So Long Cuddlebugs
Just like Sarah Boyle and Kelly Mulder, we too are moving to a new duty station. We have been out here in NC for 3 years and it has been a very challenging time for us since we have no family out here. Owen was born and has lived his first year far away from his extended family. I am happy to announce that we are going to California! Both my husband’s family and my family are all in California so for us this is going home. There are no guarantees in the military and even though we wanted to go to California we were not sure we could make it happen. You can tell the military where you would like to go but it doesn’t always happen. We are so grateful that our wish for going to California has been granted. So in less than a month we are
A Long Drive
In just a few weeks we are going to be driving across the country. I can’t say I’m excited about it but it will be an adventure for our family. I considered flying across with the baby while my husband drove across with the dog but wrangling a 1-year-old on a plane by myself did not sound fun. Since we have some leave time we are going to take over a week to make the trip across and that way it won’t be so bad. We aren’t going to do more than 7 hours of driving a day and with Owen’s two naps he will only have about 3 hours of awake driving time per day. So now I’ve got to think of how to entertain Owen while he is awake in the car. We are going to bring lots of books because he loves hearing stories again and again.
Silent Questions
This week Owen has been asking a lot of questions. He can’t talk yet but he just learned to point so he is constantly pointing at things and then looks at me until I say the name of what it is. I was pretty excited about this development for him because he is in control of what he points at. He is able to ask me specific questions by pointing which makes me wonder if he has wanted to know what the name for a quilt was for months. While I love his curiosity, the repetition of pointing at the same thing can get old. In his bedroom he has a few things he likes to point at and it usually goes balloon, light, quilt, balloon, light, quilt, etc. I don’t want to not answer so I always do but sometimes he continuously points at something and I just have
A New Ride
Owen got a cool gift for his birthday, a wagon. It is not just a red wagon like they made when I was a kid, this is the SUV of wagons. It has two seats, seat belts, cup holders, and you can fold down the seats and ride on top too. He loves to go for rides in our neighborhood and it is a nice change from the stroller. My husband and I can’t believe how old he looks in his wagon, when did he turn 12? We already have plans to have our Weimaraner to learn to pull it for us. And Owen can learn to pull it too which I can imagine he will love. This is a great gift for him to grow up with and I can see him using it for years. For now he gets rides and it is great to have him in
Owen’s Birthday Party
I tried to think of what Owen would like best for a birthday party and came up with playing outside in the water. Owen always wants to play in water whether it is in the dog’s water bowl, the bath, or the hose outside. So, for his party, I thought that it would be really fun to invite his closest friends to come over and play for a couple of hours in a baby pool out in front of our house. We would have a barbeque and ice cream cones for dessert. I got the pool weeks in advance but we didn’t blow it up until the day of his party so that it would be extra special. It was very cool hippo shaped pool with a slide into a second, smaller pool. We also set out his sand/water table for other kids to play in. Once all the kids
Owen Turns 1
This past Friday my little boy turned 1. I knew it was coming but when the day arrived I was still caught off guard by how emotional the day was for me. I watched the clock all day and relived what was happening for me a year ago at that time. I had a very good labor experience starting with my water breaking at 3:30am. We got to the hospital an hour later and settled in for a long day. I progressed on my own at a good pace and got an epidural at 3cm. The rest of the day was truly enjoyable and Owen was born at 5:31pm. Since it was Friday and daddy had to work, Owen and I spent the day together. We went to his favorite park and I played with him until he was tired. Later that evening, at about 5:31pm Owen got to have
