We had some significant adventures on day 2 & 3 of my single parenting. Friday morning, my Mom calls and says they need me to be a pallbearer for my great aunt's funeral on Saturday. She also mentioned that she would watch Emma and I could take her place with Dad at the golf tournament! I was in! So, in order to get to Mountain Home before Emma's naptime, I had to leave in about 30 minutes. I knew that wasn't going to happen. But I threw a ton of things together for myself and Emma to have for the weekend. The fun part was this: I had driven Allison to the airport and she left her car at my office in Bentonville. So! I called a couple of co-workers and asked if they could help a brother out...which they gratefully did. I took the keys up to Bville and the two guys (Scott & James) took the car to the airport. I went straight back toward Springdale and on to Mtn. Home while James drove Scott back to the office.
We got to MH around 2:45...almost 2 hours past Emma's regular naptime. So, we pushed on through the nap and went to Walmart. Mom and I got Em some food and cute summer clothes. Then we went home. Mom went to the visitataion while Emma and I walked over to the city park and played around for a while. On the way back to the house, I picked her up and waded into a big stream to some very safe rocks right in the middle of the stream. We sat there for a while throwing pebbles into the creek. This is the same creek I spent HOURS exploring when I was 10, so it was really fun to share that with her. After dinner, Emma went to bed and actually slept in my old twin bed in my old room. She was obviously tired, as she fell asleep in about 5 minutes. I went to bed around 10:45 in the outer room (my room has two parts: inner bedroom, outer playroom...it's the bomb, yo!). About 3:45 AM, Emma woke up. I got her into bed with me, where she and I slept on and off for about 30 minutes. I awoke to Emma poking me in the face saying "Daddy, WAKE UP!". I kept trying to get her to sleep, but to no avail...she was up for the day! We watched cartoons until 6:15 when Mom & Dad got up. Dad and I got ready to go play in the golf tournament while Mom watched Emma and got her some breakfast.
Golf was OK. It was chilly and kind of rainy toward the end. But hey...cold & wet golf is still golf! Plus it was fun hanging out with Dad...that's our quality time activity. I checked on Emma a couple of times by calling Mom. She went back to bed for her nap around 11:00 AM and slept for 2 hours...I was hoping for about 4. After we finished our round (of even par), we came home to change for the funeral. I didn't even end up being a pallbearer, which was fine. It's always good to see family, even under sad circumstances like this.
After the funeral, I decided to skip out of the rest of the weekend. I was really worried that Emma would repeat the previous night's schedule, and I couldn't handle that again. So, we packed up and headed home. You know a kid is tired when they repeatedly yell "NIGHT NIGHT DADDY! NIGHT NIGHT!" in the car. Of course, Emma refuses to sleep in the car, so I put her down about 30 minutes after getting home. I took like 5 minutes for her to fall asleep.
The great thing is this: in the morning, she'll get to wake up to Mommy's face! That'll make her super happy for the rest of the day (both her and Allison!).
All in all, it was a pretty fun single parenting excursion. It's nice to spend that much time with Emma, though it's sometimes draining. And it's absolutely the BEST when you walk into a room and she yells "DADDY!!!' and comes up for a big hug!
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Published by John Nelson
on May 06, 2006 at 7:00 PM.
We got to MH around 2:45...almost 2 hours past Emma's regular naptime. So, we pushed on through the nap and went to Walmart. Mom and I got Em some food and cute summer clothes. Then we went home. Mom went to the visitataion while Emma and I walked over to the city park and played around for a while. On the way back to the house, I picked her up and waded into a big stream to some very safe rocks right in the middle of the stream. We sat there for a while throwing pebbles into the creek. This is the same creek I spent HOURS exploring when I was 10, so it was really fun to share that with her. After dinner, Emma went to bed and actually slept in my old twin bed in my old room. She was obviously tired, as she fell asleep in about 5 minutes. I went to bed around 10:45 in the outer room (my room has two parts: inner bedroom, outer playroom...it's the bomb, yo!). About 3:45 AM, Emma woke up. I got her into bed with me, where she and I slept on and off for about 30 minutes. I awoke to Emma poking me in the face saying "Daddy, WAKE UP!". I kept trying to get her to sleep, but to no avail...she was up for the day! We watched cartoons until 6:15 when Mom & Dad got up. Dad and I got ready to go play in the golf tournament while Mom watched Emma and got her some breakfast.
Golf was OK. It was chilly and kind of rainy toward the end. But hey...cold & wet golf is still golf! Plus it was fun hanging out with Dad...that's our quality time activity. I checked on Emma a couple of times by calling Mom. She went back to bed for her nap around 11:00 AM and slept for 2 hours...I was hoping for about 4. After we finished our round (of even par), we came home to change for the funeral. I didn't even end up being a pallbearer, which was fine. It's always good to see family, even under sad circumstances like this.
After the funeral, I decided to skip out of the rest of the weekend. I was really worried that Emma would repeat the previous night's schedule, and I couldn't handle that again. So, we packed up and headed home. You know a kid is tired when they repeatedly yell "NIGHT NIGHT DADDY! NIGHT NIGHT!" in the car. Of course, Emma refuses to sleep in the car, so I put her down about 30 minutes after getting home. I took like 5 minutes for her to fall asleep.
The great thing is this: in the morning, she'll get to wake up to Mommy's face! That'll make her super happy for the rest of the day (both her and Allison!).
All in all, it was a pretty fun single parenting excursion. It's nice to spend that much time with Emma, though it's sometimes draining. And it's absolutely the BEST when you walk into a room and she yells "DADDY!!!' and comes up for a big hug!
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