"Daddy! Don't go away!"

By SEDONA DING

It has been a rough week with Maven and me being sick. We've both continued to have fevers off and on over the past week, with mine finally ending Saturday. Maven is improved but still has a stuffy nose and wants to be held upright to sleep so she can breathe better. She is starting to get used to it and maybe enjoying it a little given that now she cries out at night time for some tender loving care. Little does she know, Mommy and Daddy are strict sleep trainers. She'll be crying it out soon (well, more like already).

Daddy finally came home Monday. I really missed him. After he got home from the airport, he still needed to go to his Orange County Register office to swap computers because his broke on the 12-day road trip. But I didn't want him to leave again, so I said, "Daddy, don't go away!"

I also said it a few more times when Daddy was saying he was just leaving the room momentarily. The message was sent, and the entire family made the drive to the Register office in Santa Ana, but it wasn't a waste: Mommy got her cajun-flavored Boiling Crab again!

Today, I woke up and climbed into bed with Daddy, basically sleeping on top of him in various alignments until 9:10 a.m., which is way late for me. It was so late that we almost missed all of  Mommy & Me class that starts at 9 a.m. But I wanted Daddy and Maven to join us for class, so here we all are! (Mommy and I are on the left side in the first photo.)

Today was all about giving Valentine's Day cards. I'm stuffing personalized sweet hearts into my class-pals' heart folders.

Hearts! Hearts! Hearts!

We are hanging outside our classroom, where there is a play area with swings and slides, with Maven. She's so cute! I like to say that over and over.

We parked our car by Valley Park so here I'm showing my climbing skills. Impressive, huh? I'm always concentrating.

Then we took a shortcut through the grass to get back to our "Big Car," which is what I call our Cayenne ... although I always prefer to ride in the "Little Car," which is the 325. I started out walking ...

... but soon was running ...

"Daddy! Don't go away!"

Editor's note: Daddy is leaving Sedona again in about eight hours for an overnight trip to Utah. Luckily for the family, he is skipping the All-Star Game in Phoenix this weekend, so we'll have him home for a while.