Empty Nest

The Mister and I have been without children for five full days now; almost a week, really. Thing 2 is at an overnight camp since Sunday (her first time!) and I pick her up tomorrow. Thing 1 decided to spend the week with her grandmother, rather than hang around the house by herself. (Although she and her sister dedicate enormous amounts of time to an undending game of "Piss Off That Sister!", Thing 1 quickly realized that her parents are crashingly boring, and a week spent in our company might prematurely age her.) It is the longest I have been without either one of them in 15 years.

As you can imagine, it's pretty quiet around here. The Mister isn't very chatty (one of the reasons I married him; why would I hook up with my competition??) but he does make an effort occasionally to engage my attention with such gems as "who is Goldie Hawn's boyfriend" and "is peppermint and spearmint really two different things". Luckily, I get to talk a lot at work.

Toby does not approve of the new order. For one thing, there's nobody around during the day. Even though Toby can easily stay sound asleep in exactly the same position for 12 hours at a stretch, he likes to know that it is possible to be able to get through any given door at a moment's notice. (Toby hates a closed door. No matter what side of it he's on, he really, really wants to be on the other side of it.) Also, with only two of us here, the likelihood of him getting extra tuna because everyone thought nobody else had given him any is considerably slimmer.

I notice that we are not going through nearly the same amount of food that we do with the girls here. Believe me, my kids are anything but robust; neither of them is what you would call "hearty eaters". But apparently they go through milk like nobody's business, and eat way more fruit and bread than I ever realized.

The phone has hardly rung since they've been away, too. I guess the Mister and I don't get phone calls anymore, but we never noticed.

It's been an interesting couple of days, and I've enjoyed the change in routine mightily...mostly I've liked that I can come and go as I please, and I haven't once felt guilty about being in one place when I should be some where else. But I will be glad to have them home soon, even if I do have to buy groceries again.