Jiggity Jig

We are home, and there really is no place like it!

Almost five whole minutes after I posted on Wednesday the attorney called to let us know that we could go home whenever we wanted. Fastest paperwork processing ever. He was even surprised! That said, we had just driven the 9 hours down to Tim's grandparent's, so we spent the better part of the rest of the day trying to figure out what to do as desire to hang with family we rarely see waged war against the desire to get home and try to reestablish some kind of routine. Ultimately, getting home won out so we packed up and headed out Thursday morning.

Of course, this term I teach on Thursday nights, which kind of threw a kink into things as we needed to be somewhere with wifi (and all set up and good to go) by class time. We had figured out the roughly half-way point and that would have been perfect if we'd gotten up and gotten out. But, well, kiddo the younger ate at 5:30 and then, exhausted, I dropped back into bed and none of us got up until around 8:30. Then it was a rush to get the car packed, except the word "rush" in Sleepy family lingo does not mean what it means to most of the rest of the world. So Tim dithered here and there while I got increasingly stressed about the fact that I needed to teach that night. We finally pulled out of the driveway at about 10. With an 8 hour (per the map) drive ahead, things did not bode well for getting to a place to teach on time. Especially with the requisite stops that we'd need with two kiddos (and one restless older boy) in the car.

That said, between the grace of God and Tim's lead foot, we made it with about 40 minutes to spare.

This morning, kiddo the youngest again woke to eat at 5. When he was finished, Tim shook my shoulder, told me the time and asked if we wanted to just get up and hit the road. The spirit knew it was the right thing, but boy the flesh was not in the mood. Still, he went ahead and hopped in the shower and, by the time he was out, I was able to at least not growl grumpily about the prospect. So we hit the road and made it home by about 3. (Don't do the math...I have a bit of a lead foot, too, it seems.)

And now we are home and trying desperately to find our new normal. Kiddo the elder is struggling with readjusting to not a) being in the same room as us to sleep and b) not sharing a bed with one of the parents (because it was really just much easier for one of us to sleep with him while the other tended kiddo the younger and now, well, we made that bed and need to figure out a way to extricate ourselves from it.) Hopefully things will settle in sooner rather than later.

My folks and Tim's converged upon the house (bringing pizza!) this evening to get some newborn snuggles. They also all were quite good about showering kiddo the elder with much love and attention first - bless them. I really want to try and avoid (as much as humanly possible) sibling resentment. It's a process...but so far I think we're doing alright. My good friend had great advice that she passed along earlier and I am trying to cling to it: defer to the elder, he'll remember, the baby won't. Another friend said to make a point of telling the baby that he has to wait because I'm doing x for older brother so that older brother hears mommy telling both to wait sometimes (instead of just always hearing it addressed to him.) Both make so much sense...I just hope I'm able to implement it. I want my boys to end up friends.

We did manage to get a husband in trouble with his wife when we stopped for lunch today. It was rather amusing because he was so very over the moon with newborn fever and kept looking at the baby and then at his wife. She finally said, "No. Uh-uh. Get over here. We have three, we're done." It gave us a laugh. (She then went on to compliment me on how great I look for having a one week old. Honestly, as this one grows up, I'm going to have to just start renting babies.)

Kiddo the elder has already started asking when he can get his baby sister. Oy.