I had to bring daddy to the airport and this made me very sad. I cried a lot. But I did get to go with mommy on a special date night to see my favourite singer, Jill Barber so that made it a bit better.

He said

Well… we finally hit the stage where Emelia is fully aware of what Daddy going away for two weeks really means. Something was off this week with her, we could definitely sense that. As the week wore on we started to figure out that she just wasn’t in approval of this whole work trip for me.

It culminated last night at dinner with Poppa and Grandma when Emelia proclaimed before taking a bite of dinner that she though she was going to throw up. We left mid dinner and headed home where both Danielle and I put the focus on her and getting her off to bed with both of us there to comfort her.

This morning wasn’t any easier. As she saw me moving the luggage around she became progressively more clingy and needing more hugs. The drop off at the airport was the hardest one yet. Despite explaining to her that this trip was shorter, that there was only one weekend with me away, and that she and Mommy have a lot of fun things planned, she wasn’t having it. The goodbye gate at London airport was teary eyed for all of us.

As I write this, I am on the tarmac at Pearson Airport, about to take off for the bigger leg of this trip from Toronto to San Francisco. This part of the trip is where it really sinks in for me how far away from home, Danielle and Emelia it takes me. Almost six hours in the air, and three hours of time zone change add to the distance. Thankfully this trip is just two weeks!

Now, as for the trip I am really excited about all that I will experience and learn—especially from the confines of a beautiful looking store in San Francisco and a management team that seem more than excited to welcome us into their home for the next two weeks. The first week we will work 2-11pm which given the three hour time change is going to a bit of an exercise adjusting to, but the second week we switch to 7-4pm shifts which will be a lot more manageable. All-in-all a very exciting experience.

When I get back it will be right to the house long enough to drop off my suitcase, hook Wolfie up to the CR-V and then off to a weekend of reconnecting with Danielle, Emelia and our beloved trailer at a campground just north of Port Huron, MI. I am really looking forward to that time with my girls and our first outing in the trailer.

The week after I return, I have found out I will likely be in Toronto, at the Yorkdale Apple store for my week of in-store role immersion. After that week, I should be all done and back home to London for the foreseeable future. The week in Toronto will be nice to reconnect with some of our Toronto friends and maybe even see a band play, but come the end of that week, I will be happy to be back home and to our bed as I am sure Danielle and Emelia will agree.

That’s all for me, I am going to put this chair back and watch a movie in the sky currently 9,640 or so metres above our house in London. In five more hours I will be in sunny California ready to eat the rear end of a cow!

She said

As John has said this trip was certainly the hardest for Emelia the weeks leading in. We have found lately she is even more emotional and vocal about how she is not happy with a few things going on. She isn’t happy with daddy leaving, she is far from impressed with her home being taken over by toddlers and babies and even more so that these toddlers and babies need a lot of my attention. She has had enough.

The week leading up to Sunday’s departure Emelia was very clingy to both John and I. She was more prone to meltdowns. Something wasn’t right and she didn’t know how to express it. We sat her down and really talked things over with her and although she is still not happy about the whole situation she is excited about plans we have this coming week.

I am actually writing my portion of this weeks blog on Monday while the wee ones rest, normally I put my part in as soon as John is done but Emelia and I had a very special night planned last night. A few months ago John purchased tickets for a show in Stratford, and not a regular show, a show with Matt and Jill Barber. Jill has a special place in our heart, not only is she a beautiful person inside and out, she has an incredible voice but most importantly she has been Emelia’s favourite singer since she was less than 2 years old. Every single night Emelia listens to Jill to help her drift off to sleep. As the dates were being settled for John’s training in California it was quickly discovered that he was not going to be home for the show. We were both disappointed. As the date grew closer and as Emelia was having an increasingly harder time at the idea that daddy was leaving for so long I decided that disaster or not I would make a special date night for she and I and we would take her to the show.

With Emelia’s emotional meltdown at the restaurant the night before John flew out I was concerned that this was not going to be a good idea but our girl woke the next day still upset that daddy was leaving but she was feeling fine. It was at that time we decided to tell her about our plans for that night, we hoped it would make daddy leaving a bit easier. There were still a lot of tears at the airport and after for her but she quickly became pretty excited about the idea of being able to stay up way past her bedtime and go on a little trip with mommy. She agreed to an afternoon nap and then we were off just after dinner.

The night was perfect, the venue was breathtaking. The Church Restaurant is just that a converted church to a beautiful restaurant. It was stunning. Emelia was in heaven, she spent the night snuggling in with me, giving me lots of hugs and kisses and singing along to Jill. She was the hit of the show (well after Jill of course). People kept commenting how sweet she was, how well behaved she was and how sweet it was that this little girl had a hero that sings jazz. She was so good and it will be a night I won’t soon forget.

The icing on the cake is that Emelia and I got to spend a fair bit of time catching up with Jill and chatting in between sets and after the show before we made the almost hour long drive back LONG after her bedtime. It was certainly a wonderful way to end what was not the best start of the day.

Hopefully the weeks fly by. Emelia and I have lots planned this week and hopefully we can keep ourselves from missing daddy too much. Only 13 more days and we are back together again.