Sorry, But When Josh is Gone I Blog a Lot

After I got the kids down last night I worked on Tristan's scrapbook (finally). Now we're up to 7 months old!! Alright!! :P haha... yes I'm a little behind, but Josh and I spend a lot of time doing things together and during the day I have too many errands and chores occupying my time. My goal is to finish Tristan's this week and start on Brennan's. Hopefully it will be finished before Josh returns from deployment! Given my track record with these baby books I'd say that's fairly unlikely. I notice I take a whole lot of pictures when I have the 50mm on my camera. They just look so good! I love this lens! Thanks, babe :)



Today was fun. I let Brennan try out his new top tooth on an apple. He didn't get much off of it, but he was proud to show off the tiny chunks he was able to get a hold of. Most of them ended up getting picked out by me shortly afterwards. He got pretty sticky and thoroughly enjoyed the struggle.







Tristan happily dove onto the couch, dove off the couch onto the floor, and proceeded to roll around on the rug. He did this many many many many times. I think he learned this particular "event" from Noah. I don't mind it all that much. Boys have to be boys... they have tons of aggressive energy and if you don't let them get it out somehow they'll just beat each other up. Trust me. Broken furniture or broken noses... if you're really fortunate they can manage both! hahaha.







Brennan learned a new skill today! We have 2 little steps going from the dining room to living room and he can climb up them now. I watched him try to go back down and he can, but it makes me want to jump out of my skin because he goes head first! No thank you! I think he still doesn't have the healthy fear of gravity. He also has been trying his damnedest to say MaMa and I love him for it! Right now it sounds like Baba, but he'll figure it out soon enough. Dada is too easy... they always get that one first. He loves talking. He will yell and yell until someone yells back... and then repeat the same noise. I love the copycat stage.





Noah got a green face at school! Let's hope he can keep this up the rest of the week. Last time Daddy left we didn't discuss it much beforehand and I think it really upset him because he was bad at school. As soon as Daddy got back he was fine though. Coincidence? I think not. Noah's a smart kid. He finally understands, but still doesn't really get it... I don't think I do either. We're working on a countdown for us to do while Josh is in Afghanistan... maybe something with beads or a paper chain. Something tangible for us to look at and get a better understanding of time. Noah's been working on his reading a lot lately. He reads a book for school every night and (for fun) he reads a book to Tristan before bed. We also have some sliding flash cards that came with the "Yes, Your Baby Can Read" system (thanks Grandma H!!) and he LOVES them.

Expect my blog to be cluttered with daily nonsense and oodles of pictures while Josh is gone. I like him to be able to stay connected to us and I have way too much free time on my hands. He'll be home for a bit once he gets back from Germany. I'm hoping to get one more family trip in before he goes.

Simple Sunday

Josh left for the airport at around 9:30 when the boys were just starting to get around and eat breakfast. He'll be gone until Friday for some pre-deployment training. Like he needs it :/ Today I spent my time wisely, just hanging out with the boys.





Noah was so good today!! I don't know why he decided to be an angel for me, but he sure was. He helped me all day with Brennan, picked things up without being told. He even showed Tristan how to do a cartwheel :) Maybe Josh had a talk with him before he left or something. Whatever the case, it was great!





We got our tax return so I did a wee bit of shopping for Brennan the other day. He really needed some more winter clothes. I realize winter is almost over, but the sales were good and the clothes were too cute to pass up! I grabbed a few shirts for Noah too. He can always use more clothes. I would compare the kids store here to a Children's Place... same prices, general quality, and selection. Happy Mommy!!! Look how cute he is in his tiny baby sweater :) :) :) So precious. One of his top teeth has officially broken through. He isn't fussy at all while he's teething. None of my boys have been... lucky me! :)



Tristan was the same old Tristan today, but with more words. He was overcome with awe at the prospect of his carrots helping him see at night so I heard "Ma'ee I see dark" through half of dinner time. His nose has been running and he has a congested cough. No idea where it came from since he seemed fine until suddenly WHAM he has a raspy cough. His mood hasn't changed at all so he must still feel OK. His appetite has gone down a little, but not enough for me to worry. Hope it goes away on its own and then is gone from this house forever.



The day flew by. I'm hoping the rest of the week will too... and then slow down when Josh is home for this last little stretch before deployment. I'm sure it won't :P The first rule of deployment is you don't talk about deployment. The 2nd rule is that you don't talk about deployment ;) haha... not until you HAVE to (which is like the day before he leaves). Ignorance is bliss.

Dr. Visits

I took Brennan and Tristan in for shots and check-ups today. They're both doing great and handled the shots quite well. Tristan got 2, Brennan got 3... poor babies. Ironically enough Josh also got a few shots today for pre-deployment.



At 9 months old Brennan is 18.5lbs and 23" tall (almost 2ft). He's in the lower percentile for weight, but he makes up for it in speed and determination haha. She was very happy with his overall development and lauded me for nursing and all that. I like those kind of visits ;) Too bad it ended with shots! Brennan has officially gotten sick of baby food. He will bat spoons of baby cereal away if there is real food on my plate. Tonight he had rice and broccoli... with some cereal for dessert. He also gummed some bread into submission and snacked on banana puffs in-between.



Tristan is 28.5lbs and 35" tall (almost 3ft). He's 75th percentile or something like that for his height and 50th for his weight. I never remember the head size because it seems odd to me that they take it anyway. What does that tell you about someone? Oh goodness... he wears some big hats! Brain size, maybe? I'm sure there's a medical reason and it's easily found through the powers of google, but I am feeling rather lazy tonight so someone else can look it up for me ;) haha. Tris has been talking a LOT lately. Every time I try to get a video of it he stops though. He's talking more than Noah was at this age. I hate to imagine what he'll be like at 5 :/ hahaha... I love my Noah-Boah and his incessant jabbering. My current favorite word is "bullshit" which for some reason is how he says "blanket" so he says bullshit many many times in one day... "Ma'ee where bullshit?"... "HERE BULLSHIT!" "I found bullshit Ma'ee". Oh man... kills me every time.







It was sunny and in the 50's today so we played outside for a little while. Good times and vitamin D :) I took a video of Noah and Tristan making dirt burgers. I purposely tried not to intervene in any way so everyone could see how they truly act. Tristan even throws one of his patented full-body stiffening whining fits that he performs for me 20 times a day. What a gem to capture on film hahaha. Noah spent a majority of the time pelting me with a ginormous inflatable soccer ball. Brennan lounged in the stroller, chowing down on puffs... Tristan even stopped by to help him.



Everyone was generally happy until dinner time. Suddenly Tristan and Brennan both got fussy so we did a nice hot bath, very warm PJ's, some tylenol, some cuddles, and an early bedtime. Tristan had a slight fever and was overjoyed to finally be in bed. Noah was happy to have the tub to himself for the extra 15 minutes so he could dive for toys :) We lay down on Tristan's bed and read "The Day it Rained Hearts" since it's almost Valentine's Day! That was our day.

And So It Goes

In case the new header didn't tip you off... Josh is deploying again. We are pretty lucky that he wasn't deployed for as long as he has been back. Granted, we spent a good portion of his dwell time apart, BUT he wasn't in a combat zone so that's good. He'll be leaving at the end of February (so soon, you ask?... yes). It's only for 6 months and he'll be going to Afghanistan this time, to a pretty safe area. He is assigned to do a specific task so he'll not be on convoys and all that nonsense... it's not an Army assignment, technically. Good news: money, good for his career, awards, coins, reset the dwell time, won't have to go again for at least another year (can attend Logan & Torey's wedding for sure!), Kevin will be there too. Bad news: missing stuff... our 7th anniversary, Brennan's 1st birthday, my birthday, his birthday, Noah's birthday. Birthdays and anniversaries come every year.

We had the option to not go this time. We talked about it at great length last night and decided it would be better to go now on a safe and short tour to get it out of the way, than to be surprised with God-only-knows-what in June/July. We have things we are planning for August and he'll be back by then. So... it's crappy, but it could be much much worse. I will have Adriana here to help! Crazy how God looks out for us before we know we need it. Adriana and I are going to travel and have a good time while Josh is gone. It'll give him something fun to read while he's away. I will finish Tristan's scrapbook and hopefully Brennan's too. I'll work out and lose weight. I'll get depressed and cry in my cheerios about being lonely... same drill ;) haha. Last night we hugged and I said "I wish you didn't love this job so much"... but he does and I love him. I fully support him. This time will come to an end eventually. With this lifestyle the good far outweighs the bad for us. Neither one of us is ready to plant roots yet. Still... separation stinks :P

When I would drop Josh off at the airport in the states I always felt like somewhat of a hero myself. I knew the people around understood what was happening... or at least could assume as much. They sympathized and felt heartsick for me, watching him leave us behind. It felt good to feel that sense of empathy from the American people. Here it won't be like that. This is Spain. I doubt they'll even notice me. Though, I probably won't be dropping him off at the airport anyway. Just a thought I had. I know I will get tons of support from the unit here. Everyone is amazing. I couldn't ask for better people by our sides.

Am I sad? Always a little sad. Am I angry? Always a little angry. Am I fine? I'm always fine. This is what we do.

Crazy Babies

Yesterday Tristan climbed into Brennan's crib again and caused a ruckus. He was jumping around and diving face-first onto the mattress, which made Brennan burst out laughing. Then Brennan tried to jump on his own. His feet never left the bed, but he did manage to shake the crib a whole lot, moving it at least 6 inches from the wall. I couldn't get a video with my 50mm because I was too close, but I think the pictures are just fine. I love how our crib has teeth marks from baby Noah and Tristan on it haha. Soon Brennan will leave his mark as well.









Brennan appears to be getting a 3rd tooth. He's been more difficult lately (which for him is really nothing at all). I can't seem to get him to take a nap and he's only content when he's standing up or getting into trouble. I remember this uber-curious stage. Time for some more trips out of the house to appease his sponge-like brain! Gone are the days of infancy, gone are the 3 long naps. Now he's a baby and will only be taking one nap in the afternoon. Goodbye nap! I'll miss you :( He'll be 9mos old in 3 days! My how time flies.

Oatmeal Cookies

While Brennan was napping Tristan and I made some oatmeal cookies. It's a lot easier to bake with Tris than it was to bake with Noah. Tristan just wants to watch and run a little 2yr old commentary. Noah wanted to do everything so he grabbed at things, spilled them, broke them (he's still like that). While I was dropping the batter onto the cookie sheets I would count each one. Suddenly Tristan piped up and counted to 10 on his own!! I didn't even know he was paying attention. I tried to get a video, but once the camera comes out, he's a little hambone. I uploaded it anyway because his brattiness just ends up being endearing when accompanied by those big brown eyes and crooked smile.







Brennan inevitably woke up so I let him play on the floor with some pots and tupperware, which I surprisingly had not done with him yet. We had fun! He was covered in dirt when he got up, but even if I had just mopped it would have been the same story. Crawlers ::sigh:: what can you do? As you can see Bosley was there every step of the way.







Tris has been asking to take a nap at 10:30 the past few mornings. I happily oblige. They both sleep at the same time and Tristan doesn't seem to get grumpy at the end of the day. Plus with an early nap we can put them down at 7:30 and get an extra hour of Mommy/Daddy time to play games, watch movies, talk, fight, clean, whatever we so choose. I am going to have some more hot tea :)

Daddy and His Boys

Today there was a fair amount of baseball throwing and hitting, a bit of tickling, some train track building, and general boy revelry in the playroom. Everything started out quite innocent... Tristan wanted to throw the ball to Daddy. Daddy hit the ball back to Tristan who squealed with excitement while aimlessly swatting the air with his tiny plastic glove. Then Noah wanted to get involved. Noah is very high energy so pretty much anything he does will include some running and jumping, and inevitably crying at least once. Josh was inspired to whack himself in the noggin with the bat. Tristan, being a monkey, did the same. One hit with the bat, 2 hits, more laughing, laughing, and more laughing... a ball was thrown, Daddy got hit. Daddy retaliated and all hell broke loose. Noah dived behind the art easel to use it as a mobile shield, Tristan followed. Little hackey sacks were flying back and forth at an alarming rate. Noah and Tristan would take turns popping their heads out of the sides to try and hit Josh. They always aim for his face haha. Fun times. Boys are great :D









Brennan was crawling around the whole time, quite content to have free reign over whatever articles weren't being thrown. He never suffered a direct or indirect hit, thankfully. They were careful, but crazy :) The other day we had the tunnels out again and Bren darted in and out of them as fast as Tristan at times. He follows his big brothers around already and is fearless. He started pulling up to standing this weekend and refuses to stop. A few times I heard him crying for help in his crib because he had stood up and doesn't quite have the dismount figured out yet. I'd lay him back down and he'd go to sleep haha. Also of note! Brennan's other bottom tooth is out and reeking havoc on fingers, Gerber puffs, chunks of fruit, and various other dinnertime scraps. He's a happy happy boy. Definitely going through a growth spurt! He's a bottomless pit right now so I guess those teeth came in right on time :)

Morocco? What?

Our trip to Morocco started off with a few small hiccups, but nothing too horrible. We had trouble booking a hotel, but were assured that there were plenty of rooms available at naval station Rota for us to use. We headed out later than we'd hoped, but were scheduled to arrive at around 1am to Rota... not too shabby. The ride there was long, but bearable... a good 6 hours. By time we got up to the gate we were most definitely ready to be out of the van and into our beds. What could possibly go wrong?!

Josh and Kevin set out to get a pass for the van so we could get on base. Adriana and I watched from the van with the kids, letting them stretch their little limbs after behaving so well for so long. This sure is taking a long time. This can't be good. They were chatting with the gate guards for at least 30 minutes before heading back... not looking even remotely pleased. Crap. Apparently, the US Naval base in Rota is guarded by some Spanish contractors who were told not to let anyone on unless they've got orders to be there. This is a load of horse manure, of course... but it's 1:30am and no one of worth can be contacted. FINE! We didn't want to stay here anyway!! They were at least kind enough to give us the names and locations of some off-base hotels. Back in the van we go. First hotel... closed for remodeling. Second hotel... closed for holidays. By this time it's been about an hour since we first arrived in Rota. We had passed plenty of drunken American sailors in tiny alleys in our quest for accomodations. We decided that it would be smarter to just keep heading for the port city of Tarifa (where our ferry to Morocco was waiting). Eliminate more driving in the morning, more hotels near the port. Sounds like a plan.





It was around 3:30am when we hit Tarifa. The first hotel the garmin directed us to was actually a campground in the middle of nowhere. The next hotels we saw were more like motels and the city was deserted. Tarifa itself seemed a little dirty and small so we continued east towards Algeciras... another coastal town with higher-end hotels. The reviews we had read online said Algeciras was "industrial" but at that point we didn't care as long as it had clean beds. At 4:15am we finally arrived in Algeciras. We picked a hotel Kev had remembered from his online booking escapades: Reina Cristina. It was beautiful... and had rooms available, which made it even more beautiful. It was pretty expensive, but we were in no position to complain nor to continue searching. The kids were crying and had been for at least 30 minutes. It's nearly 5am... we can finally sleep!





The next morning our alarm (aka Tristan) went off at 10:00am and woke us all up. We were not happy. Then we looked outside and saw the coast, the mountains, felt the sun, and realized we were about to travel to another continent! So we cheered up pretty quickly :) We had missed the hotel's breakfast so we took our time getting ready to have an early lunch. Found a nice pizza place and chowed down. It was around 1:30pm by time we finished and were ready to get our ferry tickets to Morocco. The travel agencies are lined up across the street from public parking for the ferrys and there are TONS of them. Most have hired drunken bums to grab bewildered tourists like ourselves and direct them to "the right place to get tickets". The extent of their English is as follows "tickets? Morocco? Come." the rest is a slurry of clumsy hand gestures and glances. Here's where my Spanish came in quite handy. Our bookie spoke Spanish with a bit of an Arabic accent, and FAST. I had a hard time understanding him, he didn't seem to have a hard time understanding me. Finally I understood. The ferry leaves at 2 (not enough time to get to the port and clear security), but the last one of the day is at 5:30pm so there is no point in getting tickets for today anyway. After a few "comos?" (what?) from me we settled on 9am tickets for the next day. None of us were too bothered with the prospect of casually meandering in a Spanish coastal town, stopping at coffee houses and cafeterias. Not at ALL. It was mostly relieving. We were tired and felt a little rushed. It would be nice to catch our bearings. The internets were wrong... Algeciras is beautiful and doesn't seem "industrial" at all.









That day in Algeciras was awesome. We found a great bar/cafe, walked a bit, laughed and visited, checked out the local parks and shops. Bars here aren't at all like bars in the states. They all serve delicious coffee, juices, some baked goods, alcohol (of course), and "tapas". We weren't able to try any tapas thanks to the little ones, but were all fine with that :) We had a hard time with the meal scheduling since Spaniards insist on eating dinner after 7pm. Every cafeteria is closed from 4-8, sometimes until 9 then they open back up until 11 or 12 for "dinner". We headed back to the hotel to preemptively bathe the kids and go down to the lobby to wait for the dinner buffet to open. All of us sipped on wine and coffee outside while the boys ran around for an hour and a half. By time 7:30 rolled around we were starving. The hotel dinner buffet was excellent. It was inexpensive and had a huge selection of Spanish deliciousness. We stuffed ourselves and headed off to bed so we'd be ready for our 9am ferry to Morocco!!













Although we awoke at 7am we somehow managed to be too late to catch our 9 o'clock ferry. I blame it on the Spanish lifestyle... it's nigh impossible to force your body to rush through anything out here haha. Once again we weren't too horribly angry about the new circumstances... once we found out our tickets were still valid for the 1:30pm ferry. Perfect! Just enough time for coffee and a little walk ;) We got to the port at noon and it took a good 45 minutes to clear through security... probably because there was one guy checking everyone's passports... just ONE GUY. The ferry left a little after 2, which would give us about 3 hours to spend in Morocco if we were to catch the 6:30pm ferry back. Still fine with that... not much to do in Morocco anyway. The ferry ride lasted longer than advertised, but it was a beautiful ride. We got to see the Rock of Gibraltar, which was cool. It was after 4, which left us with maybe an hour. I was nervous we were going to miss the last ferry back and be stuck in Morocco for the night, none of us able to speak French or Arabic... very nervous.























We went to the customs counter on the boat to get our passports stamped and SURPRISE! Apparently Macedonians (like Adriana) need a visa to visit Morocco. We argued in broken Spanish, but finally gave in. We never set foot off the boat. Adriana told us to go on without her... we told her to shut up and never say anything like that again hahaha. Believe it or not we still got stamps for Morocco in our passports! :D Everything happens for a reason and it seems the universe was trying and trying to tell us not to go to Morocco, but we just wouldn't listen.









We landed safely back in Algeciras and went directly to the van in order to head back to Madrid. Our estimated time of arrival was 1am... dang! After all the waves on the ferry ride I don't think any of us were feeling too thrilled about being in the van again. We gotta do what we gotta do! Unfortunately it was Sunday and the only places guaranteed to be open are American chain restaurants. So... we went to McDonald's :P It was filling, but that food never makes me feel good. It's 9pm and our new estimated time of arrival is closer to 3am (if you include potty breaks and baby stops). UGH! The first 3 hours went by pretty smoothly. Adriana and I watched movies from the back seat and we're kids at heart so "Lilo and Stitch" actually does entertain us :) Eventually we were sick of movies and convinced Noah to take a nap like his brothers. Noah had been asleep maybe 30 minutes when we hit some random road construction which forced Josh to brake hard and that shook Noah awake. He started crying. We assumed he was just uncomfortable and tired. Adriana made him a little pillow and he leaned over on her lap.... SPLASH. He vomited mcnuggets all over her pants, the seat, and the floor. Again. I swear McDonald's + van + Noah = vomit. Maybe this time I'll remember!! We were in the middle of nowhere, no exits with open gas stations nearby so we sat there inhaling wretched puke fumes for 25 minutes. Adriana worked in a hospital as a nurses aid so this was nothing to her. She just kept telling Noah (and myself) it was ok. God bless her! We finally found a place to get cleaned up, which of course woke the babies up. They screamed through the entire cleaning process. Can't say I blame them! Car seats don't appear comfortable to me. I cuddled with Brennan, fed him, tried to calm him down. He was good. We were off again. We made decent time until we hit Madrid then it was the thickest fog I've ever seen. We had to drop down to 30mph so we wouldn't go flying off the road. It was patchy and unpredictable, but we made it home... it was 4:30am.

All in all, despite the weirdness of our trip, we all agree it was a success. We didn't make it to Morocco, but none of us feel like we should have gone... like God protected us from something bad happening. Who knows! All I know is we spent a lot of quality time together and saw a new place. That's good enough for us :)







Adriana has made such an impression on us that we've asked her to stay here and live with us. She doesn't want to go back to Macedonia, we need the help... it's a win-win! She whole-heartedly accepted and we're excited to finally be able to have someone we trust with our kids, a friend, an extra pair of hands, a good influence... she's wonderful and we're excited to have her! She claims we're saving her life, but she's going to improve our lives so much! She loves our kids and is great with them. I already feel stress melting away.