M7: Mom's home again

I know it's been awhile since I last wrote, but it was a stressful week. We've had visitors helping Mom and Dad all month, but this past week Mom went away. She had a trip to do, she told us, and though she'd be close by she couldn't come be with us at night.

When she said goodbye I didn't really understand what she meant, so I just gave her lots of kisses and started playing with Grammy Joanne. But at bedtime I missed her. Mom's only missed bedtime like three times out entire life. And then she missed it two more times in a row and I started to realize what she meant.

Because Mom wasn't here to sing to me I didn't sleep very well. She sings the same song every night to us as we're getting tired and I love it. It's a very sweet song and always makes me tired. But she wasn't here to sing it, so I only slept for a few hours before waking up. I cried, thinking maybe she'd come in and sing to me, but only Dad showed up. He took me into their big bed, where we haven't slept since we were brand new, and cuddled me to him. That was nice. I tried crying in the middle of the night the next two nights, too, but again, only Dad showed up.

So, Mom really was gone. The days were fun with Grammy Joanne, since she plays with us a lot, but I missed Mom. Then one morning we got in the car with Dad and Grammy and when we stopped Mom was there. She pulled me right out of the stroller and held me close.

She smelled right, though a little smelly, and felt right and she had all kinds of kids walk by and say hello to us. It was her mission trip kids, she said. There was one guy, Jeff, who stopped and talked with us for awhile, too and he had good strong fingers to grip. Then Mom took us down to some room where we could play on the floor. She switched me with Eve, but I just wanted to crawl, so eventually I was put down.

Soon, though, I noticed the adults starting to get ready. You can tell when adults are getting ready to go somewhere because they say "Well," a lot and push out their chairs. Then Mom was kissing me again, just like she had a few days earlier. I now knew what that meant, and I didn't like it, but she handed me off to Dad and started kissing Eve before I could say anything. Eve started crying a little bit; she does that; and then Mom kissed Dad and walked down the hall.

I could tell she was sad because her voice had sounded all scrunchy as she walked out the room, so I didn't cry even though I really wanted to. Moms shouldn't leave their babies behind. Not when we try to be good babies.

But she's back now and finally yesterday I was able to relax that she wasn't going to leave again right away. So I napped. Two hours, Mom said. It meant I went to bed late last night, which I thought was fun, but Mom and Dad didn't. They kept talking about starting tonight they're going to be serious about bedtime again. We'll see.