seperation...

since the seperation in january, jasmine has been coping reasonably well. to start with mike was having her friday nights (anywhere from 6-7pm depending on work) and bringing her home by 5:30pm on a sunday.

after a few weeks of this i didnt think it was working well with jazz, as she was coming home and was very grumpy and out of sorts for the next days and a half or so.
so i chatted to mike and since he couldnt get off work any earlier to pick her up in time to take her to his place for tea, we agreed to change it to 9am on a saturday morning to 5 pm sunday nights instead.

since that change, things have been great. shes coming home happy, shes no longer grumpy the next day. she seems much happier.

one thing we have realised is that her routine is important to her, and when things arent the same, she freaks out.
we had coreys 21st birthday bbq on the 5th of june, which was jasmines weekend with me. although corey had invited mike to the party as well. this in itself was fine, i had no dramas what so ever. actually thought it would be great for jazz to see her dad!
which it was. she was happy to see him and play with him and all were having fun. until it came time for him to leave and go home. under usual circumstances, the only times jazz sees mike are when she is going to stay with him, which means she goes with him, but this time he was leaving without her.
the poor kid screamed and cried for him asking and pointing at him "up, up, daddy, up".
he left before things got worse and i took her inside to try to tell her, she will see daddy next weekend. it took her 20 or so minutes to fully calm down.
but the whole of the next week, she woke crying/screaming and hysterical through the night, not just once, but numerous times. and was constantly asking for daddy, nana and kiedis. and was hunting out my photo albums and taking photos of mike and mary out and walking around with them, taking them everywhere.

she was very clingy, sooky, unusually naughty and just completely out of sorts.

moral of the story: i dont think she should see mike unless he is willing to take her on his own for a little bit. unless the mini visit was to become a regular thing.