Daddy.

Peter is gone until Thursday night and we all miss him a lot.  He started a new job in October that has him travelling quite a bit and I feel like we are all still in the adjustment period.  Peter was home for most of December and I have to say, I was getting pretty used to having him around.  And so were the girls.  In fact this is the first of the trips he's taken where Haven's had a noticeable reaction to his absence.

There's just no one like Daddy.  Daddy is the one who takes Sonja on most of her hikes and all of her mountain-bike rides.  Daddy makes Haven laugh when he kisses her with his tickly beard.  Daddy helps Mommy out with everything from cooking and cleaning to bathing and bedtime.  Mommy really misses Daddy's help when he is gone...  

And Mommy just misses Daddy, plain and simple.

But more than that, when Peter's home, everything feels complete, and not just because there's one more person in the house.  When Peter's home, our home feels more like home.

Haven has become mildly obsessed with a photo on our mantle.  It's a picture of Peter and Sonja and I taken just before Christmas 2008.  Every time Haven sees the photo, she literally squeals until I take it off the mantle and give it to her.  At first I resisted letting her have it because I was afraid she would scratch herself with the hard, pointed edges of the frame, or drop it on the ground and break the glass.  But since I've let her sit down and play with the picture, I can't get over how happy it makes her.  She just babbles and touches the faces and looks at me and smiles.  


And the person she seems to focus on the most is her Daddy.