Today

Her Royal Excitedness had trouble smiling today. Took Mr. Honey to the airport yesterday. He arrived in India today. He used the Internet to send a text message to my phone this afternoon letting me know he was online. I dashed down the stairs, pulled my computer out, opened it, and sent him an e-mail. I miss him.

When I asked Judah what he'd like to say to Daddy, he said, "I want to tell Daddy that I love him. Say, I want to stay with him all day and all night. Say, I'm gonna give you a present. That's all."

We were able to talk on the phone for a few minutes. I put him on speaker so Judah could hear him. We counted the days on the calendar to see how long it will be before he comes home. When we finished, Judah said, "That's a lot of days."

So I had trouble smiling.

The kids were great. Miriam is getting more and more mobile, and Judah never ceases to amaze me. But I was tired and I knew I wasn't getting any help from around 6 p.m. to bedtime. I really don't know how single parents manage. Parenting is a lot of work.

When I finally sat down at the computer this afternoon to help a friend proofread her résumé, Judah crawled behind me and fell asleep. Miriam was upstairs sleeping in her crib, and when I finished, I went upstairs to lie down in my bed. I desperately needed the rest.

It's time to get some more rest. I haven't had the energy to put the boy to bed, so he's still up, asking a million "Why" questions and giving me a running commentary on everything he's doing.

Time to get our teeth brushed and hit the sack. I'm hoping Miriam will sleep as well tonight as she did last night. We're thinking that Judah wakes her with his shifting around and talking in his sleep (they share a room). He slept with me last night and except for waking to eat at 11 p.m. Miriam slept from 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. It was glorious.

Good night.