I don’t have much to say, really, but I wanted to post tonight. So let’s see…

Elizabeth has been in VBS this week. She has loved it. Our church is really into getting the teenagers to serve in the church, so they are leading all the classes. In the 3yo class they have two male teenagers. Quiet ones at that. I love that they would take on the 3yo class but these two also seem like an odd choice. Tomorrow they are doing songs & skits for the parents. I was reading the sheet about it and E wanted me to read it to her. So I did. She then says to me “Parent, let’s wait and talk about this tomorrow. Its too much for me right now. Just too much.” Okay, then. Where in the heck did that come from?

Jim is off tomorrow. Yea!!

They put a playground in our front yard. Not directly in front of our house but a couple houses down. Its nice to have one close. The other closest ones were 10 minute walk and a 20 minute walk. On the other hand, it can be a little annoying as well because she sees it and wants to be down there all the time. We go down every evening after dinner and I try to get her down there a few mornings as well. There’s another mama who is down there most evenings. She has a little girl a little older than E and a little girl who’s a little younger than Ben. I really like her. She’s a cloth-diapering mama too! She’s really nice and we seem to have similar parenting styles. Thought I may invite them over for a play date.

Today I met a mama from LLL at Starbucks. I don’t know her well but, after last month’s meeting, we exchanged numbers. We didn’t do anything though. LLL was Tuesday night and I mentioned I’d be in her town this week, so we met up today. I had a good time with her, very relaxed.

We booked our trip home for September. We’ll be home just barely a week. It’ll be nice. But it also means that this deployment really is happening.

We’ve decided we’ll tell E about this deployment after we go to Indiana. She has no real sense of time, so telling her now would be nuts. And she gets SO anxious about things that are a long way off. So we’ll tell her when we are 3-4 weeks out.

This morning I woke up to her crying in my doorway. It was a 3yo whiney cry, so I told her to go find something to play while I slept a little more. She broke down. She wanted Jim. I told her to go find him. She said she looked everywhere but didn’t know where he was. Then I remembered he had to go in early today. I told her. And she really broke down. She was hungry but needed HIM to fix her breakfast. And she couldn’t eat cereal because he may want some. And he may be sad if she ate cereal without him. She didn’t want to eat at all but I finally got some food in her. And I just cried. I called him but he didn’t answer. And that made her cry even more. And me too. Its gonna’ be a long year.

My baby has a tooth! He’s been teething on and off for a couple hellacious weeks. One tooth has barely broken through the gums, just enough to feel the sharpness. And the other too is getting ready to break–you can see the ridges of it just under the gums.

I took a two hour nap this afternoon. I have a feeling I’m going to be awake late tonight!!

Truly, I have the cutest kids ever. Ever!

Inspired from a post on the parenting board I visit, here’s a glimpse into a day in our life.

Laundry #1

Kids playing while I’m getting breakfast together

Nursing my babe

Elizabeth sharing breakfast with Santa Pooh

Settling Ben in…

So I can eat breakfast

Load the dishwasher and run it

Take out the trash

Laundry #2

Pack the diaper bag (I LOVE my new bag!!!!)

Diaper change & putting clothes on

Everyone ready?

Am I back in the Midwest?

Washington?

Nope, its Hawaii, afterall. *sigh*

hmmm, I wonder what the speed limit is?

Oops!

A little respite from the unceasing chatter

There’s my turn

Stop #1–Hawaiian McDonald’s

Stop #2–Christian bookstore at the North Shore to pick up a children’s devotional and a Christian parenting book for the church’s library (I have BIG problems with the ones that are already in there).

Stop #3–Natural food store for some Burt’s Bees apricot oil, Bac-out laundry treatment, yummy & cheap organic garlic and some organic fruit (selection at the commissary is terrible)

Diaper change #5

(Not sure what happened to the afternoon pictures but they were nothing exciting–nap, a little Noggin for E, more nursing Ben and cleaning for me.)

Dinner. (Jim wasn’t home and I was tired.)

Another load of laundry.

We weren’t home all day, where did the dishes come from?!

*sigh* another load of the dishwasher

Sleeping baby

Bedtime snack…

And a little shopping for the money burning a hole in my Paypal account.

Locking up.

Home sweet home.

<whispering>

She’s slept through the night the last TWO nights!!!  TWO.  T-W-O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whether this continues, it definitely gives me hope.

Now, if there only was a way to guarantee that Ben won’t take that long to sleep through the night!!

Yea, I know.  Its been a long time since I updated.  One thing after another and then I got out of the habit.  So here I am.

Jim is gone for training.  My first trial of having him totally gone with two kids.  He’s been away training a lot but not REALLY gone, just 18-20 hour days gone.  We’re on Day 5 and doing pretty good.

Elizabeth woke up vomitting last night.  She threw up a couple times and then slept for five hours.  I thought she was better this morning but, a couple hours after she woke up, she started again.  Sick as in just lying on the couch sick.  My child NEVER just sits still.  So when she does, its bad.  She’s sound asleep right now.  And to make matters worse, I had to tell her that we couldn’t go across the street to the food court playground today.  We go over there most days now.  Its close and there are usually other mamas there with husbands deployed/away.  So its adult conversation.  Some days I wish it was outside but now that its pretty warm, I’m glad it isn’t!!

Guess how her sleep is going….a week ago Friday, she slept THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!  (Of course, Ben made up for it and was up WAY more than usual.)  She hasn’t done it since but I now have HOPE.  She’s been asking to fall asleep on her own too!  We let her have a toy in her bed with the lights out and she’s usually out in about 20 minutes.  Six months ago it could easily take 2-3 hours to get her asleep.  From the moment we go upstairs until I can hear her snoring is almost always under 45 minutes now and usually under 30 minutes!

Ben is four months tomorrow.  And I think he’s teething.  Elizabeth was such a crier that I never really had any idea if she was crying b/c of teething pain or crying b/c she was a crier.  But the last few days Ben has cried and cried so much, especially as he’s trying to go to sleep.  He keeps putting his hand in his mouth as he’s crying, which is what makes me suspect teething.  I thought he was doing it in a “trying to such his hand” way but now I’m not so sure.  Whatever is making him cry, he is definitely MAD about it!!  He is so NOT a crier, its almost harder to hear him scream than it was with Elizabeth.

I’ve been doing more to get involved on base.  Unfortunately, everything is now on summer break!  We’ve had something to do most days and it has been SO nice.  Its reminded me how much better I do when we consistently have plans.  So I want to work on finding more to do this summer while I wait for things to start back up.  We have a women’s evening Bible study that just started at my church and that takes me through July, I believe.  Its a Beth Moore study and I know it’ll be great.  (I need to go work on it while the kids are asleep, actually!)

On that note, I think I’ll go work on the study while I can.

(I have more Easter pictures posted on our Picasa site.)

Ben had his 2 month appointment this week. He weighs 12 1/2 pounds and is 22 1/2″ long putting him in the 25th and 50th percentile respectively (5lbs & 3″ more than at birth). We really thought he’d weigh more than that. ( By 2 months, Elizabeth had dropped almost off the chart.) Everything looked great physically. They were really surprised by how alert he was, his head control and how intensely he watches Elizabeth.

He’s consistently rolling to his side and occasionally onto his stomach. He watches Elizabeth like a hawk. If he’s awake and not nursing, he’s most likely watching for Elizabeth.

Most days he naps pretty well.  Just not on Mondays.  I’m not sure why but every Monday he seems to nap terribly!  And last week and today he spent most of the day screaming.  Night time I usually get 4-5 hour stretches, which is wonderful.

He’s really a pretty laid back baby.  I know I’ve said this before but I always knew E was an intense/high needs baby but I didn’t know HOW much until Ben came along.

After a couple weeks of no nursing problems, he’s back to having a bad latch and I’m back to having blanched nipples.  And the PAIN!!  Feels even worse than it did last go-round with this.  Some day he’ll get the hang of it, I hope!!

I can pop him in my sling or mei tai and he’s quite content there when he’s awake and he’ll often nap there.  I usually wear him when we do errands because he hates the car seat, so I can’t take it into stores.  He’ll either sleep or just look around.  I was at the mall tonight with him in the mei tai and, for close to an hour, nary a peep out of him.  Elizabeth wouldn’t go more than a minute or two without letting out SOME kind of noise! LOL  I’m hoping this trend will continue and he’ll be my quiet child!!

And as a side comment…I got both kids switched to the medical center on base (10 minute walk) and out of the hospital (20 minute drive PLUS a 20-30 minute ordeal finding a spot and getting inside and finding the clinic), so that was a wonderful change. I also REALLY liked his doctor. The NP we saw at Tripler gave out crazy information. This ped gave one piece of information that wasn’t *quite* accurate but, overall, impressed me with what he knew about not-quite-mainstream topics like BFing. Its rare to find that in a pediatrician, unfortunately.  But now that I found one, I’m going to try to get him for all our appointments!!