One on One

It's one on one today. Jonah and Adam are in Florida while Jude and I are hanging out at home. They'll be home next Friday. So, it's a whole week of a 1:1 ratio of adults to children. This is such an a funny thing now that we have two kids.

There are typically two situations that play out in our house: we're both home with the kids or one of us has both kids. Very rarely though, each parent gets one kid. This one on one time is so different when you have two kids. Before Jude was born, I remember thinking how unbelievably difficult it was to have a child. Caring for Jonah by myself seemed like an enormous and exhausting task.

Then Jude came along. You can imagine how challenging that felt to us. Caring for two kids, even together with Adam, can feel like a zoo.

The last two days it's just been Jude and me hanging out. We had no special plans, nowhere to go and nothing to do. Saturday morning started early with a trip to the airport to get Adam and Jonah on their plane to Florida. We came home and played until he was ready for his morning nap, earlier than usual because of the early morning trip to the airport. Thank goodness because I was ready for a nap too. We both slept for an hour and a half before visiting Target and sharing a soft pretzel and doing a little shopping for nothing in particular. Home for lunch and it was time for another nap while I organized the intricate organizational masterpiece that is the boy's clothing storage of things they have outgrown (but saving for "the baby pool"). Dinner, a bath, playing and bedtime rounded out the day.

Jude slept until almost 8 this morning, which he never does. We played all day today. There was truly nothing else going on. We watched Marley & Me (twice) and played shapes, blocks, farm animals, books.

It seems so easy when you're not outnumbered. There are times I feel like the kids are ganging up on Adam and me. One or both is screaming and crying over a stolen toy or someone is always hurt, hungry, tired or, the most concerning, too quiet. What have they gotten into? I usually delight in the controlled chaos that is our life but sometimes it's just crazy and exhausting.

There was nothing crazy and exhausting about the last two days. I'm not tired, overwhelmed, multi-tasking or over-obligated. Sometimes we need these moments to recharge and attack parenthood with a new-found respect for families with 3 or more kids. I miss Jonah and Adam madly and can't wait for them to return. But in the meantime, I'm going to soak up these next few days with Jude - one on one.