It's the little things...

It's almost September! Before it's even here, I know it is my favorite month (so far) this year!  A. will be home very soon, the countdown is almost in single digits.

Of course I look forward to the obvious things:

*Seeing his face.
*Hugging and kissing him.
*Seeing him with J.
*Seeing J with him.

...and the big things:

*Our vacation to OBX.
*At least one date night.
*A barbecue with friends.
*Not dealing with the dog.

...but it's the little things that I really miss and look forward to:

*Holding his hand in the car.
*Doing his laundry. (Gasp, it's true. I can't wait).
*Peeing with the bathroom door closed and a two year old on the other side of it.
*Showering without worrying what J. is doing.
*Showering without J. stripping down and jumping in.
*Testing my new recipes on him.
*Watching football together.
*Trading off bedtime duties.
*Eating without a sticky fork.
*Fighting over whether the sheets stay tucked in or untucked.
*Help keeping J. seated in a grocery store cart.

...and as soon as we get comfortable, it will be time for him to leave again. I, however, refuse to focus on that just yet. He will be in my arms soon, he will hold and play with his baby in no time, and that's all that matters for now.

Toddler Monitor

I don't know if it is normal to still have a monitor in your toddler's room, with the receiver right next to your ear at night, but I still deem it necessary. I am a heavy sleeper. I haven't always been, but college taught me to learn to sleep through drunken parties in the floors above and below you, drunken giggling girls outside your window, admittedly my own occasional drunkeness-see a theme here? Not to mention intense heat and cold spells due to the lack of air conditioning and lack of control over our dorm room temperatures. You would think nursing J in the middle of the night might have helped my heavy sleep habit, but my theory is, I am now catching up on that severe lack of sleep he earned me. I need a monitor. I would never hear him wake in the middle of the night crying for us, I would never know if he vomited in his bed due to a nasty bug (gross I know, but it has happened, more than once), I wouldn't hear him when he woke in the morning, ready to start his busy day.

Friends of ours passed on their video monitor to us and it was amazing. I never thought I would need one until I had one. And then it gave out on us, resulting in me resorting back to the $20.00 fisher price monitor we had originally purchased. And now that has given out on us.  I have to give it credit though, that $20.00 piece of plastic was good to us for two years. Now that I am (was) in the market for a new one, I hesitantly went for the investment. I went back to my old ways, I went with a new video monitor, and of course, I went for the handheld upgrade. 

And A, before you have a what in the world was she thinking moment, hear me out: I like to think of it as an investment.  We plan to have another child one day and with this particular model you can purchase a second camera for the second room.  Not only is it worth my piece of mind, I can also tell when J is pulling every single book off his bookshelf or better yet, pulling his poopy diaper off and trying to change himself instead of napping.  The only question remains is...how do I keep his destructive hands off of the camera and the handset? If only it had some sort of a minor electrical shock barrier surrounding it...

Kidding....

Bottle Weaning

I have been debating whether or not to wean J from his bottle of milk since the day A left for Afghanistan...8 months ago.  The fact is, I can only fight so many battles, and this has just been one I have chosen not to fight. I was embarrassed at his 2 year well baby checkup to admit that he was still taking a bottle when he wakes up, before nap, and before bed. To my great surprise, his doctor (the one I love!) told me not to worry about it-as long as I was brushing his teeth after his bottle (which I am), then it's not worth the fight until Daddy comes home. On top of that, he goes to the dentist every 6 months for a cleaning, has beautiful, straight teeth, and if you've ever heard him speak, you know very well it is not affecting his verbal development or speech.

Lately however, I have had more and more of an urge to take it away from him, mainly because of pressures from other parents and the occasional dirty look I get for the rare times I give in and hand him a bottle in public (we all get desperate in the lines of wal-mart). I did some research today on the best ways to wean (and surprisingly, found a lot of "don't do it" comments). I ignored the comments, put my research together, came up with a game plan and hesitantly started wrapping my mind around the fact that this plan was going into action beginning at bedtime sharp.

And right when semi-panic began to sink in, my second voice called. KR is the closest thing I have to a sister in the south (and thankfully she is moving back here on Friday!) Sure, I have great friends down here, even best friends, but KR is different. She and her family are part of our family (we even named J after her husband) and I listen to my family. KR is nothing less than straight forward, to the point, and always tells it like it is. (My real sister D, who has never even met KR, has even said on more than one occasion "I need a KR in my life"). Anyway, KR told me what I needed to hear, from a mother's point of view, told to a sister. Don't take it from him, not now. At least wait until Daddy goes back after R&R (and he's settled and comfortable again). She reminded me that we are going to need a night out while he is hear (read: babysitter), J will need all forms of comfort right after Daddy leaves again, and frankly, it's ok to be selfish.

So that's it. It's not happening yet. It may sound like yet another excuse not to do it, but try your hardest not to judge me. And if you're going to, bite your tongue, because KR will be back in town this weekend, and you do not want to upset me while KR (or any of my sisters!) is around! She's a bit protective, and for that, we love her :)

Besides, who can say no to a face like this?

(Don't know why I can't get this pic to turn, but he's still so sweet. You get the idea).