My poor, poor husband. He's had quite an adventure today, trying to find his way home to us. On the way to the Dallas airport this morning, his cab driver rear-ended another car. This delay caused Chris to miss his flight, setting in motion hours and hours of arguments, finagling, pleading, etc. with the lovely employees of American Airlines. Chris was supposed to be home at 11:50am. It is now 8:05pm, and he is still stuck at the airport. After such a fun evening last night, he has had such a crap day. We are hoping he will be home before midnight, but we don't really know for sure. All I truly care about is that he gets home safely, but I also really wish he was here with me right now.
I've been holding down the home front as best I can, but with the one-two combo of a now-canceled trip to Indiana and no Daddy all day long, I've had a rather sad four-year-old on my hands. Combined with a teething, crabby infant and my own increasing disappointment, the day has been pretty long and miserable. After approximately the fifth despondent phone call from Chris saying he was still at the airport and had been denied a seat on yet another plane (flying standby is So. Much. Fun!), I finally grabbed the girls and ran for the car, desperate to be anywhere but home. So...we headed to the mall.
As we pulled into the parking lot, Emma immediately got very excited. "The mall and the 'quarium are my two favorite places!" she screamed. We got out the stroller, went inside and just wandered around. I let Em ride the "escavator" all by herself, and it was a gas to see Sophie start crying as Emma headed up, up, up and away, and then quickly switch to ecstatic giggles as Em came back down, down, down the stairs to us again. Em was so proud of herself, and she gave Sophie a kiss on the nose and said, "Did you miss me? Did you? Did you?" in her best baby-talk voice as Sophie just smiled and smiled. I was reminded once again of how easy it can be to please a child. A whole day of disappointments wiped away with one ride up and down an escalator. Poof!
Sometime later - after a silly phone argument with my sister, a grocery store excursion that did not go nearly as smoothly as the mall, and the continued uncertainty of whether my husband was making it home tonight - I hit my wall. I'm never proud of these moments, but I actually sat down on the bed and had a minor pity party for myself. Em asked why I was crying, and I told her that I missed Daddy. She climbed on my knee - the one not already occupied by Sophie - and said, "It's okay, Mommy. Daddy's going to be home at 9 of the o'clock and he's going to tiptoe in and give me a kiss while I'm sleeping and I'm for sure that he will give you a kiss too." Then she gave me a hug and told Sophie to give me one too b/c "Mommy is sad and she is so nice to us."
So I got up, made spaghetti, snuggled in with my girls, watched Dora, and luxuriated in the knowledge and appreciation of how wholly, utterly, completely loved I am. The girls are in bed now and Chris just called, having (finally!) secured a seat on a flight. And so I wait to greet him at the door with a big hug and kiss (and maybe a drink in my hand - he's earned it), and you can bet the first words out of my mouth are going to be all about how incredibly special our daughters are.
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