The things that happened this week

This past Sunday, we had a lovely Father's day breakfast. Simple and spirited. As you can imagine, the boys LOVE their Daddy and we had the best time celebrating him.

Which made it even harder to say "goodbye" when he left for Seattle just after lunch. It was like the wind was completely taken out of our sails. We celebrated the glue of our family, and then that glue left and his absence felt like a giant hole.

It is so hard when Chris is gone. Yes, I have someone wonderful who helps me care for the boys during the day, but still, it's hard when the other parent is gone. The nights are long and the house feels so lonely to me in the evenings after the boys finally fall asleep.

So, here are a few of the things that happened since Chris boarded a plane to Seattle last Sunday:

• On Monday morning, I proudly left the house with a picnic packed and ready to enjoy at the park. I was confident that this time, I'd forgotten nothing. We ran a few exciting errands (like getting the car washed) and then headed to the park. I gave myself a mental pat on the back for being organized and fun, even with Chris out of town. And then my phone dinged and notified me that Owen had his 12 month check-up in less than 10 minutes. Whhhhhaaaat?! Cue, mini van making a sharp left instead of right and hauling ass to the pediatrician's office. With all five boys in tow. I'm pretty sure I remember Chris actually meeting me for Colin's 12 month old appointment when we lived in Chicago. You know, because it was such a big deal and all. Ah, the difference between first born and fifth born. This time, I was just relieved I'd given Owen a water bath on the previous day! 

Poor baby got five shots, but is growing great!

• My Dad stopped by for lunch on his way through town (heading from Chicago back to the east side of Michigan). We were able to celebrate a belated Father's Day together which was so nice. Lately, whenever he's leaving from a visit with us, just as he's getting in the car, he plays this game with the boys where he says, "I think I'll take _____ home with me" and starts to pull them into the car. Then, all the other boys and I dramatically yell, "No he can't go with you!!" and a back and forth tug of war of said child ensues. The boys go wild over this routine and over and over place themselves as close to him as possible *hoping* they'll be next chosen. Everyone gets a turn. By the end of it, when we all say "goodbye" for real, our face muscles hurt from the laughing and they're all tuckered out from all the back and forth pulling. There was a time I wondered if my children would even have the opportunity to know my father, so watching this sort of silly game unfold, well,  it's everything to me. 

• About 30 minutes after my Dad left, Everett fell off Colin's bike at just the perfectly wrong angle. He cried.... in a way that let me know, something is not right. A long night at the ER followed.

X-rays confirmed that he broke his elbow. It was a clean break (or fracture may be more accurate) which was good and surgery was not necessary.

We met with a specialist the next day and he walked out with a cast, fingers to armpit. It sucks that he has to wear a cast for the next month during the prime of summer. Until now, the boys have been swimming, playing in the sand and getting wet almost every day. But it could've been worse.

Clearly this cast is not going to slow him down much!

• This week I drank way too much coffee and not enough water. Like, WAY too much coffee.

• I didn't go to work on Wednesday. Everett, with his new pink cast, looked up at me and pleaded, "Don't go to work tomorrow Mommy." His brothers were quick to join in, "Yeah, don't go!" My answer? "Okay. I won't." The families I get to work with are amazing and were so understanding. 

• I told Chris that I wouldn't watch any more episodes of Orange is the New Black. I told him that I'd wait until he came home and then we'd binge on it. And since then I've watched five episodes. FIVE! Sorry.

• In the midst of all of this, Owen slept through the night. For the first time EVER. I don't think he's ever slept more than five hours straight and he's certainly never gone a full night without coming in to sleep with us at some point. We had a horrible storm Tuesday night and it was still quite dark in the morning. The older boys were all in bed with me and still asleep when I woke up. I checked my phone. It was 8 a.m. and Owen had not come in. I PANICKED thinking something must be wrong. But it wasn't. He just slept in his bed. All night. 

• Two last notes. One, I cannot wait for my husband to get home later today!!! Two, our nanny is so amazing. On Monday, when I ran out of the house at 7 pm with Everett, heading to the ER, she stayed back with three cranky, overtired boys and one screaming baby, who'd had five vaccines earlier in the day and was done. She told me not to worry and when I came home hours later, she had folded every piece of laundry in the house. More importantly, she had loved my cranky, screaming, over tired children to bed. And in doing this, allowed me to be fully present with the one who needed me most. She is the rock star of this week.