Weekend without husband + baby to myself ≠ relaxation

This weekend, Brian took a very short trip to Florida to help our friend Anthony move some of his parents' things down. Anthony was planning on driving straight through (about 24 hours) so Brian tagged along to keep Anthony company - and keep him awake! They left Friday night around 9 p.m. and Brian flew back last night during the Super Bowl.

A unexpected weekend by myself with the baby at first seemed like it might be fun - it would be an excuse to not clean (hey, who would watch the baby while I mopped or dusted? I can't pick him up with chemical-laden hands!) and we could play all day.

At this point, I'm sure those of you with little kids are laughing at my naivety. A relaxing weekend? With a baby? By yourself? (Looking back, it's laughable, I agree. In my defense, I'm something of an optimist...most of the time.)

Saturday actually was a great day. I showered, straightened up, played with the baby and even took the little Penguin shopping with Brian's mom. Landon behaved himself beautifully. Sunday, however, was a bit of a different story. By this time, I think Landon realized that Dad was MIA, so he didn't want me out of his sight. He was fine playing on the floor by himself - as long as I was in the same room. If I ran to the kitchen, Landon got upset. If I laid him down for a nap, Landon got upset.

Someone got so sleepy during our Saturday shopping trip that it was just too much work to sit up all the way. So he lounged in the cart while Grammie and Mommy shopped.

However, we survived. And since I leave for Atlanta tomorrow afternoon (I'm headed to United Way's Brand Forum for a few days), Brian gets to have his own "single parent" experience.

Speaking of my trip, I'm a tad bit nervous. Public transportation and I don't get along. The last time I took public transportation in a strange city was when I went to Boston in college...and that's didn't go so well. Instead of looking at the map of the bus routes, we looked at the map of the subway routes. We thought we needed the yellow bus, so we got on that bus. Well, as you probably guessed, that was wrong. We took an hour bus ride to nowhere. At the end of the route, the driver asked where we were supposed to get off and we had to admit that we shouldn't have gotten on in the first place. Luckily, she was the nicest bus driver alive and let us ride back into Boston without charging us. Once back in Boston, we realized that a) we looked at the wrong map and b) we were actually within walking distance (3 blocks) of where we wanted to go. On a positive note (see, I am an optimist! There is a silver lining in every story!), our bus trip took us right by our motel, so we didn't have to worry about finding where we were staying.

So, I'm a bit afraid of the same kind of thing happening again. I have to take the subway from the airport to Peachtree Center, all without getting lost, getting off at the wrong stop or taking the wrong train. This is going to be tough.