One the eve of his trip

As I type this, we're only 8 hours from Dan's departure for his first trip away from home without us. His bag is packed and his backpack is filled with the electronics he wants for his adventure. I've just read Beth's blog and know that she & Emma are waiting in South Carolina for Kevin & Dan to arrive tomorrow.

Dan has been so excited all day -- all weekend, really. We've been on a major cleaning since the grandparents show up next week, and I unearthed 3 of his favorite (missing) CD's for him, after having made another for the trip. His music choices on the new CD are interesting --a few songs by The Jonas Brothers, several by Hannah Montana, two from the Talking Heads, and Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani! He's an eclectic kid, with his own sense about so many things, from music to hair color and styles, to soccer.

Finally, he's passed out on the couch, only about 30 minutes after announcing he just couldn't sleep. That announcement followed after he came to me at about 7pm and said, in his sweetest voice with smiling face, "SNU-U-U-GGLE!" I climbed into bed with him, exhausted from a day spent shampooing the carpet and packing his bags, and finding must-have items for the trip. Dan wanted to read Garfield, and Andy offered to read for a while, so I got to spend about 10 minutes in bed snuggled up with Dan, listening as Andy read and they both laughed riotously. When Andy had read all he wanted, Gary took over for a while, but Dan found he was restless, so he and I got up to watch TV. One episode of Zack & Cody later, he's out cold!

It's been a very sweet, snuggly, happy evening -- time to try to get some sleep before we get up -- at 3 AM! --to head for the airport at 4:15..... 'sokay, that way tomorrow morning, I'll be too sleep-deprived to be neurotic about air travel.