It’s been an emotional weekend for all of us here in The Autism Dad household. Losing Maggie has been devastating for all, but especially for Elliott and Emmett. They’re feeling the loss a bit differently because they have basically never known a time where Maggie wasn’t here. They were both so young when we got her, it seems like she was always part of our family.

Lizze and I have been trying to keep the boys distracted because that helps them to move forward. Saturday was pretty rough. There was a great many tears shed throughout the day and we really tried to keep the boys occupied, but it didn’t always help.

On Sunday, all three of the boys hung out with their Grandparents for a large part of the day. It was good for them to get out for the house and away from all the emotion hanging over everything at home.

I decided to seize the time off and take my lovely wife to lunch. It wasn’t the most fiscally sound decision I could have made but we needed to get out as well, and Cracker Barrel seemed like a doable option. Lunch was great and it was nice to be able to talk without the chaos of a house full of kids. Frankly, I think we needed the distraction as well. The house was eerily quiet with Maggie gone.

One thing we couldn’t bring ourselves to talk about was what to do with Maggie’s things. Her kennel, blankets and toys all need to dealt with and I’m not sure what that means. I don’t know how the kids are going to react to removing these items. I guess we should prepare them for the change ahead of time, rather than having them be surprised when they get home from school.

Speaking of school, I gave their teachers a heads up that they might be having a rough day because of everything that happened. Perhaps they’ll be okay but just in case, I wanted the teachers to understand what had happened.

As I’m writing this, Lizze and I just finished watching John Oliver and we realized that Maggie’s favorite pile of blankets is still in the corner. It hit us again that she’s gone. Maggie used to drive us crazy at bedtime because, she needed to be tucked in. She had to be buried until the pile of blankets or she wouldn’t sleep. It was annoying at times and if we didn’t tuck her in, she’d end up dragging the blankets all across the room trying to get underneath them. It was sad not being able to tuck her in anymore.

It’s been an emotional weekend and we have a busy week to prepare for.

I’m hoping that we can find peace in the coming days, as we learn to live without Maggie in our lives.