Baby Bear

So, Hubby is off and away again. This time on course in Ontario. We all were able to drive him to the airport and see him off on Monday, for which I'm grateful. The kids enjoy getting those last hugs before seeing him go off into the building.

Monday morning was nice and slow. Didn't have to drop anyone off at school, no rushing around anywhere. We were able to drink our coffee together, sort through what might be missing from his bags , and have some low key time.

Monkey was worried that her daddy would be lonely. She has these two bears. One is smaller than the other, but their colouring is very similar, so she calls them mommy bear and baby bear. She walked very sombrely up to Hubby as he was zippering up his back pack that last time with baby bear in her hands.

"Daddy, baby bear is worried you might need company. You can take him with you if you want." (Imagine those big blue eyes...)

"But won't you miss baby bear, Buddy? Maybe baby bear wants to stay with you."

"Dad, it's okay. You take him with you. So you won't be lonely."

So Hubby tucks the bear into his bag, asks if that was okay with Monkey, and then we all went off.

For our countdown this time away we have four little jars, filled with Hershey's hugs, with a label on each written "A hug from Dad for ___" and that first night they were so excited to get their hugs from Dad.

The next morning the first thing Monkey asked was "Mommy, I wonder how baby bear is doing?" So I texted that to Hubby along with a picture of Monkey and mommy bear. They first words Girlie said were "When can we set up the Christmas tree?" but that got other thoughts of mine going. Where will we put it, how will we move things to make space for it, things like that.

But, back to the bears, Hubby brought the little guy with him to the course. He took a picture and sent it so she could see him keeping her company. And today the little guy was all over the place! Nearly eaten by another hungry padre! All cuddled up with another. There are some chaplains from a European country there with our Canadian ones for the course and some of them took pictures of the wee bear and sent them back to their homes far far away! It looks and sounds as though baby bear is having quite the adventures!