It must be today

Max's visa interview was scheduled for Monday in Seoul, so I was completely convinced that we, like so many other people I've known, would get our travel call the same day. Not so much. You know what they say about assuming...

The good news is that rather than becoming despondent over the fact that the phone isn't ringing, I've started to just get more excited as time goes on. Every hour that passes, I figure the phone just *has* to ring at any moment. That means I have very high hopes for today. I bounced out of bed around 5:25 this morning, eager to get showered and ready to answer the phone. Because heaven forbid I answer the phone with bed head. And because we all know social workers in Oregon are poised to dial at 2:25 a.m. Whatever. I'm ready when they are.

My lovely sister-in-law Noel came to my rescue this weekend and helped me sew the pennants for Max's arrival (that sentence could also be read as: Noel sewed them for me. I watched and snipped stray threads for her.) All that's left to do is glue the last few letters to the remaining pennants and we're good to go. I just have to run out and get Liquid Stitch... one more in a long line of craft items that I never knew existed. I'll make a trip to get both that stuff and waterproof mascara at some point today. When I'm not parked next to the phone, willing it to ring.

Sam has been totally cute about being in big brother mode. The jealous comments are very few are far between now (well, I should say for now) and he's constantly talking about what he wants to teach Max about. We bought new books at the school book fair yesterday, and Sam immediately talked about how he was going to read his monster truck book to Max. Thank goodness I have two nieces and another one on the way, lest I drown in testosterone. I can always buy girly books (like Pinkilicious!) for them if I feel the need to balance out the male influence that surrounds me.

Speaking of Sam's love for all things mechanical and noisy, on the way to school yesterday, he completely floored me with his use of 50-cent words. We see a lot of buses on our short jaunt to preschool every morning. We usually see a line of school buses as well as an NJ Transit bus or two. Sam, as usual, was chattering in the back seat about how big and cool buses are when he asked me, "Mommy. Do you know that some buses are so big and hold so many people that they have to have an accordion in the middle to go around corners?"

I replied that yes, I had seen such buses before.

He said, "Do you know what their special name is?"

When I admitted that I did not, he said, "They're called articulated buses, Mommy."

Seriously? What four-year-old can recall the word articulated?? I googled the word to be sure it was correct. Turns out, the more commonly used term is "bendy bus." Nice. My child chooses to use articulated over bendy. Another word nerd in the making.

Stay tuned for the big news to come. I am sure it will be today!