Mommy has left...

... daddy here.

My wife has been in US for one week, for work, and during her entire absence, I had to listen to M. repeating "maman est partie" (mommy has left). Sometimes followed by "la, papa!" (here, daddy!). Over and over again, especially in key moments like when getting him out of bed or getting him from the nursery - both moments when he was expecting my wife.

The time spent in the car from the nursery to our home has been particularly challenging. Between D. who kept telling me about all kinds of Pokemon (when not asking me to tell him a story with indians and pokemons...) and M. who kept repeating that his mother has left, my brains were regularly exploding.

Luckily alcohol has been invented!

Kidding, luckily I have two amazing children who are very reasonable, extremely reasonable for their age. Yes, sure the first born has had some jealousy fits, in which he was asking all kinds of nonsense only to have me taken care of him. Yes, sure the second born has had his "throw on the floor all possible items i can find then walk over them" evenings. But they understood the situation and helped me to the best of their abilities.

The highlight moment happened one evening, when I was reading a book to the little one before putting him to bed and D. was watching cartoons downstairs. In M.'s room there is his criddle and next to it a normal bed sometimes used if we need to sleep with him. Because the first born kept yelling that he wants a different cartoon (attention seeker when he's jealous), I left M. with a book on the big bed, I closed the door and went downstairs.When I got back, he was in his criddle, lying down, eyes closed, ready to sleep. I kissed him, turned off the light and that was it....

I was really happy then. It changed when the next morning I got 30 minutes of "mommy has left", of course.


Oh, and another fun moment was in the car one evening when D., with an exasperated tone, said "but we already told you she'll be back!"