Our Baby Steps: Keeping Busy...

One the best ways to cope through a deployment is to keep super busy. In my mind, I broke up this deployment into three phases, before baby, new baby, and then "oh wow, there are five and a half months left...how am I going to stay sane?!?!" Nine months seemed like such a long time when I first found out about the deployment. I could rationalize being apart 3-4 months but wasn't sure how I would cope with the rest.

When you begin a deployment, you struggle to find strength and keep it together for everyone else. For some reason, I thought I would be considered weak for crying, being sad, and asking for help. With the help of some really good friends, I have learned that you really are stronger for doing so. When people have asked me how I keep it together, I always respond "I don't have a choice." I have two kids that need me, and I have to keep it together for them. I found this quote on a deployment page the other day, and thought wow that really sums it up....

Baby steps...Preparing for baby, visiting Carl in California, having wonderful friends and family visit, and then giving birth made time go by so quickly. Sophia's first month also went by in a daze but all the while I was truly hurting for Carl. When Sophia got sick and Carl came home, time flew by. Come June, Jack and I started the Freeman B&B. Okay, I am kind of joking but not really:) We literally have had a visitor almost every week since mid-May, and the B&B officially will close the last week of August, when our last visitor leaves. This gives us a little less than two weeks before we leave to pick up Carl. Some people might think I was crazy to invite so many people to come stay but it really has been what has kept me going. Looking forward to our next visitor keeps me so busy, and scheduling things to do has helped so much. In between visitors, we keep super busy with play dates. The zoo, museum of science and history, splash parks, and play dates at friends' houses have kept us preoccupied.

Despite a near death of all of the fish in the back pond (when all of the water magically vanished one morning) and the fact that the Jaguar is on a slow impending death at the dealership (the UK Jag headquarters has been trying to figure out what is wrong with it for almost 7 weeks now), we are doing well. One thing this deployment has taught me is to focus on the big things. So many petty little things have gone wrong, and at first I really let them bother me. When Sophia was ill, I got a rude awakening about what was important. After that, I decided to let go of all of the other things.

June and July were filled with fun family visits and play dates. In June, Corinne, the kids' great grandmother came to visit. We really enjoyed having her here to play with the kids. Melanie, my mother in law, came to help us out. I will never be able to thank her enough for keeping me company, loving on Jack and Sophie, and battling my never ending yard.

We went on a MOPS play date to our local fire station at the beginning of June.

Jack at 23 months old. I was shocked at how quickly he jumped in the truck. He normally is a little shy but he wanted to get in more than the big kids:)

He loved all of the bells and whistles on the truck.

Jack loves his firetrucks just as much as his Dad, Uncles and Granddad.

The MOPS group posing in front of our local fire station

After the playdate, we went to lunch at the park. Jack had so much fun with Elle and Marley.

Sophia at 9 weeks.

It is amazing how fast Sophia is growing. Jack is almost 2 and Sophia is only 9 weeks in this picture.

Jack is such a happy boy. After bath time, Jack always likes to play. He wants to chase Herme, read books, play with puzzles and trucks or jump on Mommy. Bedtime is always lots of fun at our house.

Jack is really growing and changing, He can easily get up and down stairs by himself without much help. I still make him hold my hand though.

Jack has always had a fascination with belly buttons. He loves his sister's belly. He would touch his belly button and then hers. Jack calls Sophia "tissy"

In textbooks, Sophia meets the definition of an angel baby. She started sleeping through the night at four weeks, and rarely ever cries.

Sophia plays by herself, and loves to play with the toys in her pack and play. She is starting to smile more, and it is contagious.

We love to go to the zoo. There is a huge splash park in the middle of the zoo, and Jack loves to go. Jack and Ella go often together, and it keeps them cool on super hot days.

Jack and Ella at the Splash park at the zoo

Jessica and Ella feeding a giraffe

The splash park is so much fun for the kids. We became members of the zoo, and Jack loves to run in the water and play on the sharks and other water fish.

As I mentioned above, I have resolved not to sweat the small stuff. Jack took a bag of granola cereal and by accident poured the entire thing on his chair and floor. Instead of getting angry, I decided to just laugh and take a picture. It was very funny watching the look on his face when it all fell, and he scrambled to start eating all of the granola as fast as he could off the chair. Herme's dinner that night was granola!