As good as they can be

It's been mentioned, but Ross is in Adelaide, Australia.  He's been gone 6 days and has another week to go.  There are a lot of emotions and feelings (and some passive aggressive anger) associated with such a long time away.  It's deserving of it's own blog post, but it's one that I'll never write - too personal and not necessary for the internets.  I realize that there are men and women who spend much more time away from their families for work, military, and a lot of other stuff, but for us, this has been hard.

To be honest though, it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be.  The boys and I spend so much time, just the three off us, anyway that even though our dad is gone and we miss him, it's really not that big of a difference from the norm.  It just means that when the Chick wakes up in the night, I'm the one that has to get up with him.  And, lucky for us, we've got grandma's and grandpa's picking up the slack, taking good care of us, and feeding us dinner.

That being said though, these boys of mine have been so good.  They miss ther dad terribly and Wyatt keeps asking why he's still at work, but were getting up and doing our thing each day.  Elliott and I have a deal that if he's good for the two weeks his dad is gone he gets a bike - a real bike that has training wheels and requires a helmet.  Yes, it's bribery but it's done wonders for his general outlook on life (and the Chicks because by default, he's going to get a bike, too).  There have been a few rough patches and meltdowns but I am truly amazed at how good these little guys can be.  They try so hard to be nice to each other, nice to me, nice to the random guy digging in the dirt while walking to swimming lessons.  They behave when I work in the yard and mow the lawn.  They sit down and eat dinner like civilized little boys.  They are taking good care of their mama and good care of each other.

It looks like most definitely, there are awesome bikes, cool helmets, and a lot more good stuff in their future.