Frances Friday: A Reunion

This week I went to Ottawa on business.

It was not all bad. I got a hotel room, which means two decent nights of sleep. I got room service. I got a quiet room all to myself, which means some time for writing and planning and a wee smidgen of thinking space, sorely needed. I got to see Dani and Tanya, though sadly not at the same time, and Tanya introduced me to my new favourite fish and chips.

But oh I missed my little girl.

She called me twice, though. She's getting the hang of this telephone thing, though not so much the etiquette; both times, as I picked up the handset, instead of the customary "hello" I heard, "That's Mummy on the phone!" "You're right, that IS Mummy on the phone."

And almost better than the little conversations we shared was the stomping of her tiny feet, in the background, as she jumped up and down in joy to be talking to her Mummy (on the phone!). "Hi Mummy!" thump thump thump "I'm good." thump thump thump "I miss you." thump thump thump "I'm jumping!" thump thump thump

When I came home, there was the sound of my beautiful girl's voice: "That's the front door, Daddy. Mummy's home!" And there she was, running to the front door, then stopping to bounce. "It's Mummy! Mummy's home! You're home, Mummy! Daddy, Mummy's home! Are you home, Mummy?"

"I think so. Am I home?"

"You are! You're home!" thump thump thump

She hugged me and kissed me, sat on my lap, lay on my tummy, rolled over me, and even tried to eat my nose. And after we inspected her fingers and toes and belly button and determined that they had not changed, except for maybe being a very little bit bigger, and after watching the Grinch again and sympathizing with Max and agreeing that Cindy Lou Who really does look a lot like Frances, and after opening the box on her advent calendar, and after me giving Frances a bath while Frances bathed Elmo, and then into jammies and on to the big bed for a long snuggle, and then tucking Frances into bed with her bunny rabbit and Baby Bear and Ella the Elephant where she fell quickly asleep, a bad low sent me down into the kitchen for rocket candies and a drink. And though I still feel as if I've swallowed several large pieces of broken glass that shift whenever I move, I was left knowing that I'm a lucky woman. My bite-sized babe makes up for a lot.

~~~~~

I have today off. This morning I'm dropping some gifts off at a women's shelter, then going to see Frances's daycare holiday pageant, after which I'm stealing her away and we will spend the afternoon catching up. We have a gingerbread house or two to make, and those sugar cookies aren't going to roll and frost themselves.

Posted by Andrea at December 15, 2006 6:52 AM under Frances Friday

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