The Countdown has Begun. . .

Officially, my husband doesn't leave for California until 4:45am tomorrow morning. I have begun the countdown today because between the packing he still has to do, the errands that I would like to run before he leaves and the fact that when I wake up tomorrow morning (actually when I re-wake up tomorrow morning after he turns on lights and clomps around at 4am in his heavy shoes) he will be gone and I will be left alone with the Ladies.

It will be a cold day in Connecticut, a cold day.

As much as I will miss his company and just having him around, what really makes me dread this trip is that I am shorthanded. The mornings are already a mess and the Lady only wants her daddy. I am incapable and unwilling to carry both of those girls at a combined weight of around 55lbs down the stairs together in the morning draped with all their blankets and nonnies. Someone is always going to be left out. It is really the logistics of parenting that gets to me. I can handle the discipline, the pee on the bathroom floor, the diapers, the snot noses rubbing against my legs. I can handle the tantrums and the food ground into the couch and the general care of my children, but I can't handle the ins and outs of getting them to and from places in a way that is easy and stress-free.

I know I am going to want to get out of the house and plan activities for the three of us to do, but the thought of coming home on dark, cold winter nights, with the two of them heavy in their bulky jackets, the Little Lady probably wearing no shoes and socks because she insists on taking them off in the car, the Lady demanding to be carried, the house keys shoved somewhere deep in the recesses of the diaper bag, the thought it chills me to the bone. It chills me to the bone.

We do have friends and family we can rely on and I have made an effort to plan some things out. We have a few Holiday events that we can go to and I am hoping to do some Christmas decorating and crafts with both of the girls. I will have to make sure the Little Lady doesn't eat the art supplies but I think that we can do some great stuff together. It is just nice to have a little break every now and again. I know that when I crawl into bed at night, I will have control of the remote. Oh, Bones how nice it will be to watch you without any snide comments from my other half, but even the thought of my own personal TV time, doesn't do much when I know in a few short hours I will be summoned by the Ladies to carry them both down the stairs. I will battle with the Lady over getting bathed and dressed and in the car to school. I will have to "assist" the Little Lady in her attempt to walk down the stairs by herself, when clearly she is unable to do so, but thinks that she can and try to reel her in from her multiple excursions into the bathroom where she climbs on the stool, flushes the toilet and touches everything in a way that makes my skin crawl.

So the countdown has begun. . . stay tuned.