A little of this and that

My mind's in a million different places this afternoon and what better to cure that than a little post full of bullet points?

I think that when Andrew and I move back home for the deployment, my mom is going to be glad she's hiring a cleaning lady. Case in point:

Look at that living room!!

I hate confrontation. But, I guess it's healthy, right? You can't just let stuff bottle up inside. I can't at least. So, for me, sometimes it's necessary. That doesn't mean it doesn't make me break out in hives.

I have such mixed feelings about going back home this week. I'm excited to have an extended visit and to see everyone, but I sure am going to miss my husband. And I'm sure I'll worry about how he's doing. I worry about small (maybe silly) things, like is he going to be sad without us? I know, I know, he's a grown man and has much bigger fish to fry, my heart just breaks thinking about it though.

While going on my extenda-stay vacay, we're making a trip to the beach! Andrew's first beach trip! Have I mentioned that already? We're excited! I hope he likes it and isn't too scared. I, for one, can't wait to smell that salt air and stick my toes in the sand.. ahhhh! We are staying here.. right on the ocean. Can't I just spend the whole month there?

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One of my greatest friends ever is waiting for her husband's plane to land from A-stan right now!!! She hasn't seen him for 290-something days and the excitement is just radiating from her! She stopped by on her way and she just looks way too beautiful. Her husband is a lucky man... well.. they are both lucky and I am so so so thrilled for them! I can't even imagine what she's feeling right now!

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There's nothing quite like an Army post when a brigade is coming home! The excitement is definitely permeating through the air. The fidgety, anxious, out-of-their-minds-happy families. The Welcome Home banners on houses and companies. The constant reunion pictures and facebook updates. It's amazing. I'm an emotional person to begin with, but add in pregnancy hormones and I've been brought to tears daily! It's enough to make me put our impending deployment thoughts aside and already look forward to the homecoming. Gives me something to look forward to!

Andrew is going to be TWO next month. How did that happen?? I'm so lucky to be his mama! He's just turning out to be the sweetest little boy and I thank my lucky stars for him all the time! Time just goes by way too fast...

A post about my pregnancy

Here we are. Another week. Another blogging brain fart. I just truly have no idea what to write about. Nothing of substance, anyways. I can blame that on pregnancy again, though, can't I?
I feel like our life is just in limbo right now. Waiting waiting waiting through separations and then waiting for the big one. We truly are trying to live up every single moment together... and I DO VERY MUCH SO find myself sitting back, just staring at him and appreciating the small stuff (how peaceful he looks while he's sleeping or how much fun he and Andrew have playing together. I try to memorize their synchronized laughter) but, at the same time, it's hard to push the worry and the dread out of your mind.
LOOK WHAT I DID. This was supposed to be about my pregnancy. A small update of sorts. But there you have it. Now you now why I'm not posting often. It will all sound like THAT.

Soo.. here we are into our 11TH WEEK of pregnancy!! Yay!! I remember feeling like I had passed a huge milestone when we made it past the 6th week. We are further along this time than we got with the last. Then we heard the heartbeat loud and clear in week 8. Then again last week. BLESSED, we are!

I'm feeling pretty shotty! Not going to lie. This feeling of constant nausea only lasted about 2 or 3 weeks with Andrew. It feels like it's been a year with this pregnancy! Holy mother of God... I haven't actually, you know, gotten sick, but I feel like maybe if I just would, I'd feel a little better! No foods ever sound good (isn't that half the fun of pregnancy??) and when I do try to eat, I can usually only eat just a tad. I'm so incredibly tired ALL. THE. TIME and this is probably why along with just the normal reasons. I need to eat! But yes, I remember that we're blessed. Sometimes, I have to repeat that like a mantra though, I won't tell a lie!

We should find out the sex of the baby in September. Which feels like a long way off, but it's really not. We will definitely let everyone know, but we've decided to keep everyone in suspense with the name. Yay for secrets! Secrets secrets are so fun! I'll take bribes, but they won't get you anywhere. I'll still take them though. And no... not even my mother will know. She would be fooling neither Trey nor myself if she gave us a line like, "I won't tell anyone, I promise". HA!!

The official due date is February 5th. I don't think I ever announced that. And the heart rate has been ranging between the 170's and 160's. No, no, no.. don't started flooding my comments with how it's a girl because of that. Andrew's was in the 170's until the bitter end. I just have psycho-crazy-hyper children.

I think that's all I have for you. I won't be doing all of those pregnancy questionnaire's and I CERTAINLY won't be doing any bare belly pics this time around. My body is already changing and my clothes are ALREADY getting snug, so I'm bound to be a whale in no time flat. But I do promise to give spontaneous updates from time to time.

Here's to hoping I'm feeling like my regular ol' chipper self in no time!!

Words with Andrew

We are loving how much Andrew is talking nowadays. He's not using full sentences yet, of course, but he has tons of words and puts two or three together at times. Naturally, he doesn't pronounce them all quite right. Sometimes that can be adorable like when he asks for a kiss ("kees") or when he loudly and whole-heartedly explains "Ohhh Meeeennn" if something goes wrong. Or how he says Thank You ("kaykou"). And Cheerios is "yos". How cute is that?

Sometimes, though, it can be flat out embarrassing!

Here are a few examples that have made me blush over the past few weeks:

1) He's been loving him some blueberries lately. You best get them for him on his first request. If not, his calm request for "boobies" becomes a very loud demand for "BOOOBIESSSS!!!". Yes, friends, I guess the obsession with "boobies" starts young ;)

2) He also has a thing for clocks. He doesn't pronounce that correctly. It's bad enough by itself, but at the airport the other day there where big clocks hanging down from the ceiling. He thought this was great and excitedly yelled, "big cocks" all throughout the airport. Yeahhhhh.....

3) Another thing he points out every time he's sees one is a flag. He doesn't pronounce the L in that word either. We live on a military post, so that word is flying out of his mouth quite a few times throughout the day. The best is when he finds the velcro flag from Trey's uniform laying around. He knows it belongs on his uniform and walks around the house saying, "Daddy's fag". *Just for the record, I hate that word.. no.. despise that word in real life. But you know it's a little funny coming out of a almost 2-year olds mouth when he doesn't have malicious intent behind it.*

That's about all. So far. I'm sure there is much more to come and I know every parent goes though it. So share some of your stories! Give me a good laugh!

Back from vacation

Well, we are back in town from visiting family. We were in Illinois getting some time with Trey's family, some we haven't seen in years! And it was nice to catch up with them.. such good, sweet people!

For the most part we really enjoyed our time. Andrew LOVED playing with his cousin, Addyson. They spent countless hours outside together, swimming in the kiddie pool, running around giggling, blowing bubbles and fighting over toys. He also met his new cousin, Reagan, whom he actually held and gave kisses too. This is a big step for a certain little boy who is not quite a baby-hater, but definitely has a lot of strides to make before another baby makes its way into our house!
We went to a tractor museum, where a GREAT time was had! Andrew was in tractor heaven.
We enjoyed ice cream, Popsicles and fireworks. Well... some of us enjoyed the fireworks. SOMEONE was scared of them and had to sit inside the whole time. No, I'm not talking about Trey.
I got to see a movie with my SIL - Brave. It was cute, but not my favorite. I think I'm in the minority here though.

Like I said, a fun time for the most part. Then things got a little crazy. I won't go into too much detail with names or too much specifics, but it does need to be mentioned. I thought long and hard before posting about this. I don't usually like to post about family business when it's derogatory, but inthe end, I really felt like I had to. This is my blog where I talk about important things going on in our lives. This is big for me right now, something I'm very concerned and hurt over.
We all know that judgement is out there when it comes to your parenting. It's not right, but it's going to happen. Mostly (and sadly) from other mommies though, right? And especially from women who aren't yet parents. We can forgive them because, bless their hearts, they just have NO CLUE. We let them think they will do it a whole different way and have the perfect child while they can. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, right?
Sadly, for the last half of the week, we caught the brunt of parental judgement. I would even go as far as to say judging my child. That, my friends is not fun to deal with. Apparently, we don't discipline our child well enough, if at all. Isn't that funny? I find myself exhausted with how much I have to stay on Andrew, but if it's not done the way people think you should do it, it's not good enough or it's not correct. It was made clearly known to us that we should be spanking. And that even if we do not spank him, he WILL get spanked at said someone's house whether I like it or not or whether I'm there or not.
REALLY???
That was one of my biggest issues. Please do not threaten myself or my child. I don't respond well to that. (I'm trying to keep this factual and not let my anger come out, but I'm having a hard time... back on track!) A few different conversations were had by certain people that were concerned with Andrew's behavior (he cries, whines and throws tantrums at times... in other words... he's a toddler. A young one at that who doesn't have a complete vocabulary to express himself with) and the way we handle it (without spanking. We do time-outs and talk calmly, but firmly to him). Eyes were rolled in his direction multiple times. That's the gist of it.

When did it become anyone's business but mine and Trey's as to how we raise our child? Why do people feel they can dictate how we run things? I'm upset and I'm hurt. Mostly for my husband and baby. This was supposed to be a vacation for Trey. His week of relaxation before NTC. He definitely doesn't feel like he got that and that's really sad to me. Secondly, I hate people looking at my child as less than. He may not behave the same way as another child and we may not handle things the same was as another mom. That DOES NOT make him the lesser child and it certainly doesn't mean our parenting isn't up to par. Please don't give me the feeling that you are annoyed with my child. It doesn't sit well with me.

That's about all I can say. All of this being said, I really did enjoy getting that time with Trey's family that I haven't seen in such a long time. I just wish it hadn't ended on such a sour note.