Missing their daddy

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Ben spent the first of three nights in Deep Jersey without being here to read bedtime stories and stuff for the kids last night. He travels overnight so rarely that they have no memory of the last time and are pretty unhappy about the whole thing. Last night Sarah made a drawing of Daddy to keep in bed with her, and then this morning she made one for Becky as well (complete with three accurately depicted discrete brown blobs of hair). Becky was sad last night so she lined up some stuffed animals on Ben's side of our bed and then decided to take Momma Bear into her bed with her. This is a fairly large and worn stuffed bear that Ben had as a kid and which his mother offloaded from his old bedroom a few years back. It normally sits on Ben's dresser, benignly surveying the scene with its eyeless face. Then this morning they came bounding into the bedroom as soon as the clock-radio went off at about 6:45, chirping, "Is it time to call Daddy yet?" So I missed some of my soothing Steve Inskeep NPR visualization today, but that's OK. Damn but they are sweet.

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