Facing the Deployment

So, I meant to post an update a while back, but between moving, getting settled, trying to make the most of what time we had left together, saying goodbye, and now trying to settle into a new routine, there just wasn't any time left over to blog in.

Here I am now though! We arrived in Virginia November 30th, and Munchkin and I said goodbye to DH January 1st. He hasn't deployed yet (though that is coming up in the near future--for OPSEC reasons I will not be posting specific dates and times in order to not do anything to compromise the safety of my husband or the other troops deploying with him), but his leave was up on January 2nd and he had to be there to sign in in person. It's hard to believe that this past Sunday marked it as having only been one week since we said goodbye at the airport--it already feels like we've been apart for AT LEAST a couple of MONTHS. :-( It's going to be a long year folks, please keep all of us in your prayers as we try to make the best of it and keep a positive attitude throughout this deployment. THANK YOU!!!

I've been doing okay for the most part . . . the hardest times are at night when I am putting Munchkin to bed and when I have to turn out the light and I am still all alone. My hubby recorded himself reading a couple of Munchkin's favorite bedtime stories with our video camera and so Munchkin and I watch those every night before bed . . . it is both comforting and yet unbearable to watch (in some aspects). I hate that my husband is going to miss a year of our son's life (especially at this age when he is growing and changing SO much), and I hate that I can't explain to Munchkin WHY his daddy isn't there in person reading the stories to him, giving him a hug and kiss, and then turning off the light. It breaks my heart when I have to close the video camera after the stories are done and Munchkin gets upset because he can't see his daddy anymore. I worry about how this time of separation is going to affect/disrupt his relationship with my hubby. I worry that he will eventually only remember him as "the man on the screen" because he will only get to see him in pictures, videos, Skype, and FaceTime. If I still have any other military spouses reading this blog, any ideas/advice on how to keep a two-year old bonded with his daddy while he is away would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm struggling here and desperately need some sort of validation or suggestions as to how I can help them stay connected.

 Last family picture for awhile...this was taken just before we left for the airport (note the mischievous expression on Munchkin's face, :-p).

Munchkin while we were out playing in the backyard a few days ago.

Miscellany Monday

One: This is my first Miscellany Monday, and first blog hop ever! Pretty exciting stuff! :-) I've been meaning to do this for forever.

Two: I started following the Curly Girl method of hair care as of Saturday night! No more shampoo or hair brushes for me! For those of you who haven't heard of it and are naturally curly, wavy, of have always wondered why your hair is what I call "foofy" (a mix of poofy and frizzy) and wouldn't lay as nice and flat as 'all the other girls' hair', I would recommend checking out YLCF's 'Got Curl?' page to learn more about the Curly Girl method. I'd never heard about it until I clicked on the Got Curl? link one day after thinking, "Hey, I'm part of the curly 'club' now!" After reading through the links and then getting a copy of the Curly Girl book for myself, I decided to give it a shot and see what happens. From what I've read, CG doesn't work perfectly for everyone, and I may have some discouraging 'bad hair' days in the process, as my hair has to get used to not being stripped daily by the sulfates in most shampoos, but we will see in six weeks what kind of an impact my new routine has had on my hair. I'm hoping it will be quite a bit less foofy. I'll keep everyone posted, and will try to post pictures along the way! If you decide to give it a try, please let me know!

Three: Peanut Butter Cup experienced the wonderful world of crayons for the first time yesterday! Boy, was he excited about coloring! Obviously he doesn't quite have the concept and coordination down yet, but he make some scribbles. :-) He only tried to put a crayon in his mouth once (that I saw), but I'm sure the more he plays with them the more often that will happen -- for a while at least. It was exciting to see how his eyes lit up when I first gave one to him and showed him how to draw on the paper. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to leave him alone with the paper and the crayons (since I already know he likes to eat paper, ha ha). Hopefully next time!

Four: I pulled my fiddle out of it's case and played it for the first time in about a year a couple of weeks ago! It felt good! I've missed playing it . . . I just wish I had more time -- and could find all of my sheet music, as currently I'm only able to play whatever I can remember. I think I know the general area where my sheet music is hiding, but haven't had a chance to go digging for it as the only time I have really is after Peanut Butter Cup goes to sleep for his naps or bedtime, and searching for it would make too much noise.

Five: DH should be done with his progression as of tonight -- as long as the weather holds! Basically what that means is that instead of always having to fly with an instructor pilot (IP) he will be able to fly with any (progressed) pilot. That is pretty exciting for him! So, we are hoping and praying that the weather will clear so he will be able to fly tonight (he's been flying nights lately) and be DONE. It will take a LOT of extra stress of of DH to be finished with progression . . . Lord willing it won't be dragged out for another week.

I hope everyone has had a good start to their week! :-)

P.S. I'm such a Ditz!! I went to link up at Lowercase Letters and titled my post as "Miscellany Monday" instead of the title of my blog! :-p HA HA!! I was wondering how everyone else's links were the title of their blog -- I just read "Post Title" and took it literally! Well, at least I know now! :-)

New Accomplishments!

So, like most babies his age, Peanut Butter Cup has been changing and growing by leaps and bounds (not so much physically, as mentally, but he has gotten bigger!). Yesterday for instance he did an AMAZING job of feeding himself with a fork!

Want to know what the funniest part of the whole thing was?

We were eating fish, green beans, and rice, and every time he would get a green bean or some rice on his fork he would pause for a second, shake his head 'no', and then continue to move the fork toward his mouth. Then when he was about ready to put it in his mouth he would stop and shake his head again, then he would wiggle his fork so it would fall off and he wouldn't have to eat it! We thought it was hilarious watching him 'argue' with himself -- it was like he was telling himself, "Eat it!" "No, I don't want to!" "I really should eat it!" "NO! Yucky!". :-)

He didn't have a problem with the fish at all, so I guess he's going to be a 'meatatarian' like his daddy!

Yesterday was also the first day that he has taken a nap in his crib. He usually takes his nap in his swing, but eventually he is going to outgrow it, and he has been waking up more lately when I first put him down in it, so I decided to see how he would do with napping in his crib. Today has been better than yesterday so far. Yesterday he only slept for about 50 minutes because a truck with a high-pitched hum of sorts was sitting somewhere on the road in front of our house for a while and it woke him up. So far today he's been asleep for about an hour and 20 minutes. So, we may be done with the swing! That would be nice as it would open up a good chunk of the nursery if we could put it away. Don't get me wrong though, I have been VERY grateful for the swing! Sometimes (especially when Peanut Butter Cup was a newborn) that has been the ONLY way he will go to/or stay (a)sleep.

My husband (whom I will be referring to as DH from now on, unless I think of something more appropriate! Ha ha!), taught Peanut Butter Cup how to say 'Hi/Hey" on Monday! He doesn't do it very often, but he's always so cute when he says it -- he'll say it with a big grin on and then he'll get all shy and bury his face for a few seconds into the shoulder of whichever one of us is holding him. :-)

Last weekend it sounded like he tried to say "buddy" a few times over the span of a couple of days, but we aren't sure if he really did or if it was our imaginations. So, now I don't know whether to consider "bubble" (which he only said once, several months ago), "buddy", or "hi/hey" to be his third word. :-p

Oh yeah! Peanut Butter Cup had his 12 month well baby appointment back on December 23rd (yeah, I know that was more than a month AFTER he turned one, ha ha). The doctor didn't tell us where he stood in the 'percentiles', just that he was on the lower end, but she wasn't concerned because she could tell he just takes after his parents. :-) Thank the Lord! I was worried she would be one of those doctors who wouldn't take that into consideration and would tell us that we needed to start supplementing him or something. Anyhow, he weighed 18 pounds 2 ounces (if I remember correctly -- it may have been 18.2 pounds instead), and they measured him at 29 inches long, but the nurse that did that kind of went down underneath his head instead of making a mark even with the top of his head, so he is actually a bit taller.

The doctor was also pleased that I am still breastfeeding him, which made me like her even more. I think maybe the fact that she was German had something to do with her being so laid back about that. . .after all, the minimum recommended breastfeeding age in Europe is two years old, unlike the American recommendation of only a year.

Peanut Butter Cup also got some cream for his ringworm spots that he's had since early December (we aren't sure if he got them from Copper -- who didn't have any sign of them -- or if he got them from the sand at the beach. His original spots are clearing up now, but a few more smaller ones have popped up, so we have been putting cream on them as well. If they don't go away soon I may end up having to take him back in to see what the doctor has to say again.

I'm Alive Still . . . No Worries! :-)

Whew, I have been SO awful about updating the blog lately -- as I'm sure y'all have noticed! SORRY!!

What with Peanut Butter Cup being so mobile now along with my trying to get settled back into some sort of a routine after my hubby returned to work, I haven't had much extra time or energy to sit down and write an update . . . plus everytime I would contemplate doing so, I would quickly become overwhelmed at all of the things that have happened since my last update that I've been wanting to write about. So, I guess in the interest of maintaining my sanity, and not boring you to death with an extraordinarily long post, I will either just skip a few things altogether, or break them up into individual posts (as I have time). I haven't entirely decided which I will do yet, but extra time seems to be one thing I've been lacking lately, so it is somewhat probable that I may skip over a few things.

*Side note* Please pray for all of us as we seem to be coming down with some sort of a cold/flu. Peanut Butter Cup started showing some symptoms the night before last, then last night I started to get it, and now my hubby is getting it as well! :-(

Okay, back to the post!

As those of your who are friends with me on Facebook may already know (due to the pictures my husband posted), we have a new family member: her name is Abby, she just turned a year old on January 1st and weighs about 140 pounds.

We came across an ad for her back in December, went and visited her a couple of times, thought and prayed hard about her, weighed the options carefully, and in the end we decided to bring her home. Peanut Butter Cup adores her (though that may not come as a huge surprise since he loves dogs in general) and he loves to give her hugs. She is so sweet, gentle, and calm . . . she usually just lays there while Peanut Butter Cup tries to give her a hug while laying/leaning on her (don't worry I keep an eye on them to make sure Abby hasn't accidentally sat on Peanut Butter Cup!). The other day Abby was laying near the front door while Peanut Butter Cup and I were in the kitchen/living room area . . . Peanut Butter Cup disappeared down the hallway and it suddenly became very quiet and still, so I peeked around the corner to see what they were doing. Peanut Butter Cup was sitting on Abby's back, just behind her shoulders, facing her rear, and Abby was just laying there! Ha ha ha! A few seconds later Peanut Butter Cup lost his balance and slid off, and I went down the hall to get him so he wouldn't do that again (we don't want him to hurt Abby's back -- she's already likely to have some other health issues down the road without adding that one to it, but that's another post in and of itself!). He looked so proud of himself! :-)

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On another subject, my hubby has started playing around with Photoshop (the above picture of Abby being one of his edits), and in my opinion he is pretty good (he's a lot braver than I have been with experimenting with all the different actions and tools!). He also has a pretty good eye for photography as well (same as with Photoshop, he's more brave about experimenting--but that is probably a good thing because then he inspires me to try new things as well).

Here are some of his first Photoshop edits with a mixture of our photos . . . we are always taking turns with the camera so sometimes it gets confusing to remember who took what photo when looking at them out of context--though these particular photos should be pretty obvious. ;-)

 We couldn't decide which edit we liked best on these two photos, so he did it both ways. :-)

Anyhow, I think he's awesome (both as a husband AND as an amateur, hobbyist photographer), so I wanted to share his talent with you. :-)

An Amazing Husband

Yesterday morning I came downstairs to find a the most adorable little vase of beautiful flowers from my husband along with a beautiful card sitting on the stove. Needless to say, I felt very special and appreciated! It's was a lovely surprise to come down to! 

My husband is AMAZING! I just wanted to share that with everyone. :-)

Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden -- July 4th

My boys :-)

The mountain ranges are so different here than back home!

Instead of squirrels here, we have Mongeese!!