Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Has anyone else experienced this?  Cameron isn’t quite to the point where I would call it separation anxiety, just more of a preference.  But it is definitely not for me!  This weekend I spent two days in Abilene for my cousin’s baby shower.  I didn’t bring Cameron because I really thought that four hours in the car would be a bit much to do twice in two days, but I thought that she would have fun with Bo while I was gone and maybe even miss me a little.

Now, on any normal day, she says “Daddy” a lot.  She wants to go see him first thing in the morning when she gets up.  They play and laugh together all the time.  She even says “Daddy” when we are on our way home and she wants to see him.

But I am starting to notice that she doesn’t say “Mommy” that much.  When I pick her up from daycare, the first thing she says is “backpack” because she knows that we get it out of the cabinet before we leave.  She says tons of words to let me know what she wants, like “diaper” or “down” and especially “MUK!”  But not so much “Mommy.”

And sure enough, when I got to see her Sunday evening, she came over with a big smile and gave me a hug, but then it was pretty much like I had never left.  She didn’t want to be held any more than usual and she only wanted to sit with Daddy to eat her dinner.  It would be very easy to convince myself that she didn’t miss me one bit.

So of course my over-analyzing brain starts going back to all kinds of things.  She smiled for Daddy for the first time.  She ate her first cereal for Daddy.  She seems to go to bed easier when Daddy sings for her.  All Mommy does is trap her in the car seat for two hours a day!

Ugh, what does a Mommy have to do to get some love around here?  And to make matters worse, I won’t be home for the first three nights of this week because of bible study and work events.  I won’t even make it home before she goes to bed.  I am really going to have to earn back some brownie points this weekend with Easter coming up…