The joys of having a child: Wife's Away Edition.

My wife was out of town for 2 nights this past week (a business trip to lovely San Diego) That left me as a single parent for most of the weekend.  Well, a solo parent.  Single has a different connotation!

We had a very busy time, like most days, I guess, only more so.  While she was out of town, we....

• Dealt with some crying.  He left his lunchbox at school by mistake, and when he got on the bus he was literally crying about it.  I'm sure that wasn't actually it, but just the trigger.  I think that his mom going away for a couple of days had something to do it.  And being hungry.  And being a sensitive bear. Fortunately, we have an alternative lunchbox.  And I had a small package of M&M's that I was holding for just such a circumstance.  Ah, the power of sugar.

• Went to gymnastics.  He has been taking gymnastics twice a week, which he loves, but we are about to cut it down to once a week, because baseball is going to start in May, and you can't be in two places at the same time.

• Ate at his favorite restaurant.  Yes, I succumbed to McDonald's after school.  He loves their nuggets, although I secretly feel he just loves getting a toy with his meal.  Still, he ate 6 nuggets, all of his yogurt, his chocolate milk, and about half of his fries, so that wasn't bad at all for a picky non-eating boy.  I managed to get away with just a mango smoothie, so not so bad.  And on Saturday, he got to have his favorite breakfast (donuts!)  It's possible I am buying my son's love with food.  Is that wrong?

• Practiced piano.  I made a tactical error, and nearly lost his piano time (even so, we are now 30 minutes earlier.) He needs to learn to practice every day. I just have to figure out how I can get him to practice without me having to lead the practice. I don't want to play the piano.  (Well, actually I do, but I don't want to practice either!)

• Went to a play.  I led a group of Dad's to the show Elephant and Piggie's We Are In A Musical! at the Emerald City Theatre.  You can read more about the show here, where I wrote about it last week.  The show was great, although it skewed for slightly younger audiences.  He felt it was a little babyish for him (he loved the opening which involved a number of farce-like entrances and exits and he was enthralled by a lot of the physical comedy.) Most of the kids who came with Dad's were in the 3-5 range (he's 6.)  It was still a lot of fun for everybody, and if you've got a kid under 5 who likes the Mo Willem creations, they will LOVE IT!

• Finished Daredevil.  I have been watching at night, and with my wife away, I got to power-binge watch the shows.  (She is not a big comic book fan.)  They were great!  Very dark, and very true to the spirit of the early 1980's Daredevil comics. I highly recommend it if you like that kind of thing (and you like your hero's gritty and beat up.)

•Ate at one of my favorite restaurants.  Hey, even dad's get to choose sometimes. We went to Bop-n-Grill, which isy a Korean infused hamburger place.  the Umami burger is outstanding.  I showed some self-restraint and did not order the Kim Chee Fries.  Instead I ate his kimchee (which he would never eat, not even if you paid him)

• Got Buddy Every week at school, a kid gets to take the class mascot home with them and have some adventures.  The mascot is Buddy, a very cute stuffed dog animal. Kids take pictures, write stories, make him costumes, and do various other things.  We took Buddy to the theatre, fed him a donut (he didn't eat much, AA had to eat his share too)


• Hung out.  The most delicious thing about having a child is hanging out with them.  We read, we talked about things, about the way the world works, about the upcoming shipment of Disney Infinity figures we were going to get, about his upcoming sleepover with his school friend, about all the inventions he is going to invent and the amazing things they will be able to do and how amazing Minecraft is and a number of other topics that floated to the top of his head as fast as his tongue could speak them.  It's tired-making, having a child, but it's also the best thing I've ever done.  It's simply amazing.

This doesn't count what we did when my wife came home including hosting a sleepover party for two young boys, going to the Chicago Parents Play Date, having dinner with my in-laws, and finding/printing over 30 images of Disney Parks rides for an upcoming school project.