Shuffle Saturday: A Day without Mommy!

Since I am gone for the weekend, I thought my husband Tim could write about his experience without mommy. I put it on his to do list and here is what he came up with in his own words.

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It has been a bachelor pad here at our house since Emma left for her weekend away yesterday evening. Here is the flavor of how we are surviving.


Friday

5:00 pm
Emma pulls out of the driveway. Judah is expressing his displeasure that momma is leaving and he can't "Go-go" with her.

5:01 pm
Judah looks at me. I look at Judah. Judah says, "Momma? Uh-oh." I agree.

5:35 pm
Dinner time. I try to get Judah to sit in his high chair to eat dinner with me. Judah screams and dumps his milk all over his tray.

5:45 pm
Judah asks for crackers. I try to get him to eat some of the food I am eating. Judah eats crackers.

6:00 pm
Dinner hasn't gone well. Judah decides he wants to watch "Babies and Animals," what he calls his kids videos. He also asks for more crackers. Judah eats crackers while watching his "Babies and Animals" video in the living room. Finally, I can eat my supper. It's cold.

6:45 pm
Emma calls to let us know that she has made it safely. We miss momma.

7:00 pm
Judah grabs my phone and sees Emma's picture on my home screen. Judah hugs the phone. No hug for me.

7:15 pm
Time for bed. We go through our routine and Judah lays down in his crib.

8:00 pm
Judah has been making some noises upstairs so I go to check it out. Turns out he was able to reach a giant stuffed elephant outside of his crib, and he is trying to pull it through the bars of the crib so he can sleep with it. I get it for him and he promptly goes back to sleep.

Saturday

3:15 am
I hear Judah crying so I go in to check it out. He has thrown all of his stuffed animals, including the elephant, out of the crib and reaches up for me. I pick him up and hold him for a few minutes. I try to put him back to bed but as soon as I reach over to set him down he screams again. What to do.

3:20 am
I rock with Judah in the rocking chair to calm him back to sleep. I try to get up from the rocking chair, but as soon as I move Judah starts to cry again and says, "Back! Back!" Hmm.

3:25 am
I decide that the only way I am going to get to go back to sleep is to take Judah back to sleep with me. He is wrapped tightly around my neck so I just lay down on my back with him attached to my chest. Ah, back to sleep.

5:30 am
Judah decides to wake up. I try to explain to him that it isn't morning yet, it isn't even light out. Judah disagrees.

6:00 am
Judah decides that he's been in bed long enough and gets down. I reluctantly follow suit.

6:05 am
Breakfast time. Judah finds his banana toy and chews on it. I assume that means he wants to eat a banana. I try to put him in his high chair. He screams at me.

6:07 am
I offer a truce by turning on "Babies and Animals" so he can watch it while he eats his real banana. We maintain a fragile peace.

9:00 am
After playing throughout the morning, I assume that since I am dead tired, Judah must be tired as well. I read him some books and put him down for a nap. He fusses but not more than out of the ordinary. I lay down and promptly fall asleep.

9:45 am
I awake to a very unhappy Judah in the other room. He apparently was not tired at all. This is greatly disappointing. We go back downstairs to play.

11:30 am
After a morning snack, Judah decides it would be really fun to pull the window seal plastic off of our window in our living room while I am fixing the crock pot chicken for dinner. I disagree and decide it is nap time.

2:30 pm
After a very successful naptime, we have an afternoon snack to make up for missing lunch. We get ready and go out to Bass Pro Shops to walk around and look at the fishies.

5:30 pm
Back from Bass Pro Shops. We sit down for dinner and I actually get Judah to eat something from each of the food groups. We celebrate after each bite with a cheer and a hand clap. Don't laugh at me, it gets him to actually eat stuff.

7:00 pm
Bed time! We made it! An entire day without mom! I am exhausted already thinking about trying to get through tomorrow.


Mommies do deserve a recess, and I'm glad that Emma gets a break this weekend. When she gets back we are going to discuss Daddy's Recess, because I am going to need to recapture my sanity! Hats off to all mothers for doing the hardest job in the world, and doing it so well. We love you Momma! Come home soon!