I had this nice long rambling post about how disconnected I feel here and to my family and how blah I feel.  And WP ate it.  And, for once, it didn’t auto-save as I was going along (it just updated its auto-save for this ost…lovely timing).  Now I’m irritated and even more blah.  Its really late and I should head off.  But not before I say this. I really dislike Sunday nights.  I loved them through high school.  Sunday night church and then a made for TV movie (why did the Big 3 stop those every week, I wonder).  LOVED that!  Sunday nights in the dorms were weird.  Sometimes everyone was around, other weeks it was so lonely.   Fall of my sophomore year was really rough for me on Sunday evenings.  I worked in the ed library those nights.  When I went back to shelve books, it felt so incredibly lonely to me.  I’ve never been able to kick that feeling.  When Jim was deployed, we had a “family” dinner each week.  Myself and three other ladies & their kids were the core group with drifters many other weeks.  I suggested it precisely because of my aversion to Sunday nights.  They were lovely evenings.  But then I went home to an empty house with a sleeping babe.

So I’m off.  Sleeping babe, bad TV, a post eaten by WP and yucky lonely, blah, Sunday night feelings.  Monday can’t come soon enough.

I left early last week for my LLL meeting (held at the library on base) and stocked up on some books.  I haven’t been to the library for a stack of books since early last fall.  It was wonderful!  I got three fiction books and two non-fiction.  I’ve been busy reading all weekend.

A belated thank you to Amy–the aquaphor idea helped!  We still battle a rash but Aquaphor has been the best of the options we’ve tried.

The Mole is coming back!!  I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!  I loved the first two seasons. Then the third season was a bad celebrity edition.  It got interrupted by 9/11 coverage and never resumed the rest of the season.  It was early in the reality TV game show phenomenon and didn’t have manufactured drama in it.  And it made me use my brain to really think.  I hope they stuck with what made it so good.  If they pull the manufactured drama into it, I’ll be terribly disappointed.  Anderson Cooper was the original host and was fabulous.  I hope they found someone just as good.

Church was really nice today.  They hold Easter service at a park down the street.  Its nestled among several apartment buildings and many from the buildings, who don’t come to the church, came down for service and lunch.  They didn’t have care for the kids, so E was with us the entire time.  That is the first time in a really long time she stayed with us for the whole service.  Jim had to take her back for a few minutes and she didn’t do the best job of sitting entirely still/being entirely quiet but she really did well.  We sat in the back, so we’d be able to vacate quickly if we needed.  Starting next week they are going to two services.  The first will be a family-oriented service and the second will be the usual (kids welcome but children’s church available).  I’d like to get her into service with me more but I know she also loves to be with the other kids.  So I’m not sure which we’ll do.

Sleep problems with E continue but in a new development.  Four weeks ago she began waking at 5:30-6:15.  Every day.  :yawn:  If her body adjusted to this okay, I would be tired but I’d deal.  But her body can’t take it!  Early to rise isn’t causing her to go to bed any earlier (7ish).  And it isn’t causing her to sleep any better at night (up 2-5 times).  She cries from early morning on that she’s tired.  By 2-3 each day, my fairly compliant child becomes monster child and usually gets carted upstairs to cool down where she often ends up crying until she’s fast asleep (which then messes with night even more).  I have NO idea how to deal with it.  Its not time change (we don’t change here).  No disruptions to her schedule.  No change in the amount of activity she gets or outside time she gets.  No change to her diet.   And its only getting worse.  When she wakes up, she either lays in bed or gets up and plays quietly.  Neither makes a difference in the rest of her day.  If I could find some way to get her to sleep later, go to bed earlier and/or sleep through the night (the one I’d choose!!), I think she’d be fine.  Her body just needs that extra 1-2 hours of sleep SO badly.

After two crazy weeks, this week should be a bit better. As far as he knows, Jim will have normal days–home in the morning after PT, possibly at lunch and then by 5:30! I’m so excited!!

My goal tomorrow is to read blogs! I haven’t read blogs, really, since before Ben was born. Stopped in on a few but haven’t left but a couple comments anywhere. So tomorrow, that’s my goal!!

One of my 2008 goals is to learn how to dress–how to put full outfits together, how to better purchase clothes that suit my body, etc. I have been putting money back to accomplish this task. Anyone willing to help me long-distance (or hop a flight and do it locally??!)?

Ben is growing like crazy. He’ll be seven weeks in about 12 more hours. He’s about 13 pounds! Elizabeth didn’t weigh that much until she was around 6-7 months old (can’t find her chart). And she was only 17.5 pounds when she turned a year. Mama milk is filling him up (and out!) well. We laughed yesterday–I was holding him on my lap while I ate dinner. All the sudden he let out this grunt/bark type sound and made a move that appeared to be a face-dive for my dinner plate. And then he smiled and laughed. LOL We think he’ll be much more into food than Elizabeth has ever been!

When people talk about having lots of pictures of their first child and then very few of subsequent children…I now understand! We have so few of Ben. I really need to be taking more.

I also now understand why people like to have an adult beverage while cooking dinner and/or a nightcap. Seriously. These past two weeks have just been so long.

Last Monday Ben gave me a 10.5 hour stretch of sleep!! He didn’t get a good nap at all that day, so I think that was mostly it. It was SOOOOOO heavenly.

Pizza night has been a mostly-weekly tradition since we got married. The night has changed at various times. Since we got here, I hadn’t chosen a night. Holidays, then Jim’s parents, Ben’s birth, blah, blah, blah. After much deliberation, I decided on Sunday nights. And we’re going to incorporate a family movie into it too. So pizza in the living room (E will be thrilled!) and a movie. First night tomorrow night and we’re going to watch The Bee Movie. I’m looking forward to getting back into that weekly tradition.

As of last Saturday night, every moment until deployment are new baby moments for Jim. I took him to leave for Iraq about 10pm the night prior to E turning 6 weeks old. I love that he’s getting all these new baby moments. I look at Ben and had forgotten just how tiny she was when he left. 6 weeks old and then he came home just a few days before she took her first steps. So much he missed.

After everyone else is in bed and I have some quiet computer time, I’ve started soaking my feet. Wow! I didn’t realize the power of a warm foot soak. I love it.

Burnt my fingers tonight. I had my stoneware baker out of the oven to stir the potatoes. Without thinking, I picked it up. Without potholders. Then dropped it. On my glasstop stove. OOPS. Thankfully, the stove didn’t crack. My fingers, not so lucky. Three hours after I did it, I was finally able to take the ice off without pain. But I have a few nice blisters and the rest have that shiny burnt appearance.

I’ve found a great new online store. Diapers.com In addition to diapers, they also have baby care products (including California Baby & Nature’s Baby products which I adore) , pacifiers, baby food, wipes, etc. You can mail in your coupons and they’ll store them in your account so you can use them on future orders. I think that is pretty cool! I’m not sure how their prices look overall. They seem pretty good to me but I’ve only purchased a couple packs of disposables with Ben and those were from the commissary. If you spend at least $49, you get free shipping. If you haven’t already ordered from them, you can use me as a referral to get $5 off (and I get $1 credit). Referral code is happygrl. No pressure or anything. (Hannah or any other CDing mamas reading this–they have bumGenius 3.0.)

And because of the total randomness of this, check this out, courtesy of my dear friend Ruth. Lisanne, did you know about this?? (Columbus, one of the towns mentioned in the article, is my hometown.)

At Elizabeth’s speech appointment yesterday, her therapist was thrilled with her progress. She is starting to put two words together on her own and when I prompt it. She gave us more ideas to strengthen her mouth & tongue muscles. The weak muscle tone, which is part of the apraxia, makes it hard for her to make the sounds come out easily.
Jim’s parents arrived shortly after her appointment and we went to lunch. Jim came home early and his parents took Elizabeth home so I could get shoes & hose before my hair appointment. After getting home, we hung out awhile before getting ready. After picking up a couple classmates, we were off to the Dining Out (there’s also a Dining In but I don’t know what the difference is).

The Dining Out was held at the Columbus Trade Center. Dating back over 150 years, the brick & woodwork were beautiful. The evening started with appetizers & drinks. We then proceeded through the receiving line before being seated. After the presentation of the colors (the flags) & introductions of the head table, dinner was served. Prime rib (that was rather tough), mashed potatoes and almond green beans. Dessert was peach cobbler and chocolate raspberry cake. After dinner there was a speech, an announcement that they didn’t have formation until 8:30 (instead of 6:00) and retirement of the colors. We spent a little while more talking before heading home. Overall, it was much better than I expected. I enjoyed meeting & spending time with the people Jim has lived with for the last 14 weeks.

We arrived home about 10 to find everyone asleep. Jim’s parents slept in E’s room and she slept in her bed in there instead of our room. She woke up once around 2:30 and then went back to sleep. And I got 10 glorious hours of sleep!!! I’ve waited three years for that much sleep and it was incredible!!

We forgot our camera, so we only have two pictures and this is the better of the two.  And, just our luck, neither of them is a good one of both of us!!

Thursday night DD went down about 10.  She woke briefly around 11:30 and quickly went back to sleep.  I didn’t hear from her again until 7:45 when she was in my bed crying.  I have no idea what time she came in but I suspect it was just before I woke up to her crying.  So, at the very least, *I* slept through the night for the first time in forever.  It was awesome!!

Last night wasn’t as good but I now have a glimmer of hope that I may some day sleep like a normal person again.  Just in time for a #2.  LOL  (No, before anyone asks, I’m not pregnant…yet.)