Reset!

So...Paul is back on his way to medium work. This is a much shorter version, plus there is a two-month break from federal taxes involved (holla!), so it's really not that bad. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway. He was just home for three days, but that relief of seeing him was enough to make today feel like Day 1 all over, not just Day 43 of 60 after a three-day-break.

Annoying, but it did involve the obligatory trip to Target, so I guess it's not all bad.

So here's a truth - doing the normal everyday stuff is not the hard part. Paul's crazy work schedule has him gone during the week until after the kids are in bed, so I'm used to doing all the worky work by myself. And to be honest, there is significantly LESS of the worky work when it's just me and two little kids making laundry and dust and dirty dishes.

What sucks is the drama.

Please nobody tell me anything along the lines of "just wait for when they're all teenagers" or anything to that effect. Not only have I heard it FIVE MILLION TIMES since we found out Baby 3 is a girl - oddly never from anyone who has three or more female children - but hi, it's not exactly helpful. Especially when throughout the course of the day, I've had to deal with:

•  one kid crying over the fact that we have the wrong Baby Bell cheeses
•  the other one truly and deeply pissed off at me of course because it's all my fault that a) our yard is too small and b) our yard is not fenced so we can't buy a horse tomorrow
• both of them upset that we have to eat vegetables every day, even though they normally love them
• and oh right, one being totally mad that tights and nothing else is not an acceptable choice of outfit when we're laying out clothes for church tomorrow.

This is the short list. And if I were to do one of those little charts where they show what someone says and then what they really mean, the what they really mean column would all say "I miss my dad and I wish he didn't have to leave but I have no control over that which is scary and frustrating."

The upside here is that by the time he leaves for long work I will have had two good practice runs managing this transition with my particular children at their particular ages while swimming in all these highly unhelpful pregnancy hormones. I'll know what to expect, because I've done it. I'll know that shelving my own sadness and frustration so I can help them navigate theirs is really the only way to survive Day 1. Also fluff books, massive quantities of Nutella, and lots of Target.