collateral damage...

there has been much talk about Harlow here in the harlowfiles. stands to reason, these files are his. but there are others that deserve a mention. in fact, there are three others. Caiden Marcus, Cohen Ethan and Grayson Reid. these are the faces of collateral damage.

Caiden Marcus

Cohen Ethan

Grayson Reid

now i know that everything that has happened has been no ones fault, no one has said, "you! you did this!", and no one is going to. what has happened has been the fates poking us in the eye with a hot fork, and as we all know, the fates are female and unlimited in their creativity.

the three have put up with much since Justine went into hospital all that time ago. primarily its been "where's mum?". with Justine on bed rest for three weeks, then in hospital for a month, and now spending as much time as she can in the hospital, there is a chorus of "where's mum?" from the three. they miss her, and i'm not surprised, they have me....

they had me looking after them for two weeks while also trying to work a full day from home. poor buggers. you have no idea WHAT they put up with during those two weeks. there was grump for breakfast, exasperation for lunch and do-as-your-told for dinner ( when they were not having pizza and beer ). given a choice, i'm sure that they would have picked Oscar the Grouch to look after them instead.

since then, they have had three people come and stay, eager to help out. with them coming in, staying and then going, there has been little in the way of (what they know of as) stability. now all the "hired help" has gone, they are shuffled from pillar to post, staying with anyone who can spare an afternoon or a morning. yet, like the diamonds they are, they have endured.

they have grown. they have flourished. they are better people now than they were before this all began. they have started to help out around the house without being asked. Caiden will not only get himself breakfast, but will get it for Cohen as well. He helps Grayson in and out of his car seat. meanwhile, Cohen cleans. he will clean just about any damn thing (excepting maybe the toilets, we haven't tried asking him to do those). today, when the new beds turned up, he helped me put them together.

Grayson has been the least affected by the drama. he has remained pretty constant, although he knows something is up. he went into his new bed today without a single protest AND WITHOUT GETTING UP ONCE!! booyah, that's my boy >:]

i don't know what Justine and i did to get men like this, but i know that we do not deserve them.