Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

We are back from Barcelona and of the many things I learned while I was away, the most important was that 8 days is too long for me to be away from Samantha.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed myself. Dave and I took in all the sights and sounds of Barcelona, then I kept busy with work and the conference that I was attending.  But, after about the fifth day I had this pain in the pit of my stomach missing my baby girl.

Both Dave and I did a lot of traveling in college but times have changed.  Gone are the days that you line up to sit at an internet cafe for an hour.  We were both struck by how the internet has changed things.  We skyped with Samantha from our hotel room, I got last minute hotel rates on hotwire (for Barcelona!),  I kept in touch with my coworkers at the conference via email and text messages and for the most part I didn't get too far behind in my work because I was connected the entire time.  Other things caught me by surprise too like how every taxi driver had a tom tom or garmin to direct the route and before heading out on our daily adventures I could get online to see when restaurants or exhibits were open. 

Samantha had a fabulous time going to Omaha for the week with her Grammy and visiting all of her cousins and relatives there.  There is a really clear difference in how confident she is after going, especially with other kids.  She does not run to her room for cover when people are at our house and she has officially started a word explosion.   Samantha has yet to say Grandma and my mom was concerned she would come back saying "Aunt Patty" who she stayed with.  We were all at a get together on Saturday and my mom said "Well at least I haven't heard her say Aunt Pat" to which Samantha responded "Aunt Pat.....! Aunt Pat, Aunt Pat, Aunt Patty!"