Mothership Confessional

How can this be??? 8 months seems so "old"! My tiny baby boy is growing fast! I would like to start this post by saying DEPLOYMENTS SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK The distraction of learning to juggle life without Chris here has kind of worn off now that it's the new normal, and it has completely worn me down. Kind of like the feeling you get after the adrenaline has worn off - I'm pooped. My to-do list just gets longer and longer since it takes me so long to get things accomplished. Now I just feel lonely. It doesn't matter how many things I pack into my day, how many places we go, or how many people we see. It doesn't change the fact that he is gone. The house is really quiet at night. It's no fun to watch tv night after night after night after night without him. Eating all of my meals alone (or with messy children alone). We are approaching the holiday season and I'm already sad he's not going to be here for any of it. It makes me the most sad that he...

Guys, I'm just going to go ahead and say this. Life is kinda hard right now. And I'm going to have a pity party real quick. Being in the trenches with a newborn is hard enough, but this time I have a young toddler, too. The transition from 1 to 2 children has still overall been easier than the transition from 0 to 1 child, but there are different challenges this time. Ava behaves best when I sit on the floor and play with her and/or when I give her the iPad or the old iPod touch we weren't using. And Liam is happiest when I am holding him most of the time while he is awake. Especially now that he's got more head control - he wants to sit up and see the world! So the problem is, is that its hard for them to both be happy at the same time. I've completely taken away the iPad and iPod from Ava because she wasn't understanding that she couldn't have them all day long, and she was throwing some of the biggest fits I've ever seen from her. And she's ...

Well, here we are, 11 months of Ava! It's been kind of a tough month as Ava has been sickly for most of it. She's been congested most of the time so she's a constant mouth breather and has a cough, a runny nose, and yucky sneezes that make us run for a wipe. Whatever it is, it needs to leave her alone! We are all tired of it! Her symptoms are gradually going away, it is just taking forrrevvvverrrr. She seems to be a lot better over this last week.  She is still our smiley, giggly girl, but with major attitude!  She has many preferences now and has learned how to communicate what she wants more and more! She gets upset when something doesn't work out the way she wants it to. Yelling, throwing herself back, and even biting her hand sometimes. Something tells me that we are going to have to help this child deal with frustration in the future! There are times when Chris and I will stop and look at each other because it sounds like she is saying phrases to us! L...

This last month with Ava has been...different! I have felt like she has already hit the 9 month mark a long time ago - she has seemed so grown up to me lately! She eats so  much table food it's ridiculous! Just this morning she ate an egg - scrambled, a piece of french toast, almost a whole banana, and a sprinkling of blueberries. And she might have even had some yogurt; I can't remember now. I mean, how can she only be in the 19th percentile for weight when that's what she eats?! And not to be gross, but now that I'm a mom I talk about this stuff all the time...her poop has almost no visible pieces of food in it anymore so I know her body is doing a better job of breaking it down and absorbing it! She still refuses to crawl. She can get to hands and knees from sitting and she'll reach out for things, but then she flops to the floor no matter how much bribing we do. She gets around on her belly by turning in circles or rolling around.  She is much b...

I'm a little late posting this. 8 months sure came quickly! Ava's personality is really coming out! She's been able to communicate her likes and dislikes a lot more recently. She has thrown a few "fits" when she's not happy with something! She's a little bit dramatic! She is working on crawling, so she's been a bit more on the fussy side over the last few weeks. She hangs out on all fours and rocks back and forth and can bring her knees forward, and then she bellyflops forward! She's still working on what to do with her arms. She can move backwards and log roll around the floor and get around the living room a bit. She's trying to figure out how to go from sitting to on her belly. Usually she just leans really far forward, face plants, and then smiles and frees her arms and legs! She is down to 2 naps a day, both (usually) an hour and a half apiece, but sometimes less. After she was waking 4 times a night and I realized going i...

How can it be that my Ava baby is 6 months old!? When I imagined my baby during pregnancy, I mostly imagined a tiny newborn. I didn't really think much about life with a bigger baby. She continually surprises us with her new skills and her ever-emerging personality. Here is what she is up to at 6 months: Sitting!!!  This is her latest skill. All of a sudden, Ava could sit for like 10 seconds before she would wobble and lean over! I think new Christmas toys were a big incentive for her. Within a week, I was able to set her next to me with her boppy pillow around her and let her play without having to have my hands at the ready behind her. She plays for quite awhile now until she is all done! Table food! We are giving Ava her first taste of food tonight! She's having avocado! If you are curious about Baby Led Weaning, I encourage you to read this book . It explains the idea of skipping purees and spoon feeding so well and answered every question I had! Fir...

I have found that as a new mommy, I am very interested in what other babies do all day, more specifically, what their routine is like. Every baby is so different, as is each household they live in. Since this is my first child, all I know is what Ava does. I have to say, I felt very out of place as an Army wife when we arrived at our first duty station. We only knew one other person here, and so I had zero friends. As female adults, it can be difficult to make new friends. And what does every Army wife sit around and talk about? Kids. Dogs. Deployments. At the time, I had none  of those. (well, I had experienced a deployment, but we weren't married yet and it was a Reservist Deployment, so it was "not on the same playing field".) My husband was encouraging me to branch out and meet people, and I had to try to explain to him that I had nothing to talk about, since all the conversations inevitably end up about kids. And all I could do was listen and smile politely. ...