So after four days on the road, I’m finally back at home with the kids.

Now, I’d actually have written yesterday if I’d not had a nightmare trip home – lightning hit our airport’s control tower, sending someone to the hospital and shutting down flights for about three hours.  (The person is, according to the 11 PM news, okay and resting at home now, thank goodness.)  Instead, I arrived home very late – far later than I’d planned – and my kids were mostly asleep when the wife pulled in from her rehearsal.

And, honestly, both kids seemed to just take in stride that I was home as if nothing had happened.

I know that R’s really too young to quite understand why I’m not around – I’m gone most of the day anyway, and so my being gone a few hours more while he’s awake really didn’t do all that much.  The wife told me that he did seem a little more inquisitive as to why I wasn’t around… but that’s just from interpretation on his tone.

The Monster, on the other hand, is the one who I wonder what he does or doesn’t notice, vis-a-vis my presence.

Again, like R, I’m not around him most of the day.  I leave for work shortly after he gets on his school bus, and I’m home shortly after he gets home.  We spend about 3-4 hours a day together when he’s awake.  So my being gone this week really was a miss of about twelve hours of together-time… and given everything else going on, there’s no way to tell what he does or doesn’t realize regarding my presence.

I do wonder, sometimes, though…