Last night Leila was crying big elephant tears when I tried to put her to bed.  She told me she was missing her Daddy.  Leila does have a flair for drama, with a trip to Chicago on Monday and him leaving for Chicago early Tuesday morning, I miss him too so I gave her the benefit of the doubt, and a few extra snuggles.

It occurred to me that Leila has a states puzzle in her closet, so I got it down to look at with her.  I asked her if she knew where Daddy was, and we found Virginia on the map.  I traced the path that he had taken by plane to get there, and Leila had a giggle over how indirect it was…who goes to Michigan to get to  Virginia from Iowa?! 🙂

Next I showed her the path that he is taking tonight to get back to us before she wakes up in the morning.  He is flying much more directly, but through the black hole of delayed and cancelled flights that is O’Hare.  (Fingers crossed all goes as planned!)

Leila seemed a little happier, as she turned the Virginia puzzle piece over and over in her hand.   “Are you ready to go to sleep sweetie?”

“Yeah, but I am going to keep this with me,” she said, still holding tight to Virginia.  She rolled over and faced the wall and was asleep in no time.  This morning she was quick to tell me when she woke up that she missed her Daddy.

To compensate for her sadness I bought Curious George 2 at Target and am feeding the girls popcorn and skittles for dinner.  You can forward my mom of the year award any time!