My Mom has been visiting us for the last two weeks. It was a Godsend. Rose and I needed a break and some help and the opportunity to relax. My Mom was great at this: Sophia stuck by her side the whole visit and we even had a few opportunities to go out! We went to two movies in two weeks: a big deal for parents of a preschooler. Today was our last morning, and the two of them got one more walk in before we left. By late morning, we had dropped her off.

After we left the airport, Rose said “it’s quiet in the back seat”. We had just gone through two weeks of chattering and pretend and cards and now it seemed really quiet.

“I want a snack!” we heard from back there.

“Alright,” said Rose. She pulled out the bag to look for snacks. “How about these?”

“No.”

“How about strawberries?”

“No. I can’t eat those without Nana.”

We were quiet.

“Do we have any fruit snacks?”

“Yes. Here you go, Babe.”

After a few moments, we hear: “It sure is quiet in the back seat!”

And as if that weren’t bad enough she said she didn’t want to go home because Nana wasn’t there (sorry, Mom!).

It is amazing how much my daughter loves her grandparents, all four of them. When we told her that her Mimi and PawPaw were coming soon, she got all giddy. And I think the older our daughter gets and the closer it gets to the baby’s arrival, we get giddy, too.

It seems to me that as soon as we leave our parents’ house, our ability to tolerate them atrophies. It makes sense as an evolutionary tool to help separation. We love our parents, and we can even like spending time with them, but by the end of a week, everyone wants things to go back to normal.

That changes with kids. And for this family, two weeks didn’t feel like enough. We love you, Nana! Come back soon! And don’t forget Papa!