I Want Him Back

Mike's work schedule isn't as intense as it was during the first half of the year, but he's never home before 6:30, and that's with a 5 minute commute, so it's not like he has tons of free time either. Include duty days and underway time when we don't get to see him at all and there are definitely times when Grace misses her daddy.

When Mike is fortunate enough to get the elusive work-free weekend, you can bet that Grace will wake up Monday morning looking for him. She gets used to having him around for two consecutive days and she goes through a little bit of withdrawal on Monday morning. She climbs into my bed and asks me, "Where's my daddy?" When I tell her he's on the ship, she often follows with, "Is he coming home later?"

We stayed home today so I could work on some projects- mainly preschool research and household chores. Grace asked me to play with her several times and I happily obliged, but there were a couple times when I just wanted to finish up with what I was doing so I told her I would be there in a bit. I heard her murmur to herself, "Daddy's going to play with me when he gets home." It was the sweetest thing.

Then this evening when we were eating dinner, Grace asked when Mike was coming home. I told her that he had to sleep on the ship tonight because he had duty. She started whimpering and saying, "But I want him back!"

I felt so sorry for her that I gave her an extra scoop of ice cream for dessert. She was still missing her daddy, but that ice cream did help put a big ol' smile on her face.

Still trying to master the art of winking...