Day 1

Chris left this morning. It was a rough night, trying to wrap up all the loose ends, Chris had to pack and then to top off the excitement, Claire vomitted in our bed. I spent the rest of the night lying awake worrying about her poor tummy. She's been her normal self all day, so I am not sure what was going on. Anyway, we are surviving day one without Chris. Yesterday, Chris and I went to a lunch thrown in his honor at his work. I really didn't want to go as I knew what it would be like. Even though his coworkers/friends have the best of intentions and are filled with kindness, it was awful. I felt like a widow at her husband's funeral--50 people telling me that if I needed anything, just call. Again, I appreciate their kindness, but it is hard to listen to it over and over again. My family won a battle this week as I decided to take up my Mom on her offer to buy Claire and I a plane ticket home for Thanksgiving. I had really planned to just spend the weekend together, quietly, despite the five other wonderful offers we'd received, but my Mom's persistence convinced me. Now that I have the ticket and made the plans, I am looking forward to the trip. It will be nice to get away and I am especially excited for Claire to see her cousins. They will be quite impressed at what she can do this time. When they last saw her Claire wasn't even walking. Now she's walking and talking nonstop. It should be a fun trip that will make Christmas even better as she'll be more familiar. Otherwise, our first day without Chris has been filled with organizing the garage and raking leaves. Fun, but different. We miss him deeply and think about him all the time. The first word out of Claire's mouth when we arrived home this morning was, "Daddy." Even she knows.