Just the boys

Theo and I are finally getting back in the game. Tuesday afternoon/evening we were pretty much wiped out, after getting up early to take Ruth to the airport. Neither of us is at our best at 5:30 AM. Luckily for all three of us, airline travel is a lot less of a hassle when you flash military orders and a red passport.

The Norfolk airport is just as we left it, except it now has a Starbucks concession. When it's 7AM and you're holding back tears because you don't want to upset the 17-month-old who is staring at you and depending on you and you alone for the next 7 weeks ...well, a venti is in order.

We're all lucky I got us to the airport at 6AM in a decaffeinated state. Ten years ago, did I really make a habit of driving the Chicago expressways at 8AM with no coffee?

So the first day was bad news. Daddy wanted to stare at the wall and stew, but Theo wanted constant attention. Not the best start. But I got over it pretty fast and today we took a long walk, probably 7 miles or so round trip. I put him in the stroller and finally tracked down the Elizabeth River Trail.

This woefully underpublicized resource runs from West Ghent (where we live) down through Fort Norfolk, into the Freemason Neighborhood and Downtown, and much farther. The city is doing some construction on a section, so I had to detour into The Hague, well worth the early morning view. I'm so dismayed by the lack of useful descriptions of the trail I could find using Google that I've decided to break out a camera and Google Maps and document it. The way my other projects are going, If I finish that before our next move, it will be a major victory.

So the two of us walked down to the USS Wisconsin and back to West Ghent. Now knowing that our three or four favorite neighborhoods in town are all within a half-hour walk, I once again feel like the money we're spending to live in this area is so worthwhile.

I've also managed to be pretty good about another plan for deployment, to eat as many meals as I can with Theo. Never could do it when Ruth was around, either because of timing conflicts, me being unable to get dinner ready by Theo's early dinnertime, or because we wouldn't give up our valuable just-the-two-of-us-and-food time. With just the toddler and I here, none of that applies. Although I did have to throw him a piece of bread tonight while I fixed a hasty meal. [In another one of those "separated at birth" coincidences, Tom posted about this at Milspouse just yesterday.]

In truth, I settled in fast because I'm excited for her. I'm excited because she was ready to do her job, and now she's out in the thick of it. It will be hard to adjust to a new command and new duties as she's dumped into the middle of a deployment but she's had to deal with more.

I don't worry about Ruth and I. Seven weeks is a cakewalk, almost not worth worrying about when so many people (like us, earlier in the decade) go through so much more. I worry more about how the two of them will deal with the separation, it's a whole new world for them. I suppose 17+ hour days with no time to think about home will help ease the transition for Ruth. For the toddler, Routine is King, and anything works as long as you do it at the same time every day, so I plan to just carry on as usual, show him lots of pictures and movies of his Mommy and talk about her often.

The last question -- am I a worthy single parent? We'll just have to wait and see.