Stressed out, this move is getting to us all

   Today was one of those days that had me in near tears, Nixon almost running into traffic (he's safe, don't freak...he was stopped before actually getting that close to the street. But it was enough to scare the tears out of me and he didn't even fight me when I put him in a shopping cart after his great escape!) and Mac ready to leave us (I joke, he can't leave us until we're back in the states, for now we're all stuck with each other). 


   As the boxes pile up, the donations are made and the days tick by, we're all getting more and more stressed. It's finally hitting Nixon, I think, that something big is happening and he can't really understand it. I'm trying to explain it as bet I can, to his 3-year old self, but it's a lot to take in. His whole world is changing and being packed away. 


   Today was MY breaking point. Time outs, putting Nixon in his room what ever we're doing....it's not working. It's the wrong approach. Tonight, as I was putting Nix to bed, I asked him how he was feeling. He just wanted to be snuggled and sang to (sung to??). He asked me to sing to him, his baby song (a song I made up just for him) while laying in his bed with him. 
   I came up with THIS idea: "Snuggle Out". Whenever Nixon's feeling scared, anxious, angry, lonely or whatever he can come to me or Mac and say he wants a "Snuggle Out". During the "Snuggle Out" he'll get 5-10 minutes of uninterrupted one-on-one time with which ever parent he asked. It doesn't have to be straight snuggles. It can be tickles, hugs, smelling his "stinky" feet (that's a mommy thing only...daddy doesn't do it any more) or it could be something like taking his football outside and tossing it around. Whatever it takes to get him to relax for a while.


  And as a silly side story: 

our massive pile waiting to be donated

  I mentioned we dropped off our donations today (took 2 trips). We had a rather spectacular amount of clothes/toys/kitchen things....and as a last minute addition: Nixon tricycle. He outgrew it before he even really learned how to ride it. I sat him down and asked him if we could give it to another little boy or girl, and if he said yes, when we moved to our new house, we'd buy him a big boy bike. His only question was, "Can I have pink bike?" Umm...Mac said no. I said we'll have to see what kind of bikes he has to choose from first.