After being on my own for 5 days, I am ever so glad that Silver Bullet is finally home from his week-long business trip.
So how did I fare? Apart from a small window of a rather chaotic afternoon on the day Silver Bullet left, I was expecting the worst to happen. This is when my “values of pessimism” paid off (always do!) – I lower my expectations of any happening that was remotely good, so I could prepare myself for the worst. In doing this, I would be mentally playing all the bad scenarios of what might happen so I have the strength to deal with any setbacks later. And if the opposite happens, it is a bonus and I would appreciate those happy highs much better! I call it being realistic.
My days started as early as before 5.30 am. The plan was for me to get myself ready before the kids are up so I can tend to them. That worked well on the first day. I even had the time to catch up on a 15 minutes nap before Spud woke up at 6.30am. The only problem was, Spud went mental when she discovered that her Papa was not around. She went berserk, running to the bathroom and looking for him everywhere while screaming her guts out. It took me about 10 minutes to get her to calm down. By then, her screaming had woken Squirt up…
My only consolation was that Squirt was happy to play by himself in his bed for a bit while I settled up his sister before I bathe him. Breakfast was peaceful and we managed to get ourselves out of the door by 7.30 am for me to drop Spud off to school.
2nd day
Spud decided to wake up before 5.30 am, and refused to go back to bed. She eventually did 10 minutes later because I refused to budge. She played in her room whilst I get myself ready before I tend to her at 6am. Squirt woke up at 6.30 am.
The rest of the morning went pretty well. Out of the house by 7.30 am!
3rd day – 5th Day
Even though Spud work up before 6 am, the mornings were all pretty pleasant. Squirt has been waking up at 5 am, blabbering away – but I was glad that he went back to sleep after 45 minutes of amusing himself.
The usual routine was in order – I got myself ready, I pumped (while Spud runs around the room), I showered Spud and dressed her before I tend to Squirt, fix Spud her breakfast, prepared Squirt’s milk, pack my pump stuff, wait for the Nanny to take over, get Spud to put on her shoes, get out of the house by 7.30 am, dropped Spud off to school (we walked for half an hour door-to-door) and drop me off to work.
All in, 2 hours of my life in the morning just flew by! And even though I get home in time to put the kids to bed by 7pm, my day typically did not end till 9.30 pm. It is the only time in the evening when I was finally able to sit down (wind down, and then continue doing some work!)after completing the evening routine that has to be done in preparation for the next day to happen all over again.
It was 5 crazy mornings and evenings, and it was tough having to do it all alone. Thankfully Murphy cut me some slack this time. The kids behaved, and most important of all, Spud co-operated very well without me completely losing my head.
Spud was a star – I am very proud of her, and I make sure that I tell her that every day before she goes to bed. She seems to be quite pleased with the compliment, and I’m only hoping that she would be able to keep it up for as long as she can.
