A little over a year ago, when Ari was one year old and a bit of a terror on airplanes, John left us for several days for a conference. He sat in the middle seat between two morbidly obese men, one of whom smelled like tobacco. All he could think was, This is the most relaxing flight I’ve ever been on. I’ve been seething with jealousy since.
Well, after the recent somewhat disastrous trip, John figured he owed me. Today I kissed my girls and John goodbye for the next two-and-a-half days (that seems like an obscenely long period of time), drank a martini in terminal E, and boarded a plane. By myself. I almost sprung forward when they called for passengers with infants and small children. I fell asleep listening to Serial and woke up at Boston Logan.
I’m catching up on a few emails at a coffee shop in the airport, and a toddler is tantruming behind me, and the noise somehow seems so much quieter than anything my kids produce. I feel a little guilty leaving John alone with the kids just shy of a week after his bilateral hernia repair…but maybe it’s comparable to when John ditched me and Ari for Alaska when I was sick at 7+ months pregnant? And I have to get a job for next year; I have double-header interviews, so while there will be some sweet moments to relax, I’m taking the next two days seriously.
I’m still catching up on sleep from the holidays…which I think can be summarized by this picture…
Ari: up way, way past bedtime, so ready to ring in the New Year. I was initially wearing something cuter, but it got covered in urine. In the middle of the night, Ari pretended she was eating my limbs, and wedged her cute, ridiculously strong little feet into my ribcage, and commanded, “Mommy play!!!” And yet she was still able to chase me around the following day:
So many thanks (sincerely!) to these crazy kids for putting up with our antics and teaching Evie to crawl (*sigh* potted plant phase officially over; homegirl can move!!). I would have otherwise, surely, had a very unmemorable, lonely new years:
anna in med school 