Dad

Hi everyone. Just got back from a week in Lexington, Kentucky with the boys. They were good (most of the time) and it was great to see my Aunt, cousins and Kentucky friends.

The main reason for the trip was to have the burial service for my father, who passed away about a year and a half ago. He donated his body to a medical school, so a student could learn from his body. And now his remains have been "inurned", (interred is in the ground, inurned is what you do with cremated remains that are not buried in the ground).

I'll post more vacation pics later.

Back to Daddy

It was so great to have the boys back today - I missed them terribly. Leo ran up to me, gave me a big hug, then said, "I love you Daddy." I looked at him and said, "So its back to Daddy, huh?" He said, "You'll always be my Daddy."

Daniel was still getting unbuckled by his mother in the car when he saw me, and he immediately started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." So I'm Daddy again and it feels great.

Dad

So, Leo called me 'Dad' for the first time today. Not 'Dada' or 'Daddy'. Just 'Dad'. Not sure he even thought about it. I was helping him put some roads together for his cars to drive on and he said, "No, Dad, that's not how I want it - please do it like this." Dad. It sounded great!

Daddy Don't Go

So, it was drop-off day yesterday at their mother's house. I was late because we were having so much fun at the morning playgroup at Susana's that I kinda lost track of time. Then I had to drive from Susana's over to their mother's house, of which there is no direct route and I'd never travelled through that part of Boston before. Needless to say, I took a wrong turn and ended up on the back roads through Malden. And wouldn't you know, while I was still trying to figure out how to get back to a main road to figure out where I was, she calls me on my cell phone asking me where I was - and telling me I was late (obviously!).

We finally made it to her house. It was pouring outside (the remnants of Hurricane Noel), and Leo decides he doesn't want to leave the car - he would rather stay with me. Daniel is excited to get out of the car because he sees his Nana's car in the driveway (my ex-mother-in-law). But even with that, Leo wouldn't budge.

So I get Daniel through the rain into the door, then go back to get Leo. He won't leave the car saying he wants to come back home with me. I'm being as positive and supportive as I can be, telling him that his Nana has come to see him and they are going to do all sorts of fun things. Leo still won't go. I finally reached in and picked him up - and carried him through the rain into the house. He wouldn't go up the stairs as he curled up on the floor of the breezeway. His mother called down to him from the second floor landing. Leo said he didn't want to see her, he just wanted to be with his daddy. She asked me to carry him up the stairs, so I did. He fought all the way and was crying. I finally got him to the door and gave him a hug. He held on to me tight and said "Daddy don't go." I told him I had to leave, it was now his time with mommy. He said he didn't want to be with mommy, he wanted to be with me. His mother tried to tell him it would be OK and he would be seeing his daddy in four days. She finally asked me to just hand him over to her which I did. Leo screamed. I told him I loved him and I would see him soon. The last words I heard him say were, again, "Daddy don't go."

Shoes

So, the boys got new shoes today. Did they really need new shoes? No. Then why did we go? Well, there were a few reasons:

1. Daniel is wearing the black spiderman costume for Halloween this year (at Leo's insistence) and he didn't have any black shoes.

2. Leo only has 2 pairs of shoes that fit, and they are both tennis shoes (one of which he doesn't want to wear).

3. Their mother asked me to buy them.

Now, 1 makes sense - you can't have a black costume with tan colored shoes!

As for 2, Leo can be a pain when he decides he doesn't want to wear something anymore. And the only other pair of shoes he has is Thomas the Tank Engine tennis shoes. The pair he doesn't want to wear are blue, so they go with his Spiderman costume. I'll find out tomorrow whether he will wear them or not.

Which leads us to 3. When I was married, many times it was easier to just do what she asked, no matter whether whatever it was was needed or not. So is this a sign that I haven't let go of that? I would say not because if it weren't for 1 and 2 above, I wouldn't have bought new shoes just because she asked me to.

Oh, and there was also no way I was going to get out of the shoe store without buying both of them new shoes!

One

So, because Leo stayed with me while he was sick with that nasty virus (on the days he was supposed to be with his mother), it was like having only one child again. She had Daniel at her place while I cared for Leo. Yes, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are supposed to be her days with the children, but since Leo was with me when he got sick, it was best for me to keep him at my house. So I ended up taking sick days from work to be home with Leo while he got better - and both of those were days when I wasn't even supposed to have the children.

It ended up being OK. Leo's fever settled back to about 101 on Monday, and by Wednesday afternoon the fever was gone. It was kind of nice to just have Leo for a few days. Daniel can be so commanding of my attention that Leo gets left by himself many times. So on Wednesday Leo and I ran some much-needed errands. There's a Saab dealership right next to the cleaners, and Leo asked if we could go look at the new cars at the "car store". I said "Sure!" So Leo and I spent about half an hour looking at the cars in their showroom. I told one of the salesman that I wasn't there to buy anything and he was cool with that (there wasn't anybody else there anyway). I showed Leo the differences in the car models and we sat in all of them. It was a lot of fun.

That afternoon, his mom called and said that Daniel missed him and so she wanted to know if it was OK to bring him by to see Leo. I knew she just wanted to leave Daniel with me and, sure enough, she didn't even spend two minutes in the house visiting with Leo before leaving the two of them with me. It was my day to have them back anyway so I didn't mind - and Leo did miss having Daniel around. But for a couple of days, even though Leo wasn't feeling well, it was kind of nice to spend some time with just him.

104

So, Leo was sick today. Actually, it started last night about an hour after he went to bed. He woke up crying and he was burning up. I gave him some water to drink, then some Motrin, and that calmed him down. He woke up about every other hour and I had to go in and comfort him each time. Neither of us got much sleep.

So this morning he wouldn't eat any breakfast as he was lying on the couch with his blankie. He felt almost too warm so I popped a thermometer in his mouth and it said 104! He took more Motrin and that helped. Meanwhile I got Daniel ready for school, not knowing how Leo was going to respond to the medicine but his fever went down to 101. I called Parents In A Pinch to get a sitter on her way - she finally showed up around 9 and I then took Daniel to school and went to work. Leo was feeling much better when I got home after work having slept most of the day.