Friday, March 09, 2007

Empty Arms, Sad Heart


I know most of you are probably thinking by now that I gave up blogging for Lent - well, it sort of feels that way. Sitting at the computer, pouring out your heart, requires a few essentials: time and inspiration. For the past few weeks, I was lacking greatly on the time element thanks to the fact that I had welcomed my Mom/Nana and sweet little Patrick/PIII into my home for two weeks. We were too busy playing, feeding, and just trying to keep PIII occupied for me to feel like spending much extra time at my computer. The visit was wonderful!

I said goodbye to Nana early Wednesday morning. My coping mechanism for saying goodbye is always knowing when I will see her next, which seems to be May. I think I can probably survive that long. PIII's Daddy, Patrick II, arrived Wednesday evening to whisk him away. The look of sheer joy that crossed that baby's face when he saw his Daddy was priceless. The love is unmistakable. I'm not sure what PIII's Mommy and Daddy have done to turn him into the perfect baby, but whatever they're doing, they should keep it up!

With an empty home, or at least one filled with only it's usual occupants, I should have been back to blogging yesterday. Sadly, it was the Inspiration element that was lacking at that point. I needed a day to mope, to embrace the empty hole that seems to have formed in my heart. My hip misses holding a toddler while working around the kitchen. My arms feel sadly light and airy with no one to pick up and snuggle. My ears miss hearing Nana's voice first thing in the morning. My heart is sad and a little lonely...

Since he's only a little tike, PIII likely won't remember the two weeks he spent at our house. But I have a treasure trove of memories tucked away to last me until the next time he comes for an extended visit. When he grows up, he will probably enjoy hearing about the things he did as a baby. My own boys love nothing more than hearing about their crazy exploits as toddlers (for example, the time Adam broke his arm trying to fly out of the wagon in a superman costume). I will tell PIII about his favorite things as a 19 month old:

  • Walking out to the front yard to check the mailbox
  • Listening to his "Greg and Steve" CD while eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack and more snack. And saying "Again!" after every song
  • How he strangely seems to love watching American Idol (I wonder who turned him on to that!)
  • How his face brightened every time he saw feet walking down the stairs in the hopes of seeing one of his big boy cousins
  • How easily he went down for his naps and how he always woke with a smile on his face
  • How he said the names of those who meant the most to him: "Man" (Nana), "Am" (Adam), Eck ("Eric"), and Geg ("Greg")
  • How much he loved his outings to places like the pet store to see the "Cheepy Birds", to the playground where he would put serious effort into filling his bucket with sand, and on walks in the stroller where he always needed his cup and some animal crackers
I woke up at 2:30 yesterday morning and was thinking about how lucky I am to have family I love so very much. I truly consider my parents, my siblings, their children and of course my own Hendey Men to be life's richest treasures. I'm happy that PIII is back with the Mommy and Daddy he missed and loves so much and I'm happy that Gramps has Nana back home (at least for a little while), but I will miss both of them!

Now I just need to get my hands on Patrick P., Evan and Tyler for a couple of weeks!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lisa,
Wow...you're da bomb! Patrick...aka the monk....or PIII as you refer to him is happy to be home but surely missing you greatly. He is about five times more verbal than when we left him with you a couple of weeks ago. He keeps saying box. Also, when we did his flashcards last night he clearly said the word Monkey....it used to sound like "Mon".
And he now clearly enjoys using the word no but seems to have forgotten what it means when he hears it. Yes he does seem to have been a little spoiled, but we know that he enjoyed his time with you tremendously. He is smiling more than ever.
Thank you sooo much to and Mom for looking after him...as well as Greg, Adam and Eric for helping out.

Patrick II