Just before I started this job I posted some predictions of how it the new situation would affect the members of my family. After four months I think we have settled into a new comfort zone where the real effects can be seen. I said that Laura would have a hard time with the change since she was still adjusting to having four kids. She has done very well and has discovered that it is actually nicer for her to have me working outside the home because she is not tempted to ask for my help when she doesn’t really need it. I was right that Savannah and Alyssa would just roll with this change and of course that Isaac would not notice the difference.
I had predicted that Mariah would have the hardest time with it. I may have been right, but if so it was by unnoticable degrees. The whole thing was very easy on all of us. The fun fact of the matter is that Mariah seems to have made a game of saying goodbye to me every morning. It’s almost as much fun for her to say goodbye in the morning as it is to yell “Daddyyyy” when I get home. She says goodbye to me every time I put on a jacket or a pair of gloves. She seems very secure in a world where coming and going are okay. She is still very much a daddy’s girl but she is not afraid to let me go and do things because she trusts that I will come back. I really did not know if she would be old enough to make that adjustment so smoothly.