Emerson has been suffering from daddy withdrawal since the school year began. Last year she was so small and her life mainly consisted of nursing and sleeping all day so she didn’t seem to notice how often Alex was gone. But, she is a much more developed human being now and super attached to her daddy after a summer of bonding and fun.

So, I’ve been dealing with a small person who is developed enough to know and feel sad about daddy being gone, while not yet being able to totally express or deal with that. We have talks all day about how daddy went to work. Emerson says “bye bye, daddy….beep beep” over and over. (Translation: Daddy left in the car). She calls out “daddy?!” every time she hears a noise in the house. She packs her important belongings in anything resembling a bag, puts it over her shoulder, hops on her plastic bike/car and tells me she’s going bye bye (to work, I’m assuming).

Most interestingly, though, Emerson has decided to deal with her sadness by spending time with her stand-in daddy during the day: a small, metal buddha statue.

You see, a few days into the school year, Emerson noticed a buddha statue in the bathroom. She pointed to it and said “daddy!” And it seemed that the more times I tried to correct her by saying “that’s buddha,” the more excited she became about the statue really being daddy (to her). She began to carry the statue around, hug it, pat its back, put it night night….all while calling it “daddy.”

It made her happy.

And soon Emerson noticed that there were other “daddies” spread about the house. Alex wasn’t too keen on the idea of Emerson’s new daddy collection and was worried that she was actually onfused about who her daddy was. But, I am simply amazed by Emerson’s creative and (in my opinion) mature way of working out her emotions. Also, I am jealous that Emerson associated Alex with buddha. Because, when it comes to mama, I am associated with a sad, haggard looking daddy doggy. For real. Whenever Emerson sees this page in Hop on Pop, she calls out “Mama! This mama!”

I’m taking this as a sign that I need a little more zen in my life. Thank you, Emerson.