On Thursday Tom left to visit his younger brother, Sam, and family in Boston. It has been a while since he’s seen his brother and we have never met their son, Ram, who is now 3 and a half! So it was definitely time for a visit. I’m saving all my vacation days for maternity leave so I granted Tom permission to go and leave me as a single parent for 5 days. Tom’s coming home tonight and it couldn’t be any sooner! Being a single, working parent is definitely challenging. Being a single, working, PREGNANT parent is even harder. Luckily, Uncle David stopped by on Sunday and occupied Tyler for a few hours so I could rest. Getting ready in the morning is a juggling act and has been even harder since Tyler has started to have very active dreams in the early morning (4-5am). He’ll yell out in his sleep and thrash around, calling out for me to come in his room. This throws off both of our sleep schedules and he’ll end up sleeping later in the morning – which gives me more time to get ready, but it’s very hard to rush a toddler to get out the door when all he wants to do is play with his cars. Luckily last night, Tyler slept from 9:30pm – 7:45am without a peep so both of us caught up on our sleep. I’m not sure if it helped, but before he drifted off to sleep I reminded him that he needed to stay in bed until he sees the sun come up, and only then can he come into Mommy’s room to wake her up.
Since I had Tyler all to myself and it was another 90 degree weekend, we spent most of the time indoors with the AC on. I broke out the paint and paintbrushes and let him loose. It was the first time Tyler had ever used actual paintbrushes and he loved it.
We also had 2 play dates – Friday night with Jakey and Saturday night with Willow. Both play dates were different yet exhausting with no time for snapping photos but a good time was had by all. Apparently Jakey asks his mom constantly to come to “Tyler’s House” – which I think he sees as some kind of gigantic playroom. A “Jakey play date” usually means chaos – cars and toys are flying every which way and the two boys are constantly running up and down the hallway. He’ll run straight through the door to Tyler’s room and starts rummaging through all the toys/cars and tries to carry as many cars as he can. They’ve been getting better at playing together and I’m glad to say no one has been smacked in the head lately 
Willow, on the other hand, has no interest in playing with tyler and is happy enough either throwing a ball around or watching a dvd – her latest obsession is Finding Nemo. The 2 of them sat in front of the portable dvd player and watched the movie together while Kristina and I were able to talk and catch up.
One exciting development that happened is Tyler has finally started to show more interest in using the potty. In a record DAY, he peed in the potty yesterday morning AND pooped it it right before bed time! Twice in one day!! We clapped and cheered and he was very excited, especially when it came to flushing it down the toilet. Normally he has no problems sitting on it, but nothing ever comes out (until we put his diaper back on). So, you can imagine my shock/surprise and happiness. One of my proudest moments….
Can’t wait for dad to come home tonight!
1 Comment
October 21, 2009 at 8:55 am
Yeah, being a single parent is tough. Hang in there.
I hear you about the dreams — we have been through/in a similar period. We’ve been amazed at all the sleep talking and, predictably, a little worried/alarmed at all of the anxiety there seemed to be lurking beneath the surface. Mostly about wanting to do things and not being allowed to.
Glad to hear about the potty interest. It’s a gradual process, but sounds like it’s well under way…