I successfully put Ted to bed a little while ago and while that’s not really something that’s entirely new, it has not been a very common occurrence over the past few months. Bedtime always used to be my time with Ted but when he started going through his “must-have-mommy” phase, that applied to bedtime also. Even though Dad had put him to bed nearly every night from birth up until that point in time, it did not seem to matter. Screaming is what I got; sleeping is what he did for mom. So, bedtime became mommy-time.

I have put him to bed (successfully) a few times since then, but those times were out of necessity as mom was otherwise busy and out of the house on those evenings. Tonight, however, we decided to see if Dad could regain the magic touch. Even though mom was still in the house (and Ted knew it) he went right to sleep for me with just the slightest of whimpers as I lowered him into his crib. So, why have I titled this post “Separation Anxiety”? Well, I never said Ted was the one with the anxiety.

I went to Las Vegas for three days last week for a conference and as I was sitting in my hotel room on my first night there, it dawned on me that since Ted’s birth I had not been away from him for much more than just the 8-hour workday. It was a very strange sensation to say the least. The moment he was born he became a permanent fixture in my life and I gotta tell ya, I didn’t like being away from him one bit.

Sure, it was nice to sleep the whole night and only get up when I wanted to get up. And it was nice to not have to change a single diaper for 3-plus days. But there were no smiles, no giggles, no babbles, no Ted. What kind of life is that? Not the one for me anymore. Vegas might be a giant playground for adults, but I couldn’t wait to get back home and play with my little guy.

And I think he missed me a little too.