Remember a few weeks ago when Emma spent her very first night away from me? Suddenly she seems to be growing up so fast, because last night she left to spend the next five or so days at my mom's house. She is going to VBS with my mom at her church next week. My brother commutes to Kansas City from halfway across the state, so he drove her back to his house after work last night, and then my mom picked her up from there this morning and took her home. Noah and I are going to drive there on Wednesday or whenever Emma decides she misses us too much, whichever comes first. I got a little choked up as I watched her drive away with my brother last night, especially when I saw her in the backseat, bravely trying not to cry.I think she'll do okay because they have lots of fun stuff planned and she's been excited about this for a long time. She packed her suitcase about a week ago and then kept adding things all week so by the time we were ready to go she had a suitcase and about six laundry baskets packed with stuff she just had to bring. She kept coming out of her room with some random book or toy that hasn't been touched in two years and saying, "Well, of course I need to bring this!". In the end I told her she needed to narrow it down to her suitcase and one laundry basket, which she did finally manage to do after lots of discussion and indecisiveness.It's been weird having Noah here all alone, and I am feeling a little bit sorry for him because he will never have the opportunity to be the only child. Obviously we pay attention to him normally, but I can really tell the difference in how much I am able to dote on him when he is the only one here. I'm happy that Noah and I have this chance to spend some one-on-one time together, although I am sure we will both be excited to be reunited with our sweet Emma in a few days.