Hump Day!!

Wow, it's Wednesday already! This week seems to be flying by. Which is nice, because on Saturday we are on our way!!!

People keep asking me how I feel and saying, "You must be excited!" I wonder if they feel disappointed by how not excited I look right now. I'm feeling unnaturally calm and patient at this time, which is a welcome change because I could go insane otherwise. When I truly stop and think about what is coming, I feel like my heart could burst and I want to cry with joy! But, as it would be awkward in my daily life to be constantly crying with joy, I am keeping my head down and trying to not think about it. Well, not concretely. I think about it in the abstract all the time!

Still, it's neat to be hitting my "milestones." I kept thinking to myself "Ok, Thursday Nick's mom gets here and we have the Operation Christmas Child party. Friday the kids are home, there's shopping and packing, and my friend Nikki's bachelorette party. Then SATURDAY and travel!!" It's sort of a way of keeping myself grounded, of keeping the pace and such. But here we are, about ready to hit those milestones! Tomorrow, my mother in law gets here. We have a day and a half to get her and the kids acclimated, then we go.

It is going to be VERY hard to leave our other two kids behind to go get the third, but we thought long and hard about it. On the one hand, we thought it would be so great for all the kids to meet right away. We didn't want to be apart from any of our kiddos, and we didn't like the idea of the stress on them. Immediately followed by the stress of a new sibling. But on the other hand, we knew how stressful it would be trying to manage all three, brand new situation, totally different environment, with all the appointments and such... it seemed like a lot to handle at once. We wanted Geri to get a few days of direct contact before having to share us. Plus, airfare is pricey. Did I mentioned that already? ;) Oh, and Big Brother needs to attend school. I refuse to have him miss days for anything but illness and snow.  So, we did the mental math and this is what we came up with. I know it's not the solution other families arrive at, but each situation is different and parents have to follow their gut. Ours said "Leave the kids. Take the cannoli."

Oh, and in other news, this crazy new idea of giving our kids more attention is working out. Big Brother is having his best days at school, yet. He completes all his work, even gets to do special extra stuff like ST Math, and his teacher is giving him high marks on his behavior. We're noticing a calmer, more focused demeanor at home, as well. We've also decided to cut back his "consumption" of violence and violent play. We don't give him access to anything violent (movies, video games, etc) but when he wants to play sword fight we usually oblige. Lately we've been avoiding games that have anyone getting injured or killed and spending more time on "quiet" activities. We've also made more of an effort to direct him to consider the effects of his play violence. If he says "that guy shot that guy!" we say "ouch! that must have hurt! he'll have to go to the hospital and see a doctor!!" The goal is to consistently reinforce the idea that hurtful actions have painful consequences. Hopefully, this will help. Already, I'm pleased to see his behavior return to the way it used to be. He's acting more like the sweet, good-natured,  boy he's been since day one.

Gah, all this stuff going on. I'm looking forward to having everyone back home so we can start settling in and trying to figure out what "normal" looks like for us. I'd also like a pony and rocket ship that will take me to the moon so I can eat the cheese up there. :)