Maddie's at the sanatorium

The fussiness of our eldest child and the stress that caused for Maddie have led us to ship her off with the grandparents to New England for some rest and relaxation. We debated whether to send her up until the moment that they pulled out of our garage with Maddie curled up in her bed next to Eleanor.

Maddie is probably having a blast. To begin with, the break from the kid has to be nice for her. In addition, she always likes to go to the "vacation home," a reference that inevitably makes her perk up. Historically, that term has been used for visits to my parents' house where Maddie would stay when we'd take a trip to someplace like Europe (alas, something that isn't in the cards anytime soon.) But the home of the CT grandparents also qualifies as a "vacation home," and I suspect that Maddie is having a ball.

However, not having her around is a bit of an adjustment for us. We go for a walk with the kids and come home, but there's no dog waiting for us. I get up in the morning and there's no jingling collar reminding me that I need to let Maddie out. I go for a walk to the corner store to get a lemon, and I don't have Maddie to take with me. And she's not waiting outside for me when I come out of the store. I mistakenly drop food on the floor while cooking dinner, and Maddie isn't there to clean up after me. And she's not there to lick Margaret's tray after dinner, even though Margaret yells for her, using a singsong cry of "Maddie" that probably mimics my summons, when something falls off her tray ("Uh oh, Maddie!") and when the tray is taken away after Margaret is done. Having the dog around is such an integral part of our life that we almost don't recognize it. A key part of our daily schedule involves trips to the park, primarily to play ball with Maddie, but now we're aimless. I run through the usual names when asking Margaret to point out Mama, Papa, and Teddy, but then I hit Maddie and, oops, she's not here.

Abby pointed out that it will probably be particularly hard on me since I'll be taking some time off over the next few weeks to spend time with Teddy before he goes to daycare. She's probably right about that, but even more, Maddie has always been my dog, first and foremost, for better or worse. She spent the first year of her life in almost constant company with me as I wrote my dissertation, and I suspect that I'm the focal point, and real source of stress, in her life. Her stressed reactions to Margaret probably mirror mine, but I'm able to divorce myself from them more than Maddie is. One of my New Year's resolutions was to be more low key around Maddie, but kid number one has something to say about that since Maddie can't seem to distinguish my barking at Margaret from my barking at her. Hopefully, Margaret will become less fussy in the next month or so, and Maddie will recuperate so that everyone will be happy when she comes home. But then, there's always Teddy and his coming fussy stage looming on the horizon.

Some photos: