Simba...It Is Time!

One weekend a year, my mom (who as of this precise moment is the greatest person alive) watches my children and allows my husband and I to get away. On this weekend, we leave, hastily. We don't look back. We act silly. We don't answer phone calls (unless it's my mom). We do whirlwind sightseeing that our small kids are not yet capable of. And, most importantly, we recall who we were before our children, and fall in love all over again.

Sometimes, parents need a brief gift of four days to come home refreshed and feeling human with a sense of self. It is so easy to lose yourself in the shuffle. I leave on this adventure in two days...and in honor, I thought to share some of the things that come Friday morning I'll be thanking God I'll be without until Monday night, but come Monday night I'll be desperately yearning for once more:

• No one waking me up before sunrise by screaming in my face.
• No one hollering that they were pinched, shoved, bitten or spit upon by their sibling(s).
• No one coming to snuggle, only to fart on my lap.
• No animated movies on the TV.
• No one complaining about what I made for dinner and informing me that they are refusing to eat it (I am NOT cooking).
• No boogers wiped on my pants...well, not unless I wipe them there.
• No multiple inquiries about what is going to be for dessert, and then the incessant nagging about why I've not made dessert (see above about complaining about the dinners, you little jerks). 
• No one ransacking my purse. 
• No one using my bathroom b/c the other one was occupied, only to dump nail polish on my granite vanity. 
•  No one asking me to fix something, retrieve this, put together that or help find it. 

Right now, I'll not miss those things, but there are some things that even the die-hard in me will go into withdrawal over, after moments of leaving home:

•  Sticky hugs and wet slobbery kisses. 
•  Kissing boo-boos and using my Mommy-Magic to heal what ails. 
•  Hearing, "I love you, Mommy" at bed time tuck-ins. 
•  Looks of surprise and awe when I walk through the door each evening. 

 All in all, if these are my lists of misses and non-misses, I'm surely one lucky Mom. Luckier so for the chance to get away - in what I'm telling my kids, "Important Cathy & BJ time, b/c everyone needs their own time to be who they are, and we need a couple of days to be someone other than Mommy & Daddy so that we can come home and be better at being Mommy & Daddy for you."

 On that promise, my kids think this is the greatest idea. A weekend with Granny, who I'm sure will forego naps, offer endless desserts and who would never ever make gross things for dinner; and come Monday a much more patient Mommy and Daddy will return. What's not to love? And now, Simba...it is time to take your rightful place, amid your bursting back pack and travel sized liquid gels, with passport in hand and em barque on your greatest journey - the Grown Up Weekend.