Daddy & Sosini weekend

Last weekend, for the first time since I flew to Nashville to meet 5-week-old Peter in January 2010, I spent a weekend away from The Great Sosini.  It was liberating and heart-wrenching at the same time, but I knew she was in good hands at home with Andrew.  Plus, I had plenty of distraction; I helped my mom's side of the family celebrate the high school graduation of my sister-cousin, Abbey.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share from my trip because I forgot to get a copy of them from my mom, and she is currently in the midst of moving from LA to Dallas, so I don't really feel like I can bother her for them at the moment. 

Just like the last time Andrew had a solo-parenting weekend, he proved that he is a fantastic father, great housekeeper (the house was sparkling clean when I arrived home!), and the best husband I could have ever imagined.  Although he seemed a bit on the exhausted side, he claimed to have had a lovely weekend with The Great Sosini, and Sonia was happy as a clam.

Here are the awesome pictures that Andrew texted me while I was away.  He did such a great job showing Sonia a good time and sending me the occasional picture to keep me from suffering too greatly from Sosini-withdrawal.  This first set of pictures is from a playgroup outing to Cantigny to check out the beautiful park grounds and awesome tanks.

Of course, Andrew had Sonia reenact a famous scene from the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.  I mean, who wouldn't?

When he sent this next picture to me, he entitled it "Indiana Jones": 

His caption for this next picture was "Dr. Strangelove".

Sonia and the boys were preparing to hijack this tank and take over the western suburbs of Chicago.

Sonia on a Panzer:

I'm not sure why Sonia looks so dour in this next picture, because if Andrew surprised me with a candle-lit dinner of take-out from Bavarian Lodge, I'd be ecstatic!

On Andrew's second day of solo parenting, he proved he is the coolest dad ever by driving Sonia all the way downtown to go to the Shedd Aquarium.  Seriously.  How awesome is that?  Predictably, Sosini LOVED the aquarium a ton.  I was so jealous that I had missed out on going to the Shedd that we went back this weekend!

Sonia was so wiped out from the Shedd adventure that she slept 30 minutes on the drive home, and then she let Andrew take her upstairs to her bed, where she proceeded to sleep for almost 2 more hours!!  Amazing.  This is practically unheard of for our child.  When Sleeping Beauty woke up, Andrew busted out the water table and let Sonia happily splash to her heart's content until dinnertime.  After dinner, Andrew decided that Sonia hadn't had enough of a wonderful day, so he took her out for ice cream after dinner.  DADDY OF THE YEAR!  Nay, THE DECADE!

Andrew had just 2/3rds of a day more to go, but he wasn't content to rest on his laurels.  Sunday morning, he brought Sonia to the Children's Garden at the arboretum to run amok.

When I got home from the airport that afternoon, Sonia was up from her nap and again happily splashing in her water table.  Sure, she was happy to see me, but I got the feeling that she hadn't missed me all that much.  Sosini was too busy having fun with her fantastic daddy! 

Thank you again, Andrew, for being so amazing.  You may not be Sonia's primary care-giver, but you have the incredible ability to step into that role with no problems whatsoever.  I wish I could clone you and sell you-- I would be a billionaire!  And, then you could retire and we would have fantastic adventures with The Great Sosini every day.  For now, trust me when I tell you that Sonia is the luckiest little girl on the planet to have you as her daddy.