Man cannot live by Star Wars alone, but given the chance he will try.

Thomas looking pitiful, missing his mom

With Beth's four day absence still weeks ahead of us, Thomas and I began giving each other knowing glances that reminded me of the glances my sister and I would share in junior high when we knew our parents were going to be out of the house for an extended period. Glances like these are nothing but trouble. Thomas would also occasionally tap the top of his head when Beth was not looking. This is sign language for, "I have an idea. Let's watch Star Wars when mommy leaves." My reply to this is always the "shh" sign - we can't let mommy know!

As you can tell by this public post, our secret rendezvous' in a galaxy far, far away are hardly secret. I think Thomas even guesses as much, but the game is still fun. And it makes our father-son time together all the more exciting. For the past year, depending on the timing of Beth's absence, we've had two other guests at our Star Wars screenings - Russell and Elliot. This has seriously hampered our Star Wars viewing, as these two are only allowed to "watch" the first Star Wars movie. (For geeks, that's chronologically by release date, not episodically.) Watch is in quotes because generally speaking the movie is simply on as the twins play legos, paying little attention to movie Thomas and I are watching.

Daddy's famous yogurt with cinnamon swirl

You see, in my boys' world, the Star Wars movies are "released" one at a time each year on their birthdays. For the past couple years, Thomas and I have had overnights on the pull-out couch for the "release" of Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. With the twin's birthday just a couple weeks past, this weekend was the official Russell and Elliot premiere of the Empire Strikes Back. And three nights was perfect, because we watch the movies one act at a time - usually no more than 45 minutes.

Russell and Elliot getting cleaned up for church

So each night after dinner the four of us boys would go down stairs and snuggle up on the couch. Thursday night was the battle on Hoth. Friday night was Luke's meeting with Yoda and the Millennium Falcon's chase through the asteroid belt. Saturday night was the carbon freezing of Han Solo on Cloud City and the startling revelation of Luke's paternity. It was good times. By that time of day, I had little energy for anything else and the boys really did want to snuggle. Elliot had my left knee, Russell was under my right arm, and Thomas - always wanting to be like Elliot - sat on my right knee. This situation lasted for five minutes before Russell was off to destroy something. Elliot would last a bit longer. And ultimately it would end up Thomas and I enjoying our favorite space opera together.

Stopping by Hy-Vee before church to get food for the picnic

On Sunday, the four of us all went to church. This was a major feat in-and-of-itself, but seemed important to do since it was Pentecost. Thanks to the help of many, many women in the church (but especially Juliana and Angela), we survived. Thomas was great, but of course this was partially due to the fact that I had bribed him with - you guessed it - one final Star Wars viewing. So on Sunday night, as I put the twins to bed, I put in Return of the Jedi for Thomas. (At four, he's still figuring out the plot-line and I think he actually wanted to see what happened to Han.) When the boys were in bed, I came down to join him.

Thomas' new favorite game to play while watching Star Wars is for us to pick characters and voice their thoughts. In the final act of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader's conscious was voiced by Thomas and Luke's by myself. This generally amounts to, "Ouch, that hurt when you cut off my hand," as Luke returns Vader's favor from the previous episode and "Eww, you're uglier than I thought," as Luke takes off Vader's mask. (Once again for geeks, it's a lot like MST3K.)

Thomas held this position for several minutes upon hearing mommy should be home soon.

As we were going to bed last night, I think we were both a bit Star Wars-ed out. And more to the point, I think we were both "missing mommy." It was like the simultaneous full and empty feeling accompanying the consumption of too many sweets. I told Thomas how I was feeling. He said he was missing mommy, too. We decided I may let him watch Star Wars, but Beth's cooking is better. We also decided he was lucky to have both a mommy and a daddy. As I type this up, Beth will be home any minute and the sci-fi free-for-all will be over. I think we'll all be glad to witness the Return of the Mommy.