This is the face of...

A little boy who is going through a night terror phase. They play out exactly like the articles describe.... Completely and utterly traumatic for a parent. Lots and lots of loud screaming, eyes open and clearly seeing something and totally terrified and I can't wake him (which I tried once, and then read the articles that specifically say not to). It is truly one of the most helpless things to observe. He never remembers them and swears that he didn't cry in the middle of the night, but man alive, the entire neighborhood would say otherwise. 

an almost 2 year old that has a black belt in sleep fighting. I'm sure, if you've never had the experience of parenting "A Bram" , than you're like me and my pre Bram thinking that my child's lack of sleeping is because surely I haven't tried this that or the other thing. But oh ho HO, let me tell you folks, that is not the case. Throw your suggestion, book, article and message board at me, I've READ it,   put it into practice and come out the other side with a kid that still fights sleep. * after hitting publish, I decided that I was a touch harsh....its' all relative, and we've come a LONG way in the sleep department...he doesn't always sleep through the night, and getting him to finally fall asleep at night is a battle, it could be A LOT worse...so here I am eating my words a bit.

a sweet boy who every preschool morning says to me, " I'm going to miss you today mom."

of a kid, who pooped 4 times yesterday, and the last two were in the bathtub (just to be sure you're looking at the right picture...this is about Bram....my poor other child bathes on pins and needles, fearing that I'll lunge for the stack of red solo cups on the edge of the bath, and shout at him to stand up and get out because his brother just pooped in the bath...again...sometimes Ambrose asks to just skip bath time, which may be the smartest option. He probably comes out cleaner in the end when he skips it. And now for all of you worrying that I don't clean the bath or kids in between the incidents, don't worry, all involved get a good spray down  ). 

* of two people who realize they are truly and undeservedly blessed with this life, but are still totally bummed at the insane amount of time we are spending apart this year.

Playmates

Lately the boys are starting to play more and more together. I decided to try and capture a cute moment the other day. Ambrose and Bram were sitting together watching a show that they both giggle like crazy at. I crept to the door to try and capture their giggles on film, and this is what I got. 

P.S Sorry for the loud gasp at the end, I'm not known for my quiet laid back responses to anything.

Not quite a complete thought...

I had a couple of posts waiting to be published, but all were just a bunch of ramblings and had very few complete thoughts, so, I'm shoving all those incomplete thoughts together and calling them complete. You're welcome.

It appears my builders decided to skimp on the pipe insulation, twice in the past two weeks, I woke to frozen pipes. Not just one or two, but every single faucet in the house.  Thank you ToolBelt homes.

Also, when it rains it pours. Bram woke up early from his nap yesterday, and when I went to go and get him he was fussy, clingy and wouldn't eat (biggest red flag, because this kid eats like it's his job). As we sat on the couch for a while I could tell he wasn't feeling well, but unfortunately, there's no barf warning light on a toddler, and after a few minutes of him sitting on my lap, out came his lunch.

Of course my only reinforcements come in the form of my 3 year old, and while the toddler was barfing, Ambrose was  (literally) running around the room in a panic shouting  " I don't want to see it, I don't want to see it."   Thankfully Bram waited until after the pipes had thawed to loose his lunch, and we at least at a chance to get the smell of stomach acid and McDonalds hamburger out of the carpet. Of course, as it always goes with sick kids, I was panickly sprinting towards him with the blue barf bucket at every cough, burp and weird blink. Bram would look at me like I had lost my mind and push the bucket away.

Have any of you seen this saying going around pinterest?

"I don't have awkward moments. I have an awkward life, occasionally interrupted by normalcy"

Ya, that's me. Except for awkward, I'd throw in embarrassing...but you get the gist.

Today in Step class, I completely fell off the bench. Like, laying on the floor, bench on one side of me risers on the other, kind of fell off the bench. And while I was embarrassed, I wasn't mortified like I would have been 10 years ago. I got to thinking, maybe it's because of perspective, or because I've grown emotionally. But really,  it's because I've had so much practice at learning how to shrug off those embarrassing moments, they happen far to frequently and I just now completely embrace them. In the last couple months....

*  While at an outdoor BBQ at the squadron, I was speaking to one of John's coworkers. While standing there, a giant gust of wind came and blew my dress up around my waist completely flashing him, and the others around me.  (for any normal person, this would be their first and last flashing-their-husbands-coworker incident, but this is me you're talking about and due to an unfortunate forgotten slip and a sheer white dress, the whole flashing occurred one other time while at Kadena. ). Poor John.

* While grocery shopping the other day, Bram lifted my shirt and loudly said "Yuck."

* On the same note, I overheard Ambrose telling his teacher "my mom goes to the gym because she doesn't like to have a fat belly."

* We had company over the other day, and earlier in the week I had spilled something onto the bottom of the oven, which caused the oven to produce billows of smoke when I used it. I had forgotten about it until we had a friend over for dinner. While our company was over, the oven begins to produce copious amounts of smoke, causing the smoke alarm to begin screaming. At the sound, Ambrose turns to his friend and says "yay, dinner's ready!" 

My list of embarrassing moments while in high school and college is a mile long (and much much more embarrassing), and we just don't have enough time to rehash those, but let me tell you, there's some doozies. 

This folks,

 is the reason we go home for Christmas. Family! All together .....in one place..... at the same time! Yay!

Merry Sickness

It's not the holidays until someone spikes a fever, and another one has a sinus infection (John, it's a good thing it's not me :) if I were out of commission and John were in charge of packing for our trip, we'd all be in pj's, dirty socks and there wouldn't be a diaper to be found). We are getting on a flight tomorrow at noon, and I'm hoping for a healthy family as an early Christmas gift.

Perfect technique

Thus far, my kids eat almost anything put in front of them (finds nearest piece of wood and knocks on it). Curry...yup...wasabi peas....check, gyoza's....yes.....

 

 I don't think it's something particular that I've done or not done, but man alive am I grateful!

 

Here's Bram chowing down on some edamame at dinner tonight. Initially I was popping them out of the pod and into his mouth, but Mr. Independent wanted to do it himself, so I'd open the pod, and he'd take care of the rest. Ambrose is an edamame pro, and between the two of them they downed half a bag tonight at dinner.  

 

 

Random ramblings

At what age to kids gain control over their own snot? Apparently for Bram, it is most certainly NOT 20 months old. He currently always has a torrent of snot streaming from his nostrils, and while that awful sucking up snot sound is disgusting, it doesn't hold a candle to seeing snot streaming out the nose, over the paci and onto his chin. For the sake of those who read this blog and come over for play dates or dinner dates, I'll refrain from going into too much detail, but lets just say the snot doesn't always stay perfectly draped on his face either. I mean, have you seen what happens when a child sneezes AND has a snotty nose. I've affectionately called it a snotsplosion.

Speaking of Bram, he is a toddler now. A fun toddler. But also, unpredictable, all hands on deck, on the go and never in idle kind of toddler. He still sports facial injuries regularly and is just a rough and tumble kid with a will of total steel. And then, in what seems like a completely different kid  he can be so cuddly and loving, wanting to be held or carried around. Even after I get tired of holding him and try and put him down he still keeps his arms and legs wrapped around me trying with all this might to stay attached. This last year has been crazy hard for me, but man alive if we aren't in a completely amazing place with this little boy!!!

I haven't gotten back into running since my half, I've been taking some cardio and weight lifting classes that I really really like. However, nothing gets rid of the many cookies I snarf on a regular basis quite like running. However, I don't really like running ( those of you that enjoy running, does your spit not turn to a white pasty glue 3 minutes into your run!?). People often talk about a runners high and how it's a form of therapy and yada yada yada. Whatever, I  run because I like to eat food, and don't want to end up having to wear clothes with an elastic band for the rest of my adult life, end of story. The scale doesn't lie and it's time that the jogging stroller and I meet again because my classes aren't cutting it anymore.

John is about as amazing as they come, and while I know that, I want others to recognize and know that as well. A couples of months ago, he received public recognition for all his hard work at his job. After a competitive application process we found out that he was selected to attend Weapons School ( I tried to think of a short concise way of telling you what it is, but all I can come up with is that it's a special school for pilots to learn how to teach other pilots....it's a terrible explanation, but if I ask John for help he's going to ask me not to say anything on the blog, so there ya go. Sorry. if you're super interested you can always google it, but "special pilot school" sums it up) I am over the top excited and proud of him. Like everything, you take the "good with the bad", and the awesome school opportunity means that we'll be spending another 5+ months apart from one another.  We plan on making some visits out to see John as well as visits home to help pass the time, but keep us in your prayers all the same.