The Double Team...

Last night, Tamar left for 48 hours to attend a dance camp for the first time since Erez was born. He's 8 weeks old.

She pulled the same stunt when it was only Calanit :-) but she was 8 months at the time.

So, now I am playing zone defense on the two kids, or as my friend Tevi says, "you're double teamed."

Well, we're just past the 25% mark and I have to say, so far so good.

Like work and life, it comes down to good planning and focused execution.

We dropped Tamar off at the train station at 8.40pm and headed for home. Erez did his part for the team by sleeping until midnight. As for Calanit...well, let's just say I don't know what parents did in the days before DVD's! I figure, it's only Dad (aka 'Abba') at home so the standards are a bit relaxed. By 10.45pm she had had enough of her DVD's and was saying "Nap! Nap!" which is her way of saying "I'm exhausted."

We skipped the bath and I put her in her crib.

During the time she was watching TV and Erez was sleeping, I made a few lists of the KEY items which had to be done and assembled (we're sleeping over at my parents' on Sunday night--I can only take 1 full day on my own, right?). Every down moment that didn't involve tending to kids was focused on this list. We're doing quite well.

The big variable was...what would be Erez's sleeping pattern? On Friday night, he had gotten up 5 times and Tamar does the bulk of the heavy lifting normally. In other words, I was out of shape for this task.

At 12am, I woke him up and then pumped him full of two bottles of pre-expressed breast milk. He's on Zantac now (we think he may have reflux) and he doesn't like the taste so I put some in the bottle as well as some "Little Tummies" which is Tums/Rolaids for infants. After two bottles, he was wiped out and drunk and crashed. By 12.40am, he was out and he slept until 4.15am.

I got up with him and started to feed him, when I heard Calanit--who has a good track record of sleeping through the night. Anyway, I gave her a bottle of milk at the same time and gave Erez another overdose (sort of) to induce food coma. They both went to sleep and he woke up at 8.15am, she at 9am.

In other words, my plan has worked to this point.

I've also managed to do a few things that aren't on the list as a bonus primarily because I'm neglecting my kids (Erez is crying right now---ok, I'm almost done).

I certainly appreciate Tamar a lot more and one big difference is that when she has the kids, she tries to engage them in stimulating activities like the library. My goal is to clothe and feed them. Much more modest.

So, Calanit is on my lap playing with acorns and sharing the blog moment with me as we listen to the "Capitol Steps' album called "Between Iraq and a Hard Place".

OK, off to feed the boy.