Kidsick

I miss my baby.

Between her week at camp and her current visit with her grandparents, I feel like I haven't seen her in ages. True, we were together for the week inbetween when we stayed with my sister, but once my daughter hooks up with her cousins, they flit off into their own little play world, and I don't get my little girl back until we get her home. And that won't be until Sunday.

I had managed to keep myself busy -- until today. Not that I don't have plenty of things on my to do list.... I just can't work up the energy to tackle them. And it occurred to me that one reason I'm being so lethargic is that without my daughter around or the need to get her where she needs to be in the morning -- I don't have much reason to get out of bed.

It's like being homesick, except that I'm where I'm supposed to be, but it doesn't feel right because Megan isn't here with me. I seem to have forgotten how to function without her around, which is a little bit scary, because I did just fine for the first 40 years of my life.

Thank goodness my husband suggested I meet him for lunch today, or I would never have left the house. But now, lunch is over and I'm back here and looking at my list and not feeling like doing any of it. And at this point, I may just leave it be and deal with it tomorrow, when all the items are more urgent.

In a way, my sister is feeling more kidsick than I am. She called to tell me about it this morning.

"How would you like a free three-week trip to Europe?" she asked.

My 19-year-old niece -- who is on a three-week study course in Rome -- is still nursing a broken finger and missing her luggage (lost somewhere between Heathrow and Italy). That would be bad enough, but apparently, her traveling companion is behaving like a spoiled brat about it all. (Her luggage was also lost, but at least, she doesn't have to deal with any broken bones.) She's threatening to go home when the UCLA course is done -- which means that my niece won't have anyone to accompany her on the 3.5 week EuroRail tour they had planned to take. And if that happens, she might have to cancel her trip (and lose all her deposits), too.

My sister does not want that to happen, and is desperate for someone she trusts to join her daughter on the second leg of the trip. Of course, she couldn't possibly want ME to do it.

But as soon as I finished laughing at the image of myself staying with my niece in youth hostels in Prague, I realized that my sister is serious. She ticked off all the reasons why no one else in the family would be available (starting with herself -- she is an anxious flyer and no matter how much she's been urged by all of us, she doesn't have a passport).

"You know, they only arrived in Rome on Sunday night," my husband pointed out. "Carly's friend may mellow out once she gets a good night's sleep."

That could be. I hope so. Gareth had a lot of good ideas to help my sister track the girls' lost luggage; some avenues she hasn't tried yet.  When I called my sister back, she was feeling somewhat calmer, or as good as a mother can feel when she is too far away to help her child.

Which isn't good at all.