> ...and smart!
>
>I see you detected the message....I taught her that one. :)
>
>We just bought those alphabet letters for the bathtub. When I gave Katy her bath tonight, I randomly held up letters and numbers and said, "What's this one?" She got everyone one!
>
>I was in NYC all last week...was away from her for 5.5 days, the longest I've been away from her. Every day I was gone, she would walk to my office door and bang the door and yell "Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da". She must have been convinced I was locked inside my office. I felt horrible leaving her alone for 5 days, but daddy's got to bring home the bacon (using MICROSOFT BI TOOLS, in case a certain person is reading)

That's not easy. When Allie was about to turn 2 I was trying to find a transition path from mainframes, which had been my experience until then, to PC development. A 6 month contract with a customer I had worked with in Denver ensued, very nice rate, enough to fund my FoxPro learning curve for a year. There were two X factors, both child-related. One was Tricia and I found out two days after the contract was signed that we were expecting again. That was Emily. The other was that it was incredibly hard being away from Allie. And it was confusing her. At 2 their mental capacity is exploding but they are not all the way there yet. I flew out every Monday morning very early (if it's 4:30 a.m. you must be my Monday morning alarm clock), was at the office by 9 with the time change, got my 40 hours in, and was back home early Friday evening. Allie would be by the front window watching for the taxi and would practically leap into my arms at the front door. "Dahdy. Friday."

One weekend there was an install and I had to stay in Denver, which made it an 11 day trip. During one of our nightly phone calls the second week Tricia told me Allie had started asking every morning, "Dahdy come home .... today?" Broke my heart.

Here is a suggestion, and please don't take is as coming from The Guy Who Invented Parenthood. I'm not. Just a suggestion. Work with Katy on something to give her mom on Mother's Day. Anyone can pick up a quick gift or order delivery flowers. The important thing is that it be personal, not generic. Maybe sit down with Katy and give her some crayons and ask her to draw her mom. Conspire on a breakfast in bed and let her help. Your wife / her mom will melt into a puddle.