He likes 'em, He really likes 'em!

At nine months old, it wouldn't be unusual for you to find LMA surrounded with books and him flipping through every single one of them. I know children can be difference as night and day, I was prepared for that. I was really hoping that this love of books would be the same for BBZ.

He's ten months old now and could really care less about books, except maybe to chew on them. I think it's my fault. After BBZ was born, we continued our night time routine of reading books to LMA. Even with BBZ in hand. We even made BBZ wait until after we were done with books before I would give him his last feeding of the night. Sometimes he was so outraged, that Pop-pop just fed him anyway while I was reading books to LMA.

We finally found a book that he enjoys. Picked up at the library, so I may have buy one. I'm sure it's more to do with flipping through the pages and turning them one by one that has intrigued him, but that's definitely a start. In these pictures, he was so enthralled with this book, "Baby: Bathtime" that he could have cared less that big brother was loving on him, that Mommy was trying to get his 10 month picture with his elephant, or that I was making TONS of animal noises to get him to look up.





I don't care. As long as he likes books.

Rain, rain. Don't go away.

Maybe I should have thought of having him do this before. LMA LOVED running in the rain. At first he had on his rain jacket, but since it was more of a spring jacket, he changed his mind.



I got more pictures of him playing/running/having a good time with a huge puddle in the middle of our driveway, but couldn't fine the right setting to stop the motion without using the flash.

Better luck next time.

What could he be thinking?

I can't believe it's been close to an entire month since I posted. Lately, I just haven't been in the mood. Occasionally, I'll have a few photos I want to share, but just can't find the words to go with it. I should probably just post the pics considering family like Wenderina love to just see how the boys are doing. Even the big one.

We've started talking about Daddy going away with LMA. It started mainly by accident a couple weeks ago when I had a yard sale. The signs I made said "Moving Sale" so everyone kept asking me, "This is the moving sale, right?" I replied that is was going to be a moving sale, but then the military changed their mind and decided to just send hubby. Sometimes I'm not sure what LMA is thinking. Is he sad? Does he understand? Is he mad? Does he think Daddy is going away and not coming back?

Today we watched a video done by Sesame Street talking about a parent, in this case Elmo's Daddy, going away for work. I really wanted to sit down with LMA and Daddy and watch it together. I thought maybe LMA would have questions or just want to talk about it afterwards. Nope. He got mad. In a quiet way.

After quiet time, he wanted nothing to do with me. "Where's Daddy?"

So when I came out into the living room where Daddy had been taking a nap, I found this....






I wish I knew what was going through his little head. I wish I could make him understand that even though Daddy is going away for what seems like a really long time, he loves him and really doesn't want to go. Daddy wishes he could take us with him.

They say there are two different types of reactions from children when they learn that a parent is going away for awhile. One is to be separated, distant. The other is my son: attached. Wants nothing more than to just be with Daddy.

I hope this next year goes by fast.

Picture Perfect?

Not that I really think I have any business entering a photo contest, especially one that both my father and uncle have entered, but I thought I would try my luck. I've had some good ones, at least I think they were, but here is my favorite of LMA. Here's the photo that I entered into Greeblemonkey Greeblepix July contest.



Top 10 will be picked this Thursday by the blog author. We'll see.

The Military Saga Continues

Oh, how things can change in a blink of an eye. Sometimes I hate change. Would prefer things to stay status quo. Not sure why I ever decided to become a military wife or a mother then, but alas I did. Thank goodness I love my husband and my children.

As of last week, hubby was waiting for his short term orders to come through. One last memo needed to be added to the packet to make it complete ... oh, and then another.... oh, and one more just for good measure. Instead of doing drill last weekend and hopefully finding out if his packet was complete and if he was ordered to start 15 July, he decided to help out Wally's World because he was gone for 2 weeks straight and he's too nice of a guy. He opted to do it on Tuesday and Wednesday instead.

Monday morning he received a call from a captain at his unit asking him if he would like to volunteer for a deployment. This captain has had hubby's name for awhile and looking out for possible deployments/mobilizations - any where. It's been five years since hubby was deployed overseas and being a new lieutenant he's at the top of the list to be deployed again. I would just prefer it to not be Iraq or Afghanistan (which happened to pop up and I promptly told him NO!).

So when this opportunity came around, needless to say he was actually excited.

The position? At Cuba. Guantanamo Bay. For 330 days.

How am I? I've already started to go through a couple phases of acceptance. First, Denial. "I'll wait until I actually see the orders," I thought. Next day, orders came. Well, at least it's not Iraq or Afghanistan, I thought. I mean he could be selected/told he was going somewhere rather than given the opportunity to choose, I rationed. Then I thought, it's only 10 months (or so he kept telling me. Come to find out it's closer to 11 months. He'll be back July 25th).

Then, I started thinking about how frustrated I get during the day and relieved I am to see him walk through the door at the end of the day. For 11 months, he won't do that. That's about when it hit me.

How am I going to keep sane?
How am I going to keep the house clean, feed the kids, laundry, take care of garbage, and everyday maintenance?
How will LMA deal with not having Daddy around?
He's going to miss BBZ first birthday. Will this child really know who Daddy is when he comes home?
How in the world am I going to dig myself out of the snow if we have another winter like last year???

Of course I want him to take the position. Not only is it a great opportunity for him, it's some place relatively safe, and when he comes home he'll be a 1LT (he'll be up for promotion while he's away). At the same time, I just wish things had never changed.

We both said when he accepted his promotion last October that the next year and a half until he would make 1LT would be tough. I just didn't think it would be this tough. Or maybe I just thought I was tougher and able to handle anything.

I've thought about moving to California with my parents, or moving to Texas with a good friend, or moving back to our old neighborhood here in Virginia. I think the best thing, especially for the boys, is to not change too many things. Even they like status quo too sometimes.

So September 7th, we'll miss him, but I think we'll be okay. I hope.