While Daddy's away...

...the girls will play! A few weeks ago, Brad headed to Chicago for the North American Patristics Society (NAPS...yes, naps. Hahahaha!) conference. That left the girls and me on our own (or rather: that left me parenting on my own). With the division of labor in our parenting, Brad gets the girls up in the mornings and gets them going with breakfast, which gives me a few minutes to myself. I MISS THAT BUFFER WHEN HE'S NOT HERE. Claire wakes up talking nonstop (like, doesn't take a breath, guys), and Lily shrieks and growls until she gets her bottle and breakfast. That is not a pleasant way to wake up. It is not my ideal way to start the morning, but if Brad's not here, I've discovered that no one else will get the children.

I was hoping to get to my reading group at church that first day he was gone- where there is free childcare and like-minded moms to chat with- but Lily had different plans and napped for TWO AND A HALF HOURS. She's been teething and cranky, so I wasn't about to wake her up. But I was sad to miss the group. I decided to take the girls to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and playground time, and we found that the playground was too wet. Womp womp. That was supposed to be a fun outing + wear them out really well but ended up with us getting our food to go and heading home. By the way, my book group is reading a great book about mothering young children that I'll definitely write about: Long Days of Small Things by Catherine McNiel. I recommend! 

We spent much of the weekend watching The Great British Baking Show (because I can.not.stop. watching it. I love it so much!) and playing a myriad of home-grown games. Lily climbed things, of course, and Claire got up to all kinds of imaginative shenanigans. We spent one morning walking around Target, eating popcorn and went to dinner at a friend's house another day. It's so sweet when friends take pity on you and feed you while letting your kid run around in the backyard like a wild thing.

On our third day sans Brad, we didn't have a plan for going anywhere (much to Claire's disappointment) but did do the following: water table and popsicles on the back porch, fort building over and over, baking together, homemade pizza, and a viewing of Frozen. That sounds fun, right? Apparently, it wasn't enough, because as I was cleaning the kitchen after all of the fun that had been had, Claire asks me- oh so forlornly- "Mommy, would you please play with us?"

Oh, come on.

Stretches of time as a solo parent always deepen my respect for single mothers and fathers who do it all on their own every day. I'm no good at it. At least, I'm not good at not brooding about it. It makes me tired and cranky.

Needless to say, we were all thrilled when Brad got home! He's our favorite, and we miss him when he's gone. I did take some pictures for him, though, to show him all the fun he missed:

So much climbing to do, so little time. Please note: she used that chair to aid her in climbing onto the table. 

We sent this to Brad as a reminder that we still existed. 2 out of 3 people in this picture were well-rested. I'll let you guess who. (hint: it wasn't me)

Kat sent the best fort-building kit for the girls, and we put that thing to WORK.

We discovered we really like the igloo-style fort. It's good for crawling inside of.

But there's also the castle style!

And rocket!

Brad joined in the building fun when he returned! He was trying to get Claire to pose dramatically, as if they were space voyagers, but alas, she did not cooperate.

And this photo accurately expresses how we felt about having Brad back. And how Lily feels about her yogurt pouch.