Surf Trip

Well, the title of this post is a little misleading because I'm not actually going to talk at all about the surf trip that Marcus went on with his dad and brother to Lima, Peru. I'm just going to talk about what me and the boys did to amuse ourselves during the nine days he was gone. Marcus left from work on a Friday afternoon and returned the following Sunday night around 11:00 pm. The first five days he was gone, I filled up our days with play dates and outings. I got together with almost every good friend I've made since moving to Birmingham during those five days. We were hardly ever at home, which was a good thing, because it didn't give us much time to miss Daddy. The hardest part of the day was after I got the kids to bed...I was so tired from the day but reluctant to go to bed alone, so sometimes I just fell asleep in Caleb's queen-sized bed with him. Several nights I talked to Marcus on the phone to hear about his Peruvian adventures, though I was usually too busy with the kids to talk much, and we eventually resorted to emailing when we were free.

On a side note, it's amazing to me what a huge difference those two hours before bedtime that Marcus is home makes in my outlook. It is something to look forward to all day, and it makes the hours between naptime and his arrival go so much faster than if there is nothing new between nap and bedtime. When he gets home, he is so "present" with the boys...playing, talking and involved, and I am allowed to mentally check out of babyland, make dinner and enjoy listening to their play. Well, going so many days without that, not to mention the long Saturdays and Sundays, was a challenge.
Anyway, after five days of frenetic coming and going, the three of us hit the road for an (alleged) 6-hour car ride to visit my parents in Searcy. The trip there was miserable, complete with whining, crying, stalling DVD players, spilled drinks, not sleeping, and more whining and crying. I told Marcus after I arrived that I was never coming back: he would have to fly out and drive us home. (Fortunately, three days of relaxing at my parents house dulled my memory of the trip and I did pile us all back in for the return journey on Sunday.) We had a good time at Nana & Papa's. Nana, a former elementary school teacher and current school counselor, had brought numerous activities and toys home from her school to enjoy with Caleb. Probably Caleb's favorite activity was painting rocks, but he also thoroughly enjoyed the magnets and paper clips, puppets, sand timers and piles of books. Caleb knows that time with Nana means that for a few days, he will have as many books read to him as he desires. Don't get me wrong...I read to him alot at home, but now that he enjoys books that take more than 15 minutes to read aloud, I rarely get time to read more than 5 or 6 in a day. With Nana and me in the house, he probably gets closer to 20 books in a day, which is much closer to his desired quota. He LOVES his books! The only downer about the weekend was that Ethan decided (while we were in Searcy) that morning starts before 5 am. The three nights we were there, he woke up at 4:40, 4:10, and finally, 3:15 and DIDN'T GO BACK TO SLEEP until his morning nap! That made for a weird sleep schedule and a tired Mommy, but it was just for a few days, and it's definitely worth it to deal with a temporarily messed-up schedule for the pleasure of being with family.

Well, all in all, we survived the surf trip better than I expected we would, and all four of us were more than happy to be reunited a few days ago!