[KimOH]

We left our son with his grandparents for trip 1 and for the first part of trip 2. (We were in Moscow Region and trip 2 was 23 days, so DH came back early. I think 3 weeks would have been too long to leave him, but one week was fine.)

We left a "letter" for him each day that basically said "Hope you're having fun and doing all sorts of neat things." and a small gift for him to unwrap each day. Since we stayed in Moscow the whole time (not a more remote region), phoning home wasn't a problem and we called to chat briefly at least every other day. Most of the time he wanted to tell us about what "prize" he'd gotten that day. LOL!

I think, for our son, it also helped that he sees his grandparents often. He knew where he'd be sleeping, what he'd be doing, which days he'd be going to preschool, which days he wouldn't be, etc. "Being prepared" is probably the best line of defense, for my son at least.

Good luck!