Daddy's Weekend: A Guest Post

*My mom had a long-awaited surgery on her back on Oct. 13, and what was supposed to be a 3-5 day hospital stay turned into 2 weeks. She was depressed about the whole situation, so I talked to Aaron and made arrangements to head to Phoenix for the weekend of Oct. 23rd. I spent time with mom, visited with some old friends during their Super Saturday, and had lunch with one of my dearest amigas ever. But my story was only so interesting...

The true excitement was happening at home. :) *

It's a rare occasion that I get time alone with all three of my children. While my wife was away, I had a really great time with my kids. We were having fun; playing, shopping, enjoying ourselves.
My fun and exciting weekend began with breakfast on Saturday morning. Pancakes were on the menu. Alex, in usual fashion, was begging to help, so I let her. We were cracking eggs and cooking sausages. Then, Audrey turned up, also begging to help. While my back was turned, Audrey helped herself to the stool and to the open carton of eggs. I hear a crack, and a joyful cry of, "Look Dad! I did it!" When I turned around, I saw the remnants of an egg shell and the contents of an egg splattered over a 3 foot radius of the counter and the floor. After 10 minutes of wiping - cleaning up said counters and floors - we were able to resume making breakfast.
...
All was fine until about 2:30 in the morning on Sunday. I was awakened by the feeble cries of, "Daddy, Daddy, I threw up on myself." So I staggered out of bed and went to my girls' room, only to see my 4 year old princess with lime green puke on her face, in her hair, and dripping from the top bunk. Being no stranger to taking care of disasters in the middle of the night, I took Alex from the pukey mess, threw her in the shower and proceeded to strip both beds of sheets and all. Audrey woke up the middle of the chaos, so I moved her to my bed. I scrubbed Alex's hair in the shower and put her in clean 'jamas. I gave her some Tums to settle her tummy and put her in my bed beside Audrey. By this time, it was about 3 o'clock, and I snuggled into my now small corner of the bed to get some sleep. I awoke 20 minutes later, again to the feeble cries of, "Daddy, I threw up!"
So, again, I repeated the process of putting my princess in the shower, washing the puke from her hair and face. In the process of stripping MY bed, Audrey did not wake up. When re-dressing my bed, I realized, to my horror, that there was puke on my wife's prized comforter. With the bed redressed, Alex in her 3rd pair of 'jamas, and Audrey laying crosswise on the bed, I managed to fall back to sleep.
Several hours later, I hear, "Ow! That hurts my hair!" and "Stop it, Alex! Stop it!" It was then that I discovered that my efforts to clean up the puke from my girls was less than successful. Audrey's hair had puke in it, and had become attached to Alex's hair. I then began the ominous task of detangling two little girls' puke-cemented hair in the shower. With a signficant amount of my wife's "good" conditioner and a comb, I was able to detach them from one another.
...
This 48 hour adventure gave me a new appreciation for the difficulties that my wife faces. I now understand her frustrated and frazzled look when I come home from work, and her retreat to solitude the first moment she has another adult watching the kids. By Sunday afternoon, I couldn't get to the airport soon enough, and her plane couldn't land fast enough to end my single parenthood.