Our Life - The Novel

Hello all!

I thought I would blog while I had a few free moments this morning. Things here have been going well – time is passing amazingly fast. I can’t believe that next month we’ll be moving again. To where? Good question…we’d like to know too. =) The Branch Manager has really been slacking on getting assignments made. She must not like her job very much because the guys in Chris’s class who have tried to have contact with her are either ignored or told off. Doesn’t she realize that most of these guys have families and relocating takes time and preparation? We’re stuck in the limbo of – Are we going overseas? Is Chris going overseas without us? Are we moving out east, down south, out west, or in the Midwest somewhere? Should we buy a house, rent or live on post? Will Chris deploy once we move? And so on and so forth. At least knowing where we would be going would help answer most of those questions. The later it gets the harder it’s going to be to schedule transportation (especially here…when it took almost a month to get our things delivered!)…and what if we find out our location late and then have an early report date – then there really won’t be any time at all to move! =) Ah, you gotta love the Army! All this said, we are trying (key word here is trying) not to worry too much. We know that our future rests safely in God’s hands and that He will provide – even down to the last second. So when I begin to get that anxious overwhelmed feeling in the pit of my stomach, I have to take a deep breath, step back and give it all to God. He has never left us to fend for ourselves before – why would he now? He wouldn’t – so we relinquish our worries over to the One who can handle all things. So, when we find out our location and know the details of our move, I’ll definitely post it here.

I’ll try to see if Chris will post soon – I know you all probably miss his sarcasm and humor. =) But until then, I’ll try to fill you in on what he’s been up too. His days start at 4:45 in the morning. He heads out to PT - comes home and gets ready and then heads out to class. He doesn’t really like class and pretty much just wants this part of his training done and over with. As of late, he’s been putting hours upon hours of work into a big paper that is due in the near future. He’s definitely been working hard!

Luke keeps me busy busy busy! He’s a mover and a squirmer – always on the go go go! For the longest time I wondered where he got that trait from – then I realized it was like looking into a mirror. Always wanting to have something to do – always wanting to go somewhere – always staying busy…hmmm, who does that sound like? Anyway, the more mobile he gets, the harder it is to keep him interested at staying at home and playing. We lament the fact that there is no place to walk around here – I guess I’m going to start driving us on post so we can walk in the mornings or afternoons until it gets too hot. We tried to walk around the neighborhoods when we first got here, but the roads where really busy and there weren’t many sidewalks. So trying to push a stroller and hold on to the dog at the same time…well, it just wasn’t going to work. Of course that was before we were warned not to walk in the neighborhoods around here anyway – I guess there’s a lot of gangs and crime. Good to know…we won’t risk it to find out if it’s true. =) Anyway, when my hands aren’t full with Luke, I’ve been doing a really interesting bible study in the book of Exodus and I’ve been having a lot of fun cooking new dishes and trying new recipes. I don’t think I’ve cooked this much…ever! =) Housework and running all kinds of fun errands keep us busy as well.

Luke is in to everything. He’s been trying out his new found talent – walking! He’s getting better and better at it and taking more and more steps each time he tries. It’s the cutest thing! He has to stand up – get his balance - and then he just plunges straight ahead! Sometimes he falls flat on his face (and isn’t phased a bit) and other times, he holds out his arms for balance and walks like a pro (in a baby sort of way.) We have a large part of our living room fenced in for him, just because we haven’t been able to baby proof as much as we’d like, but living in apartment, there’s only so much you can do. But I can already see that he’s going to want to be breaking down the fences soon! He’s already trying to climb them. If we can just make it until we move – then we’ll get into a house and make a safe baby playroom or something like that for him. If only you could explain such things to a baby! =) Anyway, he’s making a lot of progress on walking.

He’s going through a very picky stage with eating right now. It drives Chris and me crazy, but we know that he’ll get hungry enough to eat again. He’ll take a few bites of his food, and then refuse to eat anymore. I’ve even tried to force it down him…yeah, that doesn’t work. When they learn to clamp down their mouths, there’s not much you can do. I’ve also tried different foods – but to no avail, he just doesn’t want to eat. I’m not too worried at this point because he still seems to have plenty of energy – I figure it’s just a stage/phase.

The last few nights (knock on wood) he’s only gotten up a few times instead of every two hours – what a blessing! I think I’ve actually gotten 3-4 hours of sleep in one solid time! We’re also in the process of reworking his nap schedule during the day. I’d like him to take a longer nap in the afternoon instead of taking shorter ones every two hours. So I’m working on getting him to sleep 2 hours in the afternoon and then stay up 4 hours after…it’s a work in progress.

Let’s see…we’ve taken the baby bathtub out of our bathtub and replaced it with a skid proof mat. It makes me a little nervous because he’ll try to crawl around in the water now, but he seems to love the freedom of not having to sit in a seat in the tub.

Oh yeah, he’s learned how to throw – and it’s his new favorite thing to do. He’ll chuck anything across the room – or behind him – depending on when he releases it. It is SO funny! He learned it from Chris – who was throwing a small stuffed toy to him over and over – finally, Luke just picked the stuffed toy up and threw it back! Now, he throws anything he can lift up! We can’t decide whether he’ll be a football or a baseball player. =)

Other then throwing, he’s become a rough and tumble boy too. He’ll get down in his play pen and just cause mass destruction. He’ll dig in his toys like a dog digs at dirt, he’ll overturn baskets and buckets and try to climb on them or escape his play area. We caught him sitting on one of the buckets the other day! No toy is left unturned or thrown when it comes to playtime! I like to pile up his toys on the couch and watch him have a hay day pulling them all down – or I’ll fill a bucket or basket with toys and he is completely driven to empty it as fast as possible. And don’t stack anything up without it immediately being knocked down. He lives to knock down towers of any kind.

He’s also learning to share…or at least share as much as a baby can. He likes to put toys in our hands or mouths – not to mention his food! He’s always very willing to stuff a Cheerio or piece of pasta in our mouths from his highchair. We encourage the behavior though…never to early to learn the value of sharing!

He’s trying his hardest to say words. He attempts:

YAY! (sounds like “Ahhhhh!”)
Da Da
Ma Ma Ma (only when he’s really upset)
Hi (sounds like “I”)

Other than that he mumbles and chatters all kinds of baby talk. He does this cute little whisper talk too. It’s kinda like “ba ba ba ba ba” or “ah ta ta ta ta ta ta” but only said in a whisper. He’s also been blowing lots of raspberries – something he found he loved doing while Carolyn was visiting and showed him how to do it. He gets such a kick out of it and blows spit everywhere. It’s hysterical to watch and listen too!

One of our favorite things to do lately is after he gets a bath, gets dried off and into his clean pj’s, we let him take off and play in our bed (with us guarding the edges of course…don’t want to repeat the whole falling off the bed thing again.) He is on fire after a bath, let me tell ya! He crawls faster than the speed of light and is rolling around, plunging into the covers, having the time of his life! I’ll have to try to capture it on video tape because it’s so funny! It’s usually the last burst of energy he has before he falls fast asleep minutes later in his crib.

I could go on and on about Luke, but I’ll leave it at that for now. =) As far as our other family members:

Tiger is doing fine. We have to take him to the vet this week and get a cyst drained that’s located on his chin. Other than that, he seems like the same old Tiger – loves to sleep, eat and drink gallons of water every day!

Little One still slinks around, but is happy as a lark – and chirps like one too! She’s going around talking up a storm. She insists on being by me as much as possible and wants to sleep as close to my face as she can get.

Riley is the only one of the animals that doesn’t like it here. She yearns for a yard to run around in again – so we’ve promised to accommodate her wherever we go next. She’s doing fine otherwise though.

Well, I think this is long enough – here are some pictures to enjoy!

Have a great week!


Here is Luke "feeding himself..."





Like Father, Like Son - Luke "playing" video games...





Just a few cute shots...