New Adventures

I'm 12 hours into 60 of Craig being gone. He's off to a training session offered by his union until Wednesday night. At first I was apprehensive about him going. Will I be able to contact him if there's an emergency? Will he be paid for the time off from work? Who is he going with and do I trust them? I mostly worried because my Dad always went away for work conferences when I was little and Mom has told me more than once that Dad stopped going because his co-workers always wanted to hit the 'rippers at night. That's not my Dad's thing and it's certainly not Our thing. I know Craig's not like that either but it was kind of in the back of my mind.

Now that I've survived the first half-day, it's been a bit of an adventure! The boys and I raked the leaves this morning and played around in them a little, I got a bunch of cleaning done this afternoon while Shaun was at school and the Littles were napping and then we hit McDonalds and their play centre for dinner. What a treat for the Bigs! They could hardly sit still to eat their dinner.

Tomorrow my Mom is coming to stay overnight because early Wednesday morning someone has to take Ian to nursery school and, at the same time, Shaun is due at the hospital for a follow-up for his broken arm. I was really hoping I could somehow manage to be in both places at once (and almost was able to make it work with the before-care option at Ian's nursery school) but I still had to worry about not being able to pick him up on time. Thank goodness for Moms!

Shaun is desperate to get his cast off. I keep reminding him that he likely has another 3 weeks at least of wearing a cast and then he reminds me that the one he has on is coming off on Wednesday and that his arm doesn't hurt anymore. I hope it won't be too upsetting for him when the doctor tells him he needs another cast on Wednesday. His arm has shrunk back to normal size and with the swelling gone, his cast and the cotton inside is beginning to really irritate his arm. He was frantic a couple of night ago because his arm was itchy but he couldn't get at the itch. He was practically climbing the walls. Well, Mommy came to the rescue and found an extra long paint brush that's thinner than a pencil (I use it to touch up baseboards) and he's been dragging it around with him. It even found its way to school today in his backpack. He'll jam it through the top of his cast up near his shoulder and move the stick up and down. He was melting that first night because the itching felt so good. I've been there -- although I didn't have access to anything to stop the itch.

It's been different with Craig not here. There's no sounding board to run ideas past or discipline issues, and there isn't anyone to take over because I need a break; but there's also no one to worry about disturbing when I want to vacuum, the kitchen is clean because I washed all the dishes and there weren't any stragglers brought up from the basement, and all the shoes and coats are neatly in the closet - right where they should be. But I'd give up all the tidiness to have him home. I miss him. 46 hours and 26 minutes. Oh, now it's 25 minutes. :)