In case you missed it, we got Sam's Haircut. It was really sad. Here are some pics of how beautiful it was :-) Hard to really see his hair, but I needed a tribute. The new hair is acutally growing on us a bit.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Hair we Lost
In case you missed it, we got Sam's Haircut. It was really sad. Here are some pics of how beautiful it was :-) Hard to really see his hair, but I needed a tribute. The new hair is acutally growing on us a bit.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Welcome to South Carolina, come see us anytime
Hi guys!
View from Living Room, kitchen through the hole on the right, dining room in front of you, pink room in the back is the playroom.
Garage before the movers came.
Garage after they left.
Umm, mom, my dad flooded the laundry room!
Oops
I'm just going to swim in it, though.
Here are some pictures of our youngest child on our oldest child's bed. He is trying to kill himself quickly by finding any way into his brother's room in order to QUICKLY run up the slide and attempt to fall off the top sideways or fall head first down the slide.
Jack actually has room to ride his bike here. Not a lot of cars on this street, either, which is awesome.
Living room with only some crap in it :-)
View from Living Room, kitchen through the hole on the right, dining room in front of you, pink room in the back is the playroom.
Garage before the movers came.
Garage after they left.
Umm, mom, my dad flooded the laundry room!
Oops
I'm just going to swim in it, though.
Here are some pictures of our youngest child on our oldest child's bed. He is trying to kill himself quickly by finding any way into his brother's room in order to QUICKLY run up the slide and attempt to fall off the top sideways or fall head first down the slide.
Jack actually has room to ride his bike here. Not a lot of cars on this street, either, which is awesome.
Living room with only some crap in it :-)
Fun Times on the Road
Even from the beginning, you could tell it was going to be a blast...
At least we didn't have much stuff in our car
See you later, Houston. Be back next year.
This is one of the toys I bought for Jack to do on the road. The idea is to use the laces to trace the animal. This cow is the example in the box. Please note I showed him the example before he did his.
This is what I saw when he said "Mommy, I'm done!" (It is still cracking me up)
Asleep early on in night one...
This is about five minutes before Jack puked in Baton Rouge...
Bridge on the Mississippi River
TJ in Alabama
Welcome to South Carolina. People LOVE their state here.
At least we didn't have much stuff in our car
See you later, Houston. Be back next year.
This is one of the toys I bought for Jack to do on the road. The idea is to use the laces to trace the animal. This cow is the example in the box. Please note I showed him the example before he did his.
This is what I saw when he said "Mommy, I'm done!" (It is still cracking me up)
Asleep early on in night one...
This is about five minutes before Jack puked in Baton Rouge...
Bridge on the Mississippi River
TJ in Alabama
Welcome to South Carolina. People LOVE their state here. 
Haircuts and the Marble Slab Boy
We took the kids to get haircuts (hairy-cuts in Jack speak) yesterday. Sam has never had one, and he has beautiful hair, it was long and curly in the back and we loved it. I am sort of almost tearing up writing about it, seriously. BUT MOVING ON. We decided it had to get cut because I was starting to get "She is so pretty" about three times a day and I was starting to feel a little guilty. I wanted to keep the back and just cut his bangs out of his eyes, but Keith thought that would look like a mullet. So the compromise is to just get it cut all over but try to salvage some of the curls in the back. Let's just say that of course that didn't really happen. He has a haircut, and not only are the curls pretty much gone, he probably looks even more like a girl with the current haircut. When our camera isn't still lost from the move I'll put some pictures on here.
So, it was a bust all around and we should have tried to just do it at home but oh well. Hair grows back. For some reason, this was the hardest rite of passage from baby to toddler for me with both of my boys, getting their haircut. Seems crazy.
Jack actually got a really decent haircut and we told him if he was good he could get ice cream. So we walked down to marble slab and after a slight mishap of me not watching where I was going and running full speed into a huge brick island in the sidewalk and busting open both my shins AND almost dropping Sam, we were in Marble Slab.
The kid that worked there we'll call Chatty Cathy. He talked so much it was insane.
"So, Okinawa [seeing my t-shirt] did you go there or do you just have the shirt?"
"Yeah, we lived there for three years."
"Oh, I was born there but I only lived there for a small amount of time. My father was in the military. Then we moved back. I have never been there since."
"Well, it is a really neat place, you should visit sometime."
"Well, I'm not Japanese, I'm Filipino."
"That's okay, they'll still let you in."
LATER
Keith orders his ice cream. I am sitting down with Sam and he is whining begging for ice cream between bites.
Chatty Cathy: "Dude, when I hear kids cry, it just makes me never want to have kids."
Keith: "Well, this is nothing, they are actually being really good right now."
Chatty Cathy: "Well, at least this big one seems really well behaved."
Keith: "You have no idea."
So, it was a bust all around and we should have tried to just do it at home but oh well. Hair grows back. For some reason, this was the hardest rite of passage from baby to toddler for me with both of my boys, getting their haircut. Seems crazy.
Jack actually got a really decent haircut and we told him if he was good he could get ice cream. So we walked down to marble slab and after a slight mishap of me not watching where I was going and running full speed into a huge brick island in the sidewalk and busting open both my shins AND almost dropping Sam, we were in Marble Slab.
The kid that worked there we'll call Chatty Cathy. He talked so much it was insane.
"So, Okinawa [seeing my t-shirt] did you go there or do you just have the shirt?"
"Yeah, we lived there for three years."
"Oh, I was born there but I only lived there for a small amount of time. My father was in the military. Then we moved back. I have never been there since."
"Well, it is a really neat place, you should visit sometime."
"Well, I'm not Japanese, I'm Filipino."
"That's okay, they'll still let you in."
LATER
Keith orders his ice cream. I am sitting down with Sam and he is whining begging for ice cream between bites.
Chatty Cathy: "Dude, when I hear kids cry, it just makes me never want to have kids."
Keith: "Well, this is nothing, they are actually being really good right now."
Chatty Cathy: "Well, at least this big one seems really well behaved."
Keith: "You have no idea."
Moving
I am almost positive you have heard me bitch and moan on here before about moving and how much I hate it and how much we do it. I am so sorry, but I am just going to have to revisit this wonderful topic.
We move all the time (or "all the day" as Jack would call it) and I am so so so tired of it.
If you count even the small moves, we have moved 1000 times in the last 7 minutes. Ok, ok, we have moved seven times since 2002, when we originally moved to Baltimore.
The main problem with this particular move is that now all of our stuff is back in one place, and we have to deal with it all. Twelve thousands pounds worth of junk, all in boxes and boxes in the garage to sort through.
When we moved from Stafford, Virginia to Japan, the military put the fear of God in us that if we had too much weight then we would end up paying for it ourselves. Thus, we put a lot of our stuff in storage for three years. Let's just say this, if you can live without it for three years YOU DO NOT IN ANY WAY NEED IT. That is just the bottom line. There are a few things from Virgina that I am glad to have back, like a weed eater. Out of five thousand pounds worth of stuff, that is all I can think of that I am glad to see again.
A lot of this stuff that was in storage for three years was wedding gifts. And I am VERY grateful to all the wonderful wedding gifts we got, but I just want to know what to do with all of it. What does someone with two children under school age need with Tiffany candlesticks? If I have them out, they will just get broken. What am I going to do with fifteen more blankets? We already have more than anyone I know. An electric carving knife? Been married for five years, have never even considered cooking my own turkey or whole chicken and am still not thinking it is in my near future. The question is what to do with this kind of stuff. I mean, one day, I will probably need it. But that day is far off in the future. Do I really look like the kind of person who will have a nicely decorated dining room table with Tiffany candlesticks one day? I think not. I am lucky if my kitchen table, the one that still has scratches in it from people playing quarters on it as well as both paint and pen marks, has enough free space on it for someone to eat there.
So far, we have taken a huge mini-van full of stuff to Goodwill. Keith said the guy sort of gave him a look for having so much stuff to donate. Whatever, just TAKE IT AWAY FROM US SO I NEVER NEED TO MOVE IT AGAIN. Because people, this isn't over. They are saying we will be here for between eight months and two years. So, see you next year, bitching about moving again.
We move all the time (or "all the day" as Jack would call it) and I am so so so tired of it.
If you count even the small moves, we have moved 1000 times in the last 7 minutes. Ok, ok, we have moved seven times since 2002, when we originally moved to Baltimore.
The main problem with this particular move is that now all of our stuff is back in one place, and we have to deal with it all. Twelve thousands pounds worth of junk, all in boxes and boxes in the garage to sort through.
When we moved from Stafford, Virginia to Japan, the military put the fear of God in us that if we had too much weight then we would end up paying for it ourselves. Thus, we put a lot of our stuff in storage for three years. Let's just say this, if you can live without it for three years YOU DO NOT IN ANY WAY NEED IT. That is just the bottom line. There are a few things from Virgina that I am glad to have back, like a weed eater. Out of five thousand pounds worth of stuff, that is all I can think of that I am glad to see again.
A lot of this stuff that was in storage for three years was wedding gifts. And I am VERY grateful to all the wonderful wedding gifts we got, but I just want to know what to do with all of it. What does someone with two children under school age need with Tiffany candlesticks? If I have them out, they will just get broken. What am I going to do with fifteen more blankets? We already have more than anyone I know. An electric carving knife? Been married for five years, have never even considered cooking my own turkey or whole chicken and am still not thinking it is in my near future. The question is what to do with this kind of stuff. I mean, one day, I will probably need it. But that day is far off in the future. Do I really look like the kind of person who will have a nicely decorated dining room table with Tiffany candlesticks one day? I think not. I am lucky if my kitchen table, the one that still has scratches in it from people playing quarters on it as well as both paint and pen marks, has enough free space on it for someone to eat there.
So far, we have taken a huge mini-van full of stuff to Goodwill. Keith said the guy sort of gave him a look for having so much stuff to donate. Whatever, just TAKE IT AWAY FROM US SO I NEVER NEED TO MOVE IT AGAIN. Because people, this isn't over. They are saying we will be here for between eight months and two years. So, see you next year, bitching about moving again.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Seriously Angry
Lots to blog about, sure, we moved across the country, but I had to write this first. Last night, Keith took Sam to Lowe's to get something to attach our dryer to the wall. After about 15 minutes Jack notices that they are gone.
"Mommy, where is daddy?"
"Daddy went to the store to get something for the dryer."
Pause
"Mommy, where is Sammy?"
"Sammy went with Daddy."
Jack deep sigh.
"What's the matter, you didn't want them to go?"
"No mommy, I'm just pissed out."
"You're WHAT?"
"Seriously Pissed Out."
AFTER I LAUGH HYSTERICALLY FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES.
"Jack, that really isn't a very nice word. We shouldn't say pissed."
"Mommy, where is daddy?"
"Daddy went to the store to get something for the dryer."
Pause
"Mommy, where is Sammy?"
"Sammy went with Daddy."
Jack deep sigh.
"What's the matter, you didn't want them to go?"
"No mommy, I'm just pissed out."
"You're WHAT?"
"Seriously Pissed Out."
AFTER I LAUGH HYSTERICALLY FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES.
"Jack, that really isn't a very nice word. We shouldn't say pissed."
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Precious Sleep
It seems babies are being born all around lately, and it had me thinking about sleep, even before last night. You see, I don't exactly have the kinds of babies that like to sleep much. They are more like the kinds of newborns that like to eat. Jack didn't sleep through the night til he turned one. Sam was like an alarm clock at night, 12:05, 2:05, 4:05, 6:05. He ate every two hours, and I had to feed him. Especially with Sam, the newborn crazy eating phase was hard on me because Keith was gone and I was tired at night, and still had to get up and actually be human in the mornings for Jack. I have to say that in consideration of having a third child ever, one of the things I think of most is, "Ahh, the endless night wakings, I don't know if I can do that again." For some reason, though, it is almost impossible to feel any anger or contempt toward a small human, at least for me, for waking you up to nurse in the night, because they are just so tiny and innocent and you know they are hungry so you just do it and don't even really seethe about it later. That is not so much the case, however, if I get woken up now.
I am a mean mommy if someone wakes me up. I have a decent amount of patience in the daylight hours, but if one of my kids, especially one that is four, is annoying me in the night I might not be so nice at all. And you see, Jack is not at all a conventional sleeper. He still naps most days, and he sleeps through the night and all and doesn't have accidents so I can't complain about his sleeping too much. It has just become SUCH A pain to get him to go to sleep at night. He has a reliable bedtime routine but it just that you do that and he is still in no way drowsy and about to go to bed or even about to stay in his bed. He wants to sleep on the ground, and preferably the ground outside of our bedroom.
It drives me nuts that he won't stay in his bed. I honestly do feel sorry for him if he is "scared" like he says he is, of the dark, of bugs, of monsters or of anything. I was the most scared of the dark kid ever so I get that. I just want him to GO TO SLEEP so I can GO TO SLEEP MYSELF. I'm selfish like that.
Last night, we miraculously got both our kids down to bed at 6:30 and they went to sleep (I have been trying playing music in Jack's room for the last two nights and so far it has been keeping him in bed). They were SO EXHAUSTED and Jack had had no nap and that isn't so early for Sam on a regular basis. One of my favorite neighbors in Okinawa had her kids to bed every night at 6:30 pm (at 4 1/2 and 1) and we were all always extremely jealous when she was outside drinking tea and it was still daylight and we still had hours of kids going to bed routines to be done. So anyway, we were all proud of ourselves that Jack went to sleep in his bed for the first time in like forever and we even watched TV alone.
Ahh, you knew that we were in for it, didn't you? In the middle of the night Jack came in our bedroom and started sleeping on our floor. He often drags his pillow and blanket in and we don't hear him. So, Keith gets up at like 1:30 am to go to the bathroom and doesn't know Jack is there and thus steps on his face. This DID NOT go over well if you can imagine. Jack is awoken by his face being stepped on and was pissed to the highest order. Keith held him and calmed him down and he finally laid back down on his pillow. As he was drifting off to sleep, I would like to note that he said, "I am going to HIT mommy IN HER FACE when she wakes up!" Umm, excuse me? What did mommy do here?
So, about 3:01 am Sam starts crying. After ten minutes Keith is saying "What are we going to do with the baby?" I can ignore kids crying a lot longer than he can. So he gets milk and feeds him and we give him Tylenol b/c he is teething and carry Jack back to his bed so Sam doesn't wake him up too. After about 10 minutes Sam is fed, diapered, and chilled out. So we put him back in bed. Freak out city again, screaming. This lasts for the next two hours. Once we get him calmed down each time he will be happy as day in the dark in our bed, playing peek-a-boo with the covers, pointing out balls in the shadows, etc. But don't go put him back or heaven help you.
So, at about 10 til five am I kick Keith out of the bedroom, because he will not be able to sleep through the crying and I am so tired I know I probably will be able to. So Keith goes to the couch and I put Sam back and he cries about ten minutes and goes to sleep.
So from the hours of 1-5:30 am we probably slept about an hour. It just isn't pretty. This is the same way you feel in the mornings with a newborn and I don't have fond memories of feeling this weary when you have a whole day of kids to weather. The difference is at this age, I do sort of blame them.
I am a mean mommy if someone wakes me up. I have a decent amount of patience in the daylight hours, but if one of my kids, especially one that is four, is annoying me in the night I might not be so nice at all. And you see, Jack is not at all a conventional sleeper. He still naps most days, and he sleeps through the night and all and doesn't have accidents so I can't complain about his sleeping too much. It has just become SUCH A pain to get him to go to sleep at night. He has a reliable bedtime routine but it just that you do that and he is still in no way drowsy and about to go to bed or even about to stay in his bed. He wants to sleep on the ground, and preferably the ground outside of our bedroom.
It drives me nuts that he won't stay in his bed. I honestly do feel sorry for him if he is "scared" like he says he is, of the dark, of bugs, of monsters or of anything. I was the most scared of the dark kid ever so I get that. I just want him to GO TO SLEEP so I can GO TO SLEEP MYSELF. I'm selfish like that.
Last night, we miraculously got both our kids down to bed at 6:30 and they went to sleep (I have been trying playing music in Jack's room for the last two nights and so far it has been keeping him in bed). They were SO EXHAUSTED and Jack had had no nap and that isn't so early for Sam on a regular basis. One of my favorite neighbors in Okinawa had her kids to bed every night at 6:30 pm (at 4 1/2 and 1) and we were all always extremely jealous when she was outside drinking tea and it was still daylight and we still had hours of kids going to bed routines to be done. So anyway, we were all proud of ourselves that Jack went to sleep in his bed for the first time in like forever and we even watched TV alone.
Ahh, you knew that we were in for it, didn't you? In the middle of the night Jack came in our bedroom and started sleeping on our floor. He often drags his pillow and blanket in and we don't hear him. So, Keith gets up at like 1:30 am to go to the bathroom and doesn't know Jack is there and thus steps on his face. This DID NOT go over well if you can imagine. Jack is awoken by his face being stepped on and was pissed to the highest order. Keith held him and calmed him down and he finally laid back down on his pillow. As he was drifting off to sleep, I would like to note that he said, "I am going to HIT mommy IN HER FACE when she wakes up!" Umm, excuse me? What did mommy do here?
So, about 3:01 am Sam starts crying. After ten minutes Keith is saying "What are we going to do with the baby?" I can ignore kids crying a lot longer than he can. So he gets milk and feeds him and we give him Tylenol b/c he is teething and carry Jack back to his bed so Sam doesn't wake him up too. After about 10 minutes Sam is fed, diapered, and chilled out. So we put him back in bed. Freak out city again, screaming. This lasts for the next two hours. Once we get him calmed down each time he will be happy as day in the dark in our bed, playing peek-a-boo with the covers, pointing out balls in the shadows, etc. But don't go put him back or heaven help you.
So, at about 10 til five am I kick Keith out of the bedroom, because he will not be able to sleep through the crying and I am so tired I know I probably will be able to. So Keith goes to the couch and I put Sam back and he cries about ten minutes and goes to sleep.
So from the hours of 1-5:30 am we probably slept about an hour. It just isn't pretty. This is the same way you feel in the mornings with a newborn and I don't have fond memories of feeling this weary when you have a whole day of kids to weather. The difference is at this age, I do sort of blame them.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Tropical Storm Edouard
There is a tropical storm hitting Houston right now, and man, it is scary. It is totally sunny outside and not raining and the wind isn't blowing. Must have been pretty powerful here! Well, it mostly missed Sugar Land and also it wasn't as strong as they thought it was going to be. Still, it was enough to cancel most people's jobs in Houston today (except for Keith's job of course) and cancel Jack's camp at the Y. So... we went to Chuck E Cheese. I mean, I wasn't going to sit here all day in the "storm." It looked like this out.
Jack mostly went around staring at all the games that I tell him that he can't play, like death by shotgun, kill all the aliens, and the like. He just waits til the other kids put their money in those games, then he watches them play, because what is that going to hurt, right? He isn't doing what I asked him not to do, he is just totally getting exposed to what I want him to not get exposed to. Seriously, they should put these killing games in a section of Chuck E Cheese that is not right next to skee-ball and the like, so that four year olds are not exposed without some consent. That kind of thing kills me. 
Friday, August 1, 2008
I guess vacation bible school did its job
Let's just say Keith and I have been a little, umm, delinquent in taking our child to Sunday school and/or church since he was born. We tend to laze around on Sunday instead of going to church. We want Jack to feel plugged into a church community, though, so we keep saying we are going to start going once we move somewhere.
This week we went to VBS at First United Methodist Church in Marshall, where I grew up going to church. I taught elementary sports and games which was, in a word, nuts.
Jack, however, must have gleaned some meaning from these five days. He just came in and told me sternly:
"Mommy, I wrote you a note. Listen to it. Be quiet. [whispers] Mommy, God is your friend. He is your best friend. He wants to live with us. God loves us bear-y much. God doesn't want us to be bad guys, only good. Thank you for giving us power. Be good. Make sure you say your prayers at night. He is your best friend."
Guess he got more out of that than I did.
This week we went to VBS at First United Methodist Church in Marshall, where I grew up going to church. I taught elementary sports and games which was, in a word, nuts.
Jack, however, must have gleaned some meaning from these five days. He just came in and told me sternly:
"Mommy, I wrote you a note. Listen to it. Be quiet. [whispers] Mommy, God is your friend. He is your best friend. He wants to live with us. God loves us bear-y much. God doesn't want us to be bad guys, only good. Thank you for giving us power. Be good. Make sure you say your prayers at night. He is your best friend."
Guess he got more out of that than I did.
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