Happy June, Honey

Between Arthur's birthday, Father's Day, and the fact that he actually started class again this week, June has kind of been Arthur's month.  So I don't want the month to completely pass without expressing my love and appreciation for him.

It is funny how focused people (or maybe just me) can become on the milestones and the growth that our children have made, but how often we overlook the growth and development in our partner standing right beside us.  As I was reflecting last night, I started to think about how this fall it will be seven years since Arthur and I started dating, and almost 11 years since we met back in high school.  Even back then, when he was way too cool for me, I knew there was just something about him.  And he must have seen something in me too because he wrote in my year book, "You stay hot and don't forget that we gonna get married soon..."  I don't know about the hot part, but he was right about us getting married.

We have both been through so much since then, both as individuals and in our relationship, and when I look back on who we were I feel like we are almost unrecognizable.  However, I am so grateful that we were able to grow up together because I love seeing how far we both have come.  And I am so amazed at the incredible man, husband, and father Arthur has become.  A few days ago some of the army wives were talking about what their husband's plans were within the army after flight school.  When the conversation turned to me I said, "I trust Arthur to make the decision that is in the best interest of our family."  I know this to be true in all the decisions that Arthur makes, and I hope he knows I will always do the same.

I love you Honey...Happy June!

Sneaky Sneaky

Jake can be quite an old soul at times (much like his father) so it is not surprising that I often find the two of them sitting on the bench on our front porch enjoying our frequent afternoon thunder storms.  From time to time Jake will even go out there by himself.  If Jake was any other two year old, I might panic at the sound of my front door opening as my toddler lets himself outside, but it's Jake.  Of course I will immediately go peak out the front window and check up on what he is doing, but generally I find him hanging out on the front porch.  However, what I saw Jake doing this past Wednesday made me rethink this bit of freedom.

Apparently Jake wanted a snack and he felt that the rest of his chocolate Easter Bunny would be a good choice.  While I can't blame him for wanting chocolate, but I was a little taken aback by the sneaky plan he concocted in order to get it.  There is no doubt that he thought this through.

I couldn't help but laugh (and Arthur couldn't help but get the camera) as we watch Jake open the Ziploc bag, remove the bunny from its box, and victoriously take a bite of his spoils.  

We only let him get through a bite or two before Arthur knocked on the window.  Jake jumped and turned to the window saying, "I see you."  "No Jacob, we see you!"

Thank you for silly sneaky two year memories.

The Sesame Street Show

Last week was a big first for Jake, it was his first live theater performance!  And I am happy to say that he loved it!  The USO provided a darling Sesame Street performance on post for army kids and their families.

It made for a great evening out with our awesome friends the Moody's, but the best part really was sharing with Jake my life time love and passion for musical theater and watching him fall in love with it too.

(Waiting patiently for the show to start...okay, the new toy they handed out might have something to do with that)

(waving to all his Sesame friends)

(This one is my favorite...his face just says it all)

Trying to stay cool and calm under the Alabama sun

It is the middle of June and we are officially experiencing our first Alabama summer.  I know that it gets hot in California, but the intensity of the sun here makes it so much worse.  It makes me grateful that Jake has brown eyes like his Daddy because my baby blues are of no use to me here.  One step outside and I am literally "blinded by the light."  But no matter how much I would like to lounge around in my air conditioned house until the sun goes down we've got a growing boy to entertain.  Everyday I wake up and try to think of things we can do to keep his body busy, his mind working, and most important, keep everyone in the family from getting heat stroke.

Over the last few weeks we have become regulars at the pool.  Jake is cautious when he is introduced to something new, and after 9 months away from the water, the pool has been a perfect example.  First Jake must spend time assessing his surroundings and analyzing the situation before he can be comfortable.  I feel like he is doing some sort of associated risk survey.   Only when he feels good about his odds does he move forward.  I guess he is just way too much of a thinker to be impulsive and fortunately or unfortunately he gets that from both Arthur and I.  Understanding this, I let him spend the majority of our first few trips to the pool just sitting on the side.  As he plays with his pool toys I know he is carefully observing the other kids splash and wade around the shallow kiddie pool.  It didn't take long before he was ready to hold my hand and make his way across the pool.  Now he feel felt confident enough to jump in himself, but he definitely has a system.  Arthur calls their strategy "calculated risk taking."

While I gave him a few free days, he has not escaped Mommy the swim instructor.  Now we spend at least a few minutes every trip in the big pool working on swim skills.  As I carried him to the lap pool one afternoon last week he said, "I don't want to do up and unders."  I laughed a little because I couldn't help but think, "Jake if I had a quarter for all the children who have said that to me over the years, I would be a rich woman."  Needless, to say like the children before him, Jacob didn't stand a chance.  Like I told Arthur, "Jake doesn't have to be a swimmer, but he does need to know how to be safe and comfortable in the water."  So after only a few days he is warming up to the whole thing, and I hope to have him swimming independently by the end of the summer.

Besides the pool, Jake and I keep busy with all sorts of activities.  I'm no Montessori school, but I do my best to expose him to new things and introduce creative ways to help him become familiar with the things I know he will need for school.  Luckily Jake has always loved to be read to.  He will sit for hours and listen to stories, and now he has most of his favorites memorized.  He can even recite Corduroy word for word, which I find pretty impressive.  I love to catch him reading to himself using the words and phrases he is learning, and I love that the library is one of his favorite places to go (besides the Aviation museum of course).  We enjoy coloring, painting, and sticking stickers (a new Jake favorite) especially if Disney music is blaring in the background.  I don't know about Jake, but it sure helps me get those artist juices flowing. :-)  Puzzles and blocks are another popular way to pass the time, but I've recently also started creating my own little matching games with index cards and crayola markers.  The first game I made is an Alphabet game.  The cards are face up so the focus is more about letter recognition rather than memorization.  While he is getting pretty quick at finding matches, he usually only gets through 4 or 5 matches before he is ready for something new.  The newest game is a color matching game.  We've just tried it once so the verdict is still out on whether or not I was successful in creating something worth playing, but I'll let you know.

I feel so much pressure to make sure that I am giving Jake everything he will need in life.  He is only two, and already I wake up and night thinking, "Did we do enough today?  Did I teach him enough?"  Did we do enough productive play?"  I know it is crazy, but I also know that other parents can relate.  I just love him more than anything and I want to giving him all that I can.  But before I can go too far something happens to reminded me to slow down and enjoy the innocence and joy of childhood.  Yesterday Jake and I spent the afternoon in the backyard playing in the sprinklers.  If you can't run around naked in your backyard when you are two when can you?  Seeing his happy smile and hearing his little giggle silences my busy mind, and rather than worry I just enjoy these moments almost as much as he does.

A Time for Us

I keep thinking I am going do some amazing game of catch up and write about all of the things that happened while I was without a computer.  But really who am I kidding? :-)  So rather than procrastinate on bringing my blog up to speed, I'll just try to stay current from here on out.

We've been in Alabama now for a little over three months, and I can't believe the way the time has flown.  Arthur is still on hold, awaiting a class start date that constantly seems to be moving later and later in the year.  I know that he is itching to start so he can begin flying again, but we are enjoying all the family time this "hold" provides.  I must admit that I am much more productive when Arthur is not at home, and I do my best house keeping when he is gone studying.  There is just something about having him home that makes the days feel more like a vacation than real life.  But after the last few years, maybe a vacation from the normal stresses of life is just what we need.  Jake is especially enjoying all this time together.  I don't know what he'll do when Arthur starts class again and he is stuck with only Mommy all day.  Mommy is good for many things like art projects, reading books, and "learning" games, but Daddy is much better for boy things and just playing the day away.

So when I feel like a day was not quite as productive as I think it could have been or when Arthur gets frustrated by all the waiting, I remember the unavoidable times of separation that loom ahead and I am reminded just how blessed we are to be together now.  No matter what the future holds, I know that this time together is precious.  When we look back at this time in our lives we will remember this special season where we had nothing else to do but be together and when time seemed to almost stand still...almost.

From California to Alabama in the words of Jake

I feel like the best way to update everyone on Jake is to just use his own words.  There is nothing I can say that will capture him the way a good "Jake quote" will.  However, since we have been without a computer since our move, I have been doing my best to write them down on paper.  So please bare with me as I try to get current (and please know that I do this mostly for my own memory, but for those of you who find him as humorous as we do...enjoy).

February was a busy month for us.  Jake and I traveled from California to Alabama and back twice on plane before we made the very hairy 3-day drive for our final move as a family.  These quotes will help to give you some insight on what Jake thought of it all.

1) Jake woke up in the middle of our first flight while our plane was in a cloud.  He was very concerned when he looked out the window and all he could see was white.  He asked, "Where did the sky go?"

2 During our layover in Dallas, Jake was so excited every time he saw a service member in uniform and was continually shouting, "It's a soldier! It's a soldier like Daddy!"  However, his funniest comment came when he noticed a man wearing his army back pack but wearing civilian clothes. "He has no jammies on," he told me.  I couldn't help but laugh at his perception of Army ACU's.

3) During one of our many errands during that month I was made painfully aware just how much attention Jake was paying to the radio.  "I want it loud!  This song is my BEST!"  It was Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA."  At least it was patriotic, right? :-)

4) Jake made it clear that he was excited our family was finally together again after our months apart.  As three of us stood in line at my favorite restaurant (last time before we moved), Jake looked around at all the people and exclaimed, "Look at all these families!"  Then with a smile he put his head down on his Daddy's shoulder.   

The first few days of March were completely consumed with our cross country drive.  Jake did amazing...better than we could have ever imagined.  But I do have to say that we could never have done it without the DVD player.

1) Jake fell in love with several movies on the trip, but Tarzan was definitely at the top of the list.  Since he usually speaks so clearly, it warmed by heart when he said, "I wanna watch the babellas."  In other words, "I want to watch the gorillas."  I still have made not attempted to "fix" that word...I think it is perfect.

2)  A few nights later while Jake and Arthur were wrestling, Arthur grabbed Jake by the ankle and held him upside down.  Jake giggled, "I'm like a little baby Tarzan!"  

As you can imagine, life here is a little boys dream.  There are soldiers everywhere and helicopters fly over more often then birds.  Lifted trucks and jeeps are the transportation of choice, and best of all for Jake is that Daddy is back!

1)  Shorty after arriving here, Jake had decided on his future career.

Q: Jake what do you want to be when you grow up?

A: A pilot. (yeah, no surprise there)

Q: What kind?

A: An Apache (Arthur has no desire to fly one, Jake decided that one all on his own.)

2) Jake has also narrowed in on his favorite car...a Jeep.  When he is not making us laugh with his crazy car dance moves, Jake is pointing out Jeeps...all body styles.  This makes Daddy proud.  So proud in fact that Arthur got a Jeep as our second car.  Jake of course refers to it as "my jeep."

3) Arthur's first few days back to work and back in uniform were a little stressful for Jake as he was not quite sure that Daddy was around for good.  As soon as Arthur would walk in the door, Jake would start pulling at his uniform demanding, "Take it off, Daddy!  Let's take if off!"  Uniform=leaving, civilian clothes=staying...that is all Jake needed to know.

These last few quotes are just silly, cute, or sweet things that Jake said during our 1st month in Alabama.

1) Since we didn't have "things" for the first few weeks we stayed with friends and ate out a lot.  One afternoon we were eating at a Chinese Buffet and we realized that Jake was staring out into the distance babbling away.  Since this is very out of character for him, Arthur asked, "Who are you talking to?"  "I'm talking to the Bu-DAH," Jake responded.  Yes, there were in fact three Buddhas in the restaurant, and no, I have no idea why he knows who he is.

2) Several weeks before Jake's second birthday we were driving around discussing what we should do on his special day.  Arthur wanted to include Jake in the conversation so he asked Jake when his birthday was and prompted him with, "March...?"  We really weren't expecting an answer since we were talking to a not yet two year old, but sure enough without any hesitation Jake chirped, "27th!"

3) At our first week at church in our new ward, Jake looked around the congregation with great concern, "Where are the Nephites?"  I guess he was listening when I read the Book of Mormon Reader.

5) It was our first night in our new house.  Jake and I were cuddled up on our new futon (since our things still hadn't arrived).  As he was falling asleep, Jake's sweet little voice whispered, "I love you, Mommy.  I love you mostest of the mostest."  

"We're having a baby!"

These are the words Jake blurted out at dinner just hours after I had taken a positive pregnancy test back on April 15th.  He was asleep when I had taken the test and we had actually decided to wait several months before we even discussed it around him.  Since waiting until the end of December to meet this new little person feels like forever to me, I can't imagine how long nine months will feel to someone barely two.  But there was no keeping secrets from this boy, especially when he really knew long before I did.  Since sometime around his second birthday at the end of March, Jake has been fascinated with the idea of being a big brother.  He has always loved babies, but his focus narrowed on "us" having a baby.  He was constantly bringing me every hand-me-down book we have aquired on big brothers and is always interested in a conversation on babies living in tummies.

Over the last month our excitement over this new addition has only grown.  Jake loves to announce our news to just about anyone.  And while I may not have been completely ready to share the news with everyone that Jake wanted to include, I would much rather have him excited than indifferent or upset.  Jake even came with us to our first ultra sound today, and it was so beautiful to have the whole family there to witness this new little miracle.  The ultra sound tech couldn't believe how well behaved and interested he was.  All I could say was, "He really gets it."  And he does.  I know that he and this new little spirit already have a special connection that began long ago.  Arthur and I cannot believe how blessed we are.