Last week was my first trip away since Olivia was born, and the first time it has just been Mom and Olivia at home. As I dropped her off at daycare on Tuesday, I asked her to take care of her Mom while I was gone, and no parties after midnight. Pretty easy rules I thought, but turns out she’s already pushing the limits. So please bear with me as I provide the chain of events from my perspective 7,000 miles away and 39,000 feet high.
I left Tuesday morning, and the trip started off well since I got the catch the last three outs of the Twins getting swept by the Yankees at Naha airport. Bittersweet indeed, but the Twins games on TV are weeks between, and watching the last out wasn't any less painful.
I called Michelle after getting to my hotel room in Lansdowne, VA at 5:30pm (6:30am for Michelle). I would have called sooner, but I had to find my room first. I was staying with 150 other participants at National Conference Center, a facility that has some connection to Xerox. There was also a chaplain’s convention going on for the Army reserve, and another one of the guests commented “I feel bad cursing about getting lost in this place with all the chaplains around.” I told him not to worry, most of the chaplains I know would do the same. The hallways in the facility had states names (And I was excited to see that Iowa and Minnesota “streets” were right next to eachother), but getting to my room was like trying to follow the onscreen instructions on a copier on how to fix a paper jam. I found my room, but it took ten minutes of directions from the front desk once they gave me my room key.
I asked Michelle how our Olivia was doing (falling into the groove of new parents talking about their kids all the time). Turns out Olivia thought with Dad gone, she’d go out for drinks after midnight, again at 2am, and once more at 4am. I didn’t know what to say… or do… Michelle is the only one of us who hears Olivia’s cries at night, and I don’t hear them until Michelle helps my hearing with a gentle elbow to my ribcage. She doesn’t do it as hard as she could, but just enough to wake me up and let me know that Dad’s diaper (and sometimes feeding) service is needed in Olivia’s room.
Since the after-midnight parties usually involve feeding with parts that I don’t have, Michelle takes care 95% of them. I’ve tried and Olivia has not been fooled by my “suck Dad’s pinky” shenanigans, and calls me out for not giving her the real deal. How often Michelle wakes up, I have no idea to be sure, but it is way more than the couple of times I get an elbow. She doesn’t keep score, and I only find out when I ask if Olivia slept through the night. The only times I don’t ask is when I roll over in the morning only to find my superhero is not laying next to me. Like Batman, she disappears in the middle of the night to fight hunger, and I often find her feeding Olivia while catching up on the news that isn’t on Good Morning America.
I checked out of my room early on Thursday, after confirming two critical pieces of information: one, our friends Jason and Melinda were coming to pick me up Thursday afternoon, and two, I could crash on their couch and get a ride back up to Dulles Friday morning. Yes and yes. Jason picked me up at 5pm for my first experience with Washington DC traffic. I forgot how green and lush and big and wide and open the United States is. Our trip took us 2.5 hours just to go the 60 miles south, without even going into DC, but I was loving the whole trip with the cool breeze in the windows and the wide open spaces.
I hadn’t seen Jason and Melinda in 15 months, but it didn’t seem like it more than a week had passed. After catching up on life, work, and friends, and a fantastic dinner, we went to bed way after the sun went down (but before it came up).
When I called Michelle Friday morning, she was still up with Olivia trying to put her to bed at 9pm. Still trying to keep our routine, Michelle bought sushi for the Friday night ritual of watching The Biggest Loser and Amazing Race (after putting Miss Olivia to bed). But our little Olivia loves the irony of eating and watching The Biggest Loser too. Not wanting to teach Olivia any bad habits, Michelle kept her sushi in the fridge, and still hadn’t touched it as of 9pm. Not cool. At least we can tag team eating dinner when we’re both home.
I said a little prayer that Olivia would let Michelle sleep, but I think Olivia’s was a bit stronger. Melinda gave me a ride to the airport as Jason work stuff to do in the morning. The ride to the airport was awesome, taking side roads to avoid the traffic. The ride only would have been better if I didn’t have a suitcase. Without the baggage, Melinda probably would have taken me on the back of her Harley. The trees, green fields, deer, and most of all, the company made it an awesome trip to the airport. But the best part was having my picture taken with the President at Dulles!
So here I sit, 1 hour away from getting on a plane to go home. By the time I get home I will have spent 34 hours travelling (including connection times) and 65 hours on the ground in the USA. But it’s those first few minutes of hugging and squeezing and kissing that I’m looking forward to the most.
No comments:
Post a Comment