Potty training and Princess Dresses

This what potty-training has turned Pollyanna into:

What's the occasion you ask? Well it's a Monday morning of course! We always wear our super frilly "princess" dresses on Monday mornings! Gosh, where have you been? :)

I actually really dislike this dress. It was given to us by....umm...I think my father-in-law's ex-girlfriend ( My husband's familial connections are mind-boggling at best. Try getting leave for your father's best friend's mother's funeral, because she was " essentially my grandmother" growing up. I promise you will never hear your husband's Chief laugh as hard again! But back to the dress...) and it was one of those pieces of clothing that I was like...it needs work but has some potential. Yah...I never got around to it and it is now one of Pollyanna's favorite pieces of clothing....all because of potty-training!

We've been working with teaching Pollyanna to go on the potty for going on a month now. It all started with this book:

I have the Kindle Version :)

Honestly... I'm not one of those people who would swear by this book. It was more of a jumping off point for us...we took some of the ideas and most of our own common sense and that has lead us to where we are today...Pollyanna now can pee and poo on the potty with no accidents during the day ( except perhaps at nap-time but that is a whole different ball game) but....ONLY if she is wearing a skirt or a dress! Pants just confound the girl!

I don't have a problem with her wearing dresses all the time....except for the fact that we have a limited number of 'casual' every day dresses. I know....I need to take a trip down to my local fabric store and pick some fabric up so that I can make her a few summer dresses...really, I'm gonna do it. Sometime. :)

In any case...I'd say potty-training is a success at this point. Even if the girl does wear dresses all the time. I have no idea what I'm going to do when it comes to potty-training Piglet in a year or so....

I guess kilts are always an option...

Progress

So I finally found the motivation to blog again today....lol, it's been seriously lacking as of late. There just isn't enough time in the day to accomplish everything I'd like to accomplish so...guess we can see what has been not making the cut lately!

On the up side I have been keeping busy. Kids, as always, are enough to completely fill my day ( particularly Piglet, who FINALLY busted out a tooth and has two more showing, btw) and I've been working on those new skills I talked about in my last post. Wanna see a couple teaser pics?

 Yep...that's the stove. :) It's turned out a bit differently then I expected. In the plan the whole piece is a stove but...of course I can't do anything by a plan or pattern ( it's a curse really) and I messed up the inside shelf by putting it up too high, and then I had problems with the door. And the more I was having trouble, the more I looked at the thing and was thinking ' man it really is just too wide to be a stove." So what did I do? Decided to separate it into a stove and a little counter space with a cabinet under neither. Yes my cuts are imperfect, and there will be a TON of sanding and filing and possibly even chiseling  to make it perfect, BUT at least I allotted myself 3 months for this project and I have PLENTY of time left!

Of course because of the alterations to this piece I have to alter the sink now was well. The sink is the same basic pattern except...well, with a sink! I was altering that plan anyway because I want to put in an apron sink. But now I think I'm also going to move it to the side and make a cabinet next to it with counter space so that there is a large stretch of counter space between the sink and stove. And plenty of storage....because even in play kitchens, you can never have too many cabinets!

What else have I been doing?? Well there has been knitting and sewing, and walking and sprinkler parks. I started a couch to 5k program that I am IN LOVE with and I am just generally trying to keep myself occupied so that I don't turn into an angry bitter person...because that would be VERY easy to do with how badly Skunky's job is sucking the big one as of late.

I know what you're thinking...' He just got back from deployment didn't he?'

Yeah. He did.

I'm actually praying for a safety stand down now. At least then he might get to see the kids for more then 30 minutes every 7 days ( if we're lucky).

I think Skunky and my experiences in the military have been very different then most....and perhaps that is another reason why I have avoided this blog like the plague lately. I have nothing good to say about the Navy right now, and I have found that in this tight knit community of blogging military wives/so's a negative opinion of the military is not wanted or appreciated. I'm sorry girls, but I can't keep it up any longer. I love my husband with a passion I don't think will ever fade. And I am behind him 100%. But we...and I stress the term we... hate the Navy. And we are literally counting the days ( 556) until this hell is over.

LOL...on that positive note... :).....I'm out for now!

until next time!

Picture Heavy

Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhh how my motivation to blog has been horrendous lately, huh?? LOL I think my major problem is that I have pretty much NOTHING military to blog about! I think that's a good thing, right?? Now it's just the balancing act of writing about those non-military things as well!!

I have loads of pictures today. Piglet turned a year old just a few weeks ago! We didn't have a huge party or go to Disney World or anything like that! We did go to the local Children's Museum though, and then we had cake and ice cream and presents right before bed, it was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from the day:

In the car at the children's musem

Playin' with the cool toys we don't have at home...

Super excited!!

Daddy's so helpful!

Sister playin' too

King of the Mountain!!

Mommy' sad excuse for a birthday cake ( Hey, at least I made it!)

Caaaaaaaaaaaake!

This ice cream is soooooo good but it hurts soooooooo much!

There are some of the random pictures of the gift unwrapping. Piglet was WAY more into it then Pollyanna was at that age...she just wanted to play with they toys she already had out and was familiar with, but Piglet was into the paper and seeing the new toys!

Alright here are a last few pictures for your viewing pleasure! These are from Skunky's and mine trip to Boston:

These are the kind of pictures u get when you try to take them yourself! Holy my upper lip is missing!!!

That last picture was taken in a famous park in Boston. That statue is in honor of a book called  " Make Way For Ducklings" and it's a book that Skunky grew up reading so we had to go get a picture with the statue! This picture really makes me smile...we look like a couple of goofy kids in that traditional "best friends" pose you always see in pictures....I love it! I think it's going down as one of my favorite pictures of us!

until next time!

Highlights

Well it may have seemed that life stopped when Skunky got home. Certainly my blog ( except for those wonderful girls who filled in for me!) took a little vacation the minute Skunky stepped off that boat. I'm finding it hard to get the motivation to blog at a (quasi) regular pace again! I have this odd tendency that when my routine gets thrown off I have a HUGE hard time finding a way to get back to it!

Not that I haven't had plenty to say that is blog worthy. And I enjoy blogging...really I do. I...however...am a bad life juggler, obviously ( hence my getting my routine back being a near insurmountable task!)!

So lets see if I can touch on the highlights....( in no particular order)

I had the weird opportunity to teach Skunky how to roller skate last weekend! I didn't know you could be a child born in the 80's and not know how to roller skate! Our next door neighbor had a skating party for their daughter and invited us ( even though Pollyanna is only 2 1/2!) and we thought....eh, why the heck not? So we went....and I spent my time holding hands with my two-year-old and my grown husband simultaneously dragging them around the rink while they jerked and shuffled and attempted to make the rounds without falling. It was possibly the most hilarious....and the most fun thing, I have EVER done.

Both of Skunky's parents came for a visit. They're divorced, so they came at separate times during the same week. It was interesting. I'm not super close to either of my in-laws, but I enjoy them when they are able to visit with us. I was kind of a nazi about no family visiting the day of homecoming, but I understood that they would wanted to see their son ASAP, so I figured it was no big after the first couple of days. Hind sight is 20/20 though...and while it wasn't a bad visit, it was stressful, at least for me. It really took Skunky and I the full 2 weeks before communication started to seem normal again ( even now we still have a few miss-fires but I'm sure that's normal) so when you add trying to entertain in-laws and maintain some sense of normalcy for two kids who haven't seen their Dad in 1/2 a year....yeah, it was a lot. I'll probably attempt to postpone any family visits until after the first two weeks back next deployment...

We took an 'adult' weekend in Boston and that was great! ( except that I was cranky and moody because I was expecting miracles he wasn't performing! sheesh, can't the man read a woman's mind?) I reserved us a fancy hotel, and we spent our time going to museums and great restaurants we haven't been to since our honeymoon! The one thing I wanted to accomplish during the weekend didn't really happen though...I wanted  to have a morning to sleep in with Skunky without the 6:30am wake up from the kids. Which I did get...we slept in until 10:30! But that really doesn't count when you consider the fact that we didn't go to bed until 3am! Epic fail there.

We finally bought dining room chairs that match, and are in the process of painting/refinishing the chairs and the table so they look like a complete set!! We'd been talking about getting new chairs since before deployment, since none of our existing ones matched or were very safe ( they always had screws falling out and were pretty much gery-rigged together!) So when two days after Skunky being home he says to me " We really need to get new chairs." I LEAPED at the chance! So we packed everyone in the car and drove the 45 minutes it takes to get to my "home re-modelers heaven" (also known as IKEA!) and picked up four of their cheaper, very sturdy chairs! Best part is that we're doing the project together! I have hope for our DIY future yet!

What else? The rest of our time really has just been spent getting used to life as a complete family again. Skunky is stellar....possibly the most patient, understanding man I know. I feel crazy and out of wack at moments and he just looks at me and says " Hey, we're fine. Everything is gonna be alright." They are, and I know this. And I feel so super blessed to be married to a man who takes adjustments well, and can deal with me during the moments that I'm not doing as well as he is.

Anyway....I had more to talk about but...this post has pooped me out, and Skunky is requesting my presence for a little SG1 watching ( OMG lamest show EVER!! We're watching through the first season because we told a good friend that we would but...it's a bit torturous to tell you the truth...) So I'll check you all later!

A few orders of business...( family and real-life friends, please read to the end!)

I know....it's been almost two weeks since my last entry! Things have been hectic here, my husband came home and then my family came in, and oh with the craziness of having four children 4 and under in the same house!! ( If you'd like to hear about some of our adventures, check out my sister's blog here, as she's much better at remembering and writing down silly things that happen with kids than I am at this point! She's also going to post any pictures that have been taken of our kids while she was here, with her amazing photography skills, so if any of you are interested check her out!!)

It's been a really good visit and I'm going to be sad when everyone leaves....and I mean everyone, including the Hubs. :/ He's going for a longish underway this time and I am NOT looking forward to it. I'm already feeling the clump in my stomach about being left alone. And you know that feeling you get sometime when you've broken out of your routine and you just feel....off? :: Sigh:: I know I'll be fine...it just always an adjustment. :)

Is there anything else new to report? I have to admit that at this point I'm still kind of reeling from the visit...a lot happened. Oh! My sister helped me come up with new internet safe nicknames for my kids! So Crazy Girl is going to be know as Pollyanna from here on out, and Duder is going to be known as Piglet from here on out. Pollyanna came from the movie, because my sister says she looks just like her, although I'm taking her word for it because I've never seen it! And Piglet, because my son is such a little piggy!! I can't believe he's been taking 6 oz of breastmilk since we checked (via breastpump, and boy has that been a blog worthy experience that will have to wait for a later date!) at 4 weeks old! AND he can already roll himself over from stomach to back, the first time we saw that was 5 weeks! WAY sooner than my daughter did!

Oh, and one last item of business; I'm starting a private family blog so that I can post more pictures of my kids for family and friends. It has been brought to my attention that with the new direction of my blog I don't give them enough face time to satisfy my family, and thinking it over, I've decided to keep this blog about my feelings on military life and start a whole new one where I can feel comfortable posting more pictures of my kids. Anyway...so if you're reading this and are a friend or family member who has known me past my mil-blogging days, please leave your e-mail address as a comment on this post so I add you to my family blog!

until next time,

Kind of busy weekend...

Oh my goodness...I meant to try and get on here and write something Saturday, we had a really good day and I had a lot of pictures I wanted to share! But the weekend was really kind of a whirlwind for me, and I didn't end up having time to get on until now! But here is the re-cap of all the excitement;

The biggest news for Saturday was that my husbands boat returned from an underway, and we couldn't have been more excited to see him! We actually got up and were out the door by 830 am ( you're talking to a mommy who rarely gets dressed before 10 or even 11am if I can help it!) so that we could go down to where the River meets the Sound and watch daddy's boat come in! Of course the boat was delayed an hour because of the heavy fog, but it cleared and we got some great pictures! Here's a teaser:

You can see the rest of our chase of the boat here. We actually ended up meeting a group of several wives I've met from the boat, and it was nice to see them all again! It was fun sitting around waiting to watch the boat with them, because there was really just a general air of excitement around having our husbands home again. It really was fun! :)

Well after that we had a brief break, and then I had my baby shower that afternoon which was also a TON of fun! I love getting together and eating good food, and it was so nice of the women from my church to throw me one! I got a huge amount of stuff, most of it from my family who like to spoil me, and here is a teaser for that:


And you can see the rest of the fun photos of the shower here! :)

So after the shower we came home and relaxed until bedtime for L, and then I had a friend come over and sit in the house while I went down to the boat and had a little quality time with my hubby, because he had duty and so couldn't come home that night.

Easter Sunday dawned, and as soon as my husband got off duty ( and took a quick shower!) we packed the car and headed up to ME to spend the holiday with his mom, and then that night spent it at his dads house in NH so that we could attend Erick's grandfather's memorial service Monday morning. It was a really nice service, his ashes are 'buried' at a Veterans Cemetery in NH, and I was really impressed by how organized and nice the cemetery was. It's a very pleasant place to go and visit, and the overall feeling of the service really wasn't too drab or depressing. It was nice. After wards, we went out to lunch with my husbands extended family and then we headed back to CT to spend the evening on the couch watching a movie before we passed out. :)

It really was a great weekend. I LOVE having my husband home obviously, and to have to concentrated days with him was really great. L was a little bit crazy, having daddy home and all the travel threw her off her schedule, and we all know what kind of havoc that creates in a young child's life. :) I'm still dealing with the repercussions of that. :) I wonder how she is going to do when the new baby comes? Luckily, her dad will have a bit of time off so I won't be dealing with that all on my lonesome!

Until next time,
Jen