Recovering from a weekend out of town isn’t just about catching up on sleep — it’s also about finding the time to do everything you neglected over the weekend, like laundry and grocery shopping. Jaclyn offered to take care of the latter while I was at trivia tonight, which meant two things: 1) she’d take the car and 2) we’d have to keep Miles up late so she could pick me up afterwards.
One of our proudest achievements in these early months of parenting has been getting Miles into a fixed sleep routine; as such, it’s something we both take great care to maintain. This was something that didn’t escape my mind throughout my trivia show, and when I finished up 20 minutes early I was more than a little elated. I immediately messaged Jaclyn and told her I was ready for extraction.
And yet, despite these best of intentions, it was still 20 minutes before Jaclyn arrived (I should note, this show is approximately a 4 minute drive from our apartment). I hurriedly gathered my equipment and shuttled it out to the car, then jumped in, thinking only of getting the baby home. In my haste, I had failed to notice one thing.
“Oh yeah,” Jaclyn said. “The baby isn’t in the car!”
Maybe I was still recovering from the weekend, but for a moment I legitimately thought Jaclyn had just forgotten the kid entirely. Jaclyn quickly allayed my fears by letting me know one of our neighbors had agreed to watch him (already sound asleep) for 10 minutes while Jaclyn picked me up. One of these days I’m going to have to just accept that Jaclyn is a better problem solver than I give her credit for.
The Perils (& Pride) of Paternity 