Daddy's Return from Down Under...AGAIN!

Annabel looking so pretty, waiting for Daddy!
(This was before her diaper mess...so Daddy didn't see her in this outfit!)

HURRY HOME, DADDY!!!

Daniel was very excited to get a new blue AND black car from Daddy!
The kids also got adorable Australia t-shirts. Thank you so much, Daddy!

SO-Yes, you read that right. Ben was in Australia again- for the second time this year, the second time in Annabel's 6 months of life so far, a second time WITHOUT me! I still want to go someday...

Anyway, Team Mommy/Daniel/Annabel did just great! We missed Daddy tons, but we really did just fine. We're really glad he's back though!

How did Daniel do this time? Well, it was a little harder this time. Daniel very much remembered when Daddy was gone last time. Two days before Ben left, we told Daniel that Daddy was going to work far away again. Daniel remembered where Ben went- "to Australia" and immediately exclaimed "Daddy's going to get me a BLUE car this time!" (Ben got him a red car last time- Daniel remembered that and now this time he wanted a blue car- I made sure Ben knew this!) And that was all that was said about Daddy going away on Daniel's part. It wasn't until Ben left that Saturday, and not even right when he left, but later that day, that I think it hit Daniel. He just melted. I will never forget it- Daniel went and sat on the stairs in our front hallway and cried and cried and cried. He wouldn't let me near him for about 10 minutes, and then he let me in, he let me hold him and comfort him, and somehow I managed to distract him with going outside for some fresh air for a while. Anyway, it was heartbreaking how Daniel cried. But otherwise, Daniel was comforting me- he kept saying "Don't worry, Daddy always comes back" and giving me hugs when I had tears in my eyes. That was just so sweet! Beyond that first day, I'll be honest- our first week was HARD, Daniel was testing limits a LOT, but we got through it just fine. And the second week, well- it was wonderful, it really was. I was so pleased and so proud of Daniel. We just had an amazing week! It was nice to get into our groove and get our routines down pat and just really all enjoy each other.

How did Daniel react when Daddy came home? Daniel had just woken up from his nap, I was finishing up changing Annabel's diaper, and all of a sudden Daniel heard the garage door to the house opening ever so quietly and he rushed to the front hall to see "what was that?" and there was Daddy! He exclaimed "Daddy!" with the biggest smile on his face. And then it was like Daddy was never gone- just like last time. Daniel fell right back into playing and being with Daddy like he had been here all along. Ben was very tired, but he was a good sport and of course very ready to play with his little guy again!

And Annabel- I swear I've never seen her smile so big; she was clearly very happy to see Daddy, too! Well, it's either that or she felt much relieved having been freshly diapered after her big messy diaper ruined her brand-new "Daddy's girl" outfit literally minutes before Daddy arrived. I'm not kidding! I could NOT believe it!! I tried to catch her before the mess happened, but I was too late. At least I got pictures of her in the outfit before this all happened. Ben had been texting me along the way home (he took a limo home, too) with where he was and he was seriously just miles away when this fiasco happened. Seriously baby girl? Oh well- at least she had a back-up outfit with "I love Daddy" on it (I didn't get a picture of that outfit- we were too busy playing and catching up with Daddy!) and I was able to quickly put that on her. I had just finished getting her dressed again when Ben walked in. Ben was glad to have missed all that fun! It was pretty good timing, I'll say. Anyway, she just happily played away and smiled her winning smiles all night for Daddy!

We're sure glad Daddy's back home safe and sound!