The boys both came home from school today having not eaten anything the whole day. Elliott spent a part of the day crying, as did Emmett. They’re really stressed out about losing Cleo.

It hadn’t occurred to me that Elliott and Emmett have never existed without Cleo. She’s been a big part of their lives for their entire lives.

I hadn’t thought about that before now.

This is a much bigger deal from them than I was originally thinking. Cleo was there for them during the separation, and if you recall, Emmett used to snuggle her like a teddy bear. She would tolerate it until he fell asleep and she would sneak away without waking him up.

For the first time in their entire lives, they will go to sleep tonight and wake up in a world where Cleo will no longer be there.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about that. 🙁

Poor Elliott spent entire lunch writing a letter about Cleo. Lizze and I both cried when we read it. We realized that this is going to be a much harder time for them than we thought.

The boys are asking to stay home tomorrow because they don’t want to fall apart at school and they won’t be able to think of anything else the whole day.

Lizze and I were planning on sending them to school because we were hoping it would be a distraction but that was before we realized how hard they’re taking this.

I don’t know what we’re going to do now. All I know for sure is that we will not be taking them with us when it’s time.