2 More Weeks of Philly on the wall, 2 more weeks of Philly....take one down, pass it around......
Yes. The home stretch. We hit 35 weeks yesterday and have shifted our energy from some nervousness about the whole scenario and the development of #3 to now (each day is just icing on the cake) excitement for the birth of our blessing!! The goal is still the full 37 weeks and, if you couldn't tell from Shawna's last blog, Shawna is so competitive that she is doing everything in her power (not sure what that may be) to keep Baby C at bay!!
This past week was the last week that the boys and I were all home together. After another uneventful drive home, we survived a few speed bumps here in Zeeland but survived!! I'm thinking about patenting a "Dad's Travel Survival Kit - For Dad's Stupid Enough to Travel Significant Distance's with Kids Under the Age of 5".
Here is what would be on the list:
1. Diapers - Yes, for the kids, even if they are potty trained because if they're in the groove watching Paw Patrol or Blaze (or whatever keeps them happy), you don't want to have to stop. They can also be used by the Dad for the same reasons....basically, if the kids are happy, it's not worth stopping to empty your bowels.
2. A car/portable DVD player....a good DVD can be like ridelin for kids....keeps them calm and under control, at least if they can agree on the DVD to watch.
3. Toys, but small and not too many and more importantly, two of all of them (or as many as you have kids because as all of you parents know, if one kid has it, the other one(s) want it).
4. Second pair of clothes/pajamas. I learned this from the mistake of not having a second pair on one of our road trips to Philadelphia where Myles, who seems to be "firsty" (thirsty, struggles with the "t" "h" sound) all of the time leaked through his diaper and went enough that he had to sit in a small resevoir of urine that build up in his car seat. Oooops.
5. Snacks - Anything you think they might want. It's really all about survive and advance so don't feel bad about giving your kids only candy and sugared up drinks. Oh well. No need to stress out about screaming kids in a car or on an airplane by trying to force them to eat apple slices and carrots! Skittles, chips, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, fruit snacks, Starbursts, M&M's, pop, juice bags (Capri Suns), Oreo's, chocolate chip anything, granola bars, etc. You fill in the blanks with what you think you're kids like or have even the slightest chance of asking for. The trip home last week saw us go through a whole box of fruit snacks, a family size bag of Sun Chips (blue bag, Peyton ONLY likes those), two bags of Skittles, one box of Capri Suns plus two we had left over from another box, and a few other treats. Way to go Dad!!
I still have some work to do to improve the survival kit but I think it's coming along!!
Every other week home has, for the most part been smooth, but this whole journey has thrown curve balls at us so I wasn't surprised that our last week home, just the boys, involved a few unforeseen happenings. 1) Sunday night, as we're just about to go to bed, Myles thought it would be a good idea to see how I would handle our first emergency room visit for an injury by jumping off his bed and kissing the corner of the book stand next to his bed with his head. Peyton actually cried harder as the BANG from the incident scared him. So, a quick phone call to Uncle Chad at 9:30 to come and stay with Peyton and get him to bed allowed the Myles man and me to go get him fixed up. Fortunately the cut was deep enough that it hardly bled, but did produce.....
Way to go Myles.
Oh Myles....a tough week. The flu bug happened to sweep through our daycare as well and we thought we were in the clear until Myles upchucked a bit Wednesday afternoon. Thanks for cleaning up, Grandma Sue. What would we do without Grandma's?! Fortunately, it didn't last long and he was back to his normal self by Wednesday night.
The rest of the week went smoothly and the boys grew more and more excited with each day as they knew if they were good boys, they'd be able to fly on some airplanes on Saturday to go back to Philly and see Mommy and Grandma Janet.
Both flights went well on Saturday, even with the first flight placing the two boys in a row by themselves (see above pic). Thank goodness it only takes 28 minutes to get from Grand Rapids to Chicago by plane!!
A lengthy layover in Chicago allowed me to feed the boys some more extremely healthy McDonald's...once again, whatever keeps them happy!!
Texting with Janet yesterday once I got home I jokingly told her I didn't know what to do with myself as it was my first time at home without the boys. Her response was "RELAX because you won't be able to for the next 18 years!!!" Oh boy, probably so true! Although, it's been 32 years for her with Shawna and not being able to relax as marrying me probably has kept her on edge for Shawna and these past couple of months have had no relaxing affect on anyone involved!!
Needless to say, all is good. Now the anticipation for our third little blessing. Oh yeah, you can all wish Shawna good luck this Thursday evening as she's been asked to speak at a 5k fundraiser about her/our experience with CHOP and the PRMH!! Go get 'em dear. A new career? Public speaking?
As always...
CHOOSING JOY
-Jeff
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