Birthday Recaps and Wishes

Birthday Party Track Record

2010:  Blizzard--No one could make it.

2011:  Running, falling, massive split lip just after guests arrive (even cake and gifts were not fixing this one!)

2012:  Well, we shall see....

No matter what happens with today's party, our first baby has turned THREE and I am so grateful to have her in our lives.  She acts like a preteen with just a tiny bit less attitude issue most days and Papa and Momma are only scared of rather than dreading the decade worth of preteen-ness.  The only thing missing are crushes and those can happily wait that decade!

Having Papa home this year makes this exciting for Momma because there won't be a rush to upload pictures or attempt to arrange a perfect skype call.  There won't be the heavily mixed emotions of sadness and joy and trying to mask half of it to keep the day upbeat and happy for a birthday girl.  Mostly though, it is exciting for that little girl and her Papa.  They get to share the day together this time!  Real hugs, real kisses, and real playtime with toys being handed back and forth rather than trying to shove them through the laptop screen!

So to our daughter:  Happy Third Birthday!  Momma and Papa couldn't be more amazed, proud, or awed by you and we definitely couldn't love you any more than we already do!  You are cherished.

"Next year..." and the Holidays

Yes, yes...almost a month and half between posts....The slippery slope of blogging distractions has started.  The one thing that a holiday season acts as for most people is a busy schedule!  Our holidays are no exception to the hustle-bustle of family, travel, food, crafts, shopping, decorating, gift wrapping, gift re-wrapping, so on and so forth.  Y'all know the routine I'm sure.

Things this year are a little different for us of course.  The deployment makes everything in our lives a little less typical.  This doesn't mean that our 'big events' are put on hold or that they aren't plenty of special like the would normally be.  It just means it takes a little more planning and a lot of luck to come out the way we want them.  Today is one such event for us.

We had our home Christmas celebration today.  Every year we have multiple Christmases to attend so we planted our feet and dug in and have our small family time on Christmas Eve morning.  This year instead of the three of us tearing into gifts together in pj's and then eating whatever Papa decides to make for breakfast, Alyssa and I hunkered down in front of the computer this morning and hit "Video Call" on Skype.  Alyssa watched with a smile as Papa appeared on the computer and was ready to show him all sorts of things (c'mon, she isn't quite two yet...she hasn't figured out that we could commence the ripping open of gifts right then).  So while they chatted a bit I set up the video camera on a shelf aiming at the bottom of the tree and then hit record.  Alyssa was handed a gift and to town she went!  Papa watched her open all her gifts under the tree and then she opened a couple for him too.  She did try to give them to him so he could open them but unfortunately Skype doesn't quite work that way yet so we sat on Momma's lap to open Papa's stuff.  (This is where that 'planning' should've come in.  I should have had his gifts wrapped and mailed over so that he could open them on the other end of Skype today.  I'll remember that better for the next deployment I swear!)  Of course his gifts will be mailed out to him ASAP next week and there are a couple things that he didn't get to see today for his holiday surprises.

It was wonderful to share the holiday together even if it was in a way that takes a little more effort.  Alyssa loved to have Papa 'here' and to show him not only her gifts but his as well.  She holds things up when asked and thrusts it as close to the web cam as possible (typically resulting in a black screen due to lack of light).  I read a blog today that a friend had posted a link to.  It is another blog for military families and it's theme was the phrase "Next year..."  A better phrase for us I have not thought of.  I have avoided using the phrase up until this point in this post and it was HARD!  It is almost like an anthem for many families who are temporarily apart.  "Next year..." we will get to go through the holiday craziness together.  "Next year..." we will get to curl up for classic holiday movies at night.  "Next year..." we will get to remember that this year was wonderful even with a deployment overlaying it. <3

Happy Holidays to all of you.

Mission Changes and Guru-ness

My husband over the last 24 hours has been moved.  His mission has changed (though his job has not).  Overall, this isn't the worst thing out there.  He is now (temporarily) up in Iraq in support of a draw down.  While some would freak out over this, I think I had only about 30 seconds or so of apprehension over this.  At this point, Iraq is generally a safe place to be again for our troops (as the bases they are restricted to are quite secure).  As I sit here thinking about it, really, the biggest inconvenience as I see it is that the mail is suspended due to the draw down of this base.  All letters and packages will be held at his original post until his return.  What a shitty thing to not be able to get physical letters and packages!  We just sent his first box off last week and he didn't get it before the move so he likely won't get it for over a month now--those poor lonely Oreo's!

There goes our wonderful thoughts of a cake walk deployment.  Well, my mind is a little complex because I have a hierarchical mind and without snail-mail it only really goes from cake walk downgraded to easy...  As a techy army man, this deployment his job requires internet...which means he should almost always HAVE internet.  We will have Facebook; we will have e-mail; likely during at least some of the time, we will have Skype.  This is so much more than many families get over a deployment that I am blessed with the expectations of it even.

On the plus side (if one wants to look at it this way...) he was specifically chosen for this mission because he is 'well-rounded' in the equipment of not only his job, but the sister jobs as well.  His newest designation (posted at his new place) is the S6 Guru.  So Congrats Hon!  Your over-achieving, productiveness has been noticed...next time aim for a promotion instead of a deployment.  ;-)

Internal Clocks vs Day to Day Life...

October....Wait, when did we switch months??  Oh good, it was just today.  Yeah, my internal calendar, clock and overall brain is on strike.  I don't know up from down, January from October or even awake from asleep at this point.  Alright, that last one happens pretty much from 2pm-5pm every day but still!

I am pretty certain that kids use naps as their 'down-time' but what about us parents?  Supposedly we are cleaning, cooking or maybe taking 5 minutes of the day to breathe finally and then nap time is over!  I almost wish that my daughter and I were on opposite sleeping schedules just to have a quiet house for longer than the span of an afternoon nap.  Does this make logical sense?  No.  Mostly because she is too little and too devious to be trusted on her own while I sleep in the other room (or violent enough to hit me on the face with something if I sleep on the couch).  Do those reasons stop me from thinking how blissful it might be?  Not a chance!

On the plus side, my child likes to take a 2+hr afternoon nap...I get those couple brief hours to regain my composure, store up a few reserve deep breaths and enter into round two swinging (mostly swinging her up into the air but you get the idea...).

This morning was exciting though, we got to skype with Papa!  Amid a few well placed squeals and many grins, we did get her to SAY "Papa"--once--but hey, we take what we get!  She also showed Papa a few things she has learned recently.  She identified her nose, eyes, ears, mouth, head, toes, fingers and belly button for him.  I'd say she had a very proud Papa at that moment.

Now that I have entered a mostly nonsensical post jumping from thought to thought, I will let you get on with your day which is probably more structured and actually follows a wall clock instead of the inner workings of a frayed Momma and an energizer child.  Good luck to us all!

Fist Bump!

Oh yes, fist bumps are quite the thing for the up and coming little girl today.  In fact, Alyssa prefers this method over the classic "high five".  Tonight we exchanged the first fist bump over Skype and elicited giggles of glee.  There was immense joy in those grins and giggles as knuckles met from nearly 1200 miles away.  I think this deployment will go just fine if we can keep up the fist bumping and giggles.

Deployments and Skype

I was inspired to attempt a deployment blog by a wonderful military wife and mother that I respect immensely.  Its a wonderful way to remember the deployment's day-to-day effects on our family from my perspective.  This will give our family something to look back on and see how our first family deployment goes.

Tonight was our first foray into Skyping.  Alyssa was amazed at Papa being inside the computer and Papa got to see us nearly 1,200 miles away.  It was so fun to watch Alyssa (captivated for as long as a toddler can be--5 minutes tops) investigating the computer and how to interact with Papa in this new way!  We are still waiting for vocal conversations and so this video solution allows goodnight waving and kisses (and a nightly reminder to clean my laptop screen).

As we climbed onto the couch and opened up the program we got an incoming 'call' and after much tinkering and figuring out how in the world Skype works in its most basic form (I'm married to a tech guy...I don't need to be tech-y right??), we got video up on both ends, lighting in order to see everyone, and voice so Stroh good ask what I was wearing...Yeah, there is not much privacy in the military and much joking in the barracks.

The basics having been mastered, okay, practiced...We are now ready to take on this year-long deployment.  We will continue to work on our vocal conversing in hopes that we can get "Papa" and maybe even "Good Night" and "Love You" out of Alyssa before Papa comes home but for now we are excited to be able to wave, smile and kiss at Papa in the computer.  So here we go, 3 weeks into the deployment and less than a year to go!