Daughter = Friend

For the second weekend in a row, I have played the role of the single mom. The Husband has had golf trips the last TWO weekends. Now, I don’t know this wife of his, but, man, she is the nicest woman EVER. The back-to-back weekends may have been the cause of some of my bitterness the last few days. And, it didn’t really help that The Husband left on Friday and took my keys with him. As in, the keys to my car. And my house. And my life. And no, for the record, I do not have a spare set. (But that is on the list of to-do’s). I’ll spare you the long story, but I did get my keys back. I had some not-so-nice words, though. I mean, really not nice.

So, now we’re coming to the end of weekend #2 of single parenting. And it’s been fine, thanks to my parents who came down to watch the kids so that I could run 10 miles. But, as luck would have it, Davis has come down with a nasty cold, and was literally up every 30 minutes last night from 10 until 2:30am. And this morning, he and Ava are driving me up a wall a little  bit.

I had my kids 3.5 years apart for a reason: I didn’t really want 2 toddlers at the same time. Oddly, the thing that has happened is that Ava likes to imitate her baby brother. This means when he does something like, oh, drip milk from his sippy cup onto the table, she does the same thing. Or, if he starts beating a drumstick (from the toy music kit, not an actual chicken leg) on the kitchen table, she does, too. Now, the interesting thing is that she NEVER did things like that when she was a toddler herself. Besides her Oscar-worthy tendencies toward the dramatic (tantrums, anyone?), she has always been extremely well-behaved and mindful. I guess the good thing is that she and Davis play really well together, and they play all the time. I think they actually love each other. Crazy, right? I just hope it lasts.

Now, when Ava isn’t trying to relive her glory days, it turns out she makes a pretty good companion to me. When The Husband is away, I find myself putting her to bed later, and just kind of enjoying having her around. She’s pretty easy when she’s being easy. And all of a sudden, she seems SO grown up to me. I know it’s too early to think about next school year, but it sometimes shocks me to think I have a potential first-grader on my hands. That can’t be right. I actually REMEMBER first grade. Like it was only a few years ago. Geez.

So, even though I don’t really like having to single-mom it all weekend, it’s never as bad as I think it’s going to be. Besides, The Husband felt pretty bad about having 2 golf weekends in a row AND taking my keys. In fact, he felt so bad, that he bought me the bag I’ve been craving. Small price to pay for TWO guys’ weekends in a row. Small price to pay.

Oh, one more thing. I have this little half marathon thing I’m running in 2 weeks. And as I’ve mentioned before, I’m tired of all my music. So I run to NPR podcasts. But I don’t think those will pump me up during the race. I’d love to hear anyone’s suggestions for a good playlist. Don’t be ashamed about your selections. I have actually seen Britney Spears in concert, so I don’t discriminate.