I have to admit that things went better today than I would have imagined, given all of our fears.  In fact, I’d actually take the risk of shooting myself in the foot, in a karmic sense, and say that I think they went great.

One of the things that the wife had asked me, while packing on Sunday night, was if I wanted to try to arrange FaceTime sessions in case that would make it easier on the kids.  The boys are inclined to ask for Mommy anyway in most circumstances, rather than come to me, unless she’s either already said no or unless she’s made herself completely unavailable (and even in that last case, that rarely stops them).  I said no to the idea, primarily because that would require either having them in front of my computer or the iPad, and in either case, they weren’t likely to be behaving well during such a call.  Especially with the iPad, they’d be more inclined to want to play with it and hang up on her, which itself would probably cause still more trouble.

So I got the Monster off to school alright yesterday morning, even after a little fiasco with trying to get him into a sweater (I picked one that seemed too big and bulky on him).  The weather ended up being just fine, so I feel alright with having sent him to school with just his jacket.

In the meantime, I’d gotten R up as well and got some breakfast into him between his coughing and sniffling, and managed to keep him out of trouble for most of the day while I was working.  Granted, he probably watched a bit more television than a child his age should, but let’s be honest – I was also working today and the television, primarily Sesame Street, kept him quiet while I was in some phone conferences that I had to be in.  Tomorrow should be a bit easier, since my meetings are clustered in the morning and I can pay more attention to him around my other obligations.

I even got the Monster to do his homework when he got home without any real fights before we got into a mode where he wanted iPad time.  Hopefully with a few more weeks of practice, he’ll actually stop asking for it until he sits down and gets the homework cranked out.  (On the other hand, there are aspects of it – especially where he has to count the number of letters and then circle the words that match the set number – where he’s just not in the mood to do it and it’s like pulling teeth…)

On tap for today: therapy after school.  I have to get both boys into the van and take them over there, then keep R busy while we’re waiting on the Monster… and then I have to feed them afterwards.  Will we survive?  Tune in tomorrow!