A weekend of debauchery

Good morning! Wow, what a weekend. I feel like such an utterly horrible Daddy. I did one of two things this weekend. I either partied (can I even say that as a 37 year old adult) with my wife or I worked myself to the bone. Bad, bad, bad daddy. The good news is that the kids had a terrific weekend.

It all started on Friday morning. I was talking to Lizzie (Hayden's mom) on the phone. Hayden has completed his stem cell transplant with flying colors and has found himself back at home for the last 3 or 4 weeks. We were talking about how much Graham and Hayden missed seeing each other. After a few minutes she invited Graham over to spend the night with Hayden and their family. Graham was absolutely and utterly excited. For obvious reasons, we did have some concerns about Hayden. After all, he was still not quite that far out from transplant. We talked about it and decided that Graham was healthy enough to spend some quality time with Hayden. We cleaned the boy up and gave him strict instruction. We told him to be his absolute cleanest. We reminded him to wash hands and to not share cups or eating utensils. Lynley also let him know that he could not sleep in the same bed as Hayden. But, assuming all of these rules were observed, he could have his first sleep over ever with Hayden.

When they arrived to pick up the Grahamster, Madison (Hayden's older sister and Sydney's best friend from when she was at Arborlawn) came along. Within minutes Sydney had been invited and we now had 2 cuckoos flying away from the cuckoo's nest. They were off to an afternoon and evening of kid mayhem and good clean fun.

I did not know what to do.

I only had one kiddo and within the next hour she had plans to spend the night at DeeDees.

Did you know that this was the first time in 7.5 years that Lynley and I have spent a night together without any kiddos? This was a momentous occasion.

Lynley and I were kiddofree for the first time ever.

That evening she and I had plans with 4 other couples for a Christmas party on the town. We went out for dinner and drinks and had an incredible time. However, by about 10:00 PM we were back to our eerily quite home. Ironically at about 10:30 (2.5 hours past our kiddos normal bed time) we received a call from Sydney. She was just calling to give us an update before going to sleep. Apparently she had fallen while take a bath and received a pretty good bruise on her cheek. It wasn't the prettiest thing but she seemed to have recovered. She was proud to tell Mommy that "Naw, I am fine." Graham, too, had an incident but that was probably more our doing than his. As Graham was going to bed he insisted that he sleep on the floor because he did not want to risk getting Hayden sick. From what I understand he threw a pretty sizable fit. He was just trying to carry out hiss mother's orders and, in the end, I think they finally came to an agreement. Within a minute of the conversation ending Graham was fast asleep.

Tired, tired little boy.

The morning was apparently filled with more kiddo fun at their house. By the time that we got back ahold of them on Saturday at noon they had been completely and utterly re-worn out. They could not stop talking about how much fun they had. They chattered all the way home.

A good nap was had by all.

On Saturday afternoon and evening we had The Ridglea Round Up. Once again, I was up well beyond my bedtime and without my kiddos who were home with a babysitter. None the less, another good time was had. I want to personally thank everyone who showed up for the concert. The turnout was pretty good, especially considering that this was also the night of the Dallas Cowboys last home game and another country music concert was in full swing across town. I am so appreciative of Danny Wood and all of the bands that came together to make the night such a great success. I have a lot of thank you notes to write.

Sunday morning I got to watch cartoons with the kiddos and fill my face with sugary donuts at Krispy Kreme. It was a pure delight.

I was such a glutton.

Unfortunately that was followed by hours behind a computer as I ticked and tied marketing expenses and prepared for an important board meeting. I would take an occasional break to fold laundry or help Sydney unlock another cart on the Mario Cart Wii but, for the most part, I was a very bad daddy sitting over in the corner with my nose to the grindstone. Thankfully by 9:30 PM I was done with my board meeting and I was finally able to sneak in and give my sleeping kiddos a kiss on their sleeping foreheads.

Thank goodness this is a short week.

I miss my family.