Saying Goodbye

Hannah has understood the ramifications of goodbye for quite a long time now. She knows you say goodbye and then you don't see that person for a while, whether it's Daddy going to work for the day, or friends she'll see in a few days, or grandparents she'll see in a few weeks. Ordinarily, she's fine with that but today she had a pretty rough time of it.

Mom had asked us to come back to Wisconsin for a visit, but I said no thanks :) Actually, I said I wasn't quite up for traveling with both girls by myself yet. Eliza still eats fairly frequently and Hannah needs to use the potty fairly frequently and I am just not ready to deal with all that comes with road tripping with 2 small children alone. Usually when we go back to Wisconsin we stay for a few days and I allow Lance the opportunity to opt out, which he does. Hannah and I traveled back to Wisconsin several times on our own and it was always fine, but add a new baby to the mix and you just never know.

So, I suggested mom come out here and stay for a few days. We have a small twin-bed upstairs at one end of the playroom that is known as "hoo-hoo's" bed. Mom actually bought it for herself back when Eliza was born and she came out to stay with us and help me out after Lance went back to work. Hannah LOVES when hoo hoo comes to visit. We get hoo hoo's bed ready and make sure the playroom is walk-through-able and talk about what we're going to do when she's here.

At night when I put Hannah to bed mom's first night here, I reminded Hannah that when she wakes up she needs to go wake up hoo hoo. Don't bother coming into mommy and daddy's room, just go straight to hoo hoo's and tell her "wake up!" So, that's what she does. Each morning she woke up, I would hear her little feet hit the floor and then patter patter out to the porch, followed by "hello? hello? I here now" :) It's my mom, so I don't feel at all guilty about waking her up in the morning…that's what she's here for!

Hannah was insistent that we take hoo hoo to the muffin store and the bread store when she was here, so we did. We also took her to the toy store so Hannah could show her all the things she likes most. But the majority of the time was spent just hanging out, reading books, playing in the yard, doing things that grandmas do. (dishes)

This morning it was time for mom to leave and when she told Hannah that, she didn't take it well. It turned the morning into one long tantrum after another. I realize now it was how she was expressing her dislike at the situation… But after we sent hoo hoo on her way with waves from our porch, we came back inside to start doing some morning routine things and I heard Hannah snuffle. I turned to look at her and she had these big tears rolling down her face and her little mouth was in such a sad face it made me crouch down immediately to see what was wrong. She said she was sad that hoo hoo left and she wants her to come back. It was so sincere and genuine that it actually made me cry a little! I was caught so off guard, I just wasn't expecting that at all.