The home stretch

We seem to be in the midst of the storm before the calm. Not exactly how most would describe the imminent arrival of a new family member, but it’s the case for us. We are mostly over being sick now, but Liam’s teeth still haven’t come through, throwing him a little out of sorts; and for me the pace at work has increased, and promises to stay that way for the next 3 weeks until I’m done. Even bringing work home to fit into my spare time (my spare time yesterday being a stretch from 9:30 p.m. til midnight), I don’t think I will finish everything I would like to before my time is up. I have 1.5 vacation days to fit into the next 3 weeks or else I lose them; and I am starting to think I might have to kiss them goodbye. It only gets worse from here on out. Next week I will be cutting out of work early on three days: once for a doctor's appointment, once for an early pick-up at Cindy's (Chad may do this, depending on availability, to help save some of my sanity) and once to go register at the hospital. Because it's about that time.

This morning Liam pitched a fit when it was time to get dressed and out the door to Cindy’s, at which time Chad remarked how glad he is that there are only 3 weeks of this left, after which I will be on the hook for getting him out the door in the morning on the days he goes, and Chad can just deal with getting into work on time. Right now the plan is for Liam to keep going to Cindy’s one day per week. Enough to maintain contact with Cindy and see his friends, and have a change of scenery; but to also have him home enough that I get to enjoy him too. We may revise this down the road, depending on whether he would rather get out of the house, or spend time with me (us). (And depending on whether #2 is a good baby like Liam was, or whether she’s a firecracker who will keep us all hopping for the first few months.) Whatever Liam is happiest with, I am OK with that. This morning when Chad was trying to peel Liam’s pajama pants off, and Liam was trying just as hard to pull them back up, it was awesome to be able to think that in 3 weeks, if he seems to not want to leave home in the morning, then he doesn’t have to. I am sure there will be many days when we will live in our pajamas.

Of course, I didn’t mention the flip side I was thinking about to Chad… which is that, a year from now, we will be fighting 2 little ones to get out the door in the morning, not just 1. Which is precisely why I hope to make the most of this year while it lasts!

(Liam is not much of a talker on the phone, but he enjoys listening to others who call to talk to him. Last night I happened to have the camera out when a call came through from Grampa Bruce and Gramma Dee.)