Much to my surprise, I found myself missing the boys.
Both of them had gone off to Mexico with their dad (and his family), so I thought, wow, The-Prettiest-girl-in-the-World and I would get some couple time.
You know, sleep in, eat at any time, play loud music and dance around naked, build a blanket fort and watch movies, use a lot of swear words… Plus, no hockey practice, no picking the boys up from their dad’s, no driving them to and from school.
I thought it would be heaven.
And we did have a good time. Valentine’s. My birthday. Walking Dead. But… I missed the little buggers.
When we went to see Deadpool (about as un-kid a movie as you could see that wasn’t porn), the first thing I wanted to do when I got home was tell The-Oldest about the movie, about how they did things not done before, about how they broke the 4th wall in a very big way.
When I finally finished cleaning and organizing the game room downstairs, I wanted to show The-Youngest what I’d done. We now had room for Lego, and models, and games, and I put all my painted D&D miniatures in a display, and all the puzzles were sorted and stacked according to size and likelihood of ever getting done…
But no, the boyz weren’t here.
It wanted to talk to The-Oldest about Rick and Morty, a funny (but not perhaps appropriate cartoon) and show him how I’d reset the TV room (the sweet spot was no longer the sweet spot).
I wanted to show The-Youngest a goofy hockey video I found on YouTube and play in the blanket fort we made.
I wanted to teach them both to play crib, or if they already knew, to have a good game with the entire family, and I wanted to take the boyz to the mall and show them the real-life tanks and guns on display. The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World was less keen to take them for some reason.
I missed hearing about what’s important in their lives (which never seems to be school.)
I missed hearing The-Oldest practice on the piano. I missed him always giving our dog Vegas more love than all of us combined
I even missed sitting in a cold arena watching The-Youngest play in goal. I missed him starting every third sentence with, “Joe, did you know…”
But The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World had it the worst. She pined terribly for them. She missed reading The-Youngest stories at night. She missed helping The-Oldest learn piano. She missed hugging them when they needed it or didn’t. She missed seeing their faces in the morning, hair all messy, eyes kinda glassy, sleepy lines on their skin.
And I know Vegas missed them. She knows the time they normally come home and would march out of her spot in the TV room to wait for them by the garage door. Come to think of it, The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World did pretty much the same thing. With sadder eyes.
When we’d hop in the car to go do something at night, she would become super waggy-tail excited (the dog, not The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World) thinking we were going to pick them up.
Yesterday, she went into their rooms and sniffed their laundry (again the dog, not The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World). That sounds kinda yucky, but I think she wanted to remember what they smelled like, maybe see if there were any new smells, if somehow she’s missed them.
It was a little sad. There’s no way to tell a dog that her babies are coming back. They’re just not there.
Same for The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World, too. I could tell her that her boys would be back soon, but all she knew. They just weren’t there.
I have to say, I was a bit shocked that I did miss them. I mean, when did they become such a vital part of my life? How did I let that happen?
I guess little by little, the same monsters that go to 5am hockey practices, that respond to you with more shrugs than words, that lose their coats or forget to take signed paperwork to school also become so very important in your life.
Because now, I can’t imagine my life without them.