Saying Goodbye

Today has been the dreaded day that Todd and I have not been looking forward to at all. When I started babysitting I had no idea how long I would be watching little Johnny. Three weeks after I started watching him, his dad came to pick him up one day and told us that he was joining basic training but his mom was going to stay here and work. I continued watching him Mon- Fri. I didn't know how long his dad would be at basic training so I was preparing myself to not have him after the end of the year and then I found out that i would have him til the middle of Jan and then it went this long, so I feel very lucky to have been able to watch him longer than I originally thought. Johnny has been a huge blessing in my life these past 5 months. I not only got to watch him grow from just rolling over to crawling to walking around furniture, I got to watch him bounce in this bouncer I found for him to play in bounce so fast that it looked like he could launch himself out of it. Since I haven't been able to have any of my own yet, watching him helped me relax and not think about it as much and that I was able to in my own way mother him like he could have been mine. He was the best baby he took his morning and afternoon naps and they weren't short ones either. He had the cutest smile, personality and was very determined. This last week he climed up my moms 15 stairs and then turned around with a huge smile ''like I did it and you can't stop me now'' and all proud of himself. Now he is going to spend time with family in Florida and then in a few months they can finally live with his dad. I'm excited for them to be able to be together as a family again but Johnny will be missed alot. I really don't know what I'm going to do now that I don't have him anymore, but I'm sure things will come along that needs to be done. Todd would come home for lunch and and after work and play with him so I got to see a side of Todd that I haven't seen before and its made me realize what a Father figure he will be someday to our kids. Todds mom asked us one time if we had thought about being foster parents, at that time we hadn't but we have thought now and there is no way too many tears to fight back.