1. Man Puppy turned TWO! This little guy was our deployment baby, born a month after his daddy shipped off on his first deployment. His birth was a challenge and quite the empowering experience. He was also our first homebirth and after Miss Tornado's hospital birth we were glad to have a complication free birth. :-)
I threw a construction themed party for him. Being a two-year old he thought it was awesome! Here are some pics!
I make some awesome cakes. ;-)
The day of his birthday. We went to Farrells for lunch! They gave him a sticker!
2. I had a minor car accident. Someone sideswiped me with his boat trailer when I was getting out of the way for a firetruck. He honestly didn't see me, and he got a green light when I was inching into his lane to get out of the way for the firetruck. However, he proved to be a jerk, trying to drill me for information about my husband's rank and job because I had a blue military sticker. He also told me that I should have let the firetruck hit me because having to wait for the police was making him late for his fishing excursion. The police showed up and weren't much better. The cop showed up and told us that he wasn't there to take statements, just make sure that we exchanged information and also told us that unless the cars are undriveable, his presence at the scene was a "courtesy". Nice to know that I could have been breaking every law out there, but as long as the cars could drive away, I wouldn't get in trouble. *gag face*
3. We flew to San Diego! Space A travel is not for the fainthearted, especially when you have three kids by yourself! We did pretty well though. The flight crew is almost always very accomodating, several times I've been told not to worry about the kids' noise because it makes them miss their own kids. It was so sweet of them to say that. It is nice to know that there are some guys who actually look forward to getting home from flights, like Steve always was.
My Sit and Stand stroller is a workhorse. That is a baby in a carseat, a pack and play, a duffle bag with clothes for an adult and three children, a diaper bag and at times the computer back WITH the other carseats were on there. 50lbs per seat my rear! lol
Breakfast before we left. Thanks to a miscommunication between the flight crew and the terminal there were no meals available on the flight. This was to be our only meal for 24 hours.
Big sister helping keep track of little brother, whether he likes it or not. lol
We got to see some dear friends at 29 Palms
We found a Creationism/Dinosaur museum. I just HAD to stop for a learning/fun experience!
My "hatchlings"
A stop to see another dear friend and his girlfriend.
We then stopped at Lemoore to see some dear friends that we knew in Pensacola and then Whidbey. Baby Bird wasn't so sure about swimming underwater... lol
Miss Tornadolearned to swim with floaties this summer. She is now fearless in the water!
Me and Man-Puppy
After leaving Lemoore we went to Travis AFB, but to say Space A there was backed up would be an understatement. They hadn't moved our category out in three weeks. So after a week of waiting we made the 9 hour trek back to San Diego in one day. The kids are troopers on car trips!
While we were in San Diego we stayed with some friends who had just PCSed there from Hawaii. They took us to the San Diego Zoo. That is one item off my bucket list that I can cross off!
Standing on one leg like a flamingo!
There was a flight out of San Diego that we managed to catch. Apparently a lot of the other women traveling Space A alone with their children found out about it too. We all saw each other at the terminal. We totally didn't plan that. But that meant that we had our "herd" to help keep the kids together. It reminded me of an elephant herd, how the females group with the offspring to take care of each other. It is easier to corral close to 20 kids with 10 mothers than it is to go at it alone. Those elephants have it right! :-D
Thank goodness for technology. The DVD player plus the V-Reader we bought Miss Tornado really paid off. They kept her busy for the 3 hour terminal wait and the 6 hour flight.
4. When we got home we all got SICK. On the flight home Miss Tornado's nose started running. By the time we got home she was in a full asthma attack mode. This only happens when she is really sick. I gave her her inhaler and then got everyone to bed. We all woke up with the flu. We had no groceries in the house, but I managed to ask a friend to bring me some groceries and we survived off of that.
5. Miss Tornado's birthday was right when we were getting over our flu. Poor thing, we didn't do much for her birthday because none of us felt very well. What I ended up doing was taking her to Starbucks and getting her a strawberry and cream frappachino and four cake pops. That's right, my firstborn is FOUR! She has grown up so fast! She is definately my greatest challenge, but also such a joy!
6. Man-Puppy started speech therapy, although I do think it was a bit premature. He has been exploding with new words everyday with very minimal therapy sessions. He surprises me everyday with some new words. He is very communicative, and thinking back to Miss Tornado as a 2 year old versus Man-Puppy as a 2 year old, I can see that the 2 year old phase is very true. With Miss Tornado there was no "2 year old phase". It started when she was 6 months old and lasted until just about 3 years old. With Man-Puppy there is a marked difference in his demeanor. The tantrums are no where near his older sister's tantrums, but they are still a challenge. I see him becoming a very empathetic and charming little boy and it makes me one proud mommy. <3 He is all boy, including findign him walking across my piano keyboard just because he could. He recently had very beautiful blonde curls... Which I will discuss in point 8.
7. Baby Bird turned ONE! That's right, my whirlwind baby that wouldn't wait on anyone to be ready for her birth is one year old! She is quite the fiesty little thing but is still a very easy child. She is going to give me a run for my money in the future though. I already spot her magnetic personality that makes people want to do anything for her. Including her siblings. I look at her playing with her siblings and think "yeah... she knows what she is doing". lol This girl will break hearts all over the place.
For her birthday we didn't do much. I baked a cake and we had it after dinner. She didn't care much for the cake, preferring her first slice of pizza over her first slice of cake. I don't blame her, I would rather have pizza than cake most of the time. ;-)
It meant a lot to me to see the Blue Angels flying. It reminded me of some of the wonderful days in Pensacola. I remember driving to Steve's house or elsewhere and seeing the Blue Angels practicing. It was a beautiful sight and the memory makes my heart ache to go back to Pensacola. It also reminded me of my many good friends who were there for flight school (including my future husband) and the great times we had. Watching the Blue Angels fly in Hawaii really made me miss my "home" of Pensacola. We will never get to go back there to live, but I am holding out hope that we get to be stationed nearby so I can go visit.
Back to the airshow. Here are some great pictures!
Baby Bird was not amused.
Man Puppy thought they were great for the first five minutes.
My precious babies!
Miss Tornado is getting pretty good at taking pictures.
"Wat's that?"
Dancing with a new friend that she met at the airshow.
She had earplugs in, but she was mimicing the poor little girl who didn't have any hearing protection in.
Snip Snip goes the hair!
Fixing sissy's haircut she gave him.
Getting her own hair trimmed, cleaned up and new bangs!
Handsome man!
The kids and their new haircuts!
