Playing Single Dad

I am finally coming back to this blog after years away. I wrote up this post 3 years ago(!), and it was sitting in my drafts folder. I decided to publish this, just because some of the pictures are cute. 

I'm just come off a 12 day stint taking care of my 3 youngest children while my wife and eldest went back home to visit her family, way way out across the wide world.

It was my idea that she go in the first place, taking maybe just one or two children with her, to spend time with her brother's first baby, newly born, as well as her parents and grandparents. The thought of trying to take all four children on what is realistically a 26 hour trip each direction did not fill me with happiness. So, just take the oldest boy, who is not quite entering his teenage years, when he is old enough to appreciate the strange and wonderful sights of a foreign country but not yet sullen and moody. In the end, they had a good trip with many wonderful moments.

My part was to stay at home with the smaller children, ages 2, 5 and 8. This would be longest time soloing the parenthood duties for me. My biggest fear was keeping the 2 year old in order, but this turned out to be a non issue- he is big enough now that he can participate in most activities without causing a big ruckus.

Over the course of the week, we had lots of fun together. Here are some highlights:

We flew kites down at the park on one of our unseasonably warm March days.


I made lamb kofte, which was a hit.
Had a lovely dinner with my mother, who came down to help me over the first weekend.
We drove out to look at buffalo at the nature preserve. They were  grazing next to the road.
We tried a new BBQ place in town. It was decent.
I made a complete St. Patrick's Day dinner

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