Buh bye, daddy airplane!

Note: Billy calls the T-6 (or similarly sized airplanes) "daddy airplanes." Static displays are "baby airplanes." Except the static display of the T-38, that is a "big airplane." and recently, he referred to some other static display as a "dirty airplane." It is painted camouflage :o)

I had a doctors appointment on wednesday morning but I got out of it just in time to snap this picture:

It's hard to tell (i took it with my phone) but that was the take-off for kyle's last flight in the T-6.  He's the one on the right. I'm so glad i was able to snap this picture. I already really miss looking up at the sky, seeing a T-6, and wondering if that's my love up there.  I am so proud of him!

That being said, we are both VERY happy he is done with this beast!! It is not an airplane he really enjoyed flying, and I didn't really enjoy a less-than-happy (sometimes grumpy) husband. So, we are both pretty stoked it's over.  And to be stress free for almost 2 whole weeks!  I say stress free, but I guess that's not quite true...

I spoke too soon when i posted a few weeks ago. Our chances of leaving here (going to Ft. Rucker for helo training) have slimmed. They aren't non-existant, but the odds definitely are not in our favor like we once thought they were. So, while we keep reminding ourselves to trust in God's plan for us, we both have a hard time feeling out of control. And boy do we have ZERO control over it now. But just now, in this moment, I have decided that is a freeing feeling...let's hope that feeling sticks around :o)

This next week or so is going to fly by! Party at a friends house tomorrow, holiday party on saturday, easy work week for kyle next week, then my sister and her family get her on saturday, then kyle's mom gets here on sunday, then tuesday we find out what the future holds!

Oh, how could i forget? He brought me flowers and champagne (for mimosas) to celebrate!

I'm happy to have my husband back for just over a week. I missed him.

Okay so I gave myself a moment (many moments) to think about how hard leaving here will be...

Today, a friend came over at a moments notice to be here in case noah woke up while i picked up billy from school. Later, while i was out on a walk, that same friend felt comfortable enough to come into my house, open my fridge, and leave me some AWESOME guacamole and chips. She reminds me of the friends i miss so dearly from back home.  Thanks, rachel.

Another friend let me and the boys take over her house right after dinner time today (and during daddy time at that!) when we happened by during our walk. No notice. Just "c'mon in." She has stolen billy away so i could get things done around the house, helped me clean my backyard, and even offered to help clean the house b/c she "loves to clean." And no, it wasn't because my house was so awfully dirty. At least if it was she never made me feel like it.  Thanks, Deborah.

Another friend stopped by earlier this week just to chat because she knew i needed it. We tried to get together several times over the course of a few weeks, and it never seemed to work out. But she kept trying. She didn't have to do that. She wasn't the one who needed to talk. She, too, has taken my boys on many occasions to give me a much-needed break. And she has played an integral role in my growing relationship with God. Thanks, Brittany.

My neighbor has taken the baby monitor COUNTLESS times so i can leave the house while noah naps. On one occasion she ended up having to take care of noah for MUCH longer than I ever would have anticipated. She didn't complain. She loving took care of him (and fed him) and offered to do it again "any time." Thanks, Alyssa.

Another friend, she stepped in like a sister to help out with noah's birthday party. AND made some of the tastiest cupcakes i have ever eaten! Seriously, they were perfect. She's always offering to take care of the boys...I just have so many offers that i haven't been able to take her up on it! And she is always down for a drink and/or crafting! Thanks, Jamie.

Another friend took some INCREDIBLE pictures of my family for me. Though she probably doesn't know it, and I hope she doesn't take this as an insult, she helped me realize I don't have to be the perfect mom in order to be the best mom for my kids. She is an inspiration. Thanks, Danielle.

Another friend is so special to me and my boys that billy randomly asked to go visit her today. I asked him if he wanted to go say hi to his buddy luke, and he said "go say hi christine?" I guess it had been too long since he last saw her :o) She brought us sandwiches the day we moved in, helped me decorate my house, ran errands with me and the boys countless times, helped me figure out this gluten-free lifestyle, and let me talk her ear off on many occasions. She's just incredible. Thanks, Christine.

And then there are the ladies who i have only had the chance to interact with a few times. The women I have met at this base, as a whole, are so openhearted, kind and generous. It's like nothing I have ever experienced. 

Thinking about the possibility of leaving them, even if it's not until after july because kyle got T-1's and we stay here until graduation, is rough. Really rough.

Our days here are numbered...maybe?

This next month is going to be a roller coaster of emotions for me. I can feel it. I'll try to break it down in as few words as possible...

Kyle wants helos. On dec 11th we will find out if he gets them. There are a few ways this can go:

1) He doesn't get helos. This is the worst-case-but-still-not-that-bad scenario. Not a whole lot changes for the boys and I. 

2) He gets helos. yay! His dreams keep coming true!!! But, helo training is at Ft. Rucker Alabama, so that means a move for us! Which could happen in several different ways. here is a breakdown of the few i can imagine:

        A) He has to start training with the very next class (he has been told that is highly likely), which would be Jan 3. As you recall, he finds out if he gets helos on the 11th of december. That leaves us about 22 days to get everything involved in a military move taken care of (which is a LOT). Not so bad...except a friend told me about an Air Force regulation that prohibits a "Report No Later Than Date (RNLTD)" between dec 20 and jan-5. So that would leave us with about 9 days to get stuff taken care of. Add to that the fact that we have purchased tickets for the boys and I to fly from denver (which will take us a day to drive to from Enid) to MT (kyle planned on joining us after the 21st) from the 19-31 of december. So that gives me about 6-7 days to help get things in order here. Seesh!

      B) He starts training with the following class (about 6 weeks later). This would mean we saunter about the united states, slowly making our way to Alabama, and allowing ourselves the time to stop and see some random sights. Maybe take some detours for any hole-in-the-wall that has been featured on "diners, drive-ins, and dives."  Basically make our PCS into a family vacation. Can you tell this would be the BEST option in my head?

       C) Just for fun, let's throw another wrench into this whole process...EFMP. Billy can't be taken off that program until he has been off medicine and seizure free for 6 months, which would be around June 2013. Assuming Ft. Rucker feels they can provide adequate healthcare (either military or civilian), this creates almost no problem (maybe a few days delay waiting for approval). However, if they do not feel that can provide billy with the care he needs, they can prohibit the boys and I from moving out there with Kyle. So that kinda brings us to the first scenario. Only minus kyle...who, you know, we sort-of like.

My brain hurts from the what-if "planning." I put it in quotes b/c there is truly only so much planning I can do. In fact, the ONLY thing i can do it get my house move ready, which essentially means getting rid of the crap we don't need/want and deep cleaning.  And if we don't move, hey, I have a really clean and clutter-free home :o)

Speaking of home, Enid has been just that for less than 6 months now, but i feel an incredible bond with all of my friends here. It's hard to explain. These ladies have been my rock through one of the hardest parts of my life. And we all have similar values and moral. And we just...click! I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that all of our spouses are going through the EXACT same stuff at almost the exact same time. And because of that knowledge we felt comfortable taking care of each other like family. Other than at Rucker (assuming we go), I don't think we will ever have that again. I haven't even given myself a moment to TRULY realize how much it's gonna suck to leave them...

Big boy billy!

Normally on a school day, I get billy dressed, get his belongings gathered, put him in the car and drive. I never mention where we are going, and he usually sees the school when we get there ad figures it out.

The first few weeks, he cried and said "no schoo" the second he saw the school. An the crying continued until music time, about a half hour.

The next week or two, he didn't cry in the parking lot or when we walked into the building. But he did start crying as soon as we crossed the threshold of his room. And they said he only cried for 5 minutes or less.

Today I decided to try something different. While putting on his shoes I said "billy, lets get ready to go to school!" He fought it a little, but no tears. We talked about how fun it is to learn his letters, numbers, shapes and colors, to make art, and to go to music and story time. He was sort-of on board after that. So we hopped in the car and drove to school. When he saw the school he very excitedly said "school!!" I got him out of the car, into the stroller and rolled him into school. We crossed the threshold of his room...no tears! I put him lunch away and pulled him out of the stroller...still no tears! I gave him a hug and a kiss and said "have fun sweetie! Be good!" And he said "bye mama" and that was it.

What a big boy :-)

Noah's First Birthday

True to my nature, I decided about a week and a half before noah's actually birthday that i wanted to throw him a party. That didn't leave much time for planning. And a november birthday practically necessitates an indoor party. I tried to think of what things noah LOVES. Food, obviously. But a party centered around food? Sounds like more work than i can handle. What else does he love? Baths. *lightbulb* A pool party! A goldfish themed pool party!!! Which is perfect b/c billy's first birthday had a blue and orange theme so i could re-use his decorations! Thank God my sister saved almost all of them for me :o) I didn't think i would able to pull off the type of party i wanted without the help of my family. Thankfully my friends here are more like family, and with a ton of help from them (cupcakes, cake, putting up decorations, entertaining children, cleaning up, taking pictures etc...), it all came together exactly as i imagined!

The snack table

 I made marshmallow pops. I thought they were yucky, but looked so cute!

 Not only were these adorable, but they were SPECTACULAR!! Thanks again, Jamie!

 A mini-aquarium (plastic fish, blue water, glitter)

 homemade pom poms, thanks to a martha stewart tutorial

 repurposed this banner from billy's 1st b-day

 i can't get over how much he has changed in a year!

 I had to fancy-up the high chair

 Adorable cake, thanks to jamie. With a little banner i made

 noah LOVED the sugar cookie fishy

 Billy is trying to teach noah how it's done

 It looks like his advice worked :o)

 He loved that cake so much he wanted to wear it!

 "Here, daddy, you want some?"

 happy family

Now for the REALLY fun part! The swimming! I think all the kids had a blast, but i know billy and noah were in heaven!!

 He had been asking to go swimming for weeks!

 so happy to be in the pool for the first time in months

 you couldn't wipe that grin off him the whole time!

 Happy kids AND happy parents!

Such a special day for my little man!

All in all, i'd have to say it was a roaring success! Thanks again to my Vance family for making this day happen. I am still shocked by how many people offered to help in so many different ways. I am especially touched by all of our friends taking the time out of their day to come celebrate Noah's big day with us. It may not seem like such a big deal, but family time here is essentially limited to the weekends (mostly saturday), so the simple fact that all of these people chose to add us to their family time is very touching. From now on, they will be known as my framily :o) (friend-family, get it?)

Halloween!

I had no idea what to have the boys dress up as for halloween. I asked kyle what he thought and he said "tweedle dee and tweedle dum." I knew i had seen alice in wonderland, but definitely could not remember what they looked like. a quick google search led me to this picture

and i instantly knew it had to happen!!

I took a quick trip to walmart for red sweatpants and white onsies, then to hobby lobby for yellow dye and red, blue, and white felt. Over the course of a few days, i spent about an hour making their costumes, and i could not be happier with how they turned out!

as cute as they are, they were MUCH cuter on!!

See what i mean?

The only problem was that it was about 90 degrees outside 2 out of the 3 times they wore them. Solution? Billy had two pairs of red shorts. One pair were cargos, and one pari can only be described as "shorty short shorts"

 Noah in the cargos, billy in the shorty short shorts

 is that not the most adorable things ever? I think i will have him be tweedle dee every halloween for the foreseeable future!!

 with his buddy luke, better known as "woody"

and again with his buddies ben (pig pen) and chase (a pilot)

 tweedle dee and tweedle dum trick or treating at daddy's squadron

 billy's 2nd stop for trick or treating

noah just hung out in the stroller, looking adorable!

Moose drool

The park here on base has rubber mulch, and billy carries it home in his shoes, hood, pockets...basically everywhere. I often find one or two random pieces on the carpet, pick them up, throw them in the trash and move on with my day. Well, this time I must have missed a piece. A rather dirty piece. I knew this because out of the corner of my eye i noticed noah's drool was darker than usual.  Much darker. But that rubber was probably pretty clean by the time Noah was done having his way with it. Ew. When I ran over to scoop it out of his mouth you could see the panic in his eyes! But about a millisecond after I pulled it from his mouth he tried to force yet another piece in there! It was hidden in his tiny little clenched fist! And when I pulled his fist from his face he kept trying to shove that piece in there with such force that he was actually dangling from my arm with one hand. That must be some tasty rubber.

He must have known it was filthy though because as I walked back from throwing the rubber pieces in the trash I saw him putting a diaper wipe in his mouth...

Clearly I don't feed him enough!

So proud!

Billy had his first day as a bullfrog, and he did GREAT!

I dropped him off at 930 and quickly shut the door and walked down the hall. I could hear him crying for mommy. But by the time i left (about 20 minutes) he stopped crying :o)  And apparently the rest of his day went really well. They said he cried a little, and had a hard time with transitioning to the next activit.  I can't blame him. i hate to end one thing if i'm really in my zone!  But he played well with others, made a buddy, and bonded with one of his teachers. And he napped! This time they had to wake him up! What an incredible little guy. He adjusts to new situations far better than i thought he would. And far better than i do!

They kept commenting on how smart he is. That makes me feels better about the amount of TV he has been watching the last 9 months

A lotta moose, a little billy!

Billy gets a lot of attention on this blog...I think noah deserves a little more! After all, at a few days shy of 11 months old, he now outweighs his 2.5 year old brother. More pounds=more posts? sure!

For the last two days he has been napping weird, sometimes not at all. And waking up early, and crying harder, and being more cuddly. I think he is teething. Either that or the runny nose and sneezing and coughing is actually a miserable cold, and not allergies like i thought. At any rate, he isn't himself.

However, spending time outside makes him happy. Especially time with his brother.

Smoothies makes him happy too.

Crawling under the table while billy is eating makes him the happiest! Until he gets stuck...

Noah has discovered he doesnt have to eat food just because he put it in his mouth. Yup. It happened. He now loves to spit out food. And throw it on the ground. But, it wont go to waste. Oh no. He has started a new trend: he lets me think he is done eating, so i let him down to play. Billy of course is not done as fast as noah, so i am feeding billy while noah is playing. I look down. Noah is eating all the food he just threw on the floor!!! Ew! He's an oddball, that moose!

He's also crazy. He likes to remind me of just how easy i had it with cautious billy! He tries to crawl out of the stroller and carseat, into the bathtub and toilet, off the bed and couch...when this boy is able to walk and/or run i am going to have a heart attack a day!

And he is getting more handsome by the minute!

now for a small billy spotligh (from my facebook post)t:

While getting billy ready for bed i was talking to him about tomorrow and reminded him he gets to go to school. He was SO excited about it :O) We then continued the rest of the bedtime routine, and when it came time to put him in his room, he said "wan goo! wan goo!" and cried when i laid him in bed :o( Part guilty momma for bringing it up with a 2 year old who obviously doesn't quite get the idea of "tomorrow", but mostly happy because he is so excited to go back!!!

BTW, this picture pretty much describes the last few weeks. Billy gets sad, noah gets sad. Billy gets sadder, noah gets sadder. It's a really fun game of who can be the saddest and drive mommy crazy with their tears. And i wouldn't trade it for the world :o)

Mother's Day Out, it's a wonderful thing!

I decided last week that we REALLY needed to help billy get over his inability to be around other kids. Okay maybe that's an exaggeration. He could be around kids, they just weren't allowed near him or he would scream-cry. Even nice kids. It was not conducive to mommy socializing (that's what playgroups are really for) and mommy really needs to socialize!

We got a few recommendations for St. Paul's Lutheran church's mother day out program. It only took one minute on the phone with the director before I knew it was for us! Seriously, if I had spoken to her in person I would have hugged her :-) we discussed Billy's age and demeanor and decided he should go in the 1-2.5 class. Billy and I met the teachers and saw the classroom and big play auditorium. I couldn't fill out the form or pay the money fast enough. We both loved it! We discussed the idea of picking billy up early, but ultimately he teachers persuaded me to let him stay the full 5 hours unless he was really unhappy. These ladies have been doing this a while, I trust their judgement.

Today he had his first full day as a teddy bear. 930 to 230. This is how it went:

935: we arrive, late as usual. I take him to his class, place his diapers blanket and stuffed animal in his cubby. Lunch bag on top. Backpack on his hook.

 I walk him over to the toys, linger to get a good picture (didn't happen)

and then leave. I hear him cry.
10: I drive back because I forgot to give them his emergency seizure meds. He is still crying, but not hard bc sweet Diane is holding him.
11: I call to see how he is doing. He stopped crying and is sitting next to ms Diane for lunch, pointing at and saying the letters, numbers and colors on the board. Yay!
1220: I call again. He has been doing wonderfully and is currently *gasp* asleep on a COT! Let me fill you in on how billy sleeps for me: in a crib or pack n play in his own area, 2 blankies, Minnie (Kyle was less than thrilled with that randomly-saw-it-on-a-shelf-and-used-his-manners-so-well-to-ask-for-it-so-mommy-"had"-to-buy it purchase), Clifford, owl, 2 brobies, a pillow, sound machine and blackout curtains. For these strangers he fell asleep with one blankie, Minnie, on a cot, with 10 other children around him, in a very well lit room. This part of the day astounds me!
230: went to pick him up! he did so well I decided to not call but just wait to find out how the rest of his day went. I walked in to see him hugging ms michelle. when he saw me, he said "oh hi momma. i cried" not too excited to see me (which i interpreted as a good thing), but quick to tell me he had cried. I think he wanted me to know he was sad but was a big boy and got over it. He colored and learned about leaves falling in autumn and made a leaf. He did great!! They raved about how sweet and smart he is! They said he is smart enough that they thought he should move up to the next class, but they also said they didnt want him to bc he is so sweet they would miss him. i decided that I didn't want him to get attached to his teachers and have to change classes in a few weeks, so as of thursday he will be a bullfrog :-)

I am so insanely proud of him and happy he enjoys himself! And I LOVE the school we choose. They really act like aunts/grandmas to these kids.

He was so happy on the way home! not the "thanks for rescuing me" kind of happy. but the "this day is the best day ever" sort of happy :o)

HE sang "the wheels on the bus" and waved his red leaf the whole way home

and did more of the same at home

It was a great day. He had fun, and i was able to get a ton done (including cooking dinner and dessert for my family and 2 others).

and noah, well give him a swing and he is happy :o)