Skip to main content

Work travel (part 2 of 3 in my GTTOD series)

Here's my second installment of the GTTOD series. The first post can be found here. This is a bit of a two part post.

Part One – Travel:
A little over a month ago I took my first post-Miloh work trip. I was psyched for the trip because it was to Toronto, a city I have a bit of a crush on, and because we were working on some cool stuff. I was a bit apprehensive because I was leaving Miloh at 5 weeks old.

I also felt a bit of guilt to leave Staci all alone with him and with a semi-high maintenance dog. So I sent a tweet out to a bunch of mommy bloggers asking what I should do to help Staci out. I got some great ideas.

Here's a short list of the suggestions:
  • Get a cleaning person to help her out so she doesn't need to think about it.
  • Order her favorite dinner and have it delivered to her 
  • Stock up on her fave foods
  • Get her a gift
  • Put the dog in a kennel
So here was my plan. I was going to order Chinese food from the place near here that delivers (the place I now boycott because they put huge slabs of meat in my tofu dish) and stock our house with popcorn, Staci's go to snack when I'm away. I didn't need to worry about a cleaning person because we have one and she was coming while I was out...I suggest it for everyone, it's worth the cash. Kalli was booked in the "spa" she goes to. and I was going to find some goodies to bring back for her.

Here was the reality...she stayed at her parent's place to get a little extra help, so that was awesome. But that also meant that the food delivery and stock of popcorn was not needed. Kalli was at her spa. The cleaning person came. So that left the gift...I failed on that...but I didn't have much time. I did however grab some Roots stuff for Miloh including the obligatory beaver logo one, because I wore that as a kid.

So I kind of screwed my first trip up...the second I screwed up worse. Staci was going to go to her parents but her dad had strep...I should have stocked up on the popcorn and goten the take out but honestly I was so exhausted that I spaced it...sorry Staci.

So I need to step it up for future trips. That includes leaving notes or cards for her like I used to do...or notes on fake apples which I did once. We had these fake apples that she hated so they were supposed to be thrown out...but I was leaving on a trip (pre-Miloh) and decided to write notes on each one with a number (X of 5) on them. I hid them all over the house to drive her a bit crazy and make her smile. I succeeded on both fronts.

Part Two: Funny things happen when someone is away.

I did a post a bit ago about how every time Staci is out of town Kalli, our dog, gets injured somehow.

Well when I'm out of town something happens to Miloh. On my first trip away I got a bit of a frantic call about how Miloh fell off the couch and on to his head...he was brought to the clinic and all was good.

On my second trip I got a frantic call that Miloh spiked a fever. It was few days after his vaccinations so we were told to watch for it. Staci felt that he was hot and took his temp, which was high, and called the hospital. They said to bring him in. Her mom came with her for support but it was prett traumatic for them. But Miloh didn't seem to care much as he was poked and proded for blood and had a cathatar used to siphon some pee...he's a calm kid.

The good thing is all was good, he was fine. Actually his fever went down by the time he arrived at the hospital.

Which beings me to some advice for guys out there. Do not ever ask your wife and/or Mother-in-Law if they added a couple degrees onto your child's temperature just so he can be seen by doctors. It doesn't go over well. Then let's say you ask the question, don't ask if they are lying.

So I'm wondering which trip costs us more, Staci out of town and us being stuck with vet bills, or me being out of town and us being stuck with hospital bills. I fear it's when Staci goes out because vets are crazy expensive and Kalli has been maimed pretty good.

Comments

  1. You are truly a thoughtful husband.

    I love mine to death, but his first trip away was not surrounded with anywhere near that level of consideration.

    He left me with a baby on a heart monitor and three dogs (one of which is certifiably insane). No chinese, no popcorn, no Kalli.

    And then he tried to tack an extra day on to his trip so he could go to a football game, and seemed a little disappointed that I had come down with a stomach bug and he had to leave. For which attitude he is now truly sorry.

    Point being, if you could send an email of instructions to all new dads on this matter, it would be much appreciated. It's too late for mine, but I'm all for someone else benefitting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can you drop my husband a line...and tell him to get his shizit together? And read your blog for enthusiasm? Sheesh.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree, you're a thoughtful guy. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

    Also, the high fever is some scary crap. We hit a nice fat 104.7 a couple weeks ago. I had to buy new pants.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice job dad. Stuff like this is super helpful - even just thinking about it makes a huge difference.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Cat in the Hat Knows Pretty Much Nothing About That

I find myself saying it a lot but we don't let Miloh watch a lot of TV... Mostly because it goes a bit against Montessori at home (although we're pretty reform with that) and also because we, read I, watch too much and we don't want Miloh in the habit. On the list of things he does watch is The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That. Netflix is our friend in the mornings so he will get a bit of that or Sesame Street while the person who's on duty that AM tries to actually wake up. And Miloh truly loves the show. He calls it hat and pats his head. He let's us know that there's a fish on screen every time the fish comes on screen, he dances and says "Go, go, go" when they sing that song. Unfortunately since we really only watch on Netflix we've only seen eight episodes... But this gives me time to really think about the show. Here are some problems with it: The Cat in the Hat actually really knows almost nothing about everything. He does

Dear Scott the Paleontologist – the response... Wait sorry... the awesome response

In my last post I asked some incredibly pressing questions to Dr. Scott Sampson aka Scott the Paleontologist. Questions that any parent of a Dinosaur Train fan wants to know... I got a reply and I have to say Dr. Scott is hilarious and pretty awesome... But I'm a fan of science humor... So here are his responses in line with mine. They're in blue because that's the color of most of  Shiny Pteranodon. Dear Scott the Paleontologist, My son Miloh and I are fans of Dinosaur Train and as an avid fan I have some questions regarding it that I hope you can answer: The train is a steam engine. Does it run off coal? If it does use coal is there a possibility that greenhouse gases from that could have lead to the extinction of dinosaurs? How come this isn't a theory? Very interesting question. Yes, to the best of my knowledge, the Dinosaur Train runs on fossil fuels, but we actually do have an episode upcoming where we investigate alternative fuel trains. Given that

New Giveaway: ABC's for Expectant Dads - 10 awesome copies

Winners have been picked for the giveaway. Todd was so nice as to give all who entered by the deadline a copy of his book. Thanks all who entered...I sent an email to you for your info. Please email me (info on the header) if you don't get that email. Rommel I could not find your email...please let me know your contact info. A bit ago I found Todd Lieman in Twitterland and he sent me a copy of his book ABC's for Expectant Dads: The Ultimate A- for Dads-in-Training. I'd looked at a bunch of expectant dad books and I thought most were terrible. I did pick up The Expectant Father and I liked it but I haven't looked at it in months. I think it's tough for dad's because we're just reading about what's going on with the mothers and it's easier to hear it from them. Staci is reading so much that she keeps me up to date on things I should know and I'm sure most expectant moms are the same. I'm also luckily in that doing this blog has connected