Alright... here's the deal. I feel like I need to post pictures when I post and I've been really lazy with getting the pictures downloaded and uploaded and whatever else so I keep putting off posting until I can get some pictures for you but I guess I really need to tell you what is happening in my life and I'll post some pictures later.
First, since the last time I posted, Brandon came home in mid May. We were worried that Abby would forget him or act shy around him or something because we had heard stories about that happening frequently to younger children with deployed parents. The day he came home, we were sitting in our sparkling clean living room...(yes, I had it so clean it shone, but it lasted like a day...) and Brandon got a ride home from a friend. They pulled up and I shut off the TV and told Abby, "Daddy's home!" We met him at the front door with hugs and kisses all around and Abby fell right back into having a Daddy like he had been gone only a few days and not nearly 5 months. We went out to eat as a family and she sat in the backseat of the car looking at her daddy with stars in her eyes and she kept saying "daddy, daddy, daddy!" That was the favorite word of the day!
Emma took to him immediately. There are no bonding issues between them. She gives him the biggest smiles and cuddles into him and coos at him. Sometimes, she quits crying for him but not for me! By the way, she has the cutest most infectious smile with two little dimples!
At her four month appointment, she weighed 13 lbs 4(?) oz and she was 25 inches long. She is in the 50% for her weight and in the 75% for her height... (that means she's tall for her age).
Abby has all of her teeth now back to the bi-cuspids (I think that's what they are...the first molar type teeth) and she is the world's biggest monkey! She climbs everything! Whenever Emmaleigh is in her crib, Abby is usually attatched firmily to the rail looking in on her. A few times, she has gotten herself so high up that she is scared to come down. She has figured out how to move things to stand on so she can get to other things. We found her in the kitchen standing on a bag of papertowel rolls calmly finishing the contents of the candy bowl that is supposed to be the reward for her potty training lessons. (she says, "Why should I produce results when I can just get the candy myself?")
Yes, I said potty training. I know she's not even two yet, but we are trying this. Before you think I'm a phsyco mama, let me explain. We were given a potty chair for her when she was about 6ish months old. We put it in the bathroom for lack of a better place for it and she was intrigued by it. So everytime I would run her bathwater, I'd put her on the chair and let her get used to sitting on it, not really expecting resuslts but just wanting her to get used to the idea of sitting on a chair with a hole in it. The first time I put her on it, incidentally, she pottied and pooped in it which I praised her for, even though I wasn't trying to train her yet. We kept the routine up by doing that while we were in CO. She got to be really good at it but I didn't want to train her before we left CO because then she'd have to wait long periods of time in the car or wear a diaper again or other things like that for the trip home and I didn't want to confuse her. Then when Brandon came home, we were getting back into our routine and stuff so we didn't even try it. But we've started trying it again. I have decided that it's mostly just a trial thing. If she takes to it and seems like she can be trained, I'll continue it, but if she is having problems, it's not a big deal because, like I said before, she's not even 2 yet! But she has been doing very, very well with it! She moved by leaps and bounds in just one day! She hates it when she poops or potties in her diaper and she comes to me immediately to tell me and she wakes up from bedtime and nap time dry. These are supposed to be signs that a child is ready to train. She also has a real interest in it. I heard the toilet lid creak up the other day and I ran into the bathroom, sure she was dunking her doll in the toilet (she tries to get them to potty) or flushing something down the drain (she likes to flush the toilet even when it's empty and say "bye, bye potty!") but instead, I found her spralled across the toilet. She had tried to pull her panties down but she couldn't get them quite right. They were up on her bottom and down a little in the front. Then she had climbed onto the big toilet and had proceeded to potty...unfortunately, she was seated in such a way that her bottom was totally hanging over the floor and she pottied right on the floor but hey, you can't blame a girl for trying. She wanted to do it the right way. So I praised her and gave her candy. For the rest of that day, she was in there consistantly every 30 minutes climbing onto the toilet and pottying in her underware. But that's okay. We made leaps and bounds in that one day. I'm trying to keep an eye on her to catch her so I can help her pull down her panties until she figures it out. We bought her a toilet seat cover thingy (to make the big toilet her size) last night so we'll see how that goes today. She makes me so proud! Like I said, though, if it turns out that she can't be potty trained yet, that's totally okay too!
Brandon won Airman Honor Guard of the year. For those of you who don't know, Honor guard is not his specific job but more of an extra curricular job. It is what you see when you see a military funeral on tv. The people with white gloves and guns and neat hats... I think he's especially handsome in his uniform! It's kind of a big thing to win it. He got a medal, a air force coin (those are collector items... especially neat to him), a medal for his uniform, and a (i guess you could call it a trophy?)...it's a model of a C-17 with his name on it... We'll have to post pictures for you. He's so proud of his achievement and I"m totally proud of him! He is the world's greatest airman.... (well, maybe he can place first with Liz, Sarah, and Michael... ;) Maybe...) I'm so glad God gave me him! I am completely happy with His choice for my husband!
We bought our first car together. It's not actually a car. It's an SUV. Yes, I know, that means a gas guzzler.... We know we want to have several more kids. We want a car that will hold them all and our car was sooo small! We would not have been able to put three car seats/booster seats across the back and go somewhere far away comfortably so we needed a bigger car and we don't want to get one now and then have to get a new one again in a few years. Also, we wanted to go ahead and get one while we had the money from his deployment (you get extra pay for deployments) so we got one. It's a Ford Explorer XLT 2008. We got some amazing rebates and military deals and stuff on it that made it pretty comproble to a cheaper same size car or a used same size car so we got it. It's nice. I'm glad we have it and I'm happy with our decision. It's a smaller SUV so I'm way more comfortable with driving it than I would be if it was like my Mom and Dad's Expidition or a 15 passenger van! It feels like a car...a granny car (excuse the expression) not a compact car, but a car all the same. It's white with a beige interior. Brandon ordered that so that it would be cooler in the summer. It has 7 seats which is part of a package we got added to it so it should last us for a while anyway.... then we'll have to move up to the expidition or excursion or the hmmmm...15 passenger ... :) But at least for now, I get to get used to driving something bigger than my car but just not BIG BIG.
JellyBean has learned a thing or two while were were away and she was staying with my aunt and uncle and cousins in GA. I think she has decided to follow in David Copperfeild's shoes. She is the world's best escape artist! WOW! I mean, like WOW! She gets off her leash frequently and when I catch her to put her back on, I can't see how she got off. The hooks and the rings aren't malfunctioning but somehow, she has managed to get them off of her collar so that she can take her jaunt around the block. We are going to buy a new tie down set anyway because Brandon accidentally mowed over the last one and broke it so we'll see how she does with that. She and Abby are fast friends. Abby wakes up every morning with two things on her mind... "Emmy! Emmy! Emmy!" and then after she's been satisfied about Emma's whereabouts... "Beanbean! Beanbean!" She already has a chore... She gets to feed her puppy everymorning. She likes it and when she sees Jellybean, she always says "eat! Eat." She is good at feeding Jellybean although, occasionally, I see her partaking of the er...goodness that is mashed up horsemeat and vegetables and whatever else...
We have been talking for a long time about the possiblilty of Brandon trying to become an officer. The plans have mostly run as follows: At his 3 year mark, he separates from the military temporarily because that's when his GI bill becomes available. Then he goes to college for 4 years and we eat ramen and mac n cheese. Then, after 4 years, he goes back in as an officer but if that doesn't work out, he'd just go right back in where he left off and keep on going. We are still thinking he'll do career military. We've been praying that God would open doors where he would and close them elsewhere and we are feeling as if everything is falling into place for this to work. We will most likely be separating some time next summer and moving to CO springs to go to school for 4 years. A new law was signed that raised the housing allowance money given to students and the GI bill and made it where spouses and children could benifit from it too and it will be coming into affect, go figure, next August so Brandon will benifit from this. We're excited about this new chapter in our lives and anxious to see what will come.
I'm not sure what else to tell you. Keep your eyes posted. Someday, I'll get around to posting pictures for you! Have a great 4th of July!
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