time to fly

So here I am in the airport in Cincinnati. I just had to call my wife and give her the bad news. The plane will be delayed and we’re not going anywhere for a couple of hours. She wasn’t happy, but what can you do. I told her I would get home as soon as I can, and she said just to get home safe. It felt nice to hear that.

I should have known what was in store when we left yesterday; this trip has been jinxed from the start. The day started out hectic. In the morning, things were tense at home- as they often are when I’m going away on a business trip. I am stressed out getting ready to travel and thinking of work stuff; and my wife is stressed out at the thought of handling our household alone for however long I am gone. I got up at 6:00 and made coffee, and my wife fed the baby. Once coffee’d up, I did some little odds and ends, and then set off to get ready. I was just heading into the shower, when all of the sudden my wife came in with e.w.- it was potty training time again. Our plan lately is- as soon as he wakes up, we take him into the bathroom to get on the potty. This worked once before recently, and it was actually him who woke up and said he had to go. So we’re trying to encourage him now. I went ahead and she sat him down and started the pep talk. While I was showering, I could hear her negotiating with him. Since it was the morning, she wasn’t going to use chocolate. Instead she brought out a sheet of brand new stickers: little glow-in-the-dark planets, stars, moons, galaxies. He loved it. He wanted them. She took out a white sheet of paper, with the words “e.w.’s potty sheet”. She explained that he could stick one of the stickers on the sheet if he “made” in the potty. I was getting out of the shower at this point. He seemed to understand my wife’s offer, but it just wasn’t happening. He really wanted a sticker, though. He was talking about the different shapes and naming them. When I turned off the shower water, you could hear the baby had woken up. So my wife went to go tend to him and I took over with e.w.

It looked like it wasn’t going anywhere, but I talked with him a bit more. He was still talking about the stickers. I decided that it would probably be bad, and discouraging, if I took the stickers away and said “no stickers till you poo”, or whatever- so I explained that the little stickers were for “good trying”. This made him happy. He picked a little sticker and we stuck it on the sheet. Then that was that. The rest of the morning consisted of running around changing diapers while packing my bag and what not. While changing e.w. I explained to him that I would be getting on a plane to go on a business trip, but that I would be “back tomorrow”. He hugged me and said something like “I-I-I go to the plane with daddy….on a trip”. I hugged him back and said “aww. Honey, daddy has to go work. You’ll stay here with mommy and take care of your baby brother until I get home.” He seemed to accept this; but was not entirely satisfied. Later on when I kissed everyone goodbye I didn’t talk about flying again, I just let on like it was any other work morning.