Weekly Update and some news.

Weekly Update:

Obsessing over: The kids' birthday...it's early, but working on it slowly!

Working on: Packing

Thinking about: William, a lot!

Anticipating: An appropriate hour for sleeping.

Drinking: water!

It has been an interesting few weeks. After a lot (A LOT...A LOOOOOOT) of thought, discussion, and planning, I have decided to move back to Virginia for the remainder of William's deployment. I didn't want to originally as we had JUST unpacked, we'd have to find somewhere to live in VA, I'd have to do it all by myself, and we would be moving back in just 9 months...so many more reasons as well, but those being the main ones. However, being out here without William is lonely. I really don't want to leave the friends I have made or my nice apartment or even the general state of Kansas. Its so clear and nice here. But I really miss my family and friends in Virginia. I miss my two bestest friends who my kids are named after. I want to help one plan her wedding next to her instead of chatting via Pinterest pins. I miss my parents...I have NEVER been away from my dad this long! I miss the kids having more people who are stable in their lives and love them.

It is hard to feel safe out here alone. I get nervous sometimes being in charge of two small kids when I only have two hands myself. I'm not a martial arts master or a sharpshooter. I don't have anyone right down the road who could speed over and help me. I don't have anyone I feel comfortable crying in front of for the random times I get overwhelmed and sad. I just don't have enough of a life established here to feel comfortable staying by myself. It'll be nice to have extra hands when I am up to my ears in stress from taking care of the kids. Like this past week, Luka had a cold and Eloise was teething and guess who got no sleep between waking up at different times with each one? Let me give you a hint...I am the only one here. So, me. 

I braved two months out here, but I am ready to go back. It will be nice to be able to come back to Kansas and know we will be a family for awhile, like we were supposed to the first time. 

Anyway, everything else is great. The kids are awesome, William is awesome, and I am doing pretty good too. I feel like the move home will help the deployment go faster, at least, I hope so because it is still crawling. I am so ready for it to be next year! 

-Kacy

Eloise is SEVEN MONTHS old!

Alright...who has the time machine and is fast forwarding through this year? How is my tiny 7lb 15oz newborn a big, beautiful baby!?

My sweet Eloise! Where do I even begin? She has learned SO MUCH in the past month.

In the past month she has learned to...

• Sit unsupported for any amount of time
• Crawl on her hands and knees
• Sit up from lying down
• Eat solid foods

Soon after her 6 month "birthday," Eloise started to sit. She showed ALL signs of wanting to eat so we began solid foods. She has eaten small pieces of banana, baby puffs..really anything I am eating that is healthy, I let her take a bite of. We have done a few purees here and there which has helped her with her tongue movement SO much. She no longer instantly moves food out of her mouth, but is able to keep it in and "chew" it. When doing purees, I often just put the food on the spoon and allow Eloise to put it in her own mouth as not to disrupt her independence with eating. She does AMAZINGLY well at spoon feeding herself. I am SO proud of her in this aspect.

Eloise is also crawling! I had no idea a baby could crawl so young, but she has been slowly working up to it for two weeks (started getting on her hands and knees, then rocking, then pushing forward) and now can crawl completely. It is incredible to watch her! She is so mobile and on the move!

Eloise likes...

• Her puppy
• Her brother
• Kisses!
• Skyping Daddy
• Eating
• Sophie the Giraffe
• Smiling
• Music
• Napping
• LOTS and LOTS of nursing
• Pinching
• Baths
• Toy cars

Eloise dislikes...

• Diaper changes
• When you do not share food
• When you take a toy she wanted

All in all, VERY happy baby. She LOVES attention and kisses and loving, but she is just as content playing on the floor with her toes. Eloise is an AMAZING little girl. She is definitely a Daddy's Girl. She constantly is loving on her Daddy Doll, looking through her photo album of Daddy, or holding her hippo toy Daddy got her before she was born. Her face just lights up when she sees photos of him or he calls and talks to her. It blows my mind how she just knows he is her Daddy.

Eloise is also obsessed with her brother, as he is with her. Luka loves giving her kisses and hugs and rolling on the floor with her. He always wants to help change her, feed her, or give her her juice. He helps me take pictures of her and likes to remind her "Its okay, Elwee! Daddy loves you!" which just melts my heart. They are the sweetest brother and sister pair I know.

We love you, precious girl, and cannot wait to keep watching you grow!

-Kacy

Life in General...

Lets start with the weekly check in and proceed from there!

Weekly Check-In

Obsessing over: HOLIDAYS! HALLOWEEN!

Working on: A special anniversary package for William.

Thinking about: sleep...

Anticipating: Autumn!

Drinking: Monster Energy...too tired to make coffee.

Alright, now that we have gotten that out of the way...I will start with Halloween. I am SO EXCITED to have two little munchkins to dress up. I am not revealing their costumes, but they are going to be SO CUTE! I was pretty set on making the kids some adorable matching treat bags, but while doing our grocery shopping, Luka saw some classic pumpkin buckets and asked for them. He picked out a silly face for himself and a happy face for Eloise. He told me "These mine! This for Elwee and this for Wooka!" (He has started to refer to himself in the third person/call people by their names and it is my favorite thing) What could I do? I had to buy them. It was too cute. BUT I also had to add my own flair because I am obsessed with Halloween. 

They turned out a lot better than I anticipated and I am super excited to use them! I am hoping they will last a few years as well.

The kids are doing great. Luka talks about his daddy all the time. He asks to call him and if I say we can't, he tells me "Oh yeah. He busy. Flying 'coptys!" (helicopters). He sometimes brings his Daddy Doll to the store, gives it random hugs, pretends to call daddy on his phone or have me call him or have him talk to Eloise. He likes to include Daddy in everything (i.e. if I say "I love you, Eloise!" Luka will say "DADDY TOO! Daddy love you too!" and such). Eloise gets really excited when they Skype. She likes to hold her Daddy Doll and sometimes I wrap her in William's clothes when she is fussy and she calms down. They have adjusted well, though Luka still doesn't like to Skype too much and sometimes he gets sad and cries for his dad. But we are surviving.

It helps that Luka and Eloise love each other so much. They are constantly playing with each other or hugging and laughing. They like to do everything together. When my grandparents were visiting, we went out to dinner and had to park far from the restaurant. It was hot outside, so I asked them to watch the kids while I brought the car around after we were done eating. Luka insisted on coming with me, though, so I just left Eloise with them. When I buckled Luka into the car, he burst into tears. I asked him what was wrong and he cried "WHERE ELWEE? MY ELWEE! NEED GET ELWEE!" When my grandfather brought her out of the restaurant, he was so happy. "Oh hi Elwee! I miss you!" It was so sweet. He really adores his sister and doing anything he can to help her.

Eloise is progressing so quickly in her milestones! She is almost 7 months old now and has just started solids. She really enjoys eating and is working at it though it is a bit hard for her. Eloise had a super rough tongue tie when she was born and always has had some trouble with her tongue movement even after it has been corrected. But thats okay! We are working slowly and together on this. As of now Eloise can...get on her hands and knees and *almost* crawl, sit up unassisted as long as she pleases, roll around everywhere, get into a bear crawl position, make the "mama mama" noise, and respond to her name. I'm not ready for all of this growing up! She is moving and shaking a lot faster than Luka did. 

William is doing great too. It is hard to be away from him, but he is an incredible soldier and doing some awesome stuff out there. He is working really hard and it is showing. I have never been more proud of him than I am now. He is such a strong and brave person. I will never be able to express my gratitude for all he has done for our family. He is amazing.

As for me...I'm okay too! I am keeping busy with my bow shop and the kids and whatever else I can manage to do. The holidays are a GREAT distraction for right now. I am in full swing for planning fun things for the kids! I can't wait :)

-Kacy

TUESDAY.

Alright...Time to check in for the week!

Weekly Check-In

Obsessing over: A consignment sale that is coming up!

Working on: Keeping my house clean...not easy.

Thinking about: Halloween! I think I want to MAKE my decor this year.

Anticipating: Bedtime...Mama's got a headache.

Drinking: some coffee. afternoon pick-me-ups!

The past few days, my grandparents have been visiting! They had never met Eloise and had last seen Luka when he was 9 months. Having them here was AWESOME. The kids were so well behaved for them and we ate out a lot (something I never get to do with William gone!) and went shopping for clothes for the kids! It was a blast and I was sad to see them go. Luka woke up curious as to when "those guys" were coming over. Poor kid! But the new toys and movies they got for him have softened the blow a bit ;). 

They also must have worked some magic because, right after her Daddy left, Eloise had been waking up every 3 hours at night, but now is averaging only 1-2 wake-ups at night (usually a 6-7 hour stretch, then a 3-4). Of course, I am not used to it and haven't benefitted yet because I wait for her to wake up, but I'm hoping to adjust soon! I am one tired mama.

It also marks a week since we have been FULL-TIME (no disposables on hand!) cloth diapering Eloise! It has been awesome. Luka was cloth diapered for awhile, but it was too much of a hassle without our own washer/dryer. Here we have them in our unit so it is completely doable! And fun! I am excited to keep adding to my stash (and even have two diapers on the way to me!) and keep this up with all of our future children. I only wish Luka would consent to wearing one!

I am also going crazy over all the holidays. I want to decorate and celebrate and make the kids matching outfits. I think a trip to Hobby Lobby is in order...

-Kacy

MONDAY Check In! and the new Etsy shop!

You guys! I made it on a Monday! Granted, it is 9 PM, but I remembered! So, let's get this out of the way....

Monday Check-In

Obsessing over: My new Etsy shop founded by me and my friend, Jillian.

Working on: finding some part-time work/hobby. maybe babysitting.

Thinking about: sleeping. and brownies.

Anticipating: hearing from William.

Drinking: nothing...but I am very thirsty.

Alright, now that THAT is out of the way...

My friend Jillian and I opened a new Etsy shop this week. We both enjoy making bows and accessories and thus opened a shop to do so together! I am so excited to say that MY FIRST BOW sold today and we only opened yesterday! Very excited. We have a couple things listed in the shop that are pre-made but we do take custom orders as well. If you have or know a little girl, you know they can never have enough bows! So, if you get a chance, take a peek at our shop and send anyone our way who could benefit from our services!

www.etsy.com/shop/charlieandelle

-Kacy

This Past Week...

We were SUPER busy this week! We went to a bunch of play dates, made special packages for William, got to Skype with William, got the kids' carseats installed by a carseat tech, and went to a BISON RANCH!

First of all, to all of our new friends, thank you so much for all the hospitality and fun we have had so far! We are excited to meet more friends and develop deeper relationships with the ones we have as well. I know Luka is highly enjoying being around other kids his age and I am DEFINITELY liking some adult social interaction, especially with people who can understand our situation. It is hard taking out a toddler and a baby, more so when that toddler is still adjusting to the big change of his dad being gone and sometimes just has random, earth shattering meltdowns. However, I haven't encountered a single judgmental look and have had offers to help in any way from all these new friends, even upon just meeting, which is the complete OPPOSITE of what happened back home when I was pregnant and dealing with Luka meltdowns in public. It is highly appreciated in ways I can't even express in words.

Now, onto the packages. I love cute-sey, creative package ideas. I know I can throw in drawings from Luka and photos of Eloise into any old package and call it a day, but I decided to send out specific packages from each kid to William. Luka's has things like a package of race cars (with attached note: "RACE home to me!"), gourmet nuts ("I'm going NUTS missing you"), and Swedish Fish ("for the oFISHal greatest dad"). Eloise's package includes things like a small globe with her footprints inside, William's favorite shave cream ("so your face is as smooth as my bottom!"), deodorant ("so you don't smell like my poo poo!), and an old pacifier of hers ("it SUCKS being without you!). Both packages have small cards soaked in each child's body wash (to remind him how they smell) and photos of them. Luka had so much fun picking out things to put in his package and kept telling the cashier "This for my Daddy! These my Daddy's." 

We also had a GREAT Skype session with William this week. Usually, if given the chance to Skype, we do so when Luka isn't around. It sometimes makes him really upset or he has a complete meltdown when it is time to go. But he asked me if we could call Daddy and William was available so we gave it a shot. He actually sat down and talked to William a bit and didn't just hide behind me the whole time. When he was all done talking he told his dad that he wanted to go watch a movie, waved goodbye, and kissed the screen. It was amazing. I was so proud of him for vocalizing and communicating to us.

As for the carseats, I STRONGLY urge EVERYONE to get them installed by a tech! We made an appointment at the local health department and a wonderful woman adjusted the straps on our seats to the proper heights and then put the seats into the car, all while explaining the guidelines for installation/safety. She checked to make sure the kids were buckled in safely as well before we left and it was all completely free. I have such a better peace of mind knowing their seats are secure and that I am buckling them in correctly each time.

LASTLY, the BISON RANCH! We went on this super cool tour of a local bison ranch where we got to get right up next to the bison and feed them! Luka had a super blast and LOVED all the chickens, horses, the tractor ride, and feeding the bison. He can be really hit or miss with these things, but he had a BLAST! At the end, we bought some bison jerky for William as well.

All in all, AWESOME week!

-Kacy