Saturday, June 14, 2008

Ellie's departure to Iowa


Ellie flew off on a 9am flight today with Grandma and Grandpa Hawkes, to visit Iowa. We all dropped her off and things seemed to go decently well for the first while. We left the house at about 7...

and grabbed some breakfast at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe in Emeryvile (always a good breakfast stop). Then we shot over to the Oakland airport and ...

Ellie marched off as stoic as ever, and everyone seemed to be doing just fine. I should note that just this morning we saw some news video footage of dramatic flooding in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, both of which are no more than 50 miles from several of their stops in Iowa. My folks did not rent a Hummer, but at least they have a Subaru so the AWD will hopefully get them through any major mud or minor water. The flooding was so bad in some areas that south of Cedar Rapids I-80 has been shut down.

So then we tried to get ready to leave, which is when it all hit the fan.

Maddie and Shay lost it as soon as Ellie disappeared into the terminal. They both wanted "another hug" from Ellie and were just inconsolable. Maddie bucked up by the time we got to 880, but Shay never really recovered all of the way home.

During the day Shay lost it again at the thought of going to swim lessons without Ellie (they were in the same class). Thankfully she did great and tightened up before her lesson and both she and Maddie advanced to the next class. We took them up to the outlets in Vacaville to try and distract them and they did pretty well, especially while selecting snack bags at the Jelly Belly store. We hit Murrillo's for dinner and came home to be lazy for the rest of the evening. Everyone seemed to be doing great, until after books at bed time. Maddie just lost it, she was so completely consumed with visceral grief and despair, it was quite touching. I tried to sing her a lullaby or two, pet her cheek, and even tell her a story about dolphins (a suggestion from Shay) because apparently big sister Ellie does all of those things almost every night, if they ask (except for the cheek pets). But nothing was working so I eventually had to retreat for reinforcements and bring Alia in as well to help snuggle and console. Eventually Maddie calmed down, after Alia talked her through an art project or two that would be used to welcome Ellie back.

Now we still have to get through bedtime on SUN, MON, and TUE before Ellie flies in at about 11pm on TUE night. I sure hope the next nights are easier!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Hello World

I am going to try and start chronicling our families adventures. We will see how it goes. Wish me luck!