Sunday Morning Breakfast

Lizzie and I are eating a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast. when the computer starts ringing. “Daddy!” I nearly knocked over the table trying to click “accept” before the ringing stops. All the while Lizzie is demanding, ”Push me over”. I push her high chair over and pull up a chair for myself just as his face appears on the screen. We haven’t seen him or talked to him in nearly a week. Lizzie is full of stories. “We saw a mouse going in a hole.” “Look at my muffin!” “I can turn on the light in the bathroom” “I’m a big girl”. He carefully listens and enthusiastically responds to her stories. Sometimes I have to serve as interpreter and explain what her story is about or repeat his questions so she can hear them. She sings parts of songs. Her excitement takes up so much room I can’t get my face into the view of the webcam. I just shout my thoughts or explanations from the sideline.

Between stories, Lizzie finishes breakfast and wants to get down. I clean her up and let her out of her high chair. She plays peek-a-boo with Daddy on my chair. Actually she demands that I move out of the chair, but we compromise and share the space. She still thinks people can’t see her when her eyes are covered. So she covers her eyes with her sippy cup and then peeks over it. As he acts surprised she giggles and does it again. She is also giving me orders, “Mommy, say ‘where’s Lizzie?”

Eventually she gets down and wanders off to do other things. Her short attention span works well because then we get a chance to talk. Soon, she’s back in the living room, out of view of the camera, but hiding from Daddy. He asks, “Where’s Lizzie?...Is she on the couch?” I have to answer, “No, she's not on the couch”. He keeps guessing and finally figures it out. I remove the camera from its mount on the computer and pull the cord as far as it will reach so he can see her crawling out of the hiding spot he has discovered. She is giggling again. Then she finds other things to do and we continue talking.

Eventually I have to call Lizzie back over to the computer. “Daddy has to go now, say goodbye.“ She’s in the middle of “changing” her own diaper (she knows I’m busy and not paying enough attention). She waddles down with her pants around her ankles, but diaper still intact- thank goodness! She climbs up on the chair and starts waving her arms around like she’s conducting a world renown orchestra. These are gestures reserved for talks with Daddy. As she waves her arms she yells, “bye Daddy! bye Daddy! bye Daddy! I love you too!”