Home Alone

I took a day off today. No family, just me and the cats. And now I feel a little odd.

The morning was awesome. We all got up, I helped get the kids ready, and saw everyone out the door. This helped kick things off properly.

I moved on to some fun things that both needed to be done and I wanted to do. One was setting up the PlayStation 3 to go through the stereo properly. After that was done, I proceeded to get my "Rock Band" on with the audio cranks and me singing some pretty difficult songs. Blondie's "One Way Or Another" was a tough nut to complete.

Other bits included getting into the shower, reading some gaming books, watering the plants and just relaxing.

But I didn't want to waste the day away, which is what I felt was kind of happening.

So post-lunch I jumped into the car and started getting things done. Exchanged a pair of slacks that were the wrong size at the Land's End Inlet. Stopped in Best Buy for canned air to clean the computer and to price out external hard drives.

The most difficult part of that stop was the fact that the strip mall also has Alya and Marcus's daycare within it. The time was just after naps would be starting, therefore stopping in would be a bad idea (and in other ways) but it was crushing to be so close and not see them.

Returning home I put a cat door in (success!), tried to seal the gutter over the leaky window (don't know if that worked...), cleaned out the computer (may not have worked), moved the downstairs DVD player up to replace the one that wasn't working so well (success), and managed to fire up Rock Band again but for drumming instead of singing. (Success until a Queens of the Stone Age song on Hard difficulty. Bad idea.)

That brought me to the point of picking up the kids and I was feeling a little blah. And the kids picked up on that a little bit, because while both of them supposedly had huge naps they also were on the tired side. We all came home just a little crabby. Marcus wanted to be held, Alya wanted to watch Dora the Explorer and not take her jacket off, and I remembered it was bath night and needed to get dinner rolling.

And then family happened.

Sasha was out for the evening, so I was solo with the kids. And from the time of picking them up at five to Alya finally laying down around eight, we all moved from tired/grumpy to happy. Happy to be together. Happy to be home with each other. Happy to relax and let things happen.

Alya got up when Dora was over to come and eat dinner. (Which she often fights.) Marcus just chowed down on the grilled cheese with ham that a made for dinner tonight. In fact, that boy ate half a sandwich and then grabbed my half from my plate and comsumed most of that too!

Bath time was lots of fun. When Marcus was done, he was peaceful getting ready in the bathroom, while Alya showed off her kicking in the tub - although there was much laughter when I was a monster eating his freshly cleaned toes. Alya was very good at singing the ABCs when I had to run out of the bathroom right quick to put Marcus in his crib with toys so I could finish washing her up. (Marcus's door is literally opposite the bathroom door.)

And post-bath, Alya and Marcus had some good playtime together where they were having fun while I just sat and watched and smiled. And then Alya said she wanted to sit on the potty - which she did and then she peed in the potty. That makes the third time today. Which is very exciting.

Bedtime was smooth. Marcus made it through two and a half books before wanting to be laid down. Alya did four books, including one story that was very long, but only a touch of rocking before she went down.

Sure, it was past nine before I finished cleaning up the dishes and the bathroom. And during that clean-up process I talked to a few people and found I was not going to see Watchmen tomorrow night. But I feel so good right now.

Family happens. And family can make things right.

I can only hope this continues through the teenage years.

Be seeing you,

Jon