yes, i am okay :)

Today's pic:

8. Six o'clock

This one was for Annie.

4 pm here was 6 pm in Georgia,

and this is what we were doing here at that time -

watching Estie scoot around Grandma's house in pink polka dot leg warmers.

Friends and family keep asking if I'm doing okay, now that Annie is with her dad for the summer.  And the answer is yes.  And no.  The truth is, it's a mixed bag.  Of COURSE I miss my little monster.  I miss her funny comments and irrelevant anecdotes - she has my sense of humor in kid form, and I appreciate the way she looks at things.  But I have also always "shared" her with her dad, which has usually equated to spending periods of time without her, so it's just normal for us.  When we lived in Florida, it meant every other Saturday and Sunday; for the last three years since we moved to Colorado, it means almost three months during the summer.  And yes, that's been a huge adjustment for everyone - on both ends of the parental team.  It's hard on her dad, step mom and [Annie's other] baby sister to be without her for most of the year, and it's a big deal for her to be away from us for the summer.  But something most parents might not understand is that it can be very healthy to miss your child for a while.  (I also think most parents, if they're honest with themselves, would probably sign up to ship their pre-adolescent spawn off for a few weeks too, if given the chance!)  I think it would be different if Annie was at a boarding school or summer camp for this long, without family.  But I know she's with her other awesome mom and dad, her little sister, scores of cousins and friends; she gets to see my family and spend time with my mama, live at the beach and lake on weekends, and she is having an absolute ball.  That peace of mind is what makes the whole thing doable.  I'm excited for her to have those experiences.  Plus, the hubs and I cheat the system by going to visit for a week midsummer, which cuts the time in half and makes it seem way less scary.  It all works out.  Hey, nobody purposely sets out to create a situation where they wind up time-sharing their kid... but in the end what matters is making life as normal and healthy as possible for your child, and in that regard we have succeeded.  I feel so blessed to have the amicable, supportive and caring co-parenting team that I do, and given the circumstances I couldn't ask for anything better for Annie.  I always tell her she's so lucky: she has four parents who love her, mountains AND ocean, and enough frequent flyer miles to take all her friends first class to Cancun for their senior trip.

Haha, yeah like we'd ever let her do that.  I love lying to children.