missing daddy

A couple of weeks ago, Daddy left for business to California for 2 weeks. I knew right away that the biggest challenge for me is all the after school activities: church class, dance, soccer, soccer practice, lip sync, drama class. Some of these activities happen right after the other, so someone will have to miss something.

The first week was a doozy, especially that one of Big M's soccer practice was at 7 o'clock. It was simply way too late for the girls and Little M to tag along. I wanted to skip it, but Big M was due for a little recognition for executing a signature move during a game. So there we were, late at night, the girls were fine playing with their lip pad at first. Half way through the practice they got tired. So I walked them and Little M around the school. Following Little M was a job and a half in itself. It was a tiring night followed by a tiring day the next day.

All that first week, we went to as many things as possible. The only consolation was that the girls' dance was cancelled due to the weather. After week 1, week 2 was a matter of which one we will make instead of which one we will miss.

For Little M, every morning for 3-4 days, he looked for his Daddy. I had to remind him that Daddy was at work far far away that he had to ride the airplane to get there. "Oh, Daddy is at work," he'd say. After about 4 days, he stopped looking for him in the morning, but he would demand that he talk to Daddy via video on the iphone. If I told him no, he cried and screamed. Hearing this was hard on Daddy, too. Couple with the high-blood pressure problem that plagued him the minute he got off the plane in California, he was quite homesick. His blood pressure meds were changed and was not working for him. Stress of being away from family, or he truly has health problems? He was understandably worried, and so was I.

The 2nd week being away from home was extremely hard for him. As day 13 was nearing, the day he was to fly home, the weather was not looking too good. We were due for a massive snow storm in Upstate NY, one that would dump up to 16 inches of snow. He was to fly in on the evening of that storm, and so I suggested that he move his flight. I didn't want him to get stuck in the airport. So he changed his flight, but he couldn't get an earlier one, he got a flight one day later. When you're missing a loved ones, you count down the days when you would get reunited, and when that day gets delayed even just one day it is really hard. The children asked me to write the days down on a calendar so they would know when Daddy would be home too.

When Daddy did finally get home, it was right back into the routine. I was sick and couldn't make Big M's church class, so Daddy was supposed to take him. Only right when they were to leave, Daddy didn't feel good and measured his blood pressure again. It was high. He went to the urgent care instead. Thankfully, he someone that thought his blood pressure meds was nonsense and switched him to a different one. It worked. Daddy was relieved in that he wasn't having heart problems afterall. We were all relieved.

In the end, we agreed that 2 weeks was way too long for him, for me, and for the kids. He would try to arrange business trips to be slightly less than that.