This past weekend, my parents took Ruby for a double overnight. As in, two nights away. We didn’t set it up that way at first. In fact, there wasn’t an overnight scheduled at all. But then our washing machine broke, amidst the niffty little NoroVirus outbreak that we’ve been having here at our house, and it really is all that its cracked up to be, and so with the washing machine out, Charlotte home for a PA day, and a serious need to do laundry, I packed up the kids and did something I haven’t done in a while, brought my laundry home to mom and dad’s.
As good fortune would have it, my neice was already there and she and my girls had an excellent Friday hanging out together. Near the middle of the afternoon, my dad offered for Ruby to stay the night with my neice, Anna, who was already staying over. I didn’t wait for him to reconsider and immediately accepted his offer. Two kids are easier to take care of at home. And Ruby was NoroVirus ground zero.
With only two of three on our hands, Hil and I felt like we were on vacation. It seems strange to say that – but its true. They are all equally demanding in their own ways – but Ruby seems to be at an awkward spot at 3.5 where she can be particluarly whinny, particularly demanding about having someone feed her, and particularly particular about just about everything. She can also be the best. It comes and it goes. But with her out of the picture for 48hours, we could revert back to man-to-man defence and take a few deep breaths. So we went out for an early evening walk with Arden and Charlotte, which morphed into a stop at the bakery for hot chocolate and pizza. As you can tell by the massive smiles on their faces, Arden and Charlotte were thrilled to be out with us, thrilled to be out with one another, and thrilled to be sharing a pizza. It was a pretty awesome way to spend a Saturday evening. Especially because we could be confident that it was a win-win-win-win situation. Win for Charlotte and Arden because they got pizza and hot chocolate, win for Hil and Drew because they had one less kid to look after. Win for Ruby, because she got lavished in attention from my parents (my mom thinks she read her 50 books during her time at their house this past weekend – and I believe it – Ruby loves to be read to). Win for my parents because Ruby is awesome to hang out with – especially when you have her one on one!
3 Ginger Snaps 