Emmy and Brody come to Columbus

I've been away from blog-dom the past week while we've been staying with my folks (in the boonies without internet access), so you'll have to forgive this super long post (and those to follow), but there's lots to catch up on!

Emmy and baby Brody pulled in Monday morning, the other week, after driving all night from Tennessee. The week absolutely flew by! I wish we'd had more time, but I think I'd feel the same even if they had stayed another week. We really had a fantastic time.

James, being the good big brother, was so sweet to the baby. Of course he played a little too rough sometimes, but he's used to rough-housing it with Riley all the time. Riley had a harder time with it. He's never seen me holding or playing with another baby, so the first day he was having some major jealousy issues. It was mostly curiosity at first, but the more mama held Brody, the more he acted out. At one point he even came at Brody welding a rolling pin!
By the end of the week, the three of them were playing a little more civil.

How precious is this baby?? He is every bit as squeezeable as he looks!

Our first evening we trekked down to the park and took a walk on the trail.

Our timing was horrible, though. It was about 4 or 5 pm and miserably hot still (hello Georgia!) and the kids were hot and cranky and whiney the whole time. (And heavy! In retrospect, I should have found a way to strap the giant double stroller on the car instead of trying to lug either of them in that backpack. Got a great work out in though!)

I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to take a walk in blistering heat in the afternoon and then take the cranky, hungry kids to the grocery store. But we did. I was dying of thirst when we got to Target (we went there first to pick up wedding gifts for a friend), so I stopped at the little concession stand and James begged for popcorn, so I picked up one of those too for a treat (see where I'm going with this?). The boys ended up fighting over it and in the middle of the store popcorn was slung everywhere. I took the bag away to throw it in the trash and James had the biggest meltdown he's ever had in public. Full on screaming hysterically. Riley started up after that. I was so embarrassed and frustrated. Eventually they chilled out and because I'm a masichist, (a hungry one) we went next door to Publix. While there wasn't any real screaming this time (but a lot of whining instead), both of my kids opened yogurt containers in the cart. I didn't even see what they had done until yogurt was exploded all over them and the cart and the groceries. I could have cried had I not had Emmy helping make light of the situation and the kind cashier who offered wipes and a smile.

Tuesday [was a much better day] we ventured on post to take a dip in the pool.

Thank goodness for all the flotation devices! I'm considering taking the dogs' retractable leash and tying the two inner tubes together so they stop floating off/running away, though...

After a little while in the pool, we gave the splash park a try. Riley was slow to warm up to the idea of being shot in the face and everywhere else by jets of water.

Emmy and Brody took shelter under the pool floatie.

Cranky Riley telling on his brother :)
He got even later.

I helped a little.

Brody and I hung out on the chairs to dry off.

James was a little sniper with that water gun!

That afternoon when we got back home, I noticed it was getting kind of warm in the house. Thinking it was just too much heat coming in through the windows, I shut the blinds and turned down the thermostat. An hour or two later the temperature was climbing. I checked the unit outside and the whole thing was off. After a few calls to my [fantastic] landlord and messing with the thermostat and breaker box, she got us a repair guy to come out that night. It was 90 degrees in the house by the end of the day and 10 pm when he finally showed up. Just miserable heat. By the time we went to bed, the unit was back in order and the temp was back down in the house.

Wednesday we went to the Coca Cola Space Science Center, downtown. It wasn't much to look at, but James ate it up! He had a blast exploring and playing with the "space trucks" and rocket simulators.

Emmy took Riley for a spin (who freaked out when it started moving).

Riley wasn't happy about going back into the stroller.

The mamas were entertained by the "weather report" thing. Note to self: wearing a green shirt in front of a green screen, makes you the back ground...

That evening was less eventful. We went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings, with minimal drama.

Thursday was our last day, so we went to Callaway Gardens beach (I'm really loving this place!).

This time I brought the stroller out with me. While it made dragging all our crap back to the car a little easier, it was still a juggling act. We got chased out of the water when it started thundering, so we had to struggle through packing everything and everybody up and get it all in the car before it started raining on us. Here's our baby caravan.

By that night, the kids were playing, maybe not together, but side-by-side, without inflicting head injuries.

That night our friend, Neil drove down from Atlanta and I cooked dinner and we sat up late drinking bottles of wine and pink champagne gossiping like we used to in high school (and middle school, and elementary school at that!). I don't know what it is about us all getting together that turns us back into giggling, melodramatic, philosophical teenagers all over again. We talked about how we wished the whole lot of us could have been there and stayed up bringing back one of Emmy's old new years parties from years ago, before we were all graduated, some from college, married, having children, growing up. We would be so wild (and loud)!

I'm so grateful for my wonderful friends (and Dee I haven't forgotten about you and all your visits!). Even though our lives are all in different places and we seldom see each other, when we do, I remember why I love each and every one of them. And I kind of think it's fantastic, that even after years, that I can sit down with them and chat like it's been no time at all.

it's a beautiful day in the neigh-bor-hood

We were supposed to make the church service on post this morning, to see Jason. I got up a couple of snoozes after seven, showered, put on a my white eyelet skirt and dragged the boys out of bed. We rushed out the door to leave early, since I wasn't exactly sure where the chapel was (Jason didn't really know, himself, when I'd talked to him the night before). We narrowly missed the long line of traffic at the gate, thanks to the lovely gate guard who waved me over to his line as he opened it. We made it to main post, taking a different, shorter route than usual and our timing was looking promising. The chapel I thought we were supposed to be going to ended up being the wrong one and I couldn't even find the building where Jason was staying at. We drove in circles for almost an hour, frustrated and anxious. Eventually I found the chapel, which was set off in the middle of a bunch of buildings and construction. There was no where to park, so I found a barracks lot to park in and tried to call and text my husband about a thousand times. We were over half an hour late for the service by then and I couldn't get in touch with Jason to find out how to get over there, so instead of dragging my two kids down two or three blocks or waiting another half hour in the hot car, we headed back home, disappointed. James insisted that I needed to put Daddy in the corner.
It was so frustrating that we didn't get to even see him for all our efforts. The boys were a really good sport about the whole thing, especially since I promised we'd be seeing friends later.
When we got home, we changed clothes and headed over to our neighbors' house. Jenna had set up a kiddie pool for the boys (she has a little boy, Andrew) and they splashed and played and rode the 4-wheelers around the yard. James has always been hesitant to play on toys that move or have any remote element of danger. He was eager to climb up on the 4-wheeler (it was made for children, but pretty big sized) but anytime Andrew pressed the gas, he wanted nothing to do with it. Within an hour he was zipping it around the yard, changing gears, steering it in circles, narrowly missing the house, pool and play equipment. They had much smaller, baby-sized 4-wheelers too, and Riley hopped on one of them, driving around in circles like a little old man on a lawn mower. We had water gun fights, ran around the yard, played with toys, chatted, grilled out burgers for lunch and just had the best time! I'm sad that I didn't get any pictures, but we were so busy the camera lay forgotten in the diaper bag.
By the afternoon, while they protested leaving their new friend's house, the boys didn't put up a fight for naptime at all. James only demanded that he not wear pants.
I snagged a half hour myself. The 100 degree heat was exhausting.
This evening when we got up, a couple of my neighbors dropped by the house with a flyer. They want to plan a summer cookout/meet and greet so everyone in the neighborhood can get to know each other and get a sense of community. Luckily it will be when we are back home after our upcoming trip to Tennessee for a friend's wedding, so I'll be able to go. I cannot stress enough how grateful I am for our neighbors, here! We've had so many less-than-pleasant experiences in the places we've lived before. In the month of living here, I've felt more welcomed than I have anywhere else. Especially with Jason being gone, it's comforting to know there is such a great group of people around us to look out for and support us.
As I write this, my dear friend Emmy is driving our way. If there was an award to hand out to the friend who has gone the most (literal) miles for me, it would be her. She's definitely a girl made for travelling and has visited me when I've lived near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Fort Drum, New York, and now Fort Benning, Georgia. Whenever we get together we laugh hysterically, gossip mercilessly, whine like girls, and reminisce. She has seen me at my best, my worst, and my most pregnant (which is a little of both). I love this girl and am so glad she (and her beautiful baby boy, Brody) are coming to visit me!

hello june

We've almost made it through the first week of our non-deployment deployment. The first day was hard, I started getting sad in the afternoon once things settled down and the boys were napping and the house was too quiet (well, maybe not too quiet..). It felt empty and the realization that it would feel that empty for quite a while set in. In that exact second, Mamma Mia! was on and Pierce Brosnan started singing...and I bust out laughing! That horrible voice. It was exactly what I needed! All was right in the world again.

We joined a playgroup this week and boy! What a lifesaver it's been. Our first playdate was at one of the community centers' pools on post. We met some other wives and moms, made some new friends, and had a good time wearing ourselves out. Juggling two small kids, by myself, in a pool is no small feat. Things like this make me really miss (and appreciate!) my husband! When we first got in, both boys thought they were invincible and started off toward the deep end. Riley was first, and dipped under just long enough for me to yank him back out. He kept going for it, too. Our new friend, Casey loaned us her small inner tube and that helped a little, except that he would spin in it and go back under. While I was "rescuing" Riley James slipped behind me and got in the 3 ft area. I turned around to look for him and saw him flailing under the water. In between my anxiety and small cardiac arrest I ran/waded as fast as I could and picked him up. He had panicked and drank a lot of water and was dizzy. I was freaking out that he was going to have some delayed drowning/submersion/water intoxication injury (thanks Web MD) so Casey was sweet enough to keep an eye on Riley while I carried him over to a lounge chair to knock the water out of him and make him cough it up and get his color back. He was fine (but I still freaked out all day and didn't even let him nap because I was sure he was going to die in his sleep). I gave him a stern warning to stay by my side and not to wander off too deep anymore. He got a good enough scare that he's done so, ever since.
Of course the first impression all our new friends were going to have of us was my kids drowning in the public pool.
After we left the pool, we stopped by Target (they're going to know me by name before long!) and stocked up on pretty much the entire swimming aisle. I bought arm floaties, inner tubes, life jackets! If they had a friggen bubble to put the kids in, I would have bought it. We are going to be frequenting the pools and beach this summer and my kids are NOT GOING TO DROWN so help me!

Jason came home yesterday for a hot minute to get a few things. Riley was excited to see him, as were the dogs, but James was cold. He wouldn't even look at his Daddy. I told Jason not to take it personally, that James understood he couldn't stay and he didn't want to go through those hard goodbyes again. When Jason left, I asked James how he felt. He told me he was okay, but he was mad because Daddy had to leave again. I hate that my kids have to go through this. James's understanding of how military life works and his rationality about everything blow my mind. I can't believe how a 3 year old can grasp something that even I don't always understand.
We're all doing really well with everything, especially since both the boys were sick this week. Nothing more than a small head cold and runny noses (luckily!).
Today was another playdate, this time at the Callaway Gardens beach. We packed up our picnic basket (I'm really glad I bought it...from where else? Target!), and our beach bag and all our new flotation devices and drove out this morning to meet up with our new friends.

Riley was soooo cranky. The yogurt smoothie in the car on the way over didn't hold him so we started off with a snack. Then he was annoyed with the bulk of his new lifejacket. The sand was too hot to walk across, the sunscreen was in his eyes, and the leaves and twigs in the water freaked him out. At one point a small, maybe 2 inch stick floated by him and he screamed at it hysterically.

The snack made him feel a little better, so he ventured out to the water with big brother.

James was golden. He never waded out too far, he kept his arm floaties on, ate his sandwich at lunch, and was just wonderful. He had some issues warming up to the other kids and sharing at first, but they were having a blast when all was said and done.

Between all the floaties and tubes and lifejackets, I'm happy to say there were no near-death-drowning experiences today!

Cranky boy. When I brought him out to the deeper water (and by deeper, I mean up to my thighs, if that) and his feet didn't touch the ground because he was floating in his water safety getup, he freaked out.

There's the top of Casey's hat and her daughter, Lucy's pigtails. She was saved from the camera by Riley's giant head.

Riley spent his deep-water freak outs wrapping his legs around my thigh and grasping for dear life to my bikini ties. If I was going to be mean enough to drag him out to this deathly deep water and drop him, he was determined to take my swimsuit with him!

All the splashing and swimming called for a much deserved picnic lunch on the beach. PB&J sandwiches, grapes, yogurt, almond milk (they now have them in the juice box kind of boxes! I was so excited to find them at Publix yesterday!), and granola bars.

Walking from the car to the beach was much easier than walking to the car from the beach. How is it, even after using up diapers and food and throwing away trash, that when you leave you drag more crap with you?? Now that the floaties and toys were inflated I couldn't make anything fit in the beach bags or basket. Dragging 3 bags and 2 kids was miserable. James was whining because he had to carry the [not heavy at all] bucket of beach toys, Riley kept wandering off and whining, I just kept grunting and yelling and juggling all our stuff covered in 3 tons of sand. Eventually we made it and as soon as we got loaded James announced his sudden urgency to go pee.

Riley catnapped in the car on the drive home, which has made his regular naptime impossible and miserable. James decided he didn't need a nap either, so both have been oh-so-pleasant this afternoon (and I'm still exhausted! Where's my nap?).

Staying busy hasn't helped my messy house or the kids' naptimes, but my sanity? Oh yes. My friend, Emmy is driving down from Tennessee next week to visit (I can't wait!), we have a few more playdates planned for next week, we're going to one of the churches on post on Sunday (it's the only time we can see Jason for now), and Sunday afternoon we're getting together with one of our neighbors. James has been begging to play with other kids ever since we moved here a month ago and I've been dying to meet other moms (hello adult conversation!). If we keep this up, I think it's going to be a great summer!