Holy Cow!!! I don't know how single moms do it! Corey just came back from a week-long business trip yesterday, and I couldn't have been happier to see him. We have spent weeks apart before, like when I go to visit family and he stays in AZ to work. However, this time the difference was in the location. Carrick and I were at home, and Corey was gone. It's a whole other ball game being in the same environment we're used to and having Corey gone than being away where everything is new and him not being there.
Because we were in our own home, our routine was very similar, with one glaring exception: Corey's absence. I tried to get family or friends to come visit for the week, but it was too short of notice for anyone to make it out. So I had to get creative and think of ways to keep Carrick "distracted" for a week until Corey's return.
Corey is a very involved father with Carrick. They take baths together and splash and play, he takes him grocery shopping, and most importantly, dances with him in the evening to various youtube videos. I noticed without Corey around, Carrick's energy was going to waste. I am just not wired (literally) the way that a father is. Corey seems to melt energy off of Carrick when he's around. For me, after being with Carrick all day, my energy stores are running low and I don't have a whole lot left to give into the evening hours. My hat goes off to single moms who must be "on" all the time. Kudos to you!
On Monday, when Corey left, I took Carrick to Out of Africa, the local animal park where lions, zebras and tigers roam in huge fenced-in areas. We have a season pass, so we get to go anytime for free, so I decided to start off our week right and go out there. Carrick said "Bye-Bye, ____" (fill in the blank) for the first time that day. I said, "Say 'Bye-bye, Bear,'" and he followed by saying, "Bah-bah, Brr," and waving. I couldn't believe my ears. I wondered if it was a fluke, so I tried it again. The tiger and the lion, both received their own personal good-byes. Later that week, he said, "Bah-bah, Tee-ti," which means, "Bye-bye, Ethan," his best friend. That's when I knew that he was really putting two words together. Hooray!
Later that evening, I went to Ethan's house for Carrick to have someone to play with. When I got to his house, Carrick sat on my lap and clung to me. This was strange behavior. Usually at Ethan's I can't get him put down fast enough for him to start running around with his little pal. I sat there in the middle of the floor, hugging Carrick as Ethan came up to him, offering him toys and getting him to smile. Finally, after several minutes, Carrick helped himself off my lap and began playing. That behavior tipped me off that he knew something was up.
I was nervous about taking him home because he knows when Corey is supposed to come home, and I didn't want him sitting around the house all night asking where daddy was. After a late evening, we returned home at Carrick's bedtime. As I got him out of the car, a car drove by and he said, "Dadah!" I laughed to myself, and said, "That's not daddy. Daddy is gone for a little while, but he'll be back in a few days." One day down.
Tuesday found me watching Ethan and Carrick, like usual. So, he had a friend to play with most of the day. They both fell asleep on a ride into the canyon, so I pulled over and read a book in a shady area and took some time for myself. On Wednesday, I did a trade with a friend of mine. I took Carrick to her house for her to watch him in the morning while I got some stuff done around the house. I tried leaving while he was playing with her daughter in the backyard. I was putting on my shoes at the front door, when I heard him burst out crying. I made a choice, I went back. I didn't want Corey's absence to be too traumatic for him, so I went back and spent more time with him before leaving. My friend said he was fine for a while, then noticed I wasn't there again and began crying. So she put him and her daughter in her bike trailer for kids and took them for a spin around the neighborhood. When I returned, he was laying on the bed with her and her daughter, the little girl was asleep, and Carrick was just staring into space, lying on the bed. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. He never lies down, he's always moving. He didn't even notice that I had entered the room, but as soon as he saw me, he got pouty-face. Then the tears came.
Thank goodness I ate my lunch before picking him up. After he finally calmed down, I had to dash to Flagstaff for a car appointment that I almost forgot I had. I was waiting for a lot longer than I had planned on. They had a big open show room where the waiting area was. I spent a lot of time pushing Carrick around in one of their rolly-swivel desk chairs. He held onto the arm rests and I pushed him around, spinning the chair every so often. He loved that. I finished my time there by letting him play on their computer. I didn't log him in as a customer, so I just let him press as many buttons as he liked on the keyboard. After a while of that, he was finished, and I asked how far along they were with the car. Thankfully they were done and printing out the report as I walked up to the desk.
Thursday, hump day, the middle of when Corey was gone. Thank goodness for daycare! Thursday mornings are when Carrick gets to play with all his friends at "school". I expected him to be shy again. He surprised me by only being shy for the first five minutes or so. Then he got off my lap and ran over to one of the play tables. I put my shoes back on, and waved bye-bye. He said to me (from across the room), "Bah-bah!" and waved. It was like he was saying, "Alright, mom, see ya later!" I went to get a massage and eat at my favorite place in town. I needed both to get through the rest of my time solo.
As Carrick woke up from his nap, I was watching some new videos I had just downloaded onto the computer. He watched them with me, fascinated. One of them had Corey's voice in the background. As soon as he heard his daddy talking, he got his pouty-face again. Then the pout turned into a sob. Then the sob turned into crying. My little boy missed his daddy! It broke my heart to see him so upset. I played another video of him and Corey from when Carrick was younger. Corey's antics in the video made Carrick laugh, but he was still crying. So after watching the video twice, and watching him half laugh and half cry, I decided we needed to get out of the house, and off to the park we went.
On Friday Carrick and I took a trip over the mountain to Prescott with our friends. They needed to get their car fixed and we volunteered to accompany them to, well, add some company to the trip. Saturday Carrick and I attended a super clothing swap. I came back with a whole shopping bag full of "new" stuff for $6.00!!! We spent that evening eating supper with Ethan and his mom. We let the kids play and we moms just hung out. One day left....
Sunday found me cleaning up the house in preparation for Corey's return the next day. I started my day by taking Carrick to my favorite food spot in the canyon for breakfast. I also squeezed one more time of Carrick getting to play with Ethan in as well. They boys played at Ethan's house while I tidied up our house.
Corey came back the next day, right as Carrick would have been falling asleep for his nap. Thanks to the added adrenaline rush of his daddy coming back, he skipped his nap yesterday.
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