Stay-at-Home Dad

Last Monday, Shayla ditched me and the kids and took off for Girls Camp. I went in to work Monday morning, but left halfway through the day and picked up Max and Isla from the Carr's house at about 1:00 pm.

I'd be staying home with these two kids for the rest of the week. I have to admit, I was pretty stoked.

Immediately, when we got home from the Carr's that afternoon, Max wanted to wrestle. Wrestling to Max means pretty much any type of play fighting. It's probably pretty close to his favorite thing to do. It can be actual wrestling, where we wrestle each other to the ground, or it can be fighting with swords and shields. Sometimes bombs. It usually involves superhero powers, and it always ends with Max winning the fight, and me, out of breath, laying in defeat on the floor. This would be the first of many wrestling sessions throughout the week.

Later that day, we went to Harris Teeter, which is another one of Max's favorites. We grabbed a couple of movies from Redbox, stuffed our fists with free cookies, and sampled the free strawberries and cheese before heading back home.

That night for dinner, we had pizza. It was good.

The next day, Tuesday, we left the house just after 10:00 for our local movie theatre and the summer dollar movie. Today's movie? How to Train Your Dragon. Even though we own this movie, it was fun to go watch it on the big screen while munching on over-priced popcorn. Max and Isla were excited that I gave in to their pleading and parked on the top level of the parking garage (Ours was the only car up there, all the other, smarter people had parked their cars inside the garage, away from the hot rays of the sun).

After the movie, we stopped at the small video game arcade at the exit of the movie house. Even though I didn't have any quarters, we stayed there for nearly an hour while Max and Isla pretended to play all the video games. Next up was a quick stop at the fountain outside to throw pennies in the water (I didn't have any pennies either, I let Max pick out pennies thrown in by others so we could throw them in as well).

By now, it was time for lunch. We went to Chick-fil-A. It was awesome! I've been to this fine establishment before, but never with my kids. Of course we enjoyed our chicken nuggets and waffle fries, but the best part? The indoor playground. It's pretty small, it's a little cramped, it's crawling with swarms of kids, but it's inside and it's air conditioned! We were there for nearly two hours!

When I finally convinced the kids it was time to go, we crossed the parking lot to Lowe's where I picked up some bug spray and a few other things. Max and Isla, always looking for an opportunity to play, hit up the lawnmower section where they played on the riding mowers for about thirty minutes. It was simple, it was fun. Who knew lawnmowers could be so much fun?

That night, we cooked up hotdogs on the grill for dinner. I think these kids must've worn themselves out pretty well during the day. They were both in bed and asleep by 7:00. They didn't even ask for books to be read or songs to be sung. This just might be the first time in the last four years I have put kids to bed without singing the same five or six primary songs over and over.

Wednesday morning, Max and Isla played together while I did some work around the house. Around 11:00, we made peanut butter play dough. Shayla had made this with the kids a couple weeks earlier, and they had told me all about it. It's really easy to make, and a lot of fun to play with. Plus, it tastes good. Really good.

Luckily the kids didn't fill up on sweet, sugary, peanut butter play dough goodness, and I was able to get them to fill up on chicken nuggets for lunch instead. After lunch, Isla took a nap. Max and I wrestled (of course).

When Isla woke up, we walked out the door and down the street to a small playground next to our old apartment. We used to spend quite a bit of time at this little playground. It sits next to a small stream, which also is quite the attraction for a couple of little kids. At the playground, we picked up hordes of acorns and launched these mini bombs down the slides at the witches below (not real witches, mind you, just fake ones).

That night, we went to Target after dinner. This is unusual for us, as after dinner time is usually spent getting ready for bed, but I wanted to keep the kids up a bit later than usual, so going to Target was a great way to fill a couple hours.

Target was fun. We all bought new sunglasses and a couple cheap toys (Max got a sword so we could wrestle, Isla picked out a bug catcher).

When we got home, it was just getting dark. As we looked at the trees behind our house, we saw little flashes of green light floating among the leaves. This is what I wanted to keep my kids awake for. Fireflies. We grabbed a couple of jars and tried our best at catching the glowing little insects. We only caught one, but we still had a great time!

At about 10:30, we ran inside and went to bed.

Isla woke up early the next day, considering she went to bed so late the night before. She woke up at 7:00, much earlier than Max. When Max finally woke, we quickly got ready and rushed out the door.

A little after 10:00, we pulled into a parking spot on the edge of the National Mall. From there we hoofed it to the Air and Space Museum. We spent the next two hours looking at airplanes and spaceships. For Max, it was the best part of the week. For Isla, all she could care about was trying to find as many yellow airplanes and rockets as she could!

When we finally had our fill of aeronautics, we made a quick stop at the mall where we found a shady spot on the grass and sat down to eat way-too-expensive but still super delicious hot dogs. Thirty minutes later we were back in the car and on our way home.

Later that afternoon, I filled a five-gallon bucket with water balloons and the kids and I proceeded to get each other completely drenched. Afterward, a quick bath and wrestling with Max finished off the day.

The next day was Friday, and it was the day Shayla was coming home from camp. The kids were extremely excited. We (or I should say I, as the kids were no help at all) blew up about 80 balloons, tossed them all in the living room, and then went outside to chalk up the driveway with a big "Welcome Home" sign before Shayla arrived.

Around noon that day, Shayla called and said she was almost home! I quickly called for the kids and we ran outside to greet her as she pulled in to the driveway. It was fun to see how excited Max and Isla were to see their mom.

I had a great week with these two little kids. Although I was glad Shayla was back home, I also knew that it meant my mini "staycation" with the kids was pretty much over. I know I'll still get to play around with these two, but I really enjoyed being able to spend every second of the day with them.

I hope they enjoyed it too!