Learning the Art of Good-bye

I've never been good at good-bye's. If the time away is going to be more than a month, I usually cry. I think it’s gotten worse after having a couple of babies, it certainly hasn't gotten better. Well now, I get to experience teaching a two year old "good-bye".
A trick I learned from my mom, in order to speed up the leaving process from something Payge was enjoying (i.e. park, friends house, the Y), was to say a cheerful good-bye to that thing. Little did I realize how quickly she would catch on to this concept. I noticed her doing it every once in awhile when it came time for bed, which encouraged me to reinforce this when needed.
So, when Spencer’s parents, nephew, and grandpa were in town we went to our city zoo. As we walked through the zoo Payge often would say, bye-bye to animals, mostly to the ones she seemed to find most interesting. This was really cute and everyone got quite a kick out of it.
Then came the dreaded good-bye to Papau, Grammy, cousin Drake and Great Grandpa. She and Drake enjoyed hanging out every moment and the first thing she would ask for in the morning, when I’d get her out of her crib, was if her beloved people were downstairs. (She had a unique way of saying all of their names, I think she called Drake “cole” most of the time because that the easiest name of all the cousins.) Then she would run to the stair railing to see if they were indeed awaiting her arrival downstairs.
Of course cute, but I was dreading Monday morning. Well, we actually had to deal with it when waking from a Sunday afternoon nap, because the good-bye process was done half asleep. Thankfully, daddy and sissy were there to help ease the blow, but how do you explain to a two year old how far some family live and that we can only see them for a little while a few times a year? Thankfully, they don’t have much concept of time and they truly live in the moment.
For now, having mommy and sissy there every morning when she gets up makes her very happy. I feel a secret joy in this, especially as I tell my beautiful girls that they are and will be each others best friend.
Today, we picked up Papa H to go to Costco. I think she might be a little sensitive, because when it came time to say good-bye… well there were many tears. At least the Backyardigans CD was handy and helped ease the pain.