My very own Rocket Scientist is home!

Okay, so there’s nothing to do but get back in it.  We’ll catch up as we go.

The Rocket Scientist had his first conference since the arrival of our sweet baby girl.  And I am happy to report that I survived my first week alone with an almost two and a half year old and a six week old.

Whew!

It was a little touch and go there for a bit, but we did okay.  No one died, so yay.

Monday, well…Monday was definitely a Monday.  First plans and then back up plans fell through so I was in a slight state of frazzle.  Add to that an exceptionally terrible two-year old and, well, the week could only get better from there.

I honestly don’t remember at this point what happened on what day but I made sure that we had something going on every morning.  Every day but one I managed to get both kids napping at the same time so I got some time to just sit in front of the TV with chocolate of some kind and drool a little.  We had dinners early and went out to the park just about every night after supper to burn off a bit more energy.  I’m thinking that part of his day may have to become a regular thing, it definitely cut down on evening melt downs.

I have absolutely no idea how single moms deal with more than one child without totally losing their minds.  If my little man was awake, he wanted my attention.  Which was very hard to give with a babe in arms.  Oh yes, our lovely six week old spent pretty much the entire week demanding to be in arms.  And not just when awake.  I could get her to stay asleep if I swaddled her, but any sudden sound would startle her awake.  Did I mention her brother delighted in shrieking suddenly just to see her wake up?  Ya.  And when he finally went to sleep at night, she would suddenly wake up and want face time with mommy.  No one got baths, and the only time I got a shower was when a friend came over on Thursday.  Thank goodness for my wrap or there would have been no hot meals or clean clothes.

I am very thankful for the friends I have made here because we definitely wouldn’t have made it without them.  We went over for dinner, they came to us for dinner, we met at the shops and soft play.  I love my son, but with only him to talk to I would have gone completely round the bend.  As it is, I have had to really fight repeating his toddler-speak.  (please ignore me if I ever call it a ‘hair’-plane in front of you)

But all that is done with now.  The Rocket Scientist is home and won’t be going again until September at which time my mom will be here with us to keep us all sane.  Right now, ZuZu is napping beside me on the couch and Doodle is helping his daddy BBQ (and by helping, I mean running around outside getting into things and skinning his knees).

One last note for today, nick-names.  Yes, I’m one of those who protects the names of the innocent and the not-so-innocent.  I’m not totally sure why.  I don’t know where this will go in the long run and it just kind of felt right.  It’s kind of fun using quirky names in some of these stories.  There are many reasons behind my husbands name, some of the best ones involve Survivor and KFC commercials, but I don’t really want to get into it all now.  As for me, well, once you get to know me, I’m sure it will all become abundantly clear.  That and the other words that might be fitting aren’t as flattering.  Yes, that’s right, Strange is about the most flattering you can get for me.  Doodle was Little Man on here once upon a time, but I felt Little Man and Baby Girl a) a bit too literal and therefore quite boring, and b) likely won’t be accurate over the long haul. And as my mom keeps telling me, I have beautiful children and I wouldn’t want anyone to steal them.  I’m not sure if not knowing their names will be protection enough but better safe than sorry, right?

We have many names for our little man, Dude, Doodle, Doodle-bop, Squishy, Little Squish, Boo, Sweat Pea (although the last two, I use for pretty much anyone’s children) but I settled on Doodle because it really is the most common and the one that we definitely don’t use for anyone else.  We really struggled in the beginning with our baby girl because we kept automatically using all of Doodle’s pet names and it always felt…well, kind of weird.  So as we were packing up for the Rocket Scientist’s trip he was doing something with her and I swear I heard him call her ZuZu.  I questioned him about it and he didn’t really remember saying it, but we both kind of liked it for no reason in particular and it’s stuck.  Doodle loves it because its wonderfully easy to say, but he seems a bit confused by all the ‘names’ she seems to have.  He’s not confused about all the names he has though.