats off to the single parents and military spouses out there. You're stronger than I am, though I bet you go through paper towels quickly.