Since You've Been Gone...

Allen left for India last Friday. It's been a loooooong week without him. We still managed to make baseball camp (10 minutes late), a bicycle/tricycle ride to Stanton Park (which took roughly 30 minutes each way with only a 20 minutes window of playing at the park due to ominous skies), Sunday school (5 minutes late), the Peabody-sponsored Nats game (1 inning late and we left after the 7th inning stretch which means we missed Michael Morse's two run homer in the eighth) and a library run (which resulted in dinner lapsing into the ridiculously fashionable hour). Homework has been completed each night (despite Owen's "homework buddy" being in Delhi) and Owen has not been tardy to school once.

However... we're really tired. I'm sure part of it is just general malaise what with not having the "fun" parent around to inject levity or to give the "non-fun" parent a break lest she become the "ridiculously grumpy, un-fun" parent. But mostly it's because of the the 10 1/2 hour time difference and our zeal to have the kids talk to Allen once a day before bed (because one can only watch your two year old yell into a broken cell phone, "Hi, Daddy," so often before you feel compelled to intervene). Allen set up face-time on the computer before he left and the kids have been chatting with him at 8:30 pm each night, right after homework, books, prayers, teeth and pajamas are all done. It's a nice way for Allen to start his mornings and a sweet way for the kids to end their day, but it does mean the kids aren't even being put down for bed until roughly nine o'clock at night and are falling asleep considerably later.

At least they're having happier dreams, though, having gotten to say, "good-night" to their beloved Daddy who will hopefully be joining us on Friday at which point the "ridiculously grumpy, non-fun" parent will transform into the "incandescently happy" one.