Paper Chain

A&E are missing their daddy while he is at training. I thought traveling to TN to visit with family would make it easier at first and it probably did. Since we have been home, it has been harder on them. They talk about him being at work every day. They don't quite get that he will be back soon (but not tomorrow) so I wanted something concrete for them to see. We made a paper chain tonight with how many days it will be until daddy comes home. We will rip off a piece every night before bed.






I do realize Evan has 2 blue at the end. I ran out of black paper and it will be the first one we tear off tonight.

The Park

Andy and his road rage....

We're baaaack

We made our trip to TN and back this past week. I don't recommend driving 9 1/2 hours with 2 toddlers and 2 dogs on your own. EVER! I think we are all worn out. We all had a good time seeing friends and family but I'm not sure I want to make that drive again for a very long time.

A&E were great on the way there. Murphy was kind of annoying but Joey is good in the car. On the way home, Evan got car sick about 3 hours from home. While I was cleaning him and his carseat, Murphy jumped out and tried to escape. Thankfully he came back to me because I was not going to chase him down. The van didn't smell so great the rest of the ride but we made it home and I got us all unpacked. Boy do I miss my organizer/packer/unpacker!

We are having grandparent withdrawals today I think. A&E have been in quite the mood and I am as tired today as I was yesterday. I am hoping we are adjusted to being home soon.

I have tons of pics to add. I already uploaded some from our park visit a week ago so I will post those tonight too.

Paging Dr Avery

Have I mentioned this kid cracks me up?

I.hate.mosquitos!

Bugs

Poor A&E have been attacked by mosquitos already. We must have had one in our house Sunday night because they woke up Monday morning and it looked like they had chicken pox on their face (I knew it wasn't because they had the vax). They didn't have bites anywhere else. That night, they ended up with a few more. Evan ended up with 13 on one side of his face. Poor guy looks pitiful. I took a pic but haven't had a chance to upload it yet. Avery had 5-6 spread out across her face. We went out and bought a mosquito zapper to put in the backyard. I am not sure what else to do since they can't wear bugspray 24/7. :-( Any suggestions?

On top of that, Evan woke us up crying late Thursday night. He had thrown up and had a fever of 102. He spent the rest of the night in bed with us. He seemed fine Friday morning and we went about our day. After nap, he woke up burning up with a fever. It was 104 degrees! I got it down with Motrin then he threw up again. He didn't throw up again until that night and then one more time yesterday morning and his fever was off and on. It was the strangest virus. So far so good but the rest of us aren't throwing up. Avery has complained that she is sick and insists on sleeping with a bowl by her bed too but she is jealous of the attention Evan is getting.

So the bugs have definitely been at our house.

New carseats

A&E got new carseats that we recently installed in the van. These seats should last them until they are out of even booster seats (they convert all the way to big kid boosters and go up to 100lbs). Now we can use the old ones for Andy's new vehicle (when he gets one that we can all fit in!).

They love their new seats. I am still unsure I love the buckles. Andy put them together and fitted them to the kids and left them in the house a couple days. They would sit and play in them and Avery was mad when Andy put them in the van.





Then Avery wanted to pretend she was sleeping.

So Evan did too.

Gracias Dora and Diego

A&E love Dora and Diego! They have really learned so much from watching those two shows (including "abajo" and "arriba" from the escalator story). Every night after bath, they run around saying "sube" which means climb up. I had Andy call our friend Jon (who speaks Spanish) and ask him. lol My kids know more than I do already.

Last night we had dinner with some friends and their son had a stuffed Shamu from Sea World. Avery told me it was an "orca whale". I was impressed.

At the park we helped them climb a tree. One of them said they were a sloth. I am not sure I knew what a sloth was until I was in elementary school.

So not only are they learning Spanish words but they are also learning about animals.

So Mysterious

I think I may have sounded a little mysterious in my last post with using the words "business venture". lol I am ready to explain. I signed up to do Kindermusik training and start my own business. Once I got the materials and saw how time-consuming it would be to start right now I had second thoughts. I talked to my assigned mentor and our previous Kindermusik teacher from MS. I talked to friends, Andy, even asked A&E what they thought. It was just too overwhelming with A&E only going to MDO 2 days a week and the possibility of Andy deploying and me essentially being a "single mom" here. I made the decision today to send it back and not do it (yet). Maybe when A&E are in school I will have more time to devote to owning a business and teaching......

Update

Ooops I have been a bad blogger. In my defense, we have been so busy with playdates, Avery not napping, me possibly starting a business venture (still on the fence but need to make a decision this week), Andy finishing pilot training and in-processing his new squadron as well as enrolling in a masters program, and trying to just spend time together.

So here are the major updates!

A&E had a speech re-evaluation on Friday and they are within normal limits now for their age. Next week is our last speech therapy session. I am so proud of them for coming so far! They are much easier to understand now and can tell you all kinds of things.

Andy finished pilot training here and is now part of a squadron on base. He goes to survival training soon. He also starts his online masters program tomorrow!

I started training for a possible business venture but I am still unsure about it. More on that to come later!

We have been going to a playdate every week to try to meet new friends here. I think we have hibernated enough for winter and it is much easier to get out and do things with warmer weather. It's (past) time to get involved since this is our home for the next 3+ years.