Dr. Happy Hands and 8 Hours with Buddha and Damien...

I equate 8 hours solo parenting two very young girls as sort of like going to the proctologist. First there's that awful sense of dread days before the event. The absolute, abject fear that permeates your existence for days. Then you finally get down to it and the whole damn experience flies by. Hell you even find that if you relax enough, you enjoy it in the end...

That's what today was like. Day one of Laura studying to become a pilates instructor, and the first time I'd spend 8 straight hours with Logan (Buddha) and Avery (Damien). I mean, don't get my wrong. I LOVE my time with my girls and I get plenty of it. But usually it's two hours here with Logan, then two hours with Avery, and so on. Never anything like today. And I was slightly fearful, to be honest. But Laura wants to learn how to bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan and so I became Mr. Mom for the first of many days.

I'll spare you all the gory details of who pee'd when and what diapers were changed where. It was a GREAT day. Aided somewhat by a 90 minute workout at the gym where childcare was provided. Home, gym, bank, lunch, bookstore...I felt like we lived the whirlwind and daddy kept it all together. And that might have been the greatest lesson for today -- keeping it together. When you're on the move with a six-month old and a three year old, having the details straight is imperative #1. And not that I needed it, but boy did it deepen (yet again) my sense of marvel at how mom keeps everything in order.

Every time I moved a limb I had a mental checklist of at least a hundred things; where is the next diaper? what time is the next feeding? where are the snacks? their bags...hats...jackets...all the things that a mom thinks of routinely I had to concentrate on, hard, if the ship was to keep running smoothly...

By the time mom walked in I was exhausted. Not because the day was difficult. Like I said earlier it was GREAT, pretty low stress compared to what my mind imagined. I was tired because following two small kids around is simply exhausting even on the best of days!

...At the risk of telling any moms out there what they already know....