Burning.

Im upstairs when the timer rings on my cupcakes.

Wyatt: "MOOOOOOM!! Come down and get your cupcakes before you burn them like you do everything else!"

I come downstairs scowling.
Me: *snappy mom tone* "Dont be mean, Wyatt."

I go into the kitchen to tend to the cupcakes.. Wyatt from the living room....

Wyatt: "I know you work hard mom, I wasnt trying to be mean."

I dont say anything in reply cause now he made me feel guilty for snapping at him.

But then...

Wyatt: "Mom?"
Me: "What?"
Wyatt: "Remember when you burned the stapler that was on the oven?"
Me: "Yea."
Wyatt: "Remember when you burned the handle to the spatula?"
Me: (getting irritated) "Yea."
Wyatt: "Remember when you burned the oven mitt?"
Me: (irritated further) "Yeeaaaaaa."
Wyatt: (as cool as can be) "Thats all Im sayin'"

Guilty feeling is now gone.

My Tiger

With Kindergarten has come the rite of passage and time old tradition of boy scouts.

He loves it. He really is putting forth a lot of effort during the meetings. He has been working hard to learn the "shake" the "motto" and all that jazz.

Yesterday I went to the scouts store while he was a school. I thought I'd surprise him by getting all his uniform stuff together before his meeting tonight. $70 later (Oh yea! for a stinkin button down shirt, hat, scarf tack, patches and book) so a whole lot of bitching about cost on my part, I was at home trying like hell to attach these patches. I didn't finish before he got home like I wanted., While I was tacking the corners because the cheater adhesive strips weren't holding Wyatt was watching. I finished 2 minutes before we had to leave. I told Wyatt to come put his uniform shirt on.

*Cue Rocky music* Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Du Duh....Duh Duh Duh Da da daaa daa da daaa daaaaa!!!!!!

He stalked over to that shirt with a mad purpose and a Cheshire cat grin. He looked like he was about to put on the single most important 100% cotton garment of his life. Grinning the entire time he buttoned then gave me a thumbs up when he was all done.

From the moment he put on that shirt with such pride and purpose he became a dedicated little tiger scout and I buried my gripe over the cost of the uniform.

I think we have finally found Wyatt's "thing."

Super Emma

Emma - "Im a super hero!"

Me: "Oh yea? You fight crime?"

Emma - "No, I fix stuff."

Me: "Fix?"

Emma- "Yea, what can I do for you?"

Me: "Can you put the laundry in the hamper?"

Emma- "No."

Me- "Can you clean up the living room?"

Emma- "No"

Me- "What will you fix?"

Emma- "I fix your foot."

Me- "Ok"

Emma then kissed my foot, then promptly ran into the kitchen to fix the backdoor too. Apparently it was broken.

It was a fun afternoon with Emma today. She was taking flying leaps and running all over hell and gone. It was hillarious.

3 month update :)

The house is 90% unpacked and put away. I don't much feel like putting anything on the walls. I don't really feel like this is my house. Slowly I'm putting up the kids creations, but that's about it.

I don't like it here. I don't care for my neighborhood. I'm having a hard time making friends. (most likely my own fault) I don't remember this funk when I moved to San Diego.

Oh the plus side...

Wyatt is doing fantastic in school. He likes going, I only get maybe 1 complaint a week about not wanting to get up to go. He seems happy and thriving. Loves math. Detests writing/reading. We are working on that. When it comes to writing, its like he gives up before he even starts. Reading is the same way. I know he knows the stuff. I know he can read. I know he can write. He just doesn't want to apply it for some reason. I'll have to read up on some ways to help him. We are both just getting frustrated. He LOVES math concepts though. Loves writing numbers. Loves counting. Loves adding... all of it. I'm thankful for that.

Emma's talking is getting better. She still sounds nasally. Our military insurance is a pain in the ass. Its been months and we still haven't been able to see an ENT. This kid needs surgery, like, yesterday. I have her in MOPS with me, we have a regular story time (which here, is awesome. its actually something you sign up for and its like a little class...so cute!) and I arrange a play date once a week. Next week she'll be starting a 9-1 school once a week.

Randy has been out to sea a lot. I forgot about all the workups they do pre-deployment. He will be gone for the entire month of October. Good news is he will barely be out anymore the rest of the year. So...yay.

Today is our 8th anniversary.

Wyatt the 1st grader

Today was Wyatt's first day of 1st grade!

Wyatt went to school this morning like a champ.

6am-

Me: "Wyatt its time to get up!" (opens shades)

Wyatt: "We're going to school in the dark?!"
Me: "No, lets go eat breakfast." (I explained about 1st grade and no snack time and the importance of a big full tummy in the morning.)

Wyatt: "Alright! Lets get tummy fillin!"

He got a special Krispy Kreme treat that daddy left for him and then I made him eat something that did not contain buttloads of sugar after. ;)

He was excited, totally not nervous, not "skeptical" at all. He found his classroom by himself and settled right in. I took a million pictures and said "ok I'm going" as many times. When I finally went:
Me "Ok Wyatt, I'm really going now, be good, I love you"
Wyatt: "Ok Mom, see ya later."

That's it?! That's freakin it?! No whimpering? No tears? No preamble to leaving your lil butt there for 6 hours? Nothing? I was a tad disturbed that my lack of presence in the 1st grade classroom would have stirred up more of a ruckus...but alas, my boy is growing up. So away I went with "something in my eye."

Emma was all tears and yelling. She was angry that she didnt get to go to school too.

2:30pm pick up

Me: "How was your first day!?"

Wyatt: *tsk* "We didnt do anything fun all we did is learn!"

He kept saying that over and over. He did have a good day though, his teacher said he didnt get frustrated until the very very end of the day when it was time to go (all the people leaving wigged him out) He was a happy kid when he left school today though.

It was a fine first day and he is actually looking forward to tomorrow. 100% improvement over last year!

Remember This?

Hurricanes

Hmmm. One month of living here and we get our very first Hurricane watch. Yippie! Wyatt had just been warming to the idea of tornados...now... meh.
So Im mulling over the city outlined evacuation routes, suggested kit items, things you need to do when the hurricane is imminent, like turning off your own power.
*ahem* Yet another reason for me to hate this place. Stupid hurricanes.
Apparently the Atlantic Fleets official position in the event of hurricanes hitting our coast is to fee to sea. What this means for my family is that I get to wade our the hurricane with 2 kids and Randy gets to go float at sea safely away from the hurricane. Nice huh ?
Do I sound bitter? ha!

Wyatt will be starting school next week. 1st grade! Wow. I dont feel the "wow, where has the time gone" thing. I feel more a proudness for the situation. Wyatt has his "skeptical" face on when it comes to school. Im hoping this year goes more smoothly than last year for him.

An aerial view of half the backyard. :)

Fun with the gratuitous amount of packing paper

& first day of boxes (thank goodness we are 75% done!)

Emma defending the nest. (VB Aquarium Trails)

This is their first reaction to the new house

All Moved

We are all moved and tucked into Virginia Beach, VA.
Yay? Not so much. Yay that the move is over...definitely. Not so much because the weather here is insanely hot and can only be described as the 7th circle of hell. Not so much because the kids really really miss home. Emma keeps asking if we can "Go to Grandmas?" or "Go lunch with Ms. Lisa?" Wyatt every few days right before bed will do big ole' tears along with "I miss all my friends soooo much. I miss everything about Racine..." and so on and so on. So we have taken up with calling people right before bed on those nights and Wyatt chats and chats.....and chats....and chats.....and chats......
Its a work in progress here. We'll get the hang of it.

The house. The house is great. Really great. More modern than I'm used to from my Racine cottage. The backyard is HUUUUUUUGE. The kids LOVE it. The whole thing is carpeted...which I can now safely say that when we purchase our forever home it WILL NOT have carpet.

Our neighbors are....I dont know yet. We had GREAT neighbors in San Diego and even greater neighbors in Racine.  Apparently on this cul-de-sac street parking in front of your house is crucial and you will be strung up in a tree and prodded with red hot pokers if you park in front of someone elses house. WHICH...is hard considering 2 of the houses on this street have 5 cars each. So...people are parking front end to curb (not alongside) and double parking. Its so weird and looks tacky as hell. So yeah...Its going to be an adjustment.

Wyatt is all registered for school. He is fairly excited for 1st grade although "skeptical" describes him more. His school is ginormous. 900 kids in one elementary school. His class size though...is 2 to 15. Isnt that crazy? Such a small class. Its nice. There are 9 1st grade rooms. yowza. We'll give it a year.

Still don't have our "doctor placement" yet. We are so close to Military Treatment Facilities that we are supposed to go there rather than civilian docs. Which means our insurance picks who we see. Which means...we still don't have doctors. Which means...Emma still has sleep apnea and still has trouble spitting out sentences. Shes tries so hard though. Her vocab is great, but you can see that she struggles to spit out words. She swallows every 3 words. Poor girl. I hope Tricare pulls their heads our their asses soon so I can get my daughter in surgery. By all means, take your bleedin time.

Randy's schedule sucks. Every 5 days he has duty ... which means he doesn't come home that night. His ship is in and out and will be gone completely for the month of October. That should be a nice surprise for the kids. Cross that big ass freakin bridge when we get to it.

I tried signing up with a few mommy groups. Waa waa waa waaaaaaa. I got stood up twice. That was unpleasant. I've met with 2 more groups since then. I'll try to give it a few more shots before I throw in the towel. The problem, I think, is that I had such a well organized and familiar group back home. I never felt out of place there, I knew everyone, we knew their kids. I now have a profound respect for people that enter into a new mommy club and don't know a soul. It's hard to crack that nut. I didn't realize just how hard it is to get accepted into a new group. I've been in one so long that Id forgotten.

Anywho. We are not all unpacked yet. Its a work in progress. With the absence of a basement, Its making things tricky.

I'm off for now...someone is coming over to take all the empty boxes. kids will be sad...boxes made a good fort and all the packing paper was fun to throw around.

I'll upload the pictures when Randy gets home tomorrow night. They are all on his computer. bleh.

So much.

So much has happened. Which is why I've nixed the postings lately.

Emma has turned 3. My sassy little handful, Emma. We had an early morning cake as is tradition here. I went in and decorated her room with streamers and balloons the night before (which she still is not allowing me to take down!) I let her pick out a toy at Toys R Us...she chose an electric toy guitar. Which really...as far as battery operated toys go...isn't all that annoying.
I will load up some pics just as soon as I load the new program for my new camera that replaced the last one after i dropped it on the lens. My bad.

Emma....
You have kept me on my toes these 3 years. This last past year more than most. You are just coming into a loving side. You will give me random kisses and hugs...and I whole heartily prefer it over the last year of 1 second bouts of affection. You still have your "devil eye" The look that you give someone right before you do something that you KNOW is going to piss them off. "The Devil is Free! hes speaks through me!" And the foot stomp! Gods help us the foot stomp! Love and hate it equally. Little Ms. Verruca. But we love you all the more for it. Wyatt is your best friend. You both play wonderfully together and I love to watch. You are about to get your tonsils and adenoids removed and tubes put back in your ears. Hopefully this will help you speak, sweety. I know you are trying so hard.
I love you sassy sweet bebe.
Mum.

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Randy will be home this Wednesday. Then the fun starts. Rummage Sale, Going away party, movers coming and going, finishing the house for the renters and then off to concrete hell....ahem ... err I mean Norfuck...ahem *cough* Norfolk, Virginia. whew.
We have a house. We have renters. We're off again.

I have no illusions. This will suck. I do not look forward to this move. I'm numb to this whole crap fest. Please do help me find the silver lining. But chances are I will be able to poo poo any suggestion you may have. Just sayin.

Updates

Wyatt is a Kindergarten Graduate!!

The kids did this cute program where they sang 2 songs (that Wyatt mouthed....thanks for humoring me kid!) and then they walked up got their diplomas (God in heaven don't say that its a "certificate" around Wyatt... you will get a lecture on how its a "diploma" NOT a "certificate") then they stood under the arbor and paused to accept their applause. Which Wyatt totally milked. He stood up there and accepted their applause with a HUGE smile on his face. So stinkin' cute. I cant believe how far he's come this year. I'm so proud of him.

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Emma needs to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. As well as having her tubes put back in. Doc thinks this will help her speech and may make her get an interest in food again. Apparently the sides of her throat are almost touching. Now we just have to decide whether or not were going to have the surgery here or VA. If we have it here, it would feel like were rushing through it. I dunno.

Oh... I made Emma a dress...

It was pretty easy. My friend Lisa gave me a step by step tutorial. Thanks Lisa! ;)

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The house is off the market and is now for rent. We've had a lot of interest, but not sure who we are going to go with yet. Seems everyone has a "story" and not one are the "safe bet" Its terrifying. We are looking to move right after 4th of July.

Yea. I just don't know.
Did you know a pull-up can be a hat as well?
Emma... Emma... Emma... This girl is so silly. I've always said she has this music playing in her head at all times. Shes got this whole rhythm to her that so uniquely Emma. She's the most challenging little thing but a lot of fun and never a dull moment.
He vocab has boomed. Although she prefers to speak in 2-3 word phrases. She will try to get her point across with as little words as possible.
She has also recently surprised me. I had no idea she knew all her colors, can completely undress herself/redress as well as write "M" as her name. Feels like all that happened overnight and she let me know all in one day that she could do these things. Its interesting.

The Penis...The Built-in Thermometer.

I ran a bath for Wyatt and M.
Wyatt gets in. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. My penis says thats the right temperature."
Me: "What...?"
Wyatt: "My penis. It talks to me and tells me if the water is too hot or too cold."


Seriously. So far out of my comfort zone on this one. I remain silent.

The Old Days...

Wyatt said to me today "I remember when I was a baby, those were good times."


Clearly child... our visions of "good times" differ greatly..but you're still cute.

Easter 2010

Wyatt: "I think he's coming tonight!"

Me: "The Easter Bunny?"

Wyatt: "Yes!"

Me: "I dont know... have you been good?"

Wyatt: "Have I?"

Me: "I don't know, have you?"

Wyatt: "Well... besides a few minor outbursts, yea."

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Easter was good. The kids each received scooters. They thought it was pretty awesome. We visited a new church. They both had their own learning rooms while I was in service. Emma loved it, Wyatt hated it. I think because church service ran 2 hours long! Yikes... wasn't even a Catholic service! But it was a very cool church. Its sanctuary was like a freaking theater, the first part was like this Christian Rock concert... I've never ever been to a church where people clapped after performances! It was a pretty awesome experience.

Lunch at grandpas house then by the time we got home the kids were pooped.

It was a good day... would have only been better if Daddy was home.

Body Modification

Every few years or so I get the itch for body modification. Be it piercing, tattoos etc.

The force is strong these days. I will eventually cave. Its been 4 years since I've had something pierced. Far too long I say.

Im thinking this. Ladies and Gentlemen... The Marilyn