Home Alone 7

The title of this post is not a reference to a future Macaulay Culkin movie.  It is the number of days I will be without Kendra.  I'm a single parent while Kendra is in Sacramento on vacation.  This trip will be the longest number of days in Sacramento for her without the kids since before they were born.  I'm not worried or dramatic about the single parent role.  It's just an adjustment and different than what the 4 Webbs are used to.

Over time we take things and people for granted.  It's just human nature.  Even though I agree there should be no expectations (washing clothes, cleaning floors, wiping boogers, etc.) of a spouse, I still drift into complacency about Kendra's efforts.  These days as a single parent are a good slap on the forehead to bring me back to reality and the correct level of appreciation for her.

This year I gave her two things for Mother's Day:

1. Seven kid-less days with her friends and family in Sacramento
2. The Jawbone UP24 - sleep and movement tracker

Receiving gifts is not her top love language, but I'm hoping she sees these as deposits into her love bank, which had a low balance alert for the past few months.

The UP24 was my idea because she needs to see her sleep patterns to figure out if she is getting enough sleep or waking up frequently.  If she is waking up frequently, then it will explain part of her fatigue.  I'm not sure what she will do with the information, but at least we'll know adjustments are needed if there is a problem.

Anyway, the kindergarten year is wrapping up quickly for the twins.  I didn't know this, but every year in elementary school they put on a music performance.  That means I only get to see 7 more of these.  Layla's class was on the right half of the stage and Easton's was on the left.  Luckily, I had the front row seat on the middle isle with a great view of both.  Layla is the angel on the left side of the front row.  Her purple dress was hand-picked by Daddy at Kohl's when I took the twins shopping.  The clearance price made it irresistible!  Check out how she clasps her hands like a professional.

Easton chose to wear standard issue brown cargo shorts with his new bright yellow shirt (middle row, far left).  His shirt has a robot on it with a printing that looks like the robot arm is grabbing something from the pocket.  He doesn't dislike these on-stage events, but he wouldn't request to get up and sing if he knew it were optional.

I'm proud of him for singing and participating in the event more than most of the boys who just stood around with their arms folded and mouth closed.  I give him an A for effort!

Layla was by far the best performer on stage. Her enthusiasm and appropriately loud voice brought a smile to my face.  That's my girl.

The class sang a song called "Charlie over the ocean" or something like that.  From what I could tell it was a modern-day version of duck-duck-goose.  Layla takes every opportunity to cheer for her friends.

everyone is watching a crappy movie of something happening 10 feet in front of their face.

I split my time between taking video (next blog post) and taking pictures.  I spent about half of the time with my gadgets down and just watched with my own two eyes.  I smiled, I gave the thumbs up, and I clapped.  There is something extremely powerful about having a parent's full attention and visible approval in a public forum.

Maybe Jesus was just a needy overindulged child when he was baptized by John?  Was he so insecure that he needed his father to part the heavens, send a physical representative (the dove), and speak his voice of approval?  Of course not!  I hope everyone reading this post knows me well enough to know I'm being sarcastic.  If the savior of the world needed HIS father to do that, then how much more do our children need it from us as parents?  Just something to think about.

Their music teacher, Mr. Adams, is great at what he does.  The twins look forward to music class every day.  That's one measure of success as a teacher.  I had them pose and take a picture because when I think back through my childhood there are times when I wish I had written down the name and taken a picture of the teachers that had an impact on me.

I took Kendra to the airport for her vacation week.  She looks waaaaay too happy to be leaving me!  I don't blame her a bit.  It'll take her a few days to miss me and the twins.  I am really happy for her to be gone and free from the day to day mommy world she does for months on end without a break.

I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.  >8)

I picked up the kids from school immediately afterwards.  We arrived home and they headed to the driveway without a word or order from me.  It's like they are on autopilot, which is fine by me!  They go to the edge of the driveway to empty the sand from their shoes.  The sand is from their playground.  Layla pulled her shoe off and it looked like she tried to smuggle a sandwich baggie full of sand from school.

I looked down and noticed a huge mound of sand from the months of shoe dumping.  I pretended to freak out about how much sand was there and they laughed hysterically.

Easton earned a plastic toy spider as a good consequence at school.  He asked how to make a spider web to hang it up in his room.  After a little Youtube magic I turned a kitchen trash bag into a big spider web.

Doing these simple crafts will easily fill the hour of free time we have each night.

4-5 is homework and clean up
5-6 is dinner and playtime
6-7 is the bedtime routine
7 is lights out.

Not much time to play, but the weekend is coming!

See you soon.