"But I wanna go to the store with you to fix Daddy's belly!" Today, I started trying to explain to Ian all the things that will be going on in the next few weeks. This is hard for a three year old. Honestly, it's hard for a 42 year old too. A common joke between Rich and me is telling him, "you lost a weekend, baby" as we plan out our trips.

Anything that happened in the past happened yesterday as far as Ian is concerned. And anything in the future happens on Tuesday. Trying to get him to understand that Halloween is this week and so is Mommy's airplane trip but our friends aren't coming to visit until the next week has his head reeling a bit. I'm also trying to get Ian familiar with the tentative schedule for what we'll be doing all day. Ian will spend the day with Nana and Granddad while Mommy helps Daddy with his belly.

"Mommy's going on a plane ride later this week." "And I'm staying home alone?!" "No, Daddy will still be here. And Mommy will only be gone for one night and then we have all weekend to play." "Like today?" "Well, sorta like today, only with less wind and rain hopefully."

"I don't want to go to Baltimore with Nana and Granddad." "Because you want to be with Mommy and Daddy?" "Uh huh. I don't want you to go without me." "This time we're all going together. Mommy will need to help Daddy some during the day, but that's when you can play with Nana and Granddad. And we'll always have bedtime together every night." "Daddy too?" "Well, Daddy will have to stay in the hospital for a bit while his belly gets better but we can talk to him on the phone and the iPad. And then we'll all go home together."