Going Away

I have been preparing Jacinda for a while now that I was going to be out of town for "school" (very important job-related training). She seemed fine with it until the day before I had to leave.
Her behavior was horrible and I was irritable because of everything that had to be done. It was not a conducive environment to a picture-perfect mother/daughter relationship. But once we both got our acts together and honestly talked about the fact we were sad that we had to be apart...things improved dramatically.
Once I put her to bed that evening...my little elf work began. I was determined to make sure my absence was tolerable for her and for my family members who would be filling in for me as chief caretaker. I carefully made little snack bags for all five school days complete with little stickers and little notes written for each day. I painstakingly picked out school and sports outfits from underwear to hair accessories. I lined up who was taking her to piano, dance, soccer and school. I set out five cups and packets of Carnation Instant Breakfast, so there would be no manipulating Grammy into letting her eat powdered donuts for breakfast. I picked out five Soup at Hands which added a vegetable to her diet in a very sneaky way and most of all I told her repeatedly how very much I was going to miss her.
Plans were all made and we were both prepared to be apart. However, one and a half days into my training, the instructor suffered a tragic family loss and the class was cancelled. So I headed home to my girl.
She thanked me a dozen times for coming home early. And the sweetest surprise for me was that for every one of my little notes I tucked into her snack bags, she had written one back to me. Just another sweet mommy moment I am going to cherish for the rest of my life!