Guest Blogger: Mr. Mom, Part 1 and 1/2

Well, as most of you know, Meredith and Maddie headed out of town on Thursday to visit with one of Meredith's best friends in Savannah, GA. That left Ella and I here in town looking for some new adventures.


The first night that M&M were gone, Ella decided that she wanted to go eat a "fancy" dinner with her daddy.

After some discussion, we decided on Bonefish Grill. The one qualification that she put on it was that she wanted me to wear my bow-tie (I only own one, as sort of a gag gift, and she found it the other day in my closet). Sometimes as a parent you will do things that are fairly embarrassing just to see the smile on your little one's face...well, that was me on Thursday night. Ella was just beaming and said more than once, "dad, you look really handsome!" As E and I waited for our table outside, we danced and laughed and chased...Ella as free as a bird and me a little self-conscience, but having a great time. I have to mention one thing that Ella said that made me laugh and cringe at the same time...A rather large (to put it lightly) lady walked by as we sat on a bench people watching and Ella noted, a bit too loudly, "Daddy, look at that lady...I think she had too many snacks!" While I agreed, we had to talk about what is appropriate to say in public and how we need to keep others' feelings in mind. She is such a hoot.




















Our sweet little waitress was somewhat embarrassed but gracious when E asked to take her picture (from about 3 feet away).


Ella, of course, loved the buttered bread and told the waitress that she was going to "eat some macaroni like nobody's business." Needless to say, she got a kick out of that. After dinner, we stopped off at Dairy Godmother for some custard and sorbet...Ella was thoroughly pleased with our first night!















On Day 2 of our weekend without Mommy, Daddy had a lot of work to do and E was such a huge trooper. She just watched movies and pretended and colored and played all day while I got everything done. After I finished for the day, we quickly packed things up, I dusted off a bunch of my camping equipment and into the wilderness (or Burke Lake Park...close enough) Ella and I went.

For those of you who don't know, camping is one of my favorite things to do and it looks like I now have a steady sidekick. Ella just absolutely loved it. From cooking on the fire, to listening to nature, to hiking around in the woods, she was all smiles and joy of life!

The only hiccup in our whole stay was the fact that our air mattress somehow popped a leak during the night and we ended up pretty much sleeping on the ground. At about 3:00 a.m., E woke up, leaned over to me and said, "Daddy, can we go home? I have a rock in my back." I convinced her to scoot over towards me and wait it out until morning. We woke up in the morning and cooked an ever nutritious breakfast of cheesy eggs, bacon, donuts and orange juice. After cleaning up, we packed all of our belongings and headed over to the lake for her first fishing experience. Not much to report there. She thought the worms were gross and fishing was boring (no bites within the first 10 minutes, so we just went over to the playground for a while). Overall, I would say camping was a big success.

After coming home, Ella and I cleaned up and headed back out to Baltimore for dinner and a show at Medieval Times. We have seen the "castle" a few times on our way to the airport and I have been promising to take Ella there. It was actually pretty fun. Ella wasn't too sure about the eating with your hands part (Medieval, remember?), but liked the garlic bread and dragon tail soup (tomato bisque). The show was a little "over acted", but the horses and sword play were actually pretty fun to watch. The "Blue Knight" (we were supposed to root for him) threw Ella a flower from up on his horse and that just made her night. All in all, it was a great ending to a fun day.

That is pretty much the whole rundown of our weekend without our favorite two girls! Today has been a pretty laid back day. We cleaned up the house, planned out the meals for the week and went grocery shopping so Mommy doesn't have to. The success of that outing though is yet to be determined. We had a bunch of bags with lots of food so we shall see. I just got word that Meredith is going to be delayed by at least 30 minutes (which will put her in a 9:15) so hopefully, that is the last delay and we get to see her and maddie soon! We have missed them terribly, but kept ourselves entertained in the meantime. :)

Jeff