Today, Derek had to say goodbye to his baby girl for six weeks. We have done a couple 4 week stretches, but this will be the longest they will have been apart thus far. I know six weeks isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but six weeks seems like such a long time in the world of toddlers. Selfishly, I'm worried about how I'm going to handle it. This is the first time where Derek will have been gone for a long period of time since Shelby has really started communicating and understanding things. I'm dreading her constantly asking every single day where her Daddy is b/c how do you explain that to a two year old? But I know we'll get through it, and the two of us girls will have a fun month together even though we'll be missing Daddy like crazy. It almost seemed like Shelby was sensing something was coming b/c she was being extra sweet & snuggly with Derek last night. I snapped this picture with my phone of Shelby hugging Daddy as they were heading upstairs for bedtime last night. It seriously melts my heart.
And here are a couple more pictures I took this morning before we headed out the door for the airport...
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This one is a bit blurry, but we seriously love how
Shelby pats our backs when we give her a hug. :) |
Derek is en route to Houston as I am typing this. He will have a short layover there before his direct flight from Houston to Germany. He will be working in an ICU there for the next four weeks, and I think it will be a great experience for him! We love you & miss you, Derek!
On a completely unrelated note, I hope to get the recap of Shelby's birthday up sometime this week! :)
"Daddy is at work" is what I always tell Cheyanne. She gets it now when we say he is working. That seems to squash any other concerns. She doesn't know what his work means besides flies an airplane, but that is enough for her to answer the question since she can visualize an airplane. Maybe you can think of something that Shelby can visualize to help her imagine where Daddy is. I hope you girls have a fun time together! There might be hard days, but its such a blessing to have time one and one to make memories. Good luck :)
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