Being missed even before departure...

I took the morning off a couple of days ago, for Amy's swearing-in ceremony to the state Bar the other day (she has been a lawyer in a neighboring state for years, but practicing in our own state is a new development). We all went up to our cute little state capital for the event, and then I went into the office in the afternoon, stopping by the house along the way. But it's always hard to leave a house full of happy children and go to work. I have remarked in the past about how my father used to ignore me as I'd throw myself at the door and beg him not to go to work, back in my own early youth, and it baffled me, because he seemed not to notice that I was there... But I have since developed the suspicion that he ignored the protests partly to try to contain the drama and partly because it was probably very difficult for him as well; it really is traumatic for parents as well as children.

In any case, as I was leaving the house to go to work, Daniel sweetly, a bit dramatically, hugged me several time, each time chiming in "Bye-bye Daddy!" but his summary of the situation was even more moving:

"We're just really gonna miss Daddy."

(December 6, 2011)