we leave for california in less than three weeks, so i'm starting to get a bit nervous. neither of us have ever flown before, much less with a two year old, so i've been trying to gather as much information as i can --- from the intar-net, family, friends who've flown with kids --- so i can be prepared. well, as prepared as i feel like i can be without going crazy and coming up with 80,000 other things to confuse myself with.
i'm looking forward to seeing kathy and steph, just really.........really...........really...........REALLY fucking nervous about the airports. and all of julian's crap that has to be dragged from state to state. we're going to try, of course, to keep things for him to a bare minimum, but at the same time i want him to have things that are familiar and comforting to him during this supremely weird experience...an experience where mommy and daddy have absolutely no bloody clue what they are doing.
at least i figured out the thing with the boarding passes.
i ordered steph's graduation present last nite, so that should be here in the next week or so...i'm excited about that. i hope she likes it, cos if she doesn't, then i'm disowning her. X-)
it seems like my whole life at the moment revolves around getting ready for this trip. i'm hoping that once we've done it and it's all over with, it won't seem like such a huge thing...so maybe the next time (if we can ever come up with the money again) it won't be so scary and i won't spend two months obsessing over it.
but i still have to find something to wear for steph's graduation...i really want to get a new dress or something, but i'm not sure i'm going to have the extra $$$. that blows. i'll at least get a new pair of shoes out of the gift card aj got me for my birthday.
julian was a handful at the ih0p tonite, man. he's still learning about what it means to be a big boy and sit --- key word: SIT --- at the table. thankfully, my wonderful mum was with me and helped me with the discipline. it's always much easier to eat out with her than it is with dave, cos dave's content to just let julian run amok instead of teaching him how to act at the table. then he gets all flustered and mad if julian's goofing around and won't let him eat.
i'm quite obviously the disciplinarian in this house, but dave has been getting a lot better lately. we talked a few weeks ago about being consistent with him, because it finally got to the point where even dave couldn't deny that julian walks all over daddy.....and straightens up (for the most part) with mommy or grandma. so i've actually been sort of surprised, and also proud, that dave has been so much more firm with jx lately. even with little things that he would let go before....like the other nite there were lots of balloons in the house, being that it was my birthday, and jx wanted to hold onto them while he went to sleep. there were like four balloons all tied to a weight in one batch, and three balloons tied to a weight in the other batch, so that was not going to happen. i took one of the bunches and put it in the extra bedroom.
and you would have thought i had cut off one of his appendages.
he screamed. he clawed at the door. he kept yelling, "BALLOOOOOOOOOONS!!!!!" and i told him no balloons, it's time for bed....all that. grabbed him and settled in on the couch for the tantrum. the other batch of balloons was still in plain sight. i gave him the cookie monster book he loves and he was still reaching for the remaining balloons, yelling for them, and daddy came into the living room...took one look at the manic-depressive toddler on the couch and said in a good, stern daddy-voice, "julian, mommy told you no balloons. it's time to go to sleep. you go to sleep." i think i almost fainted.
so that's good.
it's eating out that really gets to daddy, but we're working on that. we can't do much of that in the next couple of weeks anyway, just so we don't run out of money before our next paychecks. it's going to blow to not have a bit of money to spend in l.a., but oh well. all the more reason for kathy to buy us things. hahaha..
so yeah....shallow this time around, but that's all i've got.
keeping fingers crossed that trip goes as painlessly as possible.....
