preparing for Nana Woolley to leave

Even though my Dad has officially retired, he just keeps on working. My Dad left last week for Europe, as he has taken a 6 month consulting job. Now we are preparing ourselves for my Mom to leave on Tuesday to join him in England. Her departure will not be an easy goodbye for any of us, especially since she will be gone till Christmas, which seems like a very long stretch of time. Zachary has been blessed with being able to spend numerous quality days with my Mom. Most days they go to Panera for a bagel and morning coffee together. Zach has especially enjoyed their Thursday evenings together of eating fish n' chips downtown Naperville before heading to the band concert, which is always followed by a sleepover. Actually most days he says, "Mom, can I sleep at Nana's tonight?... I'm trying to not be offended by this daily question.

We will deeply miss both my parents and look forward to their return at Christmas. My mom keeps trying to minimize the goodbye by saying that '5 months out of your life is nothing', but right now I find it hard to agree with that. I keep teasing her that she is going to miss Cameron's childhood and he will be crawling by the time she gets back.... well, odds are he won't be crawling by Christmas, but you know what I mean. Babies change a lot month to month.