Trial run

As I stated in an earlier blog, I am going to New York City at the end of the month, leaving Brian and Jacob to their own devices. What fun! I've never spent the night away from Jacob; I think the longest I've gone not being with him was 8 or so hours. Which means, Brian has never had to deal with him, solely, for an extended period of time. So, when I was invited to go to dinner and attend a fall festival with some friends from work last night, I thought it'd be good practice for Brian. So, he had to plan and prepare Jacob's dinner, monitor and play with him during bath time and read 3-9 stories to Jacob before night-night...all without my help.

If you had to guess, what would say was the 1st thing I did when I got home last night? Yep, run, not walk, and check on my sleeping child. All seemed well, as he was crunched up in the crook of his crib, like normal. So, good work, da-da!

I nonchalantly drilled Brian on the night. How was Jacob? How much did he eat? Did he have poopy? How'd he do on the walk? Did he go sleep easily? Apparently Jacob had a hearty dinner: rice and beans, a veggie dog, broccoli AND applesauce. Not too much water on the floor from the tidal waves that Jacob creates while bathing and story hour went off without a hitch. Everything seemed to be on the up and up.

During the interrogation, though, I noticed that Brian had food stains all over his shirt and that he had crazy black stuff in his ear. I also noticed pieces of sausage on the floor. I assumed the food on his shirt and the crap in his ear was from Jacob's poor table manners. Nope. As it turns out, Brian ate a pizza after Jacob went to sleep and managed to get tomato sauce all over his shirt and crust in his ear. The mysterious sausage on the floor was from the pizza, too. So, it got me thinking: did Brian have some kind of mental breakdown after Jacob went to bed? One that involves not being able to properly feed oneself so that food ends up on clothing, ears and floors? Was watching the kid unassisted by me that stressful? I work in the mental health field but have yet to come across this type of PTSD.

My eyes continued to wander and I was shocked at myself for not noticing before: the house, especially the kitchen, was a complete wreck! Oh, my! I CANNOT stand dirty dishes in the sink, toys strewn about the house* and half eaten pizza on the counters. So, we immediately commenced to cleaning up our living space.

Was the trial run a success? I'd say so. Jacob got to spend some quality time with da-da without ma-ma following up behind everyone with a sponge and broom. But, if this was any indicaton of how my house and husband are going to look after 5 nights of me being gone, I'm worried.

So, is it safe to leave my child with Brian for 5 days and 4 nights? Definitely. Is it safe to leave my house with Brian for 5 days and 4 nights? Probably not.

*Toys strewn about the house when Jacob's up-and-at-'em is different from toys strewn about the house when his day is done.