Still Recovering

While Annalee has uttered quite a number of words, two particular ones had not been said together before a phone call from Texas to Rhode Island this morning. I have learned in the course of not quite two years of fatherhood that you cannot predict what gestures, words, or moments will reach into your insides and untie you, painfully and beautifully. I have also learned that it doesn't take much. "Hi, Dad" might not seem like devastatingly beautiful words coming from a toddler over a long-distance line, but I know otherwise. I'm still recovering.

Week From Tomorrow

Annalee and Kim left for Rhode Island today, where they'll pass much of the time that Daddy will spend in England. You would think, from the sound of things, that we're talking about months here, or at least weeks, when really it's a matter of days. On the other hand, when one is very little, an hour can last a whole day; a whole day can last weeks. So, part of me knows that the separation will seem longer to my princess than it may to her folks. On the other hand, the child sense of time has been returning to me to some degree since becoming a parent. All of this is to say that I cried a little saying goodbye to my muffin this morning, as I expect I will saying hello a week from tomorrow.