Solo Parenting

I gave myself a taste of flying solo with two small children two weeks ago when I took the girls on a breakneck trip down to Maryland and North Carolina to visit family and friends. Aside from Olive not napping and Marlowe being a poor traveler (unlike her sister, who would probably trek across the Sahara Desert with me and utter not a word of complaint), we got along just fine. Still, it wasn't easy to be at the helm without Rob for four days. I figured it'd be good practice for when he left us for seventeen days to go to see his family in Alaska. Zoe got in late last night/early this morning, we got a few hours of sleep, then woke at 4 to get them back to the airport by 5:30 so they could head off to Anchorage. Fortunately the girls and I all got in good, long naps today. The three of us went to our shop for a few hours this evening so I could get some work done. I was pretty proud of my accomplishments given my company: I assembled Olive's bed (one of the two rooms upstairs will be for the girls and we'd like for Olive to be able to continue her naps there), sanitized 45 bottles, and bottled 5 gallons of coconut mango balsamic with a fussy Marlowe strapped to me. After we got home, I helped Olive get ready for bed and we read her favorite book, Bread and Jam for Frances. Marlowe went down just as easily and I had the rest of the evening to clean the kitchen, normally Rob's job. It was really satisfying to end the day in such a way and think I may get into the habit of cleaning before bed.

I've not been looking forward to Rob's trip, but my schedule is so packed that I'm sure the time will zip by and he and Zoe will be back before we know it.

Four Sweet Years

Yesterday Rob and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. Two girls and one business venture later, we're still happy as can be and I can't imagine what my life would be now without him. We went out for the first time since before having Marlowe (our good friend, Alex, graciously offered to come stay with them in exchange for a bottle of her favorite olive oil) and enjoyed a terrific dinner at Legume, a restaurant in Oakland specializing in local fare. We ate ourselves silly, capping off our dinners of pork, chicken-friend tempeh, and parsnip soup, fried barley and tallow fries with baked Alaska and rice pudding with rosemary caramel and granola. We made the right choice.