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. 10, 2004 - (Mamma)
And we're off!
OK, we have the tickets! The trip to Sweden to see TJ, Corey, Wanja, Bella, and Leo is now officially underway!
I was so thrilled! At the last minute I found tickets at half the price I'd seen a few weeks ago when we were "planning" -- so Rod gets to come, too! (Amazingly enough, life has been "sorting itself out" like that a lot lately.)
I am so excited that I will have all my children and grandchildren and my husband together at once.
Well, truth is, I also think of Rod's boys as "my" children ... but I'm not sure how they'd feel about being called that. They were adults with "defacto" wives when I met their father -- they can hardly be called my stepkids. I'm just their Dad's wife. Anyway, I wish there were some way for the whole lot of them to meet. And someday they will...somehow.
Anyway...
The next step is to get Jack a passport. That is going to be a bit tricky, because it either takes 6 weeks and $70 or 2 weeks and $130 plus expedited shipping. Since we spent more than we probably should have on tickets, we can't order the passport until 5 weeks from the date of departure. Guess what -- we're going to Chicago! (To get the expedited passport.)
I am more excited than I can find words to express! My stomach has been doing back flips since I clicked "Order the tickets".
Part of that, of course, is that I didn't get much sleep last night. I was up writing the service for the funeral I'm performing tomorrow. (There is never much time to plan for funerals, somehow...) But largely it's excitement to travel again -- to see my guys again! To see Bella and meet Leo...Leo, who was born on Nov 1, will be older than Bella was when I last saw her. Wow. I can hardly believe she's two! (Then again, I found out I was expecting Jack when I was there last, so I guess it's not *that* surprising.)
Anyway, we have an eight hour layover in Frankfurt and that is very exciting, too!
I have never had a layover long enough to do some touristing before -- and for all my travel, I have never been to Germany! I guess we'd better start playing Jack's computer game in German so one of us will have a clue!
Now we need to find out what there is to do in Frankfurt that isn't deadly boring for budgies. ;) I suspect we can manage to include some museums and grownup stuff as long as we take running and screaming into account in our scedule. And realistically, we have six hours (assuming we breeze through customs), including travel time, so it may amount to finding out "the best place for lunch" and taking a walk.
I have to admit that one of the reasons I am so excited -- beyond the fact that I love to travel myself -- is that both TJ and Corey grew up "world travelers" and I *really*, *really* like the way it influenced the way they see the world. I want the same thing for Jack, but I'm not entirely confident that I'll be able to provide it for him. This is a good start.
OK, enough burbling about that ... I'm sure you must think I'm quite mad by now...
Along with all his other opinion-changing, Jack has decided that Rod and I are both his favorite parent. Not at the same time, of course. We alternate.
It's kind of funny to watch -- he changes his mind on an almost moment by moment basis, so there's no time for anyone to really feel left out.
Poor Jack!
He has been wearing the winter coat that Corey wore at his age. You know what that means? It means that his winter coat is over 20 years old -- it was used when Corey got it! It's developing some serious venting in the seams and it's time to replace it. Finding a coat that isn't hideous has been quite a challenge, though. It seems that the common perception amongst the makers of clothes for little boys is that little boys aren't fun to dress and exist primarily as billboards for various sports teams and merchandising schemes. Yuck. I am so glad we belong to the clothing exchange. It means I don't have to deal with this very often.
Ah, well, he has two snow suits and if I delay long enough it will evetually get cold enough for those...and maybe I can avoid the problem for another year!
Metablogging Just a reminder that I will be on holiday until January 3. I may get a chance to post occasionally, but I'm not counting on it. You shouldn't either.
My favorite!
New coat
