Great Escape

So last week I hit the road for a girl's weekend in Washington DC with a good friend from my college days, Pittsburgh Sara. This was a totally unprecedented trip. Usually if I'm spending a night away from my children I come home with another child. On the whole, I'd say this was 8ooo times better than staying in a hospital for four nights.

I don't have pictures (I left the camera here so Chase could capture every moment of my absence). I'll just tell you that it was a lovely experience. My parents came down to see me (I grew up mainly in central PA, about 2.5 hours away from DC) and we visited the International Spy Museum and ate in Chinatown. That first day I kept feeling this weird sense of disconnect whenever I would look into my purse and not find wipes, diapers and action figures. Or when we got back to PSara's house at 7 and I didn't have to immediately start dashing around putting people in tubbies and getting jammies out. It was an odd sensation to say the least. But I soaked it in and just enjoyed it.

During my trip we also did Georgetown (complete with Georgetown Cupcakes which is the kind of place where people stand in line out the door and down the street IN THE RAIN. It's that good.), sushi, my lil sis Bird came down, we vegged in front of the TV, shared new favorite music, girl talked until the wee hours, and rolled over and went back to sleep every morning after waking up excruciatingly early just because that's what my body is trained to do. It. Was. Great.

I DID come home to find five staples in Miles' head. The story is that Cameron and Miles were fighting on Great Grandma's trampoline (after spending the night on it) and Cameron swung a backpack at Miles' head not thinking about the filled-to-the-brim metal water bottle in it. So he split Miles' head wide open (I do have pictures of that below...don't scroll down if you don't like gore). Chase managed to pack them all up and rush to Urgent Care. And AFTER that he managed to get them all home, tubbied and off to Church on time for him to speak. And apparently it was a great, not-to-be-missed talk...

Anyway, I just happened to have a friend, Michelle, who ALSO had a girl's weekend right before mine. Her husband, Jedd, had this to say about the business of Daddy Daycare. It made me laugh so I figured I should share. I did change their son's name for privacy purposes. But I kept it natural so you shouldn't be able to tell.

"As both Michelle and Anna skipped town recently to visit girlfriends/sisters and "recharge their batteries," I thought I'd make a few observations.

First, I'm all for some "me" time like that, as taught in the Book of Mormon and by Oprah.  You need some time away from your loving families, especially your loving children (the nightly cries of "where's my mommy?" and "why won't mommy come home?" were no trouble -- really.  They didn't last long at our home, as I kept forgetting to feed the kids so their energy levels were low and they quickly fell asleep.)

Anna, you missed a great talk by Chase.  I think I even heard our ward's resident general authority emeritus say he learned something new from the talk, which is really saying something for a GA.  (Too bad for you it was one of those singular, "too special to repeat" talks).  Also, I understand the well-stapled gash in Miles' head was caused by innocent roughhousing and will NOT result in any visit from CPS.  Chase said the Police Dept. assured him of this.  Oh, and Miles' adorable venture up to the podium during Chase's talk was handled expertly by Chase--he didn't miss a beat.  Everything was totally under control at all times.

Silly things happen while moms are away -- like My Child With XY Chromosomes almost lighting the house on fire, the kids "accidentally" watching Curious George 15 times in a row, Cheerios becoming a new food group, screaming about lunches that are "not how mommy makes them!", playing outside during lightning storms -- it's all very quaint, kind of how Tarzan might have experienced life in his early years.  I worry that thoughts of things like this going on while you're away will weigh on your minds, perhaps cause you to feel a tinge of guilt.  Don't let that happen!

My point?  You need to take MORE trips and worry less about what is going on at home.  Put that cell phone away, relax, watch "Pride & Prejudice" 67 times ("Jedd, see how he looks at her!?").  Because Chase and I already prepaid for a weeks' worth of babysitting at Going Bonkers for the next time this happens (that's the place with padded walls, right?).

But please come back.  On the earlier flight if possible."

Thanks for that, Jedd.

  Camping on the trampoline

 

Staples in the head below...Don't scroll if you can't handle it.