Not to Flog The Horse, But...

Laura's covered a lot of what we were going through with Jackson being away for a couple of days, but I wanted to just add a couple of quick thoughts.

First, this was not our first time away from Jackson for this amount of time - he'd spent a couple of consecutive days with Papaw and Nana Hop when we were in the hospital for Kian's birth. That was tough, but knowing he was pretty much just a phone call and a bit of a car ride away was comforting. Further, Tammy was awesome about bringing him up to visit, so it wasn't like he was away-away. Also, being the family traveller, I've spent a bunch (and, too much, probably) of time away from all of the family, but that also didn't have the impact this had on me.

Second, it sometimes feels a bit melodramatic to have gotten this worked up over him spending a few days with his Nana P, and the rest of his Jasper-based family. And, I don't want to give the impression that we'll never allow this to happen again - it's good for all of us for the boys to get used to being away and spending time forging their own personal relationships with our extended families; mom and dad just need to adjust to the reality. But, at the end of the day, who WOULDN'T want to maximize their time with these two amazing little people? I mean, they've taught me more about life in the nearly 5 years we've had them both in our lives than I learned in the previous 27 years of my own life. I feel like I truly enjoy each and every day that I'm alive now because I get to look forward to their hugs and kisses and words of love and actions of annoyance. The perspectives they bring to us about all the minutiae of life - the details that go unnoticed to the adult eye - allow our minds to engage in a healthy exercise of reverting back to the time when experience wasn't filtered through a sieve of jade. And, I've come to crave that every day. I need their insights, or else I feel my mind start to wither and harden with re-directed focus on the boring bullshit routine of the "adult world."

Anyway, Laura put it best in an email to me yesterday. She wrote, "What a great kid he is. I can't wait to see what life has in store for him next. He always keeps us entertained. I think that's what I enjoy the most about him. Let the journey continue..."

Let it continue, indeed...for both of these awesome little dudes.

(K)