Weekend Away From Mom and Dad

It was a memorable weekend. And not just because it was Easter and we had our first spring-like weather after a long, tough winter.

Our son spent his first night away from both Mom and Dad since he was three years old.

My sister and brother-in-law had begun the arduous task of sorting through my dad’s things and cleaning up his house, but I had not been up there myself since we moved my dad out. This three-day weekend presented me with the rare opportunity to go up there.

My wife offered to go with me to help out, but we knew that if we brought Kai up there with us, we would not be too productive.

So we appreciated it when Kai’s grandparents offered to watch Kai while my wife and I went to my dad’s house. Kai would spend a day and a half with his grandparents while we were away, the longest time he would be away from us since before he could remember.

It is a testament to Kai’s progress that my wife and I did not have to think too long before taking them up on the offer. A couple years ago, we would have thought differently, that Kai would be too challenging to leave with grandparents for that long.

When we told Kai about the plan a couple of weeks ago, he seemed a little nervous. But my wife told him that his slightly older cousins had stayed overnight with Bubbe and Papa a couple times so he was now ready to as well.

Kai said, “I’ll make it my mission!”

We drove up to their house in Michigan and had lunch together before we departed. Kai was not happy to see us leave, but neither was he particularly distressed.

When we phoned that evening, his grandmother assured us that he was doing fine and had done all of his favorite things. But Kai himself was not too talkative. We thought he might be mad at us.

We thought that nighttime would be the hardest time for Kai, but they maintained our custom of reading with him at bedtime, and then Bubbe slept in the same room with him so he was fine.

The next day, they filled the day with fun activities.

Kai introduced them to coloring Easter eggs.

They went to see the snow and ice that are still on Lake Michigan.

And they went hiking at a nearby nature center.

When we got back late that afternoon, they were on their way out for another walk. Kai was happy to see us, but he still wanted to go walking with his grandparents. We could see that he was perfectly fine, and they confirmed that Kai behaved very well the whole time.

At one time we would have thought that this would be a Mission Impossible. But Kai completed it with flying colors.