Vacation

babywhumpus is on vacation, thus the relative silence here.

The day care is off this week, so Finn is staying with his grandparents about 2 hours away from here. I wasn't sure how I felt about this; it's the first time he has been away from both of us for more than one night.

I've been exhausted and rather down; I thought that I might feel a huge wave of relief as we pulled away from my parents' house, but that was not how it happened. I was sad--very sad, and there were tears. It was so strange to be leaving without all his stuff, without his car seat, without him.

The wave of relief never happened, and now I don't expect it to. It's nice to not have to do the 2 hours of day care transportation. It's great to get up at 8 and just have coffee. No diapers to wash. No hurried routine every night for getting home/dinner/play/bath/bed. No getting up at 2:00 in the morning. Well, almost no. I am still not sleeping through the night, exactly. And I'm 40, so I guess I can't blame him for not doing it either.

By all reports--we talk to him on Skype twice a day--he's doing excellently well. He has even slept through the night twice, and so far, he has not had any terrible nights. He's been to story time at the library, seen Amtrack trains ("Engine bye bye" is the most common refrain now); he's visited the grandparents' former workplaces; he's playing with some new friends this morning. He gets to go to the park and go for walks. All attention is devoted to him, and that's something we can't do.

I am ready to see him. Ready for hugs and kisses. I miss his little voice and the sound of him running from room to room--toddlers do not walk. We have a weekend ahead of us, and we have much we want to accomplish. Monday will be here faster than we can imagine, and then normal life is back.