my parents left today: they will arrive in edmonton late tomorrow afternoon.
they did not depart alone...oh no. they took carys with them. (grandad blake with carys, left)
even though it has been only a few hours, i cannot believe how easy it is with only three children.
seriously.
meals are finished faster, the noise level is reduced by more than 25 per cent (it seems), there is one less moving shape to track.
when sebastian was an infant, on saturdays charles would take him out of the house and give me a few hours to be sane again. and i remember thinking, everything is so easy when there is no baby. well the same apparently applies when you go down from four to three. it is amazing. surprisingly, none of the remaining three have stepped up to bat and been more difficult.
however, my ease and enjoyment of increased relaxation is marred by this little awareness that we are not complete. the triumverate have not been separated for one night since carys arrived home from the hospital. but tonight, jasper and sela will rest their heads and carys will be hundreds of kilometres away. i hope my parents remember that carys likes to sleep on her tummy and hates having a blanket tucked around her.
i love the extra quiet, but i also like (forgive me for going all jerry mcguire) the feeling of being complete that i get when i know my family is safe, nearby, and happy. it was bad enough with mc being gone, and now these forlorn feelings are increasing.
Neighbor's triplets across the street are the same - never apart, haven't been split amongst anyone yet. Hope they all make it.
Posted by: joeinvegas | August 03, 2005 at 03:43 AM
I am sure they will all be fine. Carys the lucky little one is probably loving the one on one attention. How long are they gone for?
Are you still in Canada? When are you heading home?
Posted by: kate | August 03, 2005 at 03:47 AM
I'm sure they'll be fine. I have only left Alexi ONCE and that was to do a sleep study. I don't have the heart to leave her. She's 2, but she's still my baby!!!
Posted by: Maggs | August 03, 2005 at 06:52 AM
That feeling never goes away, the "complete"ness of having all your family under the same roof. It stays with you even as they become adults.
Posted by: Louise M | August 03, 2005 at 07:22 PM
Carys is so flipping cute! How come she got to go with granddad?
Posted by: Tertia | August 03, 2005 at 09:48 PM
why did she get to go? Totally know what you mean, however. I like it when all four of my little ducks are in their own beds at home. The grandparents will take my eldest for overnight or he will go to a friend's house, and things just aren't the same.!
Posted by: mollyv | August 04, 2005 at 12:14 PM
OK, so how is the gang doing minus one? Are you doing all the things that you couldn't when the crowd was all present?
Posted by: joeinvegas | August 06, 2005 at 04:08 AM
Oh, I hear you Tess. My mom and dad keep offering to take one of our trio to GA (we're in NC) with them for a couple of weeks...to "give me a break" (really to give them more spoiling time). Although I know they'd be cared for beautifully...I can't do it. I can't bear to split them up. It was traumatic enough for me to put them in separate cribs when we moved in May to a house big enough for all three cribs to fit in the nursery. They're a set...not to be separated. At least that's how it is in my warped head/heart. I need therapy.
Posted by: Monica | August 07, 2005 at 10:51 AM