Difficult Partings

We have great trouble leaving Nikki Dee these days because goodbye's upset her so much. It's hard to know what to do; often, we'll try to sneak out to prevent her from having a meltdown, but we don't want to lose her trust either. Yet, if we do leave with normal goodbyes she'll wail pitifully and want desperately to come with us. She'll find her shoes and bring them to us with so much hope in her heart. This sometimes works as it's really really tough to let this darling kid down.

Yesterday, she somehow picked up the cue that we would be going in a little while because she was getting her shoes and jabbering about the car well before we had made any sort of tangible move. I'm not sure exactly what the cue was, but she's a very clever little girl to have figured it out.

Mom and Amma got her out to the car before me, and this is the sight that greeted me when I arrived to take my place behind the wheel. There she was sitting in the driver's seat wearing Buppa's jaunty cap and sunglasses.





Oddly enough, even though she clearly wanted to come with us, she still had some mournful farewells for her parents. As we were driving up the street, there was a repeated, "Bye Daddy, bye mommy." Soon, however, Cuppa started up her Raffi CD, and Nikki Dee smiled happily and got into her Raffi groove. Let's hear it for Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue Sea.

I don't know how we're all going to be able to deal with partings in the future because I don't expect that it's going to get any easier.

However, I do trust that she will leave the driving to me for about another fourteen years.