I’m on day two of a four-day stint as a single mother while Chris jets off to Seattle for a weekend of baseball and beer. Over MOTHER’S DAY. OK, so he’s going for my brother’s stag, and he didn’t have any input in the date selection, but what were the organizers thinking? Almost all of them are leaving wives and small children behind to go get drunk with their buddies at some Mariners games. You just wait for Father’s Day…

I almost missed the Mother’s Day tea at kindergarten cause I had no one to watch Brayden, but at the last minute a friend of mine volunteered her husband for babysitting duty, so it all worked out in the end. I’m glad I went, cause it was a much bigger deal than I’d expected, and it would’ve been heartbreaking for Justin to be the only kid whose mom couldn’t come. They gave us cake and iced tea, the kids sang a few songs and everyone got to read the forms the kids had filled out with details of their moms (apparently Justin thinks my favorite TV show is Sid the Science Kid). It was pretty cute.

Up to this point the weekend has been filled with the kids’ activities, most of which Chris usually handles, so I’m still catching my breath. Justin had swimming yesterday, which is always a challenge cause I spend the entire time making sure Brayden doesn’t jump in the water, run on the pool deck or crack his head open on the concrete steps. This morning I dropped Brayden off at Grandpa’s (thank God) so I could take Justin to gymnastics, then this afternoon we’re all off to Brayden’s gymnastics class, during which Justin will hopefully stay occupied with his iPod. The real problem with all this running around is that it happens at exactly the times I would normally be making meals, so I’ve had to do a lot of cooking early in the day so we have something to reheat at the appropriate time. Whew.

But tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and more importantly it’s the day the kids spend the entire morning at Grandpa’s, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I haven’t had time to figure out what I’m going to do with my free time, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something. The grandparents are hosting dinner tomorrow night, so I don’t even have to cook, which is a huge bonus. Mother’s Day has actually been a little weird for a couple years now — we missed it last year cause Chris and I were on a plane back from Rome, and this year Chris is away again and I’m overdosing on family togetherness. C’est la vie.

(P.S. I love you Mom!)