This Would be Difficult Alone

When you are an involved parent it can be easy to take for granted the role your spouse plays. That being said, it takes only a morning like today to jerk me back to reality, and to realize that without the mother of my child around I would be spinning my wheels and getting nowhere in a hurry.

Mrs. LIAYF had to leave early this morning to catch a short flight to Portland for an important meeting, leaving me nonchalant but confident that I could get Lukas ready and out the door on time to daycare. Hey, he was already dressed and fed when she left. How hard could it be?

Cue the Benny Hill music. . . .

As I look back on the morning, I am still not sure why I couldn't quite make things fall into place. Perhaps it was the lack of a plan? At one point, I realized I was already 20 minutes late. And, Lukas pulling everything under the sun out of his toy cabinet to test their varying aerodynamic attributes from one side of the room to another. So, I handed my son his harmonica to distract him while I got everything else together.

-

This appeared to work, so I turned to open the outside kitchen sliding door to grab the one cat who hadn't yet come back inside. I leaned down to grab the cat, who mockingly darted away. #$*#@ cat! Leave it outside for the day? I was tempted, but closed the sliding door and made another foray to grab it. Success! However, as I approached the door, Lukas, still blowing his harmonica, swiftly slid it open leaving me to do a leg buckling side step to avoid tripping on the other cat as it darted underneath my feet.

I thought maybe I was being Punk'd. Eventually there came a point where I had retrieved both felines. It took several other minutes to gather everything else up: backpack, daycare bag, coffee, snack cup, his coat and hat. I then gingerly led Lukas down our front stairs, letting him play with some rocks in our courtyard as I hurriedly loaded the car.

"Uh, oh Daddy" was the next thing I heard, and I glanced behind the car where my son had wandered only to find his arm halfway up the tailpipe. Pulling out his greasy dirty arm, I then discovered a nearly perfect sized stone lodged inside the tailpipe. Benny would have been proud.

Eventually, I was able to find a small enough stick to dislodge said stone and we were on our way, leaving me a embarrassing 45 minutes late to work, exhausted, and with a renewed appreciation of just how much easier mornings go with my wife around to help us out the door.

Therefore, let me just say: "Honey, you rock. . . .and please don't schedule anymore early morning meetings!"