Random ramblings over coffee.

Woke up to Wilson, sleeping between us. 

I get out of bed and look over the two guys in my life. 

I come out to see toys that didn't get picked up, and dishes that didn't get done. Maybe for some people that would be unacceptable, but for me, I just look at it and turn on the keurig. 

I hear a little voice, calling out to me. "Mommy, read book?" 

I go to see my daughter sitting in her crib, holding the hungry caterpillar. 

She's got the page open where the caterpillar eats all sorts of stuff. 

She says, "I eat cake!"

 *makes eating noise*

She is her father's daughter. She loves to make noises like him. 

We come out, and I go to fix my cup of coffee. I turn on the tv and our xbox one. 

We try to pick something for her to watch. 

She decides on Caillou. One of her favorite shows. 

I put some sugar and creamer in my coffee. I take a sip, and start to think about my grandparents. 

I think about how I remember how my grandma's coffee looked like mine. Creamy, tan. She used to let me take a sip, and would warn me, I probably wouldn't like it. She was right. I'd much rather drink her Five Alive juice. 

I look back over at my little two year old. 

I spend quite a bit of time, wishing it were nap time, or bed time, looking forward to when I can send them off on the bus, and have them learning at school. 

I know I should stop, because I think of the memories I have. And wish for that time back. 

What I wouldn't give, to be able to spend more time with those who are now gone. To share a coffee with my grandma, to hug her. To be able to see them once more. 

We can't though. The few memories, and time with those, I can cherish it, I can wish for more time, but I know, it is gone. And it won't come back.  

So today there is no wishing. Today, I just want to be present, and look at my two little crazies.  To hoard those memories, because I know one day, I'm going to miss and long for this. 

The last couple days.

The weather has been amazing these past couple days. Perfect Spring weather for playing outside! 

I've been trying really hard to get the kids out, and try to put in a little exercise time in as well. The scale keeps creeping up, and I know it's because I've been putting off doing any kind of physical activity. I enjoy being lazy, far, far, too much. 

Also, I enjoy eating. So I'm hoping to at least stop any more weight gain. I'm too short, I don't have much room to hide any extra luggage. And unfortunately it's not going to places I would like for it to go to.

So no huge life style change, just need to commit to maintaining what I have, and maybe make it less jiggly. 

My kids on the other hand, seem to be burning any and all fat off their little bodies. They are having so much fun, playing with all their sand toys, water table, going to the playground, the beach, they are really living the life! 

With beach time though, I have now found sand every where. I can't seem to escape it! Ahhhhh! 

Like everything else in life, I both love/hate the sand.

I hate it in my car, but love it on the beach. 

That story where your brother cut your hair....

It started out like any other typical day with two munchkins. I had to run and mail my defective laptop battery to the ups store. So I put the kids in the car, and since it was a nice day, took them to the park that was nearby.

They experienced their first tire swing. I might've spun them too hard on it, but they loved it, and no one fell off, or got sick.

Came home to a clean house. (Shocking, because I left it a complete mess) Got some news that is pretty nerve wracking to take.

Spent the next couple hours freaking out. The kids were playing nicely, running back and forth from the living room to Wilson's room. Then, like the nun in Madeline:




They found my crafting scissors. Callie's hair was in a pony tail this day. That pony tail was hacked off.
You might look at this picture and think, "Oh well that's not that bad."
And you are right. It's not bad. It actually reminded me of a very odd looking shag haircut. But it was way too shaggy.

I gave Callie and ice cream cone, and start trying to fix some of the damage. I'm no professional hair cutter, so I just kept trying to hack, and avoid ice cream cone melting everywhere.
She did pretty good considering, her brother had been hacking at her hair, and now her mother. But, I think when ice cream is involved, it's pretty easy to be cool with stuff.

I'm try to adjust to the fact that my baby girl got her first haircut, by her not even 4 year old brother. Maybe someday I'll laugh. Hopefully, this will be my only hair cut story. But with my crazies.. you just never know. 

We made plans to be unbreakable..

You get a cookie if you can guess the song the title is from. 

It's a favorite of mine, and kind of expresses how I feel about life.  

"We made plans to be unbreakable, 

Love was all we knew.

No insurance for the unthinkable, 

Blindly get us through." 

This life of ours, especially being a military  type of life, we never know what's going to happen or where we will go next. 

Making a new start in a new place can be challenging, frustrating, scary, exciting, over-whelming. And we get to do it repeatedly. I don't know exactly how long we will be here in Florida, but I know that just when I will start to feel comfortable, it'll be time to leave. 

I'm loving the warm weather, and the beaches. Hating the sand that is now showing up everywhere, in my car, my shoes, sometimes in my hair! 

The kids are keeping me busy, and moments of frustration, insanity, feeling down on myself. 

But I also have moments of overwhelming love, joy, and laughter. 

Callie stole my apple I was eating yesterday. Today she stole my cojack cheese stick. 

Wilson is back to loving Thomas the Train again. His angry birds obsession is going down. 

Summer is just around the corner. I can't wait for some warm beach days! 

Actually if the weather would just stay normal, we could have beach days already! But living this close to the gulf, rain comes in fast. 

What do you do when your 2 year old won't eat?

I don't know what we did wrong, but our kids eat like birds. Callie used to eat really well, and now it's a struggle getting her to eat a decent amount. 

I see my friends with their kids just gobble everything down. (I'm starting to suspect starving them. Just kidding.) While I sit here trying to entice my kids to eat. So last night, it was not looking good. Callie was telling me she was too busy to eat. So what's a mom to do? 

Sit her in my lap and take selfies of her eating! And it worked! Also big brother got in the action, and he was genuinely making me laugh, because he decided to start tickling me... On my boob. 

/sigh 

Playing

Took the kids to the park to play. Wilson acted like he didn't want to play at first, but he ended up enjoying himself, and burning some energy off. 

It's Valentine's day? Oh, no, it's just another day in the life of....

A couple weeks of the evil swing shift. The only good thing about Valentine's day is that this is the last day Andy has to work this evil shift.

Let me paint you a picture: I wake up with the kids, feed them breakfast, change clothes (at some point) entertain them, try to drink a cup of coffee, catch up on the internet, sometimes have to make or answer phone calls, (which is no easy thing with two munchkins hanging around) at some point before lunchtime, Callie will be extra crazy, and have a crazy two year old meltdown over something, with shrieking, and causes Andy to get woken up. Normally earlier than he would like. He tries to distract children, while I get lunch ready, brush my teeth, and put my contacts in. (If I haven't been able to yet. Which sometimes happens) 

They eat lunch, (hopefully) and do some more playing, and then I get them ready for quiet/nap time. Quiet time for Wilson in his room, with his ipad and snack and drink, and Callie, changed, with her milk, in her crib.

Finally! Now I can eat lunch, shower, dress, relax, until it's time for Andy to go work, where I then, help him pack his lunch, kiss him goodbye at 3:30.

I'm then alone with the kids, until I can finally manage to get them to bed. Sometimes I even cook dinner in there!
So let see, there's dinner, attempt to clean up mess from dinner, referee the two, because at this point, they are full of energy and terrorizing each other, and myself. Try to get them to calm down, I either try to get them to watch a movie, or we take a bath first, and then watch a movie. Either way, they are getting in their pjs.

And I have to watch them like a hawk in the bath, or else water ends up all over the floor, or I find my two year old perched up on the sink, chewing the tooth paste container. Sometimes, both of those things happen in the same night.

 Did I mention the screamfest because Callie was ready to take a bath, but the movie wasn't over? I didn't? Well there's pretty much always a screamfest before bathtime.

Finally, I manage to get them in their rooms, and now I will  pile up my dishes, because the thought of actually doing them, would literally send me over the edge. Sweep up all the crumbs that happened between dinner to bedtime. Shove all the toys into the corner. Start a load of laundry, and take the clean clothes out the dryer.

Did I ever tell you about the time I pinned some crazy cleaning schedule? Umm, yeah, that cleaning schedule can kiss my behind. I mean, maybe if you were a stay at home wife, with no children. Sure, it totally seems do-able. But right now? Folks, I'm lucky if I REMEMBER to wipe down my baseboards once a year, let alone once a week. 

I'm sure one day, many, many years from now I will miss these toddler years. I miss lots of things, I miss being young, I miss being carefree, I miss all that time I spent reading, playing my video games I used to like playing. I miss having a job, with my coworker friends, and we'd go out and get drinks after work. Will I get that back? Maybe, maybe not. There will be moments missed of these years, little hands holding mine, hearing a little voice saying "You wecome." Snuggling, the sound of them laughing.

But there are things I won't miss, like the messes, the tantrums, the frustration, the monotony of the day in, day out routine. Just like there are things I don't miss about before I had children, like the time I wasted on relationships, decisions I made, getting a belly ring. Not educating myself more.

Phew, well now that I have whined and cried enough, I feel so much better. I hope one day, I'll come back to this post, and maybe be able to be like "Oh, it wasn't that bad."

(I doubt it.)