I would hardly call this an “experiment” but, for the next three days, I’m the only parent in this house.

My wife and her sister are off to Vegas for a few days to go enjoy the perks they’ve earned through a silly Facebook game they play, which leaves me alone with both boys to keep things going here.  Over the next three days, I get to juggle my job and childcare and hopefully, all three of us will still be here when she gets back on Thursday.

If you’d watched her with her preparations last night and this morning (before finally leaving for the airport), you’d think I’d never been left alone with the children.

I got a lecture this morning on where food was for R for dinner and breakfast, where the Monster’s uniforms were for school, reminders of where we need to be at various times… and eh.  I know that it’s her being super-cautious about making things “as easy for me as possible”, but… let’s be honest, gentle readers.  I do a good portion of this kind of stuff on a regular basis – I pack the Monster’s lunches and often do the bulk of the “get Monster off to school” tasks already, and now I’m just doing both him and R without having a second set of hands.

The reality is, the biggest issue at the moment is that R has a cold and while he’s been alright in the mornings, he gets whiny after his nap, which makes me think I’m not going to get a lot done after his nap ends, until he recovers.  The Monster’s really only home and awake for about three to four hours where I have to deal with him.  On the other hand, there’s that concern that R’s cold is going to get in the way of my work, and we’ll see how that one works out in the end.

This week’s is also a bit of a transition week at work – I hired a new developer who is being almost immediately transferred to another team (don’t ask), but I’m not in the office to greet him today, so I’m depending on my manager to handle that.  I’m extremely fortunate to have a job that’s sufficiently flexible to let me work from home on occasions like this when I need to, but we’ll see if I end up taking time off instead to deal with problems.  (The only real reason under which I could imagine doing so is if the Monster also gets sick.  He’s sniffling this morning and has coughed once or twice, but he otherwise seems fine.)

As I write this, though, R is still asleep, and the Monster’s sitting on the couch, having his breakfast and watching Sesame Street.  All in all, it’s a perfectly normal Monday morning…