SAHDism

a collection of thoughts by a Stay At Home Dad

“The Year of Living Sequeiralously”

Archives for December 2013

What Happens in Vegas…

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…so my wife and I had a weekend jaunt to Las Vegas – our first weekend away from the kids in almost seven years (since our oldest was born).  While there, we went out for long walks, checking out shows, restaurants, etc.  At one point, we had a discussion about whether or not to hit a cocktail lounge or to just walk, talk, and explore.  We chose the latter, as it was so refreshing to just be together and joke around as we used to.

Then we came home.  The first night back, our kids were out of control – sleep-deprived and irritated that we tore them away from the treats, movies, late nights they enjoyed playing with Grandma, Auntie, and their cousins.  As the tantrums continued during the dinner-making process, I open a bottle of wine and my wife asks me to make her a Manhattan.  I had to chuckle thinking that for use, the one thing that happened in Vegas and stayed in Vegas was “temperance.”

Our First Weekend Away

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After almost seven years, my wife and I are having our first weekend away from the kids.  A couple of years ago we had a couple of opportunities to head out to a hotel and spa for a night but were back the next morning.  This time, we’re going to Vegas as my wife has a training class there so I’m just buying my ticket and we’re off.  The first time we did this was a couple of months before we got engaged and it was in Kauai.  It’s fun reflecting back nine years to that trip and everything that’s come into our lives since then.

My wife is feeling a little sad and missing the kids.  She’s also a little curious/concerned that I feel none of those things.  Then again, for me, it’s still to early to miss them.  It’s six a.m. on the morning after I dropped them off at my sister-in-law’s place and right now it just feels like the blissful quiet pre-dawn time that I enjoy before the daily chaos.  Perhaps around 9 a.m., when it’s still quiet, I’ll start to feel the emptiness.  Until then, I’ll just enjoy a quiet cup of coffee.

Mama ain’t gonna teach you this

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As my daughter gets older (she’s going on seven), she has less use for me in certain instances, such as doing her hair (the three-horned unicorn look I invented was quite forward-thinking, I thought) and fashion (cheetah print stretch pants and horizontal multi-colored striped blouse tells the world to look at your inner beauty).  Today, however, my daughter really needed a Daddy.  She was getting ready for school and freaked out because she couldn’t find a uniform skirt in her dresser to wear – she only had pants and she absolutely couldn’t wear pants, oh no, it had to be a skirt.  I calmly walked into her room and started to soothe her.  I realized that the reason she couldn’t find a skirt is because they were all in the laundry hamper so  I went to the hamper, stuck my hand in and fished around to find one of her skirts.  I demonstrated the sniff check that indicates whether a given article of clothing is ‘clean enough.’  I smiled as I tossed the skirt to her and told her to get continue getting ready.  I suppose that one day her instincts will kick in and she’ll unlearn this very valuable lesson and that’s okay, today it was just what she needed.