When Abba's away...

...the girls will play.

Jeff is on a business trip-- he went to Oakland after work yesterday evening with others from his work, to do non-stop tax returns (mostly for fire fighters, apparently-- kind of their niche up there) tomorrow and the next day. He won't be home until tomorrow night.

We got through last night with only a bit of difficulty; Bridey woke up every few hours screaming for no discernable reason, had to be cuddled for a few minutes then put back down. (And yet, she slept through the INCREDIBLY LOUD paint sprayers right outside this morning. Go figure.) Emma was a little anxious to go to sleep with me instead of laying on her own bed with Abba (she's been sleeping in the inflatable on our bedroom floor, better than having her in our bed, but I can't lie there right now, at least not if I want to get up, you know, ever, and she won't fall asleep alone, so she came in the bed with me), mostly expressing this in a fight over whose pillow she was going to use (she wanted mine. I said no way. She ended up with Abba's.) But most of her anxiety was dealt with pretty well, mostly because of excitement over getting to go to the store with Grandpa (who picked her up from preschool, and took her shopping with him and let her pick out treats to bring home) and our pizza party tonight.

You see, since Abba had to leave us, I thought we'd have some fun without him. Something for Emma to look forward to and tell him about, you know. So tonight, we're having a pizza party. The pizzas are ordered (should be here in 10 minutes or so, as I write), and we're going to watch movies (I'm starting early so I won't miss my Friday night shows ;) ), eat popcorn, drink special drinks (soda for me, undiluted apple juice for Bridey-- she usually gets about 1 part juice to at least 4 parts water, if not more, and horchata for Emma), and have cookies, candy, and I even ordered hot apple pie snacks from the pizza place, which we NEVER have. Emma keeps saying, "We are going to have a PIZZA PARTY! And Abba can't come, but I will tell him about it, that is SO MEAN!" Then she giggles her little head off. (Of course, she said, "We are actually pretty nice, really. We will save him some pizza for when he comes home.")

I also let her help me open my package that came from Old Navy (with my 75% off maternity clothes, woo-hoo!) She loves to help open packages. She will have LOTS to tell Abba about tonight!