Heather Camlot

Last week, Marc and Juliana traveled to Vancouver to visit Marc’s sister and brother-in-law. The first question everyone here at home asked was, “Isn’t Alexandre upset he didn’t go?”

Not only wasn’t he upset, he was excited. He had plans. And they all involved having mommy to himself.

Friday night: We slummed it by ordering pizza and eating it while sitting on the living room floor (shhh, don’t tell) and playing Monopoly Junior . I won. Alexandre was upset. We played again.

Saturday: The Monopoly Junior battle continued and I was forced to scarf down breakfast and play in pyjamas. The number of rounds we played and who won has all become a blur. I managed to get Alexandre dressed by suggesting we go to Toys R Us to buy a soccer net if he comes with me to get groceries. I’ve never seen him dress so fast or whine so little in the grocery store. Back at home, we set up the net and the neighbor kids came over to play. Five hours later, Alexandre agreed to eat dinner. Outside. On the front porch. With his friends coming in and out of the yard. A 10-minute meal took 45 minutes to eat.

Sunday: Rainy day, but that was okay. We headed to the Ontario Science Centre and checked out some sections Alexandre had never been to (odd, since he went to camp there last year), watched the planetarium presentation, had lunch and played in the kids’ section. Four hours later, I was whining and begging Alexandre to go home. After much cajoling, he agreed. We popped popcorn, watched a movie, and then, rain stopped, headed outdoors to play with the neighbor kids. An hour later, he agreed to eat dinner...you can see where this is going. I don’t normally sleep well when Marc is away, but let me tell you after this weekend, I passed out. So did Alexandre.

Monday-Wednesday: We returned to our regular schedule of school, work, swim lesson, art class, homework, etc. As well as lots of outdoor play before and after dinner -- and all the parents discussing who’s going to give the five-minute warning so we can get the little biking gang inside and into bed (love my neighborhood!) -- and Monopoly Junior before bed.

Thursday: Alexandre had a tough afternoon. Although he played with our friends down the street, whom he goes to school with, and had a great time, our immediate neighbors weren’t outside around dinnertime and he biked the street alone. I was so surprised when he started crying. We put away his bike and went inside to play Monopoly Junior (we really need a new game). He won (no, I didn’t let him) and he perked up a bit. But in bed he announced that he didn’t want Marc and Juliana to come back. I know he missed them (he would have loved to be biking with Juliana only this afternoon), but I admit it had been a special week of bonding.

Friday: The return. After a torturous drive to the airport in the middle of afternoon traffic, we spotted Marc and Juliana through the sliding doors to the baggage pickup. Juliana walked through the doors and dropped everything to give her big brother a present. After I moved the kids out of the way of on-comers, they ran around the airport, laughing and smiling. When we got home, we had homemade pizza and talked. The kids played Monopoly Junior together and then everything went back to normal: the crying, the fighting, the whining, the “nobody likes me....”