Carter, you're 4!

Dear Carter,

This has been one of the busiest months of my life. Therefore, it's been one of your busiest too. You have done remarkably well with all the change and I am very much looking forward to this next year with you.
2 was a very hard year for us, 3 was almost harder but I have a lot of hope for 4. About 2 months ago, our daily battles began waning and we have been able to overcome a lot of our struggles with each other.

It is so hard as a mom to not know what 'works' with you for so long. My default style of parenting was making your outbursts and tantrums even worse, and it took me awhile to realize it. We have really come a long way since I was able to take a step back and re-evaluate our problems. It's something I recommend every parent of a strong willed child do, from time to time. It has given us a new lease on our relationship and for that, I am forever thankful.

I don't want people to read this and think all I have to say is negative. I have a lot of good to say. I love you, of course I do, you're my son. But because I love you, I want to remember our time how it really was. This blog is my real life journal. My real life feelings and memories. It's not something I do just to waste time on the computer. Since I am not good at keeping mementos, or scrapbooks or baby books, this is it. And I want to write about everything, the wonderful times as well as the hard times. I want you to read this when you have toddlers of your own and realize that it's not easy for ANYONE and that you're not alone, and that you can come to me and your father, because we've been there, and here's the proof.




You are incredibly intelligent and compassionate. For as much of a rule breaker you are, you are such a rule follower. You get so upset when people don't follow the right rules or do things the way you know them to be done. You thrive on schedule and routine. You love your family and your dog very very much. You love spending one on one time with mama and daddy, and you love arguing with your brother. Sometimes you don't even know what y'all are fighting about....but you have to disagree.

You do love Clay and tell him he's your best friend. However, when you don't like something he's doing, you tell him,"You're not my friend anymore!". I'm assuming you learned that at school?
Your last day of PDE at Edwards was on Friday and your teachers were very sad to see you leave. They made you a very special poster of pictures to remember them by. I am also sad to see you leave them. You liked Ms Grace and Ms Amanda very much.
We have been talking about your new school in FL, and you tell me that you won't cry when you go 3 times. That's when you'll get used to it, and you won't need to cry after that. I tried to explain that you don't need to cry on the first time, but you've got it stuck in your head for some reason.

You are very good at identifying letters and numbers and simple words. You believe that you already know how to read because you have memorized lots of books. Therefore, you don't ever let me try to work on it with you. Ugh.

You love anything with dinosaurs and can identify a lot of them. You also really like Star Wars, guns and swords and He-Man.
You are so much....BOY and I am surprised at how much of a KID you are now. There's no baby left in you. You are so coordinated, so articulate and so smart. You are so stubborn, strong willed and I love you.

You love adding and puzzles and 'reading' books. You are very nervous that I have mentioned taking off your training wheels. You do not like to keep trying at things, you want to be good at things the first time.

I love you and you are my special first born. You are my big boy, you are so bright, and you can do anything. Happy 4th Birthday!

24 Year Difference

San Fran

Since Cory had to work over Veteran's Day (well, kind of...he had a sim up at Travis AFB the day after Vet's Day) we all went with him and stayed with some extended family near the San Francisco area.

I think Cory said, he's only met this family a handful of times, and I had never met them. But it felt like we had known them for 10 years! They were some of the nicest, most relaxed people we've ever met.

They have a little cottage in their backyard that's perfect for a guest house! Their kiddos are older and were like built in babysitters for the weekend! We even went out to dinner the last night with just the adults, while their youngest daughter watched all three of the kiddos.

We hit the road at about 6pm on Wednesday night and arrived VERY LATE. It was nice that we only had to stop a few times since the boys slept most of the way. But apparently Vivi didn't get the memo that she was supposed to sleep when it's dark in the car. Since this trip, she has decided she hates the car. Hates, with a capital H. I can't tell you how excited I am about our 3,000 mile journey in less than a month.


Driving across the Bay Bridge to San Fran



The Bay was SO CLEAR, you could see everything!



See, look! the Golden Gate bridge!



There's Alcatraz!



After we crossed the Bay Bridge



Here we are at the top of Lombard St. The "most crooked street in the US". It looks like we're on top of a mountain or something! This city had the craziest hills I've ever seen!



After we drove down. It was kind of nerve racking...



The Golden Gate Bridge. It always reminds me of Full House....







Here we are in front of the Children's Museum in Sausalito.



Carter is very serious about his Marimba



We walked outside and visited all of the 'exhibits' in the buildings. This museum was a lot like the San Diego one. It was just for "play". The boys had a blast.





















All the kiddos.

Happy Birthday to my little Turkey

Dear Clay,



I can't believe you are 2! I feel like just yesterday I was in the Storks Nest, thanking God my water broke so I wouldn't have to spend another night there. You only asked for one thing for your birthday and that was an M&M cake. You love M&Ms...a lot. You also love life. You are happy to just "be". Even though you have just recently began trying my patience with your 'terrible twos', you are still 1000xs easier than your brother was at this age.



You love to be outside, and to run around and scream for the heck of it. You love Toy Story and Wonder Pets. You love animals, and babies. You love your big brother Carter most of all. You copy every...single..dern..thing...he does. Sometimes, it's cute. Most of the time, it's something not so cute (because it's naughty).




You can count to three, identify most colors and animals and are a very good problem solver. You are an excellent 'finder' of things you've misplaced. You can jump with both feet off the ground and you can throw a baseball or make a basket like no one's business. You are a very good thinker, but we need to work on the 'talking' part of it. I can't believe how far you've come in talking in the past 6 months. To go from not babbling to telling jokes in 6 months is fantastic!
You love to tell the "boo hoo" knock, knock joke.
You're favorite part: the punchline. You say, "Don't cry, joke!"



You do not love going to the doctor or doing anything that looks suspicious. You are TERRIFIED of the toilet. Well, not of the actual toilet, but using the toilet. You won't leave us the heck a lone when we're using it, but heaven forbid we try to sit you on it. You turn into a limp noodle and scream like we're pulling your fingers off, one by one.




I really wish you could stay little forever. You are such a charming, sweet little boy. You are great at sharing, and being nice to babies who are younger than you. You have a truly altruistic spirit, and I think you're going to do great things with it one day. I love that you are a Mamas boy and love to cuddle. We have a very special bond, and I hope we'll both always remember that.




Love, Mama


Clay 2yrs
28lbs, 34in
Favorites
Color: green
Animal: cats
TV show: Wonder Pets
Toy: basketball
Food: macaroni and cheese and hot dogs
Activity: swinging

Dislikes:
The toilet
The doctor
Being left at the CDC
Vegetables

Vivian 3 Months

Oh dear Sweet, Vivi.

I can't even tell you how cute and wonderful you are. You are like the babies out of one of those glow-y, soft detergent commercials. Sweet and smiley and you smell wonderful. You're a good eater and a GREAT sleeper. You sleep wherever I happen to lay you. Last week I actually misplaced you (don't worry - it was here in the house - not outside or at the commissary) and you were just sound asleep with a grin on your face.
And it's not like I really misplaced you...I just forgot where I laid you down when I got distracted.
But don't fret, I will probably 'misplace' you several more times. It's what happens when you're the third (or 4th or 5th) child.
Other things that happen when you're the 3rd child: you only get a monthly update on the blog every other month apparently.
I'll try to be better.

But back to your cuteness...You are a very smiley baby and give most smiles to me. You will smile for your daddy, but he has to work pretty hard. You do not smile much for your brothers, and I don't blame you a bit.
You have grown accustomed to hand squeezing and feet pulling and slobbery wet kisses from the dog. Your brothers shout in your face and push your cheeks together and I actually caught Carter doing the "Stop hitting yourself" routine with you the other day. He may or may not have learned that from me...I apologize. I had no idea it would be used on your precious face.



You are just now starting to space out your feedings to about every 3 hours. Before this week you were still eating about every hour and a half. Needless to say, this week has been very painful in the boobie department as they make the change.

On Saturday night, I laid you in your bed for a few minutes and you fell asleep and THEN SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT. I was completely expecting to pick you back up after 5 minutes, but you never woke up and I wasn't about to wake you.
Me and your father checked on you multiple times and I'm sure you were like, "Oh em gee guys..get outta my face, I'm trying to sleep!" but we've never had a baby that slept because they were TIRED! Since then, you have been sleeping in your bed and through the night. ON ACCIDENT. I wasn't really ready for you to leave me at night, but I know I will be kicking myself in 6 months if this is the only chance you're offering up and I'm not taking it. It's okay, I sneak into your room at 6am and bring you into bed with me, even though you're still asleep. We can then snuggle and nurse until the boys wake up. Most of the time when the boys wake up, you have fallen back asleep and will sleep until 10 or 11am. On Sunday - you slept till noon. You ARE my daughter!

You are close to laughing, and are getting better at holding your head up. At your 2 month appointment you weighed 11 pounds (and some change) and were 24 inches tall. You are in the 50th and 80th percentiles! And, I answered "yes" to every milestone question (which was definitely a first for a 2 month well baby appointment!). I don't give you much tummy time because it just makes you so darn mad..and I'm going to try and be better about that too.
You have officially turned into a thumb sucker, and I attribute a good portion of your good sleeping to that. I know I will regret letting you suck your thumb when you are seven and having to have a sharp, pointy, medieval dental appliance to make you stop, but for now, I am nothing but grateful.




Next month we are moving to Florida and you'll make your first of many long treks across the country to a new home. Luckily, we will be there for awhile and you'll have some normalcy for awhile.
You are still very fun to dress everyday and I don't even mind when you have a poop explosion,(you had 3 today) it just means I can squeeze in one more cute outfit on you per day.

I love you so much and please stop growing.

Love,

Mama

New Home

We're PCSing in 41 days. Here's our new 3,036sq ft house in Crestview FL.
Woot, woot! We bought it yesterday.
These are pictures from the listing. (Although Cory did go and buy it in person)...yes, we have (well Cory has) seen it, and yes it looks exactly the same as in the pictures.

Beautiful!



Master bedroom



My first garden tub ever! I can bathe like 6 kids in here! (Don't worry, I'm not getting any wild ideas)



Our kitchen, with granite countertops, and new stainless steel appliances.



A breakfast nook! A nook, just for breakfast!



Another view of the kitchen...I do love it.



Here's our 'bonus' room. which will more than likely end up as our play room.



The living room with a fireplace.



Here you can see the layout of the living space. To the left is our bonus room over there, the kitchen is behind the wall with the pictures on it, and the dining room is next to the kitchen on the right. (When you walk into the front door it's immediately to your right)



Here's our garage with built in cabinets!



Our backdoor and deck.



Our house is on a hill, so you have to go down the deck stairs to get to the grass. There is a forest preserve behind us with plenty of trees, sticks and bugs for the boys to play in.

Happy Halloween

Everyone loves Peter Pan at our house. Although, I did have to tape a picture of 'Michael' on the back of Clay, people didn't put it together that that's who he was. And, Carter corrected them when they guessed a 'baby in pajamas'. We let them stay up until trick or treating was over (8pm) and hand out candy. They were very generous, and we hall had a great time!