my week with Miss C

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure how this week was going to go. Claudine was done with camp for the summer, but Mia had another week to go which meant that Claudine would be home all week. Not that it’s a bad thing, no, however at this point it’s just easier when there are 2 kids in the house, not 1, and the girls are very used to having each others company now that they are on the same exact school schedule as of a year ago. I guess you can say…they are sort of codependent. Their close relationship is fascinating to me as someone who grew up with a brother who is 6 years younger.

But Claudine and I developed a really great rhythm to our days. After walking Mia to camp every morning at 8:15, we’d stop by the playground for an hour or 2 on the way home and swing together. Because it was so early in the morning, the playground was usually empty aside from a few babies so we could swing as long as we wanted without a line of kids waiting behind us. She also mastered the monkey bars this week, hanging and swinging her way all the way across the bars. We’d come home and she’d draw and play legos for a few hours while I’d get some work done. Then we would have lunch. Around 2pm, she would start asking when Mia would get home.

On Monday we had a playdate and took a nap together. On Tuesday we took the subway into Manhattan to run some errands and buy her a pair of Fall boots. She brought along her little handbag and swung it from her shoulder. She really liked going into the stores and looking at all the shiny pretty things. All the leopard print shoes that we saw were her favorite. On Wednesday we went to Staples to gather the rest of the school supplies on her class list and buy a set of markers for our trip. On Thursday she stapled 11 pieces of paper together and worked on her 22 page story book for 3 straight hours. Today is our last quiet day together. We plan on organizing the kitchen cabinets and start thinking about what to pack.

I guess I had forgotten what it’s like to have just 1 kid in the house. It’s been a while. The girls often feed off each other and the energy in the apartment can get quite chaotic. Without the fighting (there is A LOT of that going on these days), the competitiveness, the chasing and the wrestling, the house was quiet. It made me remember a day early on in the summer when Mia and I had a morning to ourselves while Claudine was at a birthday party. One on one time allows you to actually enjoy the company of your kid when you’re not constantly playing referee, but this opportunity seems rare these days.

I think Claudine really enjoyed her quiet week at home too. I don’t think she quite knew what to expect either, but she told me yesterday that she liked being home when Mia’s not here because “she’s annoying sometimes”. We laughed at that together. But 10 minutes later she asked when Mia was coming home.