Trade Offs

One of the unexpected outcomes of my return to full-time employment is that when I return home at the end of the work day, Grant just lights up. He's almost unable to contain all of the stuff he wants to tell me about -- what he did all day, how many times Grace has been in trouble, how much he ate at lunch, etc. It's really touching, and it makes me a little teary to think about how genuinely excited Grant is in those moments. I suppose he just got used to me being around for the past few months, so my presence wasn't anything special (Erin went through a similar period after we had been married a while. I suppose eventually it will let up.)

Grace also shows signs of being excited by my return each day, but her response is more geared towards me being someone else to do her bidding. It has less to do with her being excited at my return and more to do with there now being another person in the house to respond to her screams. But alas.

So I guess the trade off is that I only get to see the kids a couple of hours in the evening, rather than all day like has been the case for the past few months. But perhaps absence truly does make the heart grow fonder, and that time will be some solid, quality family time each evening.

Or perhaps by next week both Grant and Grace will realize that I really am returning every day and will go back to punching me in the crotch and throwing food at my head. Only time will tell.