Emotional

I was leaving to go out of town on Thursday night and was going to be coming back on Friday evening. I told both kids and we talked about it and talked about what I was going to be doing. Well, Thurs. after soccer practice, I came home, got Tatum and Keaton bathed and all the kids put to bed, when Tatum gets EMOTIONAL. I don't mean "oh mommy I will miss you" or "I will be thinking of you mommy when you're gone". It was a full blown emotional meltdown. She was crying huge tears and saying things like "I cant do it with out", "I don't know if I will make it at school without you", "My heart will hurt while you are gone". OK, I am not some weird mom who sits outside my kids class to make sure she is alright. So, we went through all her activities and talked about how she does those things by herself (dance, soccer, school, church). During this conversation is became apparent that there are not many times when she is away from me that I am not in the same building or right next door. At soccer, I am there watching her. At dance, I am out in the lobby watching her. At Church, I can get to her in less than 5 minutes. The only real time she is 'away' from me is at school. So, I have decided that starting with dance, I am going to drop her off and then leave for a little while. Hopefully she will begin to see that she can 'make it' without me there.

I went on my trip and she was perfectly fine. I had given her one of my necklaces that is a heart and let her wear it to school so she would have 'mommies heart' with her.

When I got home, Tatum and Keaton acted as if I had been gone for a week! It was kinda nice to see that they missed me. They had done a good job, so Jarrek went to get them ice cream. While he was gone, Keaton pinched/smashed his finger in a big spotlight flashlight we have. You would have thought his finger was cut off. He screamed like I have never heard him scream before. It took him probably a 1/2 hour before he even let either of us look at it. It doesn't look bad, but he was obviously hurting. He sat on the couch and held his finger and cried for probably an hour. Tatum felt sorry for him so she sat next to him and spoon feed him his ice cream. Sometimes they can be so sweet to each other! Finally, he calmed down. I looked over at the couch and he was asleep. Then, boom, he wakes up crying "my finger, my finger". So, Keaton is sleeping with mom and dad tonight.

Tomorrow is our second soccer game. Hopefully Keaton's team picked up on some skills at practice this week. I will keep you posted!