My Boys and Me

Since there’s always a few weeks between posts (sorry, I TRY to do better), I think the easiest way for me to remember what’s been going on is with pictures.

This has been another BUSY month, BUT, as of today, Mike is officially done his first phase of training in VA and is heading to GA for the next phase. This means we will see him EVERY weekend Fri-Sun. Not only is this awesome after having him gone for the past 2.5 months, but we have never had Mike all to ourselves for an entire weekend (unless on vacation). When he was working here, his weekends were consumed with off duty work. We are so excited and plan to enjoy Charleston as a family before we leave this beautiful city in May. Last weekend was basically the end of the “hard part.” We had gone 3.5 weeks without seeing Daddy and even the unexpected snow storm that closed the airports (and cancelled his flight) wasnt going to stop Mike from coming home. When they said his flight was cancelled, he got a refund on his plane ticket, hopped in the car and arrived home just a few hours later than he would have had he flown. We had a GREAT long weekend together (Monday was a holiday). It was so much easier to say goodbye knowing he would be back this weekend. The movers came on February 9th and packed all our stuff and brought it to storage in VA. The apartments we’ve been in for the last year wanted to charge us $350 MORE a month to stay 2 months past our lease, so we decided to just bunk with Mike’s parents until Mike graduates from the academy in May. We are so thankful that they are willing to house all of us. We’ve been with them 2 weeks now and it has really been great. The boys and I are camping out in a room together, but we have plenty of space. The extra company during the week is also really nice. I thought having to get up earlier to take Braeden to school would be tough, but I actually enjoy the longer car ride and my morning chats with Braeden. Bedtime is a little tougher. Mikey has never gone to sleep at Mike’s parent’s house without Mike’s Mom laying with him, so, basically I’ve been going to bed at 8pm with the boys. Our goal this weekend is to train Mikey to go to sleep in the bed with Braeden WITHOUT Mommy. I’ve been cutting him slack since I know its been a hard few months and things won’t be normal again until about August (we are staying with friends in VA until August 1 when our new home will be ready for us to move in).

SO, that’s where things are at right now. I am counting down the days until Mikey and I’s trip to FL March 16th. My sister is flying to my parents for her vacation and Mikey and I are going to join her for the week. (Braeden can’t miss anymore school, but is going to go to my parents for his spring break). I am taking the week off work without pay, but it will be SO worth it to hang out with my sister, see some spring training games- including the Phillies AND take Mikey to Disney World (we are going to stay for 2 nights). Mikey is so excited to see Mickey Mouse. He talks about it non stop. We keep telling him that Mickey Mouse doesn’t like diapers (hoping it will entice him to stop peeing in his diaper). He pees on the potty any time we put him on the toilet, but he is just lazy and would rather pee in his diaper than tell US he has to go. Again, we are not going to actively pursue training him completely until Aug. He will be 3 years old and 3 months and that’s about the same age Braeden was when he was completely READY and we had him totally out of diapers and pullups in a week.

K, here’s some pictures-

Uncle Jack and Lisa sent the boys these jammies for Christmas. They came with books. The boys LOVE matching-

Mikey being mischievious while I was getting ready for work-

Braeden’s 8th Birthday-

Daddy Aaron and Nancy got him an electric scooter. He wiped out the first time on it, but Mike worked with him last weekend and he did better.

Braeden wanted to go bowling for his Birthday. We invited my friend Jennifer and her little boy Nicholas to join us.

Braeden waiting in line to take a practice shot. They WON this game btw!

Mikey just HAD to sit on the stack of boxes the day the movers came. He was SO interested in what they were doing and wanted to know where they were taking all his toys.

Mikey got ahold of Mike’s Mom’s makeup and thought he’d make himself pretty-

This was last Friday night, Braeden touched snow for the FIRST time ever. In his exact words, “its a MIRACLE!” I am so glad that both boys loved the snow so much because VA got hammered this year. They cancelled Mike’s work a total of 7 days this winter. I’ve got a lot of getting used to for next winter.

Saturday morning-

There was just enough snow for the boys to play in it-

Boogie boards come in handy in the snow-

Mikey found one of Daddy’s old helmets-

Mikey in his “big boy” underwear- He is facinated with his butt and boy parts…..We’ve had to have the “privacy” talk with him already.

Mike didn’t shave the whole time he was in VA. Mikey is checking out Daddy’s beard-

Couple other things-

I can’t wait to chat with Braeden after school today and see if he got the bonus spelling word right- paleontologist- we practiced all night. He also just completed a project on George Washington and teaches ME new things every day. My teacher friends would be appalled, but I actually asked Braeden how many inches were in a foot (I truly didn’t know). Without hesitation he said, 12!

The other night I was scolding Mikey and said, “Michael Rodger” (usually I say Michael Meiner- Rodger is his middle name and also Mike’s Dad’s name). He said, “I’m not Rodger Mommy, that’s Pop Pop.” Scolding was replaced by laughter.

Lately I’ve been singing “Hush Little Baby” to Mikey per his request. Last night, I heard him singing it, “Hush little baby, don’t say a word Mommy’s gonna buy you a ROCKING CHAIR.” A 2 year old’s interrpreation of things is so cute!

For some reason the home page of this blog has changed and I can no longer spell check. Sorry if there are a lot of misspelled words (Braeden is not here to correct me).