Sunday, Daddy was set to leave for a week-long business trip. The taxi was scheduled to pick him up at 12.30 pm. Netanya, being not even 2, had no clue what the fuss was about, packing luggages and spending extra moments with daddy. On the other hand, our Mr. 4-years old, was bombarding his dad with question after question about his trip, “Where are you going?”, “What time will Gus (the taxi driver) be here?”, “When will you come back?” etc etc. Poor dad, was trying to finish up some last minute work while patiently answering all the questions over and over again.
Russell was very excited about the idea that a taxi was coming to pick daddy up and to send him to the airport. I guess having been staying in US since he was born, he hardly has any chance to take public transport like trains or bus or taxis, so to able to see any of these up close just gives him so much thrill. He was the first to spot the taxi at our driveway and hurried his dad to quickly get going. For a moment, Russell looked too eager to send daddy off. While Netanya, who didn’t seem to care earlier, suddenly turned emotional. She pointed to herself and said, “Dada bring 妹妹 … Dada bring 妹妹 …” Hearing that melted daddy’s heart, who wouldn’t? Russell was happily saying “Hi” to Gus and then waved goodbye to daddy one last time. Until that point, he was still cheerful, but the moment we came into the house, Russell suddenly became teary and emotional. Now that the excitement over the taxi was gone, it dawned upon him that daddy has left and he wouldn’t be seeing him for a week! “Nobody is going to play with me. How? Nobody is coming to check on me at night. We are all alone …” All I could do was to give him a big hug and comfort him that daddy would be home soon … while my little girl was still in my arms whispering “Dada bring 妹妹 … Dada bring 妹妹 …”