Thankful Day #22: When Daddy Comes Home

Today was sort of a meltdown day. It started off when Nate left for school this morning, Lyla started screaming and crying. I quickly ran downstairs and she was staring out the door window just crying and crying. Here was our conversation:

Me: Lyla are you ok? What happened? (The sobs continue and so I crouch down next to her and give her a hug) Oh, are you sad that dad left?

Lyla: Still sobbing, she nods her head.

Me: Oh sweetie, It's ok. He is just going to school. He'll be back later. (She continues the crying). Do you want me to call dad so you can talk to him?

Ly: No! I don't like him!!!

Me: What? That's not true, you love daddy.

Ly: I just want him hooome! Sobs continue...

I tell her it's going to be alright and that he was getting home early tonight and we were going to have 5 days with him all to ourselves, etc. This seems to stop her crying almost completely but she was still pretty emotional. So I walk into the kitchen and call Nate as he was still on his way to school and tell him what happened. So he asked to talk to her and I put the phone on speaker next to Lyla so he could talk to her and I could translate since I was pretty sure she wouldn't say anything.

You know when you're feeling really emotional and upset about something and when you see or hear that person, it takes everything within you to keep your tears from gushing out? Well, that's exactly how it was for Lyla. As soon as Nate started talking to her and trying to reassure her that everything was going to be ok, she was just silent and was working sooo hard to keep from losing it, occasionally letting out the high pitched little whimper. It was the saddest thing I had ever seen!

And then the emotions somehow transferred to me later in the day. Lyla ended up being in a great mood, thankfully. But I think it was a combo of different things going on for me... worries, children (and dogs) not listening to me, never ending cleaning, and some other things. So when I called Nate to see when he was coming home, it was me who was trying to hold it together and not unleash the waterworks.

And somehow, when Nate got home, everything was better for all of us. We all went to Chik-Fil-A for dinner and then went shopping for our Thanksgiving Extravaganza (I LOVE grocery shopping with my whole family!). The best part of our night (besides being together) was Lyla. The store we shop at has double seater, race car shopping carts where two kids can sit in the cart that looks like a car and they have little drivers wheels. The girls LOVE these carts and it makes shopping with them bearable and even fun! But when we went to get the car cart, Lyla saw something even better–a mini shopping cart with a huge obnoxious flag that says "Customer in Training"– and her eyes just lit up!! So the whole time, she dutifully carted along right by my side with such a proud look on her face! She wouldn't let anyone else push her cart and she wanted that thing filled to the brim! And then when it came to check out, she hand delivered every item in her cart, one-by-one, to the cashier. It was sooo cute and the cashier was very patient and encouraging. Hopefully next time she'll figure out the concept of moving out of people's way, not running into shelves, not running at all, etc.

Thanks Nate, for being so patient with your emotional girls. We LOOOVE you!