We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
March and April 2004
May and June 2004
July and August 2004
September and October 2004
November and December 2004
Blogs we read:
Friday, Dec. 03, 2004 - (Mamma)
Preparations begin
Well, Jack is in for another milestone experience!
Our Year End bonus has just come in, and it will almost pay for Jack and I to visit his older brothers and his niece and nephew in Sweden!
Unfortunately, it's not enough to cover a ticket for Rod, too. What with the plummeting US dollar, it's going to be a tight stretch to afford even one and a half tickets. That's extremely disappointing, because Rod was so much looking forward to meeting TJ and Corey.
We plan to make the trip in February, so I have to get hopping! We have a lot of planning to do to make this trip come off.
First step -- tickets. I'll take care of that next Friday.
Next step, Jack needs a passport. There goes another $150. (Actually, I have no idea -- I haven't paid for a kids passport in 20 years. I expect it's less.)
Then we need to figure out exactly what we're going to need on the trip, starting with diapers. We can hardly bring rented diapers to Sweden...and I'm pretty sure I don't want to deal with carrying poopy cloth diapers around from one airport to another. That means at least a couple dozen disposables. Then ... I get to figure out what to do for diapers once we're there. I have a few AIO, and those would work, but the kids use a public washer and dryer...then again, Jack gets a horrible rash whenever we use paper diapers for more than one or two hours. Hmmm. Well, that we'll deal with later.
Next is the question of what will we need in transit. You know, I just this moment realized how truly glad I am that we seem to have gotten past the "everything as missile" stage of life.
We'll need snack foods that come individually wrapped so they'll be sanitary. Not too much, since I don't want to have problems at customs -- but I can hardly give my budgie airport hotdogs.
Toys -- a ball for the layover, to keep him moving, and somethign quiet for the 8 hours we are going to be sharing a seat. Books, of course, but...which books. Don't want to risk losing his real favorites.
Wow ... this is going to be so much fun! And at the end of it all, we get to be with TJ and Corey and Wanja, and Bella and Leo for a week! Hurrah!
Now if only Rod could share the fun ...of course, later in the year, Rod and Jack and I are all going to visit Rod's side of the family in Australia...so this is also a sort of "test run" for that much longer trip.
Note to self: keep notes!
Helping Mamma in the kitchen
New Shoes!
I meant to mention this a couple of weeks ago, but we got busy and I kept forgetting!
Jack's first pair of shoes were wonderful, and he had switched to the larger size, but as the weather got colder, we realized that the butter soft suede sole was wonderful for indoors and for summer, but Jack needed something a bit sturdier for walking outdoors on ice-cold sidewalks, so we got him a pair of these:
They're very cute, they're still softer soled than many more traditional baby shoes, and they keep his feet a lot warmer than his first shoes.
We still need to tackle the question of snow boots, but Jack is getting so good on his feet that we can probably put him in hard soles by the time he needs those.
Sick again ...
It's not my imagination. This boy does get sick in about 6 week cycles.
Right now it's just a seriously stuffy and runny nose, which we're controlling with twice daily steamy baths and a humidifier in the bedroom. So far so good.
But I sure will be glad when this "catching everything that goes around" stage ends.
Especially because I seem to catch whatever Jack has about half the time!
I am a lot healthier than I was a few years ago when my lfe was hellishly stressful, but not nearly as healthy as we all were a year ago when he did a lot less socializing.
I'd better get wrapped up here at work and get ready for my weekend. I just got work that a dear friend is in the hospital with chest pains, so we may be in charge of two babies for the weekend.
