Respecting the Single Parent

Hubby is at a conference these next few days, which leaves me alone with Claire and Ollie. Ollie is easy... I'm sending him to a few extra days of camp so I won't have him follow me around the house with "Are we going? We're going right? Now? Walking.. Right. Seriously, are we going? I'm totally ready to go."

Claire on the other hand is a pistol. She's not only discovered her high-pitched screaming voice, but man when she gets going she doesn't stop (whether it be flailing her arms about, babbling, screaming or crying). Last night, I ended up passing out 5 minutes after putting her down and I have no doubt I'll do the same tonight. Then during a brief wake period in the middle of the night I got to thinking -- how do single parents do this? Because honestly, I would NEVER want to be in that position. Just these next few days are going to drain me mentally where I'll be jonzin' to run the 8 miles I need to run for training.

So to all of your single parents out there, I give you lots of respect. You are definitely stronger than me because I doubt very much -- no, I KNOW -- that I would never have even made it through the first month by myself.