May 28, 2010

Well, Charlie-Barley has gone to stay at Nanny's house.
He was up at the crack of dawn to do his 'packing' - Max the dog, Alfie the Monkey, his Olga da Polga story book, the photo of him and Grandpa which goes everywhere with him, his Iron Man colouring book and crayons and his Batman drinking bottle.
Apparently pyjamas, clothes, toothbrushes and medicine are totally unnecessary in Charlie's book!
All morning he was asking me how soon I would be leaving after I dropped him with Nanny... 'You aren't staying for coffee are you? Just tell Nanny about my medicines and go, ok?'
So, as requested, I dropped him and left.
I popped into the cemetery on my way home to 'see' Dad - we orderered his headstone this week, so it will be good to see it fitted in a couple of months. I am missing him such a lot at the moment. I think I subconsciously put a lot of my grieving on hold until after Charlie's Fontan, and now we're home with the surgery behind us, I have to get my head around the fact that Dad's still not here.
Charlie misses him lots too - I love that he is old enough to remember Grandpa, and to have so many memories of him. Over the past few days, he's been remembering all the things he and Grandpa got up to when he stayed at their old house last year.
Anyway - once I got home, Pete and I were wondering what on earth we should do with our Charlie-free evening. It's not that Charlie's at Mum's because we need her to babysit... he's there because he wants to stay with her - which leaves us at something of a loose end!
We were hoping we could maybe watch a film, but there's nothing we want to see, so we're going to go out and grab some dinner in a little while - while looking at our watches and working out what Charlie will be doing! And we've got the chance to have a long lie-in tomorrow morning, but I'm betting we'll both be wide awake by 6.30am!
How empty the house feels without Cheeky Charlie! I'm so glad he's having such a terrific time, but I'll be secretly glad when he's back home again, and all the things I've tidied are in a mess once more!