Babies Know

The last few days have proved to be somewhat difficult on Joli. As an adult I've become used my husband's comings and goings. Although this does not mean that I do not miss him, I've just learned ways to cope. Unfortunately as a baby, Joli is learning everything for the first time, and this is just one more, very difficult thing that she is dealing with. I've had several people imply that she's "just a baby", or that she "doesn't really know he's gone". In those moments I'd really like to invite that person to come stay with us about 2-3 days after Joe has left. My sweet little baby makes this transformation, into a screaming and very bratty child. She will scream and cry while clinging to me throughout the day, and if I'm doing something, she will then crawl around the house crying and looking in all of Joe's normal locations. If she does not find him, she will cry louder and bury her head in her blanket. At least this is what happened last night. So I got Joe on the phone and let her talk to him for a few minutes, and she seemed to calm down a little. Then I got out our wedding album, which our photographer came up with the simply genius idea of making the pages hard and thick, so it's like a giant board book. I put it on the floor and helped her open the pages. We got to the page with the big picture of the two of us, and this is what she did.
Next time someone tries to tell me she doesn't know, I'm getting out that picture. Then we turned the page and she looked a little more.
Finally she decided she needed her blankie again.
It's very strange, but I've worked in a military child care center with children of all ages that are missing one or both parents, but I've never seen it have so much of an effect on such a young child. I know how to deal with the angry toddler and the crying preschooler, but this is a whole new thing for me, and honestly I'm a kind of at a loss. We talk to daddy on the phone, I show her pictures, we watch a video that he recorded for her every night, and we talk about him. I know to do all these things with an older child, but she's a baby. I just hope that I'm helping her in some way.