Oops...Tuesday Morning Check-In

As a stay-at-home mom, days tend to escape me. I never realize what day of the week it is, really. I just kind of go with the flow of our daily routines and no days stick out...with that said, I missed the Monday Morning Check-In two weeks in a row now...OOPS. So, Tuesday Morning it is....

Tuesday Morning Check-In

Obsessing over: getting another package out to William.

Working on: printing out some cute pictures of my spawn.

Thinking about: when I will attempt to brush out my tangled mane.

Anticipating: NAP TIME, please.

Drinking: iced coffee, yum.

Wishing: We could fast forward to 8 months from now...missing my husband something fierce the past few days.

ANYWAY, aside from that, we have been/will be rather busy the next few days/weeks! We went to a birthday party on Saturday, a playdate yesterday, we have a play date today and tomorrow, and are going to feed some BISON this weekend! (YES, FEEDING. BISON.) We are loving all the social interaction and friends! AND in the beginning of September my grandparents are coming to visit! I haven't seen them in a LONG time and I am so stoked! 

-Kacy

Eloise is SIX months old! (Dr. Appointment Update!)

Today my tiny angel turns 6 months old! I can't really believe that six months have gone by! I often count from February to now and am in shock. Where did that time go? Wasn't I JUST calling my best friend asking her to come pick me up to go to the hospital? Or struggling to put on a straight line of eyeliner through contractions (yes, I am one of those people)? Regardless, she IS half a year old (cue tears) today. Seeing as we have been moving, dealing with the deployment, etc, she hasn't seen a doctor since 3 weeks old. I decided to make her a 6 month appointment just to see how she was doing.

We are one of those "crunchy" anti-vax, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, co-sleeping type of folks so I was nervous to see the doctor and have to stand up for myself (I am a wimp) regarding my parenting choices. I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't try to push anything I wasn't interested in, but only said the mandated "you should vaccinate" thing and moved on. Of course, though, Eloise is perfect! She is now 16 lbs, 3 oz (in the 54th percentile), 26 inches (in the 61st percentile), and her head is 45 inches (74th percentile). She has surpassed the majority of the 6 month milestones, but is still working on sitting up and making sounds (she is a relatively silent baby). Eloise is still exclusively breastfed and will continue to be until she can sit up on her own. The doctor suggested starting her on rice cereal now, but I don't plan on ever giving her that. We are practicing baby led weaning so rice cereal is not really in our future, especially with its lack of nutrients. Once Eloise can sit up on her own, she will start filling her belly with fruits and veggies (and breastmilk, of course!) and other good things.

All in all, Eloise is PERFECT, growing right on track, and super duper healthy! She has FINALLY started to laugh a little bit for people other than Luka. She still LOVES music, it makes her laugh. She is attached to a blanket that her namesake, Katy, made for her. Eloise loves toys (especially books and toys that spin) and our puppy. She enjoys chewing on her own toes! Eloise takes 2-3 naps a day in her pack-n-play lasting for 1-2 hours and goes to sleep for the night around 8, gets up for the day between 6:30-8, and wakes up 2-4 times to nurse through the night. She starts off in her pack-n-play next to my bed but usually winds up in bed with me by morning (we like to snuggle).

Hopefully, I will be able to get some awesome pictures of her this week to mark this awesome growth milestone!

-Kacy

Monday (Tuesday) Morning Check-In

Now that the initial "shock" period of William being gone (AGAIN) is over, I am trying to figure out ways to keep this blog active and updated without boring everyone to death with how we watched Toy Story for the 3 millionth time and played with cars and had to vacuum up crayon wrappers again because Luka prefers his crayons in the nude. SOOOOOO, I am definitely going to be doing a Monday Morning Check-In every week. My current goal is to post twice a week and this will help get the ball rolling, for sure.

With that said, it may be Tuesday, but it's not like you guys mind, right? We will just pretend.

Monday Morning Check-In

Obsessing over: Halloween costumes

Working on: Decorating the house with our framed photos and some art!

Thinking about: going to the post office and maybe getting some ice cream today.

Anticipating: Eloise's first doctor's appointment on Wednesday (she hasn't had a check up since 3 weeks old!)

Drinking: Monster Energy Drink...don't judge me.

Wishing: it was cooler outside.

-Kacy

Eloise's "Birthday" Party.

Since William had to deploy for Eloise's first year, we decided to have a special day for her so technically we could say William was there for Eloise's first birthday party. We celebrated her 5 month birthday with a day at the pool, some decorations and snacks, and one awesome gift. She got to watch an episode of Baby Einstein for the first time, gnaw on some frozen banana, and Daddy played her some music on the guitar (her favorite!). We all had so much fun celebrating our little girl and I know it meant a lot to William, as well as myself, to have a special day that he could be there for her.

 

-Kacy

Bye Bye Daddy :(

Alright. I have been waiting awhile to post anything because right after we moved here, we got some news and were not ready to share it. This news was so big that it was hard to write around it. Most things going on in our lives revolved around it. It was unavoidable.

The news? William was deploying.

William got orders to deploy to Afghanistan for 9 months. Yes, you read that right. We JUST got him back the last week of April and he had to leave AGAIN. He left for BCT in October of last year, graduated AIT in April, and deployed earlier this week for another 9 months. That is 18 months in the Army, only 3 of which were spent at home with us. You could say we are a weeeeee bit upset. Being the awesome soldier he is, of course William was glad to go and do his job, but even he could not believe the timing. Missing another year of holidays? Anniversaries? Birthdays? Eloise's first year? The news did not come easy and we had a hard enough time wrapping our own heads around it, let alone telling anyone.

So, he is already gone. He deployed earlier this week and it was not the most fun experience of my life to say the least. Luka just lost it when the soldiers started marching out and threw the mother of all tantrums screaming for his dad. It took a half an hour to get him into his carseat because he couldn't pull himself together. He is definitely taking it the hardest of us all. We have daddy dolls and recorded story books, but he just is having such a hard time adjusting. This week has been full of blow out tantrums and lots of crying for Daddy, but it is finally starting to get better. Eloise, obviously, doesn't really get it, but you can tell she misses him too. They may not have been able to spend much time together, but Eloise and her Daddy were stuck together like glue whenever possible. She misses napping on his chest and him playing the guitar for her.

Me? I'm doing okay. I haven't had much time to stop and feel, but that is good for me. I have my hands full all day with the kids and, come night time, have other things I have to get done. But I have a lot of goals, am making friends, and have some DIY projects to work on which will all hopefully help this time pass swiftly. While my heart hurts, I am so proud of my husband. I still can't believe I got as lucky as I did in finding someone so strong and dedicated to spend my life with. Besides, it is all worth it in the end when you finally see each other (this I learned after BCT. the image of him seeing us for the first time is ingrained in my brain forever). So at least it can only get better, right? Each day is one day closer.

Pictures from right before he left:

-Kacy

P.S. at least this means I will be blogging more!