Poor Daddy...

When Paul went to pick up Nadia yesterday, she turned and looked at him and then turned back and headed over to Sarah. This broke her Daddy's heart!!! I felt so badly for him yesterday. I tried to encourage him that Nadia loves him and not to read too much into this one event, but it really bothered him. He's always been on the insecure side in part because he can tell I am #1 to Nadia. Lately though she doesn't cry when I leave (when he's watching her) so that's helped as that also didn't go over to well with him. He always is worried that she'll forget him when I travel with her away from PA. I am praying we don't have a repeat performance when he goes to pick her up today. I am glad she enjoys being with Sarah, but her Daddy needs to know she loves him more! The good news is that aside from her 2nd nap being very short (40 minutes), she had a really good day with Sarah and the other kids yesterday. Her 1st nap yesterday was almost 2 hours (which is about 30 minutes longer than usual) so Paul took her over later than planned so she was actually there about 5 1/2 hours.

Yesterday I finished the Blackboard sites for 2 of my 3 summer courses. I plan to finish the 3rd today. I also graded one last research report yesterday. I had given this student an extension as she had a baby a few weeks ago. My other goal for today is to review an article that a journal sent me to review about a week ago. Yesterday I also enjoyed reading a novel. Today I plan to finish reading Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel which so far I am really finding to be thought provoking.

The first chapter is about the basic premise which is that we all have three driving inner needs - security, significance, and strength. The second is about grace and truth. Chapters 3-5 are on a secure love, a signifcant purpose, and a strong hope (which parallel the 3 needs). In chapter 3 he defines the love of a parent for his/her child as "the commitment of my will to your needs and best interests, regardless of the cost." Chapters 6-10 discuss the way in which he believes we can show our children how to find love, purpose, and hope in Jesus Christ. He says in grace-based families children are given the freedom to be different, vulnerable, candid, and make mistakes. The bottom line is that Tim says we should strive to treat our children the way God treats us. I am sure that is one of those things that is easier said than done, but by God's strength I want to be the best mother I can be for Nadia and any other children the Lord might send our way.

At this time in 3 days we should be on an airplane heading to Antigua. YAHOOOO! I did most of the packing last weekend. My bedrest will end tomorrow morning - it will be about 66 hours total which I think is sufficient. Tomorrow I plan to do laundry one more time and then work on packing the last few items. We're going to head to Paul's parents on Friday night around 7pm so we don't have to get up AS early on Saturday morning to drive to the Newark airport.