(I’m listening to the Swingers soundtrack as I write this)

On the drive from the airport to home, I was hit by a barrage of text messages from the wife.  “Don’t let the cat out!  He just cried up and down the hall!  Now Littles (what we call our first daughter) is up and she thinks it’s morning.  That cat is an A-Hole! And DO NOT lay in bed with Littles under any circumstance after bedtime or nap time.  That will F us all going forward.”  Welcome home to me!

As I walked in the door, the situation didn’t improve.  The wife was at wits end with the cat; he ended up locked downstairs.  I figured it was better than the suggestions she had.  I unpacked, and tried to go to sleep.  Within 5 minutes, Littles yelled out for “daddy.”  As I went in to check on her, Tiny (what we call our youngest daughter) decided she wanted in on the action too and promptly started to cry.  So, I got to juggle two crying kids at 3am.  In all fairness, the wife took on Tiny’s 7th and 8th teeth, transitioning Littles to a “Big Girl Bed,” Daylight Saving Time, and a crying cat while I was gone, so I was more than happy to be dad in the wee hours of the morning.

After I got both girls down and crawled into bed; wash, rinse, repeat, two more times.  Both girls were up again and dad was to the rescue.  I even had to get the wife, “Chocolate, but not chocolate” milk for a 3am snack.  Finally, all was quiet.

Any other night, being dad might have been less than ideal, but, I had just been human for a 48 hour period.  My trip to Las Vegas was great!  I got to see the parents.  I went to a NASCAR race with my dad and nephew.  After all expenses, I broke even on the trip, thanks to a couple of great craps table rolls on the first night.  We saw a show, stayed out until 4am, I got to teach my nephew how to play craps, and, we capped off the vacation with a trip to the Hoover Dam.

After cleaning up cat poop, tending to two kids that couldn’t sleep, and a wife cursing in the middle of the night, it was still great to be home.  These are my monkeys and this is my circus.