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Big Boys

The boys are continuing to grow like weeds.   Everyday, I hate it more and more that Micah only gets to witness it through pics, video and the occasional chat with them on the webcam.  It really sucks that he can't see the little things they do to make my heart melt and/or make me cry.  Both of them have really grown (not just physically) during this deployment...

Evan has gotten over the tantrums for the most part and is really impressing me with the ability to talk to me about his problems.  He clearly lets me know if he's had a bad day at pre-school...and exactly what happened to make it so bad.  Of course he excitedly lets me know the great days too!  He's also getting much better at finding ways to deal with his sadness of Micah being gone.  I can't believe this little guy can sit and carry on a real conversation with me about things other than cars, trains and firetrucks!

I've also been wondering just when he would start to take on more of an more adult role in the house...and its happened.  Twice now, he's pulled a chair up to the kitchen sink and started washing dishes by hand, only to turn and tell me "I'm doing the dishes because I know sometimes your arms get tired."  Wow, I almost cried the first time he said it...what a sweet boy!  He's also looking after his little brother so much more now too.  It's so cute to watch him guide Cam through everything from putting on shoes or brushing teeth to comforting him when he gets hurt.  Yes, Evan sure is growing up.

Camden is getting too big, too fast as well!  He now thinks he's a big boy and has to try everything for himself.  He has mastered the stairs up and down...scared me to death the first time I realized I forgot to lock the kid gate and we found him upstairs playing by himself.  He's already tried out Evan's bike/helmet and if his legs were longer, I swear he'd be taking off!  The hardest part for me is letting go of the little things...

In the past week, Cam has been deciding that he no longer wants me to rock him before he gets in his bed.  That was my favorite time to snuggle with him, but now he just points and says "bed".  That is a hard one!  He's also decided that he can walk into daycare and I can't carry him in anymore.  Instead of pulling him off my arms while he's crying for me to stay, he now walks up the the little table, pulls out a chair and waits for his breakfast while I try to get him to say goodbye.  My baby isn't so much of a baby anymore.

I know I can't keep my boys from growing up, although Evan said he was going to remain little for me...ah, if he had the power to do that.  I just wish they would slow down a little.  Not just for my sake, but for Micah's as well.  I know it kills him to not be with them...and it kills me to not have him with us to experience it all.  So many times, I catch myself feeling bad that we're having fun doing something because my husband can't be there to witness it.  I learned from the last deployment that you can't just sit around and wait for him to return.  That doesn't do anyone any good...so the boys and I will continue to enjoy our time together.  But rest assured, we think of Micah with everything we do, and can't wait until he's back here enjoying it all with us again. 

Spongebob, Patrick and the Witch

Our local fire department was having a "Fire Fest" at a park a block from our house this past weekend.  Of course Evan convinced me Friday night that we should walk to the park and see the firetrucks.  So, we loaded Cam up in the stroller and went for our walk.  We took a look at the firetrucks and played a few games.  While we were playing games, we hear over a speaker that Spongebob will be making an appearance.  What four year old would pass up the chance to see Spongebob?  So we walk over to the table where you could find out about him showing up.

It turns out, there was a church group doing some evangelism.  They were calling all the kids around to wait near a stage for Spongebob to show up.  We took our seat in the middle of the crowd of kids and eagerly awaited his arrival.  Before we could see Spongebob, however, we had to watch a couple of skits.  I was fine with that, thinking these would be skits for little kids.  Boy, was I wrong.  The first skit was a little over the kids heads, but nothing bad.  But before I could do anything about it, Evan and Cam got to witness some scary stuff in the second skit.  During part of the skit, a girl portrayed being a "cutter", complete with fake blood and then held a fake gun to her head...before "Jesus" came and saved her.

Now, we go to church and I understand the whole skit...but for little kids?  Camden, at only 18 months old, could tell something was wrong and started screaming and trying to get out of the stroller.  Evan looked wide-eyed at me and kept asking why the girl was doing that.  Wow, what do I say?  So I tried to remain calm and not make too big of a deal for him...told him that it was pretend and we would talk about it when Cam went to bed.  After Cam went to bed, I sat down with Evan and asked him what he thought he saw.

He said the girl was a witch (she did have goth-like clothes on and stringy long hair??) and that the witch was trying to hurt herself.  He said he knew it was pretend but wanted to know why the witch would do that.  I tried my best to explain the skit in 4 yr old terms, and just told him over and over again how sorry I was that he had to see that...that if mommy had known it was going to happen I wouldn't have taken him there.  He said he was fine, but of course he wanted to sleep with me that night...and I obliged.

Evan has done a lot of growing up while Micah's been gone, but should he have to see the "witch" before he could have a picture taken with Spongebob and Patrick (who also showed up)?  We did have the pic taken as Evan still pleaded for the picture...but every time I look at that picture I won't be able to forget the witch that scared my kids.

"Me" time!!!

I had to write and document this, if for no other reason than for me to be able to go back and remember it happened...today I got some real "me" time!  I don't know if its due to going back to work and the boys getting used to being up early for daycare again or what, but they actually slept in today!!  I did keep them up a little late last night in the hopes of sleeping past 6 am, but to actually have to wake Cam up at 9 am to get ready for church was a shock!  Both of them slept in long enough for me to have time to get up and work out, shower, have a real sit down bowl of cereal and read the Sunday paper from front to back....this hasn't happened at all since Micah left, so I took full advantage of it!  Then this afternoon I was able to actually get them to both take a nap at the same time...a feat in itself...and stay asleep through me running the lawn mower outside.  They are even still asleep right now...wow, the little victories!  I'm going to go enjoy what's left of this "me" time!

That's not that long....

So, I headed back to work yesterday.  I'm a high school math teacher, but the first two days were just teacher meeting/work days.  I can't tell you how many times people would ask me where my husband was now...hmmm...we've been out of school for three months and he was supposed to be gone for a year...yep, he's still in Kuwait.  Being a math teacher, this question really got to me!!!  So then when they found out he was still gone, they would ask when he'll be home.  I tell them maybe the end of Dec/beginning of Jan.  Then I get the number two most annoying comment of the day.  "That's not that long."

WHAT???  I'm heading back to work, trying once again to deal with the stress of planning lessons, grading papers, feeding dogs/cats, feeding children (they need food too...ha ha!), giving baths, getting them to bed and then back up in the morning ready to leave by 6:30 am...oh yeah, and somewhere in there try to talk to my husband and/or calm down children who get upset that daddy can't be home.  Right, 4 more months is a piece of cake.  It just gets me how much people still don't get it.  Even a week of this chaos is enough to make you go crazy.  Whether its a day or 4 more months, it seems like an eternity.

I guess they are trying to make me see that an end is in sight, but I do already realize that.  And yes, the fact that we're past the 1/2 way point helps to keep me slightly sane...but to say it "isn't that long" is stretching it a bit.  This marks 4 out of 5 of the last school years where my husband has been gone for part of the school year...each day is "long" right now.

What are the chances???

So, I feel like this is all a bit my fault....

I convinced Evan to play in the backyard today.  He usually likes playing out front where we can take the toy cars/bikes on the road.  But, I start back to work teaching next Monday and I needed to work on a couple of things at the table while they played.  Ah, do I regret that decision now!  Everything was going fine until...

Evan came SCREAMING at me that he got "bit" by a bee.  And boy do I mean screaming.  There was no way to get him to let me look at it and at 9 am in the morning, I'm sure the neighbors loved it!  So as I tried calming him down, Camden climbed up the stairs to the slide.  Just as I was ready to get up and go get him...yep, screaming from him.  So now I tried to calm two kids down and get them inside as fast as I can.

Once inside, I finally got them calmed down enough to let me take a look at the stings (thank God for cold popsicles!).  What do you know...both boys have swollen, red middle fingers on the left hand.  What are the chances of that happening??  I didn't think anything of them both maybe getting stung, but in the exact same spot?  These bees must know where little kids taste the best??? 

Both boys are fine now, but poor Cam didn't understand what happened and just kept coming up to me crying and saying "Bite".  Thank God they weren't  severely allergic...what fun that would have been to try and take care of two of them at the same time.  Evan had been stung before, so I knew he would be ok...hopefully this is the end to it all.  I've sprayed there before when Evan said he saw bees, but these things aren't going away. I guess he'll get his way from now on and we'll play out front...until Daddy comes home and can fight the killer bees for us next summer!!

I didn't ask your opinion!!

Ok, so I just have to vent about one of the things that drives me absolutely crazy while my husband is deployed...people trying to tell me their opinions on the war...

So today, it was a great day for August, not too hot or humid, but just right.  So despite Evan's pleas to go to the mall and play at the play area, we stayed home and played outside.  We were having a great time, drawing on the driveway, riding toy cars, playing in the sand and just hanging out.  But then it happened...the neighbor across the street came out.  I tried to avoid making eye contact as we rode the cars up and down the street, but it was bound to happen.  The question came out "is your husband home now?".  Ah, here it goes...

This wasn't my first run-in with him and these type of questions, so I knew where it was going.  "No, he's in Kuwait this time" I said.  So then I have to stand there with my kids and listen to how crazy it is that my husband didn't get to be home long in between deployments.  Then he asked if I read the paper lately about "the plan" to get US troops out of Iraq.  I wanted to say "no, I've never heard anything about it", but I didn't.  So he continues on about the upcoming election.  His opinion of who better get elected, who would be best for getting the troops back home, etc, etc, etc.  All the time, I'm trying to be as polite as possible but make it obvious that I'm not interested...trying to play with the kids, telling them we need to be going inside in a minute, etc.  But this guy just doesn't care.  He kept talking and talking until I finally just had to start walking away and say I needed to get the kids fed so I could watch the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics (which I thought was great, by the way). 

AHHHHHH...don't people realize that I'm not into talking politics and views on the war while I'm playing with my kids.  I just want to enjoy a little time with them...and they shouldn't have to hear that you don't believe their daddy should be over there.  Right now, we're dealing enough with "why daddy has to be gone", so they don't need to hear that you think its a waste.  You're telling them that they are going without their daddy in their lives for no good reason.  That's just too much for a little one to take in.   I just wish people would realize that there are a lot of sides to this war and that no matter what I believe, my husband is there and that's that.  I can't change it, so for now I just want to focus on getting him back home safely in a few months.  Don't offer your opinion if I didn't ask for it, especially around my kids!!

Technology

Camden is fast learner.  At not quite 1 1/2 years old, he's already grasping the wonders of technology...

While Micah was home for R & R, he installed a program called Skype.  He already had it on his computer back in Kuwait, so now we have the capability to make "calls" over the internet and talk/see video of each other.  Amazingly, this is all free too...wow! While I don't usually like to be tied down to one room when talking to Micah, I have given in and actually found that the boys behave better while I'm talking to him because they can see him.  (Don't tell Micah that he might have been right for once!)

We've done the "skype" thing a few times now and while both boys enjoy it, Camden has come to especially love it.  He and Micah were able to play "peek-a-boo" over the computer and Micah had Cam mimicking everything he did.  How fun is that?  Evan also loves being able to show daddy his artwork from daycare or things he's built with toys instead of just taking pictures.  The hard part is having to shut it off and say goodbye...Cam HATES that part.

Each day now, Cam comes in by the computer, points up to it and leans in making the "kiss" sound.  He's been giving daddy kisses on the computer screen just the way Evan did at that age last time Micah was deployed.  He then points to the webcam and says "not on".  I say "no, daddy isn't on...daddy's at work" and he just looks at me with those little blue eyes and says "oh, not on...daddy bye bye".   Then he does the shoulder shrug, holding his hands out, as if to say "where is he?"  He knows that's how we see daddy, but he doesn't understand why he isn't just there anytime we want...the wonder in his eyes as we "have a conversation", mostly without words, while we sit and think about daddy.  Cam is a thinker...and I know he's just sitting there trying to find a way to get daddy on that darn computer again...I have no doubt he'll soon have it figured out!