All the Single Mamas

I'm not a single mom... I'm very happily married, and my husband takes great care of me and the girls. However, 2 1/2 weeks ago, my husband embarked on a voyage to Yellowknife, with the intention of returning 2 days later.  It has been nearly 3 weeks, and there is no sign of my husband anywhere (actually, there will be a sign of him on Ice Pilots, NWT, since they spent all of last week shooting episodes with the crew from Buffalo Air... but I digress...)!  In case I have never told you Danny's line of work, he's an aircraft technician in the military.  He works on the Auroras.  Those piece of shit airplanes.  Okay, so maybe I'm just mad at the planes right now, and they're not really pieces of shit.  Maybe.

In any event, Danny left nearly three weeks ago and has yet to come home.  That has left me in the world of single mama-dom.  It's to be expected when married to a military man.  Except that this wasn't expected.  He was supposed to be home over 2 weeks ago!  So I will admit, I was unprepared. Not that there's a lot to prepare for when your husband goes away... but mentally, totally wasn't ready for it.  For example... Danny left Saturday morning.  He was supposed to be home Monday.  So I decided to wait for him to give the girls their next baths since it is much easier to bathe 2 tiny people with an extra set of hands (and they had just bathed that night).  Monday came, no Danny.  Tuesday came, no Danny.  By Wednesday, the girls really smelled and Danny told me it would be at least another 3 days before they would be home.   That was it, I had to wash those girls before things started growing in their cracks and crevices!

Also, before Danny had left we had stocked up the woodpile inside so I could keep the fire going.  By Tuesday night I was calling my sister and begging her to help me bring in the wood so we wouldn't have to freeze to death.  I could turn on the electric heat, I suppose... but I'm waaaay to cheap for that! :)

I should also mention the food.  Danny was supposed to be gone for a couple of days.  For me that meant Kraft Dinner and easy cookings for the girls while he was away.  By that Thursday, I realized I was going to have to start cooking Gracie some real food, or else she was going to die of a sodium overdose (is that possible?!).

Gracie is also used to her dad being around.  For the first week, she was really good.  She politely asked "is my dad still in Yellowknife?" and I would say, "Yes, but he's coming back soon!"  Then it got to the point where I think she stopped believing me (kind of like when we kept telling her that she was getting a baby sister "soon") and now she's just downright pissed off too.  She's being a complete little buggerhead with an attitude like you wouldn't believe.  I try to remember that she's just reacting to the fact that Danny isn't around... but it doesn't make me want to throttle her any less!  Even her babysitter has commented on how "lovely" she's been behaving.  Last Monday Nancy told me that she was getting time-outs for hitting the other kids at daycare.  So we had a chat about that!  The next time, Nancy said she didn't hit, but she was scratching the kids now.  So we had a chat about that.  The next time, Nancy said she stopped hitting and scratching, but now she was biting the other kids!  I was horrified!  So we had a very severe chat about that!!  Apparently she doesn't hit, bite, scratch, push, or kick the kids anymore.  But she has taken to slamming the doors and screaming "Nooooo!" at Nancy.  Fantastic!

How I've felt every time Gracie has thrown a tantrum because she's starving (even though she currently has a granola bar in her hand), is tired (even though she's refusing to nap), Charlie is bugging her (even though Charlie is nowhere near her), or just because she wants to! :)

Ella, for her part, hasn't really noticed Danny's absence.  Except that she has finally started babbling the last two weeks.  Any guess as to what her first constant consonant has been?  "Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da" all day long!   She's also started eating more solid foods since he's left.  That has meant an increase to three dirty diapers a day!  THREE!!!!  And I'm not talking little tiny poos.  I'm talking complete blow-outs.  Change of outfit, up to the neck, poos.  And who gets to change allllll of these dirty diapers?  This single mama.  And do I get rewarded with a little "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma"?  NOPE!

Also, have you read my post about witching hour?  It has been nearly three weeks of all-alone dinner time.  That means almost three weeks of witching hours!  That means that if Danny doesn't get home in the next day or so, it's going to be drive-thrus and take-out for the remainder of his time away, just so I don't have to listen to the girls scream while I try to cook something nutritious.

Yup, dinner time - no energy to fight the little witches! :)

But you know what?  We're making it through okay.  The kids may not be eating the healthiest foods,  I may have decided on more than one occasion that bedtime tonight would be at 6:30 instead of 7:15 (Gracie can't tell time yet... I'm brilliant!), and I may have pretended I didn't see Gracie laying on the floor throwing her 27th tantrum in 15 minutes because I didn't want to expel the precious energy to discipline her... but we're surviving! :) 

I miss Danny terribly, he really is my partner in every sense of the word, and especially when it comes to parenting.  But I have a new-found appreciation for single mamas. I never thought it was easy being a single mom.  I knew it was probably downright the most difficult thing EVER!  And after nearly three weeks of parenting alone, I have all the respect in the world for those single parents.  Really not a job I would want full-time!  Thank goodness Danny is actually going to make it home someday and my job as a single mama will be over!  Until he leaves on the 8th of March for 6 weeks... I better stock up on some baby powder, cause those girls are gonna stink!!! :)

This is TOTALLY how I feel at the end of some days.  Especially the "say I'm pretty" part!