Surviving (cue Rocky Theme Song)

D here.  A has been gone over two weeks, spanning two weekends.  One week to go…

I just thought I’d drop a quick update for A’s readers.  We are…still alive…and kicking (hitting actually, in Fire’s case.)  All in all the time has gone by well.  I have a great network of friends and our Nanny is doing extra duty.  Sometimes it feels like I’m not single parenting it at all.  Other times…

I have had Ms Florina come in early to help me wrangle the kids.  She usually takes Fire while I try 9 different tactics to coax little misses Dilly-Dally to help me get her to school and myself to work.  (I suppose normally A has that job.  I used to think I have more patience for such, but apparently it was a function of lack of exposure.)

 

We’ve had several good dinners, either invites or arrangements to let me cook while guests watch the kids.  We have, and are continuing to, hit the beach.  We’ve done some parks/playgrounds.  We’ve watched a few more movies than we sometimes do, but we’ve seen less tv.  TV is a reward for rallying quickly in the morning.  Impossible goal when I sleep an extra 10 minutes.  We’ve instituted special "mommies gone treat" (“Sky, shhh,  don’t tell mommy”) of eating a dinner in front of a movie (Star Wars) once a week.

 

Sky complains some of monsters, which is typical of her when something is stressing or troubling her.  Previously, travel and Fire’s adoption.  Fire  went through some constipation coupled with Ms Florina favoritism and crying.  Still, Fire has recovered and daddy is super cool again, and Sky’s monster issues have been easily dispatched and are more often than not in a joking manor.  (She requests to sleep with princess monsters.)

 

The kids spent a day on Ebeye w/ Jima last Monday while I celebrated me time by trying to paddle board across the lagoon.  (ok, maybe just for about 1 to 1.5 hours, almost to the next island.)  They came back crazy as ever (Ebeye spins them up like it was Romper Room) but a friend and son helped me manage them on the boat ride.

My chief self evaluation of my fathering would be that I can be a very good dad…it’s just a question of how much of the time.  Fortunately, so far, most.  On the other hand two nights before I felt my patience was far below functional and last night was edgy.  Hopefully I will continue the upward trend and make this last home stretch.  I’m totally dropping it all in A lap as soon as she gets off the plane jet lagged ;p