Surrviving The First Day Alone

Well, I just opened blogger to start writing about how I have survived the day without even crying. Then, my husband called to say he was on his way home and had to mention how I must miss my Mom. So of course my good track record of not crying all day was demolished as I started crying again. I explained again, how, as much as I miss my family...I am okay. What makes me cry and hurt is that my kids are missing out on being loved by all the rest of their family. My family is missing out on seeing my incredibly precious kids during their cutest years in which they change the most.



Josh and Stacei and their kids are an excellent example of how a family can be away for so long and when they come back home, they were still able to form wonderful bonds and relationships with the family. But we still missed out on all their "firsts", all their cute toddler and preschool years that just can't be captured in words as well as in witnessing it first hand. I miss my kids for my family's sake. I miss my family being an integral part of my kids' life experiences.



Having Mom and Grandma here was such an amazing blessing. The two putter-pants never stopped finding ways to help. I felt bad that the only place we had for them to sleep was on an air mattress on the floor in the boys' room. So for the week that they were here, the monitor in my room stayed off. It was so weird to have it off, and it was kind of weird to turn it back on. Even though I wasn't getting solid nights of sleep with Ethan, it was nice not to have to worry about the older boys for awhile. Most days I was woken by the sound of Nick galloping around downstairs. I was able to get more rest with Mom and Grandma here than I would have without them.



The hardest part about today was that Joey and Nick had nobody else to pay attention to them if I was busy with Ethan. Nick was especially clingy today. He wanted to be up in my arms or in my lap every minute. If he wasn't being held, he was whining to be. It made for an exhausting day. I was able to take a nap with the boys, so that helped. Ethan went down first, and unfortunately, he woke up just as I was laying the other boys down. I thought I had missed my opportunity for sleep, but after eating, he went back to sleep and gave me about an hour and a half of sleep.



My husband is home now and we are getting dinner ready. I should probably go help. I will put a few pictures on this post, but I will have to go into more detail about the week at a later time.

Nick is at the office; you can see he is quite literally 'on' his computer and on the phone. He is a multi-tasker in the making. I love the expression on his face.

A most favorite and treasured activity; nap time with Daddy. Not only has all of the boys loved it, Daddy loves it even more!

Can you find him? It's kind of hard with him all bundled up. Grandma Dooley was sure that Ethan was always freezing and needing more layers. Nanny knew that Ethan's body temperature fluctuated with hers.

Nanny made a cake for Daddy, since his birthday is tomorrow; his 30th birthday!! So the boys offered their expert assistance in the cleaning department. They really enjoy helping.

Ethan is just too cute; however, if you don't take his picture from the right angle, his very large cheeks are even more pronounced. This picture, surprisingly, is from the right angle. The picture taken before this was not and made him look really funny! He is not a fat baby...not in the least, but those cheeks sure are big.

Hope your week is calm, peaceful, and blessed. Loving and missing you all.