Missing Daddy

Oliver has been missing Daddy ever since Chris left for London for his J-term class.  The older Oliver gets, the harder it is for everyone when Chris leaves.  Oliver was not much more than a year old when Chris started traveling to Dallas, and because Chris's class and studying schedule meant that he sometimes went a whole week without seeing Oliver.  At that age, our little guy probably didn't notice the difference between not seeing his dad because he came home every night after his bedtime and not seeing him because he was in another state for the entire week.  As Oliver got older, though, he became more attached to Chris, and by the end of the project in Dallas the following summer, I'd have to take Oliver to the park while Chris waited for his taxi to the airport, because watching Dad leave after such a fun day of playing made him too sad.  (And me too.)     

Now that Oliver can talk, I must hear "I miss Daddy," 100 hundred times a day, and that's just while Chris is at work, let alone overseas.  (Chris swears Oliver says he misses Mommy when I'm gone, but I have trouble believing he says that with quite the repetition he employs to express his feelings about missing Daddy.)  So when it came time to leave for London, Chris chose to arrive at the airport four hours before his flight, instead of stopping at home between leaving work and needing to be at the airport. 

What Oliver doesn't understand at this age is how much he's still a part of his dad's life even when they're not together.  Chris and I have been fortunate to be able to talk to each other every day and a lot of our conversation consists of exchanging anecdotes about Oliver - from my end, updates of what he did that day and from Chris's end, stories about things that reminded him of Oliver or places he went or things he saw that he knows Oliver would have loved. 

Oliver loves buses so much that "bus" was one of his first words.  And what's a more iconic image of London than the red double-decker buses?  In between class and socializing with his professor and classmates at a nearby pub and attending his first English football match, Chris has been venturing out to see as much as London and he can.  He totes along a toy bus he bought as a present for Oliver, and along the way, he'll stop and take a picture of the bus against the backdrop of London city life.  And I know how much he looks forward to coming home and being able to show Oliver the pictures from his trip and what he and Oliver's new bus got to see.