FireDad » Stop, Drop and Blog

Ten Days of Solo Parenting Thanks to the Fire Life

Nov 302009

This morning, FireDad gave me a kiss at his usual departure time when he’s working his normal shift day. Except he won’t return until Friday evening. And then he’ll leave again on Monday morning, coming home again the following Friday night. That’s right. I’m solo parenting for ten days thanks to the fire department. Whoopee!

FireDad is off at the Fire Academy learning all there is to know about being a Fire Investigator. The Fire Investigator is the one who gets to poke around the scene of a fire after it has been safely extinguished and determine what caused the initial spark. Was it an electrical issue? Did someone fall asleep in bed with a cigarette? Did someone leave a candle lit when they left the house? Or was it something a bit more sinister? There are signs and clues to all of these, of course, and I know absolutely none of them. I do know that if i was to leave a candle burning when I left the house, my firefighter husband would not be pleased. That’s about all I know.

I’m thrilled that FireDad is off learning new things. I believe this is a great move for his career. But, man, I already miss him. Okay, well, maybe not quite yet. I’m used to being alone with the boys for 24 hours at a time. In fact, I can even handle 36 hours on my own. By tomorrow night, after the boys are in bed, it will likely hit me that I have no partner in parenting crime this week. During the holidays, no less, and leading right up to our anniversary. This proves my point, though, that it is better to do your holiday shopping early. Can you imagine me attempting to hit stores with two children all by my lonesome? No thanks.

The good news is that FireDad’s hotel offers free WiFi. I set him up with Skype last night so that we can have a video conference with the boys in the evening. He hasn’t left us for two weeks since BigBrother was not-quite-two (his last year in the Army). They don’t remember their daddy being gone for a long time. And I’ve never been alone with two children for such a long time either. We thought the ability to see each other and for the boys to see him would benefit the lot of us. I think we’ll probably do a conference tonight before bath and we’ll try after bath tomorrow for story time to see which works best. I love living in this technological age. It makes our time apart a little bit easier to handle. (I also wrote about video conferencing with family members over at BlogHer today. Go chime in!)

The next two weeks are rather busy. Take for example today when I tried to take BigBrother to preschool only to remember that he has today off. That’s my first fail of this experiment in solo parenting. Next on our agenda will be to visit the library and pay the fine(s). I’m also insane enough to be taking them to visit Santa tomorrow, complete in their Christmas outfits, for pictures. By myself. Add in actual school days (not fake ones), various conference calls this week and next, deadlines, job assignments, wrapping presents, a fun conference thing that involves driving, mailing things, addressing the Christmas cards and remembering to mail them as well, friends, cleaning, eating, and maybe even sleeping and I’m tired already. And that’s not the half of it. But, even still, I’m confident everything will be okay. It’s just ten days.

Thankfully I’ll get to see this face in between thanks to the wonders of the Interwebz.

Scruffy Due to Overnight Fire

I may tackle him when he comes in the door. Especially if he has coffee.

I should probably wrap his Christmas presents while he’s gone… no? Just in case this experience is so horrific that I want to return his Christmas presents by the end of the ten day time period. You know. Let me just add that to my lengthy list of things to do between now and then. Check!

_
[/end NaBloPoMo. I WIN!]

Where Have We Been?

blogging, FireDad 8 Responses »

Feb 272009

One of my friends called me on the phone today to make sure I was okay. You know, since I haven’t updated the blog since Tuesday. At least I know that if I ever am kidnapped, people will start to notice that the blog is neglected after three days time.

It’s been a crazy week. Since the announcement of FireDad’s running in Redbook’s Hottest Husband contest, we’ve been kind of busy. I mean, with the normal stuff (school, chorale, church, friends and work for both of us) and with some, well, other things as well.

As an example, FireDad had to get his hair cut (he was looking, as BigBrother says, shaggy) because the local newspaper called. Why? They wanted to do a photoshoot and an article for the paper. After FireDad convinced the photographer that the shirtless look was not appropriate due to the older people who support our department, the final result was quite nice. You can view the article on our newspaper’s site. And, yes, I’ll be honest. I purchased ten additional copies to the one that we receive. To be fair, the majority of these are being sent to parents and grandparents. But two or three will stay in house. One to keep whole in the hope chest, one to cut up for the fridge and one to cut up for the scrapbook. Also? Above the fold, front page news? He’s so handsome. (Have you voted: http://tinyurl.com/vote4JoshuaH)

We’ve been dealing with some illness (colds, random puking). And end of the month deadlines on my part. And, to be honest, this post has taken me all day to write due to random interruptions and parenting and general craziness. Now that the children are finally in bed, my plans are to clean, finish up laundry, finish up work and play some video games. Oh, and sleep.

We’re here. We’re well. We’re alive. More next week. I promise.