Sunday, June 16, 2013

Brad's Work Trip


Last Monday Brad had to leave for training with work for a couple of days.  It was only Monday-Wednesday, but he still felt bad about leaving us.  I really wasn’t too stressed about it—I knew we would be fine.  But poor Brad put a shout-out on Facebook, asking our friends to check on me and the kids while he was gone.  I told him to stop worrying, and he said “I don’t worry!”  He didn’t USED to worry, so now when he does it’s such a foreign emotion he doesn’t even know he’s doing it.  Ha! 

 

We tried our best to explain everything to the kids.  Korban asked if he could go to work with daddy, and we had to tell him no.  When he found out that Brad was going to be in Jackson, he kept asking if Daddy was going to get a “poke.”  (Because at his last dr appointment in Jackson, he and Selah both had blood drawn.)  He continued to worry about this the entire time Brad was gone!

 

Brad tried to make it easy on them before he left.  He got watermelon and cantaloupe at the grocery store and we had a little picnic (as Selah called it) Monday morning before he left.  He also gave each of the kids a small toy.  Korban asked him if he would bring a balloon when he got back, and he said he would. 

 

Korban had a pretty big meltdown mid-Monday—my mom showed up for a visit and he wanted her to leave right then and take him back to her house with her but NOT Selah.  I got some interesting bruises from that meltdown, but he finally calmed down.  Later, she did take both kids back over her house with her for a little while.  I was worried Korban would try to hurt Selah, so I told my mom to call me immediately if he did.  She just lives right around the corner.  I planned to go get him and leave Selah there to play, so it wouldn’t be like she was the one missing out on the trip to Nannie’s but fortunately they were fine. 

 

Korban REALLY didn’t want to go to sleep that night, and both kids kept asking for Daddy.  Selah was worried that he wouldn’t have a bed to sleep in.  I let them talk to Brad on them phone, so they knew he was okay and he got to tell them good night.  I don’t know what Korban’s deal is with fighting sleep here lately.  He had been doing so well.  I strongly suspect this is what I get for telling the geneticist that Korban didn’t have sleep problems so much anymore.  Never say that aloud.  Don’t even think it! 

 

But they finally went to sleep.  Selah got so tired of watching me struggle with Korban she just passed out, and Korban finally gave it up.  Korban was supposed to have play therapy Tuesday morning, but it got cancelled.  Me and my mom took the kids to the kiddie movie at Malco.  It was Ice Age 2:  Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which is one of our favorites.  After that, we met a friend for lunch at Don Julio’s.  (It was my super-generous friend who gave us the Wii, and we were so thankful to get to see him again before he went back home.  Brad’s still sad that he missed it.)  Korban loves to eat at Mexican restaurants, because he absolutely loves chips and salsa.  I always order something for him, but he never eats it in the restaurant because he won’t stop eating the chips and salsa!  I ordered macaroni and cheese and French fries for Selah, which she promptly refused because the mac and cheese was “too white.”  “I want carrots!” she wailed.  “She has a plate of macaroni and cheese and fries and she’s crying for CARROTS?!?  What have you done to your kids?” my friend said, which made me laugh. 

 

There was a glass-looking parrot hanging from a swing on the ceiling in this restaurant and we had to move Korban to the other side of the table so he wouldn’t have to keep twisting his head around to look at it.  Something about that bird really caught his eye.  I asked him later what his favorite part was, expecting him to say the chips and salsa, and he said “The birdie!”  Ha!

 

My friend entertained my very squirmy kids with some magic tricks.  They absolutely loved the card trick he had showed them when he brought us the Wii, and they had been talking about it for days.  He did another trick in which is looked like he was pulling his finger apart.  Very funny, but it TOTALLY freaked Selah out.  I mean, she was whining and saying “Mom, don’t let him take my fingers off.  I like my fingers!”  She wouldn’t even let go of it when he showed her his fingers were all alive and well and in their appropriate place.  We tried to tell her it was just a trick, but she wasn’t having it.  She asked me to take her to the bathroom, so I did.  She told me her booty was going to do a magic trick, and then she pooped.  I had to ask my friend if he knew that trick.  Selah is so silly! 

 

After we had loaded the kids in the van, I was telling my friend good-bye.  Selah asked my mom how he did the magic trick with the finger, and my mom said she didn’t know.  She asked Selah if she wanted to ask him, and she said yes.  So he went over to Selah and showed her how it worked.  She was pretty impressed, but apparently he didn’t completely absolve himself in her eyes.  When he reached for her hand to show her how to do it, she snatched her hand away and said “Never mind!”  Obviously she still didn’t trust him with her precious fingers.  Because she likes them, you know.

 

I thought Tuesday night was going to be better with getting the kids to sleep.  I let them both lay down in the bed with me.  Korban was actually really calm, and I was breathing a sigh of relief.  And then he got a nosebleed.  He gets them from time to time, and it’s not fun.  There’s a blood vessel in his nose that opens up and we’ve had to get it cauterized before to help with it.  So thankfully, it had been awhile since he had a nosebleed, but the timing for this one wasn’t great.  He got upset and started crying, which made it worse, or course.  He was wailing “I want my daddy!”  I ran to wet a washcloth, but he didn’t want me to wipe his face.  Then he got sick from the blood running down the back of his throat and threw up, in the bed.  I was finally able to get the nosebleed stopped, although Korban was literally fighting at me the whole time.  I cleaned him up, changed his clothes, cleaned the bed, put more sheets on it, and put the old sheets in the washer.  I figured sleep wasn’t going to happen any time soon, so I sat up in the living room and rocked both kids for a while.  When I finally thought they were settled down enough I put them both back to bed.  Then Selah started crying because she was afraid of monsters.  Sigh.  Poor kid was wailing “I need my daddy!  My daddy is big!  He will protect me from monsters!  I NEED MY BIG DADDY!”  At that point, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry with her.  I needed her big daddy too!

 

Finally they went to sleep and Wednesday morning rolled around all too quickly.  Korban had school, so we got up and got ready.  I had already warned them that Brad was gone on a trip with work, and that Korban might ask about him a lot or be out of sorts, but he did fine.  I took Selah to play at the park while he was in school, and then we went to the library.  They have a summer reading program, and I had already asked about signing Selah up for it, and was told she was too young.  But when we were checking out our books, I noticed there were some children younger than Selah in the room.  Their moms were with them, but I would naturally be willing to stay with Selah too.  So I asked again, and they said I could sign her up for it, but it’s from 10-12 every Wednesday.  Korban gets out of school at 11:00 or before, so I’m not sure how we would work that, but I thanked the lady.  She said “She would really enjoy it.  There’s a guy in there with snakes today!”  Of course, Selah perked right up, since she just loves snakes.  *insert full body shudder here*  When the lady handed me the books, Selah said “Where is my snake?”  I guess she thinks they’re just giving them out at the library now!  So I held her and we poked our heads in to check out the man and his snakes.  He had something called a hawk-nose snake out showing to the kids.  He was telling them how those kinds of snakes never bite humans.  He even stuck his finger in its mouth to demonstrate this fact.  Eek!  He explained that the only thing this snake ever bites is a toad (not a frog, a TOAD!) because that is their favorite meal.  So he went to put this snake back in its cage and it pooped on him.  Which made Selah’s whole day.  She told everybody we came into contact with that day that we saw a man with a snake and the snake “pooped on him because it had to GO!!!”  I think it may have pooped on him to get the man back for poking his finger in its mouth, but that’s just me.

 

So we got Korban from school, and he had done really well.  A sweet friend from college had invited me to lunch, so I dropped the kids off at my mom’s and headed to Chik-Fil-A to meet my friend.  It was so good to see her!  I hadn’t seen her in ages and it was great to just sit and talk and laugh. 

 

Then I got my kids from Mom, and we played outside for a long time.  Then we got ready to go again.  Jason and Dez had invited us over their house to eat supper.  (Seriously, you guys all did an awesome job responding to Brad’s Facebook plea to watch over us.  Next time he has to go somewhere he’s going to say “Ya’ll ignore her so maybe she’ll clean house or something.  ;)  We had a wonderful supper and Brad got back from Jackson during this time and drove right on over to surprise the kids.  They were so glad to see him!  Selah even took a break from playing with her future husbands long enough to greet him.  When we left there, Brad took Korban to Dollar General to pick out a balloon.  He can’t read yet, but he insisted on getting a balloon that said “World’s Greatest Dad,” which I thought was most appropriate.  What am I saying? He might be able to read and just hasn’t told us yet.  That’d be a very Korban thing to do.  At any rate, I think he has a sixth sense about some things.  When we found out I was pregnant with Selah, he insisted on getting balloons that said “It’s a Girl!”  Which was totally bizarre but I think he knew he was getting a sister before we did.  Then the night before I went into labor he picked out a balloon that said “Congratulations.”  Too funny. 

 

Anyway, we sure are glad to have our #1 Daddy home with us, to protect us from monsters, and help stop nosebleeds and do all the other things he does so well.  He certainly has “job security.”  Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there.  I sure do miss my sweet daddy, but I was so blessed to have had such a wonderful father.  I’m so thankful my sweet babies also have a sweet, godly daddy who is actively involved in their lives.  They are thankful too!  Brad, I imagine you didn’t know what a job this whole fatherhood thing would turn out to be, but you’re doing it well.  There’s not anybody else I’d want to be on this adventure with! 

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