Communication after Separation

This weekend, Daryl and I took a big leap in our parenting milestones. Those who know us know that we are both avid dancers. Ballroom, latin, swing; it's what we do. In fact, we met while both attending a dance workshop. We had planned on going to Cleveland for a bit of dancing, and to tie up a few more loose ends in the house we are trying to sell there. Typically, when we go to Cleveland for the weekend, we can count on my dad to babysit or we can take Jonah with us. While it was possible for us to take Jonah to the dance event, it was a very expensive evening. I could just picture it: It would start out wonderfully, Jonah bopping to the music and all of our friends making over him. But I would worry the whole night over who has him, should I go get him, is he in my sight... I probably wouldn't have danced very much. Not only that, but he would have started to get tired early. His bedtime is at 8:00 and the event started at 9:00. In the end, my husband and I would have paid quite a bit of money to go, not dance, and then leave early. No, I decided that we should leave Jonah with my dad for this one. We'd have a nice date, which is something rare these days!

My dad, it turned out, had to work on Saturday. So what would we do? After much talking and debate, we decided to leave Jonah here in Toledo, with hubby's parents. It was very strange, leaving him behind. In the car, I kept looking in the back to check him, the start of panic washing over me when I couldn't see his face in the little mirror that we hung above his carseat. It would take a second to remember that he was safe, with his grandparents. It was very strange while we were out, not to have him in the sling. I felt like I literally lost about twenty pounds off of my right hip. But once I got used to walking around without him-and I was assured after several phone calls that he ate fine, he went to bed fine, and no his teeth didn't seem to bother him so I should go and have a good time-I went and had a good time! It was wonderful, I'm not going to lie. Daryl and I stayed out until after 2:00am, dancing, chatting with old friends, and I (yes, *I*) even had a drink. We were able to let loose, and not have to worry about Jonah needing us right away. It was good for us.

When we returned home, Jonah of course was ecstatic to see us. We had been away for exactly twenty four hours. He wasn't overly clingy, as I expected him to be. He seemed genuinely happy to be playing with us and spending time with us. He was a bit over hyper, but very happy. He seemed eager to show us his newfound love of crawling. Friday evening, we were encouraging him to crawl over a distance. He *could* crawl, he was just not doing it to get around to places yet. Saturday morning, he seemed like he was wanting to get more adventurous with it. By the time we returned on Sunday afternoon, he was using crawling as his main mode of transportation.

I am not sure if it was because of his new and improved mobility, or if it is because we were apart, but I found it amazingly difficult to catch his urination cues. We had a good week last week, using EC throughout the day. I was starting to see a little sooner when Jonah had to urinate, and was considering moving his potty chair to the bathroom. Sunday night, we were back to square one with urination. I could tell when he was peeing, but not fast enough to catch it with even a cloth diaper. Even today, after having been reunited with him for quite some time, we still had two poopy diapers and several wet diapers. Last week, we had one poopy diaper all week!!! (He was eliminating, but we were able to catch it in the toilet rather than his diaper) I am saddened by this setback, but I've also noticed a pattern with our EC that is two steps forward, and then one step back. I am still amazed at what we have accomplished so far. Small setbacks like this are only a little frustration amongst a whole lot of "wows."

(Jonah, showing us that he can crawl even with no pants on)