HankandLucy

Yesterday, after a little arm twisting, I was able to convince Joe to take Cheech on his jog. I completely understood his hesitation seeing as her mood can be hit or miss when it comes to hanging out in her stroller for longer periods of time, but I really want them to get in the habit of sharing time JUST together. With the way Joe's work schedule works out, we're a very lucky family because our baby gets to spend most of her day with BOTH parents. I never, ever take this for granted. Joe typically leaves for work at around 3 or 4, and considering Cheech goes to bed at 7, there aren't exactly too many hours she has in a day without her papa around. Thing is, though, when he leaves she and I are on our own, alone. Her dad may be mostly there, but I am ALWAYS there. Cheech is about to be 10 months old, and the most amount of time I've spent away from her, believe it or not, has been roughly 20 hours. That comes out to approximately two hours A MONTH. If you think that's ridiculously insane, well, I DO TOO.

So, I have two reasons for wanting Joe to take on some more one-on-one time with our girl. For one, Cheech loves her "dada" SO MUCH, it's just plain silly. He truly is her hero, and I want the bond they have to be as strong as possible. I know that if they get into the habit of doing things together, they will have a lifetime of amazing memories. Not to get too into it here, but I lost my dad when I was 8 months old, so I think this is a classic case of wanting my kid to have what was taken away from me. Besides, I'm pretty confident there will come a day when I really piss her off, and she's going to need someone to talk to about it... who better than her dad, right? He can listen and be there for her, but also remind her that although I am the "fueled by emotions" type, I am also still totally awesome and lovable. At least, I hope that's what he'd tell her.

On to reason number two. Before I go any further, I just have to say that the amount of love I have for my Cheechy Peachy is beyond limitless, and that I wholeheartedly treasure every single minute we spend together. BUT, man-oh-man, do I miss having some alone time. I am the kind of person that THRIVES when I have hours upon hours to myself. Seeing as I've only been away from Cheech about 20 hours, you can only imagine how many of those hours were spent by myself... not even half. I know it will be healthy for me AND her if we take a little break from each other from time to time. I am a firm believer that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I can't help but think that it would be a little nice to miss her sometimes, and even more importantly, for her to miss me. Every morning when she wakes up and sees Joe in bed, her little, round face lights up like you would not believe. I have to admit that a small part of me gets a teensy bit jealous when she rolls over, sees me, and gives me that "Oh, you again" look. I want that dramatic face glow, too, dammit. So yeah, time apart can only equal good.

They left yesterday at around 11, and were gone for a good hour and a half. Let me just tell you, it was GLORIOUS. I was able to wash our towels and sheets, make lunch without CONSTANTLY redirecting a 9 1/2 month old away from a hot stove, take a shower and SHAVE MY LEGS (I mean, really shave my legs vs. the half ass job I've been doing for almost a year now), check my email, and call Nordstrom to ask if they had a certain bra in stock. On a normal day, with Cheech around, these are tasks that would take HOURS to accomplish. The funny thing is, this jam-packed hour and a half still managed to feel quite relaxing. Call me crazy, but I think I'm on to something here with this whole "time apart" idea.