Watching K's- Heart Break
My toddler may actually be experiencing her first "broken heart" and "lost love" and we're all sad because of it. We spent a wonderful weekend with my best friend and her little girl. We shopped for wedding guest outfit accessories, we played with the girls, we watched the girls play together, we talked, we laughed, we discovered my daughter now loves to ride in a car seat in the car - oh the novelty, we took their dog for walks and played ball, we talked some more, we had late nights and nap times that didn't want to happen, we went to the park, the mall and just hung out; ultimately, we had a great girls weekend with toddlers and dog in tow.
Then they left early this morning in hopes of making it home by dinner time and I wish them a quick, safe and quite drive home this afternoon. While the visit didn't go as planned or as we'd hoped, we had a ton of fun! Saying goodbye is always hard and it's sad to watch them drive away. As adults we're used to it, my best friend and I have long since stopped living in the same state and our visits are infrequent. Our conversations aren't. In fact they happen daily, sometime multiple times a day. For our toddlers, saying goodbye is a different story. The girls are only a year and a half and two. Ultimately, they don't wholly understand what is going on. My toddler, at 18 months was devastated this morning that they were leaving and we weren't. She was sad that we had to say "goodbye" and stay. I'm not sure she understood why they got to "go home" while she had to "stay home" no matter how hard we tried to explain it to her.
Turns out K's- devastation was multiplied. Not only were our friends leaving, but so was the car and the worst blow of all the dog left too! It was their dog, of course it was going to go with them, but K- became super attached to it in the 2 full days they were here. She couldn't wait to get up to see the "doggie" and followed her around saying "black, nice, like it, pretty, love it, pet, dog, doggie, cute, soft, fluffy, drinking, running, barking, walking." D- and I have no intention of owning a dog right now, nor is our apartment complex animal friendly, so having a dog around for 2 days was the ultimate treat and than seeing it leave was akin to the ultimate betrayal in K's- eyes. Oops.
Watching the car drive away was a close second. K- (and I to a lesser extent) got spoiled while they were here for 2 days, because we didn't have to walk or take the bus. We could just drive wherever it was we were going, making getting from point a to point b a lot faster.
D- and I don't own a car. We will, I'm sure in the future have to move to a large city where it's not an absolute essential because public transportation is just that good, or we'll have to finally suck it up and join the vehicle owning masses. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I owned a car when we got married. About a week after we tied the knot, my car was totaled in an unfortunate, but possibly fortuitous freak accident (shortly after that we moved abroad) so that was the end our our car ownership. With D- being a student and me being at home with K-, living on a tight budget, and not knowing whether we'll stay in the States after D- graduates a vehicle isn't an absolute necessity and not currently owning one for expense alone makes sense. We live close enough to everything we need to walk, ride bikes or take the bus and our city just isn't that big. It's a life style choice that we've committed ourselves to while D- is in school. We'll reassess our decision when he graduates and starts working full time if we remain in the US. But that's not something that can easily be explained to a toddler who has decided her car seat is "comfy" and she loves riding in the car. This bodes really well for our upcoming trip to Canada at the end of the summer! I hope that her love affair with her car seat maintains itself at least throughout the duration of our trip as it will make everyone's life easier and the trip itself that much more enjoyable for everyone. But it's hard to say.
In the meantime we spent all morning mourning the loss of the dog alternating crying inconsolably because the dog is "missing" and talking seriously about how we'll "See it. Tomorrow" - her words not mine. Poor girl, she's optimistic that they've only temporarily left while somehow also recognizing that they're not here now. We spent the rest of the morning wanting to be buckled into our car seat on the living room floor and pretending to ride in the car and wanting to go places in it. Well see what happens when we wake up from nap and find out they're gone all over again.
...It may be a very long day....
No comments:
Post a Comment