When the chief is away, the pirates will play. Also known as dad was at a conference and mom was in charge. In normal me fashion, we had chaos while my husband was away for two and a half days, causing me to count down every minute. One of these moments was a slightly embarrassing fight with a water hose while trying to hydrate my flowers. Pro tip: always turn off the water before you try to re-attach the nozzle to the hose. If you don’t then you hydrate yourself as much as your flowers. From there, we had the wonderful experience of tandem crying from 2 to 6 am followed by crescendo of pterodactyl noises. The children had no sleep, I had no sleep, and I felt like I was losing my mind. From my point of view, life was chaotic, and I was fairly certain that the children were running the show. From my husband’s perspective, he wanted nothing more than to be involved in the chaos. He wanted to be home and tag teaming the nightly schedule. He would rather be chasing a toddler and rocking a baby. As a stay-at-home mom, I sometimes have resentment over the amount of work I feel like I do versus my husband. I spend my day chasing a toddler, arguing with a German Shepperd, taking care of a teething baby, cleaning a house, doing homework, cooking meals, and working on laundry. My day doesn’t stop from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. I love what I do, but sometimes I feel like my husband has an easier job. What I never realized was how much my husband missed out on the small moments that make my day. He doesn’t get to see every smile or hear every word. He has missed firsts, that I have been fortunate to catch. As much as he loves his job, he wishes he could be home. Video chatting my husband while he was gone made me realize how much he misses us. He took every opportunity he could to call and check in on how we were doing. He talked to our children before bed each night. When he came home, he spent the afternoon hugging and playing with our babies. What I learned was that the things I sometimes take for granted are moments that my husband would love to have. Yes, those two and a half days were chaos, and I haven’t figured out how to help our kids miss their dad less, but I am blessed to be home every day, raising our beautiful babies. I am grateful that my husband provides the opportunity for me to stay home with them. Next week will bring the opportunity for more mutiny and I will lose to my little crew sometimes, but that’s okay…. the chief has to come home eventually.