Carolyn’s big Christmas present from me this year was an airline ticket to Germany, which she’d been dying to visit—and me taking care of the kids at home for two weeks while she visits chocolate museums.
I’ll admit, I’ve got a reasonable bit of trepidation about the long absence, especially since I’ll be playing stay-at-home dad to four-year-old Kelly and ten year-old Neil from 8am–9pm (bedtime), and at the same time trying to keep from dropping too many balls at work (normally 10am–5pm, followed by 11pm–3am).
It’s going to be interesting, but so far, Day 1 (actually Day 0.5 — I dropped Carolyn off at SFO at 11 this morning) was pretty good. The kids both did a lot of picking up around the house, and they both helped muck in with the chores. Kelly even helped make pie (dumping in ingredients and taking turns stirring the filling in the sauce pan), and Neil did everything from cleaning a bathroom to helping with dishes. I’m really proud of both of them, but Carolyn’s left some big shoes to fill. She’s much missed already by all of us!
She better bring back some pretty darn good German comic books…