Life is back to normal-ish

So Jeff is back from his week long trip to Costa Rica and I feel like the large holes that formed in my children's souls when he left closed up the second he walked through the door.

When I stop to think about it, it has been a rough time for my kids. We lost one of the 2 kittens we had had for just a month to a deadly virus a couple of weeks ago. I think for my wee ones to lose a beloved pet and have Dad go away within a few days of each other was a lot for them to process. Charlie, at 5, understands death and what it means, and could separate the two events. But for Ella, at 2, it was really tough. She cried every morning that I took her to day care while Jeff was away. I think that in her mind, Little Guy, the cat, went away, Dad went away, and now Mom is going away too. All it meant to her was that she was being left, and wasn't sure who was coming back and when.

She was like velcro with me most of the week, but now has transferred that clinginess to Dad, who is loving it. She is usually more of a Mama's girl. But since yesterday afternoon, she is sitting on Dad's lap, asking for him to be the last one to tuck her in at night, wanting him to read the books, etc. And Jeff is eating it up. This morning Charlie's nursery school took a field trip to a local farm for a hay ride tour. Jeff offered to chaperone, and take Ella along too. They came home for lunch, then were supposed to go back to day care for the afternoon. But Charlie and ELla both looked at him with their big blue puppy dog eyes and told him he was great and couldn't they skip day care just for the afternoon? And he, the huge softy, agreed, then complained all evening that he hadn't gotten any work done. How was that a surprise to him? Does he think that I actually get anything done besides playing puzzles, reading books, refereeing fights and encouraging outdoor exploration when I am home those couple of days a week?

One thing I will say in total, 100% support of my husband is that he is a super black widow spider killer. We were lying in bed and I told him all about my adventures with the black widow in the bathroom. He laughed at me, saying that spiders didn't bother him at all. So we went into the bathroom to brush our teeth, and there, not 4 inches over his lofty head was the black widow spider happily building her web.  I calmly said, Look up.  He did, and leapt about 3 feet into the air. I thought spiders didn't bother you, I asked. That one surprised me he said. But then he took his lovely tall self and used his excellent long arms and reached up with a tissue and grabbed that spider right off the ceiling. Of course, he didn't manage to squish it, and when he threw it into the toilet, it had connected itself to his hand with a web and was trying to crawl back up the web towards him. Black widow webs are notoriously strong, and he had a heck of a time shaking it off. I think that spider bothered him. I know it bothered me! And I love him for saving me from it.