"Where daddy go?"

This is the first thing Aedan has said every morning this week. Neal comes home tomorrow after a grueling trip to present a poster of his research at a bioconference. The conference is held at a ski resort near the Denver area. Work and skiing apparently go hand in hand there.... We miss him though and we know he has worked hard to get there! So we dedicate this blog to the Neal in our lives.

My daddy is my fav'rite pal

And I help him ev'ry day.

It's plain to see I want to be

Like him in ev'ry way.

(Children's Songbook, My Dad)

Pictures from top to bottom: Neal (Popeye with out his muscles at that moment) and Aedan (sweet pea) from Halloween 2006, the boys fishing in Utah July 2007, their feet enjoying the gulf waters in Florida Jan 2008, the boys both mesmerized by the sports channel August 2006.

Since he has been gone, Aedan has invented a new unit of measurement. Things are no longer big or small, they are either daddies or babies. He prefers to have things daddy-sized - daddy carrots, daddy treat, daddy trains - and it is obvious to him that baby size is no fun. While he may view bigger as better, this also suggests to me that he admires his daddy and wants to be like him, no more of this 'baby' stuff.

We've been working on this all week and this is as far as we've gotten - hope he enjoys it:

You are going to have to pardon my singing here but this is Aedan doing actions for Daddy's Homecoming from the Children's Songbook.

We love you Neal!