Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish

For the past two days, Lucia has been on a well deserved vacation to San Diego where she is visiting college friends and their 6 week old daughter. I have been "minding our two little monkeys" and doing my best to fill rather large shoes. Things are going pretty well, although Camille deciding to poop in the shower this morning was a special treat. I have also learned that our small table set can readily be converted into a functional stairway for a 15 month old monkey-girl...you should have seen the giggling smile of pride on Camille's face as she stood on top of the kids' breakfast table and I ran over to put her back on the floor!

Noah has been a great big brother. He has been looking out for Camille, and the three of us have had a lot of fun playing in the yard, going to a local park, and going for walks. Speaking of going for walks, today we put training wheels on his bicycle. He then proceeded to demonstrate that he can give a 32 year old guy in slip-on-shoes pushing a jogging stroller containing a 23 pound girl and a slice of pita bread a run for his money...work out the algebraic equation for that math problem and I'll mail you the pita bread...

I know that Lucia works very hard at home, but there is nothing like walking a mile in her shoes to really understand how hard she works. Thus enlightened, I offer up poetry:

"Ode to the Stay at Home Mother"

When the diaper is yet again pungently aromatic,

And food is being spit out for fun,

When the monkey girl's antics teeter on tragic,

And most would say, 'That's it I'm done!"

The stay at home mother is there for the family,

Right in the midst of the fray,

Racing around from park to schoolhouse,

Always managing to save the day.

When the only peace and quiet come at nighttime,

After the children make it to bed,

When the musical highlight of the day has been Raffi,

But you wished for Pearl Jam instead,

The stay at home mother knows this rhythm,

One not guided by a drum beat,

It's a pattern of movement, and playing and laughter,

The last one being the most sweet

When the husband puts on the shoes for a few days,

And starts to grasp the challenge of it all,

The balance of taking care of a family,

The pressure of making the right call,

It is then that the work of a stay at home mother,

Is finally understood just a bit,

The love and the caring, the joy and the sharing,

And that important discipline bit.

So here's to you the Stay at home mother,

Hard working both day and night,

In the words of the immortal Jimmie Walker,

You are quite simply "Dy-no-mite!"