Henry goes on a trip.

At the grocery store.

At the children's museum.

In May, M and I were able to coordinate our work schedules so that we both attended the same conference in San Diego. In addition to the conference, we both had secondary meetings in CA so that meant we were in San Diego for a total of 7 days. Because it was a work trip, we left Henry with his grandparents in Edwardsville who had graciously offered to take care of him for an entire week. Since he was born, one of us has been with Henry every night of his life so this trip was momentous in that it was the first time that Henry would be on his own, so to speak. We had no idea what to expect - would he be mad at us? would he be scared without us? would he cry the whole time? would he be comfortable with his new surroundings? I was anxious about this trip, but I also felt that it was a necessary and important hurdle for him (me) to overcome.

Because we do not see our families regularly because of the distance, we began preparing for the visit by skyping with Grandad and Nana (Note: there has been an evolution of the grandparent nomenclature but H now says "Nana" when he sees my mother's picture so I think Nana will stick) on a regular basis. The skyping seemed to help because Henry seemed familiar with my parents when we arrived. Also, we tried to talk to Henry about our upcoming trip at least once per day in the preceding month. Just a quick statement like "You are going to visit Grandad and Nana while Mama and Dada go to a conference, but we will be back soon."

I think the pre-visit preparations helped because Henry did a great job on his visit. I think all of us were kind of holding our breaths waiting for the moment when Henry, after waking from a nap, looked around and realized that his parents had abandoned him. Turns out, that moment didn't really come. He was happy and content with his grandparents. They took the week off from work and planned all sorts of fun activities.

Henry played with his cousin Ellie, he went to the zoo, the Edwardsville children's museum, the park, the Missouri Botanical Gardens. He spent some time with his Aunt Amy at her new house. And he went to the grocery store nearly every day. As he is eager to do, Henry established a new routine immediately. He learned some new words (like juice) and developed a great appreciation for honking horns. We talked to him on the phone a couple of times a day (excessive? maybe. But we are first time parents. I am sure the time will come when we dash off a postcard at the airport while misspelling his name).

When we returned to pick Henry up after having been gone for 1 week, we were certain that there would be anger, distrust, tears, or something. Henry greeted us with a cheerful "Dada! Mama!" And that was that. (Or was it... ) In fact, Henry did so well with his grandparents that we have decided to take advantage of this opportunity and send him to stay for a few days every month.