My Kid’s A Genius! Maybe?
My family constantly tells me how intelligent my daughter is. She sit’s up straight and everyone says “Oh look at her posture! She’s so smart!” She get’s 7 teeth in 2 months and the response is “Babies her age just don’t do that!” At what point do you listen? Or don’t you? Everyone wants to believe that their child is a genius. It would be great to feel secure in their future. But is there a way to tell? I’m not convinced that my daughter will be a Nobel Prize winner due to her rapid tooth arrival. She was playing on her electric piano the other day though and she could copy every tune I played. That was pretty awesome. But I’m still not convinced she’s Mozart. I choose to roll my eyes at my family’s comments. I prefer not to think about it. I would love for Abigail to
Well Hello Again!
If you don’t recognize me I used to write for tummytime but moved away while my husband deployed for a year, and now I’m back. So guess what that means? My husband is ALMOST back too! Also that I get to join CuddleBugs! Yay! So how about a quick intro? My name is Breanna Sykes. I have a beautiful daughter who will be turning 11 months in a couple of days. I have been a temporarily single mom since 10 weeks after Abigail was born. My husband deployed and I moved back to NY to be surrounded by family. I have been blessed with an angel. Seriously, my daughter is awesome. At 2 weeks old, she decided she was going to sleep through the night and has kept up with it ever since. She’s always smiling and rarely cries. She knows some sign language to let me know when she
On Our Own
It’s been a little over a week since Matt left, with Ben and I truly on our own. And the more time that goes by, the easier it gets. One of the hardest things about the training work-ups and then the actual deployment this time around was that there was a very short amount of time between when Matt got home from training and when he left for deployment — less than two weeks. But the upside of that, now that he’s gone, is that Ben and I have been able to pretty easily settle right back into our routine without much fuss. I worried that Ben would be stressed or upset when he woke up the next day and realized Daddy wasn’t there, considering how much they bonded over that week and a half. But, as with training, he’s been remarkably resilient. He hasn’t cried anymore than usual, or
Goodbyes Never Get Easier
Deep breath. No tears. This week, Ryan had to go back to North Carolina where he will be for a couple of weeks before he goes to a school in South Carolina for three months. Braylin and I are not able to move to South Carolina until he completes his training so we are staying in Florida while he is away. We have said goodbye so many times during our marriage and I thought at some point it would get easier. Last time he deployed, Braylin was almost three months old and was clueless that he was leaving. During the four months that he has been back, Braylin and her Daddy have created a sweet bond. Needless to say, this may have been the hardest goodbye ever. I was dreading the drive to the airport all morning, luckily my parents made the drive with us and it took my mind
How To Make Ben Remember His Dad
Now that Matt is gone for his actual deployment, it’s time to start doing everything I can to make sure that Ben remembers his dad when he comes home. But how do you make a nine-month-old remember someone when they’re gone for months and months on end? Ben’s got a Daddy Doll already, which he sleeps with every night. I’ve got videos of Ben and Matt together, as well as more pictures than I can count. Hopefully, we’ll also be able to Skype over the deployment occasionally, and Ben can see and talk to his dad. But will it be enough? I have this almost-nightmare that we’ll get to the homecoming and Ben will be afraid of Matt, that he won’t remember him, and that it’ll take forever for them to bond again. The good news is that Ben will be a toddler by then, walking and talking, so hopefully
It’s the Real Thing This Time
All the months of training have finally culminated in the event that could not be avoided: deployment. Matt left yesterday, and it’s the real thing this time. No coming home in a month for us. We ended up waiting around five hours to see him off because we had to be there early so he could get some work done. Ben did remarkably well considering he usually gets a nap in the morning, and didn’t get really get to sleep at all yesterday. He had a little episode where he wouldn’t stop crying because he was so exhausted. But after a little while he snapped out of it, and went back to acting like himself before he passed out on my shoulder. Unfortunately, that was right about the time Matt had to leave. He ended up getting woken up anyways, because of course Matt wanted to hold him one last
