Where is Abba?

So, as I mentioned on my tweet feed, I’m on a business trip this week.  I don’t travel often for work – perhaps two or three times a year – and it’s as disruptive as you can imagine.

As I write this, I’m looking out my hotel window at La Vista, Nebraska… and the mostly empty terrain around my hotel.  (Apparently there was supposed to be a shopping district put in here, but it fell through.)  I’d be out doing something else, but I’m more than a little tired due to the hour I had to get up so I could get here, so I’ll be going to bed shortly to try to get myself reset for tomorrow.

Mind you, my wife doesn’t get a reset – she’s now saddled with single parent duty for a few days while I’m off doing my job.

One of the things that comes to mind, however, is the fact that I don’t know that either child is quite cognizant of the fact that I’m “gone” in a sense that’s beyond the normal.  I do work outside the home most of the day, so they only see me for a few hours each day as it is.  They saw me all weekend, and I’ll be back for the next weekend… but in the meantime, it’s probably kind of a weird vacuum.

Now, R is getting far enough along that he can express his observations of the universe, and despite being my lovely little CBD (Cute But Dumb), he’s been very observant.  He noticed little things on the desks in the IEP office, spent his and my walk on Saturday pointing out birds on rooftops, and may well have said something to his mother about noticing that I’m not present (probably something to the extent of “where is abba”).  On the other hand, I’m still not certain that, at six years old, the Monster would ask his mother as to where Abba is.

When he was younger, he might well have asked questions about his mother if she wasn’t around for a while.  For a short while, his favorite phrase was “Mommy, where you go?” if his other was no where to be seen.. but I’ve not really heard of him asking the same question with regards to me.  As mentioned, it’s “more usual” that I’m not present.  It might not just process for him that I’m missing.

Well, we’ll see if they act any differently when I’m back on Saturday morning.

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