Frames, Planes and Planning Pains

Today Atrain and I rearranged pictures in our home. It’s a project I’ve been itching to do ever since we had our family pictures taken a couple of months ago. Finally getting the frames on the wall feels fantastic. There is a sweet sense of liberation that comes with completing a job you’ve intended to do for months. Now all I need to do is print the pictures to fill the frames.

Atrain is quite the little decorator. He had all sorts of opinions about the collage placement. It was adorable, yet extremely tricky to navigate and negotiate around our opposing opinions. I felt like framing some of the thing he said, like, “MOM-Listen to me! They all have to touch like a long train on the wall,” and, “Where’s the golden temple one? It needs to be at the front of the line,” and, “Can Miss Green and Tiny and Shashe be in our family forever too?” I love Atrain’s words more than any sound in the world. Maybe I will frame them.

Jdog slept for three hours this afternoon--through all of the negotiating and hammering. It was rather impressive. “I want to go wake him up now,” Atrain would say. Maybe I made a mistake when I let him wake the little J man up this morning, but I just couldn't say no. My heart overflows every time he yearns for his brother’s company—especially when he’s having a dizzy morning. It happened again this morning, just like last Monday. I wish I understood why. My mind flipped through all of the possible triggers that could cause Monday morning vertigo: overstimulation from being at the Parent’s homes on Sunday; no nap the previous day; spending your time screaming and running around like banshees with the cousins; different food; Spork water; the elevation change—I hope he will do OK on an airplane to Houston this summer…if it’s elevation changes that cause dizzy spells I better bring a lot of barf bags just in case.

Little Atrain is so excited to go to Texas for our family “vacation” next month. He will be even more excited after not having his daddy around to tickle him and laugh at nonsensical things with him for three weeks. Oh how we will miss the husband while he’s on his away rotation. Atrain asked me to tickle him like dada tickles him today, but I could tell by his courtesy laugh that it just wasn’t the same.

I don’t know what we’re going to do without the husband—that is if he ends up going. He still hasn’t found a place to live yet. I hope that happens soon, or Atrain, Jdog and I are not going to have a place to stay once our plane lands in Houston. I wonder what it would be like to sleep in a Hostel with little ones. A lot of my time lately has been spent sorting through the scammers on Craigslist to help the husband find somewhere to rest his head while he is away. I'm not sure how he'll survive without me.