Where Did The Time Go?

It's simply amazing to me.  On 28 March 2008 at 2:35 in the afternoon by life was changed forever when Ryan Patrick Leaman was born.  I realized at that moment how much more important birthdays are to parents as the moment their life changes forever.

Isn't he handsome?  All 8 lbs 3 oz and 21.5 inches of him.

Where did the last three years go?  I can't believe that my little baby has become such a big boy.

Even though Daddy isn't here we tried to have fun.  We had pizza and cheese bread for dinner.  And we went to the store so Ryan could pick out his own cake.

Here is a video of the Happy Birthday part of our night.

Can you tell he is a little excited about the cake?

Here's Bryce having no idea what's going on but excited about it regardless.

Here's Bryce's first slice of cake.  You can almost see what he is thinking "Hmm, what is this?"

"Well, I'll give it a little try."

"Wow, that's good.  I better shove it in my mouth as fast as possible before someone takes it away from me."

And here's my first born, who had to pause half way through eating his cake to clean off his tractor fork, because heaven forbid the fork gets dirty.

And heres my second born, "Ahhh, is there something on my face?"

A week already?

So I just noticed that it's been a week since I posted.  Wow, don't know how time got away from me.  Ohh wait, I remember, its because I haven't gotten a decent night of sleep in a week.

This is going to be short since I hear my bed calling my name....that might be from sleep deprivation or just wishful thinking that it loves me as much as I love it.  :)

So poor Bryce has finally been getting his top two middle teeth, and now while that boy really needed more teeth, neither of us needed what it takes for him to get them.  My happy baby becomes something out of a horror movie if you try to put him down.  He wants to be held all day.  And while I really do love his cuddles, its really hard to get anything done while holding him these days since he's getting so big.  Plus, sleep becomes impossible for him, and that means for me too.  Poor thing would start screaming every hour.  Finally got him into the doctor yesterday and of course he has a double ear infection.  That's twice now that he teethes and gets a double ear infection.  With meds he is already on the path to being my sweetheart again.

Then there is Ryan.  Who to start the week out on a GREAT note has decided that its way cool to wear underwear like daddy and no longer needs pull ups during the day at all.  He is doing so great at potty training, we only started this 3 weeks ago and there have been no accidents during the day at all.

But of course one sick child wasn't enough so yesterday I got a call from his school that he wasn't feeling well.  So on my way to take Bryce to the doctor I picked up Ryan from school.  And he was running a 102 fever too.  Well, when it rains.....So Ryan got his ears checked too, no infection, just sick.  Poor thing said he was better this morning and went to school but came home and started going down hill fast.

While Bryce is getting better, Ryan is now getting worse.  :(  Hopefully they will both be back to normal sooner rather then later.  I miss my happy little men.

So overall, it was an ok week.  Sick kids, but we survived and will live to see another week.

Plus, we have gotten to Skype with Sean several times AND my baby is potty trained!  So that automatically makes the week great!!!

I love two...

I am really loving the time in Ryan's life right now.  He says the funniest things these days.

Just for fun, here are a few examples.

I tell Bryce "no touch" when he wants to go play in the dog's water bowl.  Then my little parrot Ryan adds in "No touch Bryce, two minute time out, no listen."  You tell him Ryan.

We have been working on potty training the last 3 weeks and Ryan is doing so great.  He was totally ready.

So far today I've heard;

"Ohhhh Mama, need potty, no poo on Lightning."  (He wears Lightning McQueen pull ups).

"Mama, hold Ry Ry."  (Not funny if just heard that, but when you put it together with the fact that I have to hold him in a hug each and every time he poops its pretty funny.  Well, funny for everyone else, not so funny for me.)

He insists on looking in the toilet to check and see if he pooped.  Tonight he said "Mama, that's a big poo, that's a Daddy poo."  (I nearly fell over laughing, he was so proud that this poop was big like Daddy's.  I still am laughing over that one.)

Then there's bed time.  He loves having his Daddy doll and when he jumps into bed, "Ohhh hi Daddy."

After I tucked him in he told me, "Mama, go car ride later, go base, get Daddy, okay?"  That's when I have to fight to keep my composure.  My little man is sure one big sweetheart.  And I'm so glad that he's mine.

Small Things

I've discovered that its the small things that lift my spirit up everyday.  Today's encouragements came from sweet moments from both my boys.

After I finished my workout today, the sweet sight of Bryce playing with the toys like a toddler captured my heart.  Then he saw me, his face light up, he gave me his pterodactyl squeal and started to crawl to me with the biggest little snaggle tooth smile.

Getting home from class today we received a package in the mail.  Inside were the two daddy dolls I ordered for the boys.  Ryan's face lit up and he cried out "Daddy!"  He then gave the doll the biggest hug and kiss while proclaiming "LOVE Daddy!"  Then he looked at me and said "Ohhh, I know, Daddy goes in Ry Ry bed."  Then he raced off as fast as his little 3 year old legs would take him to put daddy where he belonged.  I love the way that he thinks, its so sweet.   While we got ready for bed he informed me that "Daddy watch Ry Ry sleep, love Daddy."

Its those little sweet moments during the day that fill my heart with so much love for my little men.  And I know that if they can go through this difficult time with such happy and loving spirits, then I can too.

Take One Step Forward Everybody.....Not So Fast You.

Things had been going really well.  As of today we are one week into a 6 month plus deployment.  Well, I guess things had been going a little too smoothly for me.  Time to get some payback karma.

Got completely organized this morning, to the point I even had time to stop and get coffee before taking the boys into the CDC.  Dropped them off and was impressed at the rooms, they looked awesome.  Bryce cried but he always does.  And I was shocked because Ryan was excited, he is never excited in new places.  He was telling me all about the toys he saw, it was so cool seeing him so happy.

I finished dropping the boys off and managed to get some errands run around town.  When I got home there was already two missed calls from the CDC.  I called and they said Bryce was pretty upset but they were going to keep trying.  I just assumed once they got him to sleep he would be better.  I sat down to start getting the mountains of homework accomplished.  Less then 45 mins later they called back.  Bryce wouldn't stop crying.  I needed to come get him.  :(

So I walk into the CDC to get him and the front desk person asks me how I'm doing and I dissolve into a sobbing mess.  Sobbing!  I don't sob.  Poor think looked panicked.  She calls the manager who brings me into the office.  Meanwhile I'm crying like an idiot.  She goes to check on Bryce who had of course finally fallen asleep by now.  WTF????  She is so sweet but looking at me like I'm going to turn into her next nervous breakdown at any moment.  I mean, this is the first time I've ever met her so its not the best first impression for me.  She gives me the option to go back home since he was asleep but really not liking that idea since that would just add another hour of driving onto my day.  She offers to let me bring the boys in for drop in hourly care.

The nervous wreck, me, gets Bryce (who cries at me for 5 mins just to show me he was mad at me).  Then goes to the next building to get Ryan.  Who LOVED it there.  He tells me all about how much fun he had with the other little boy who was there.  He even pooped on the potty while there.  Wow.  Didn't see that coming.

We make our way home and I try to get some homework done while taking care of the boys.  Lots of e-mails in my account.  Looking through and I have an e-mail about the auction from last night.  Thinking about how strange that is. I start reading and apparently there was a mix up and two of the prizes I was really excited about (Costco card and zoo pass) weren't supposed to be there.  REALLY?!  Do I need to get kicked while I'm down?  What did I do this week to get such terrible karma?  So now I have to give those back, meanwhile my kids are not in good moods and I am now even more behind on my homework.  Geez.  This is not a good start to my weekend.

It can only get better from here right?

Fun Night!

What a great night!   Just got back from the OCS's annual auction.  Every year they have this HUGE auction as a fund raiser for scholarships.  They had some of the most amazing prizes!  Bummed that hubby wasn't able to be here to go with me.  While there was some seriously crazy big prizes I guess its a good thing that hubby wasn't here, if I had been able to drink my credit card might have gotten some serious damage!  I did win one package though.

Here's what I got.
Costco gift card worth $25.
Zoo Boise Family 4-Pack worth $22.50
Family Pass to World Center for Birds of Prey worth $28
Family Day Pass to Discovery Center worth $26
And the best part:
A Monkey Bizness Birthday Party worth $179

So that brings everything to a total of $280 and I got it all with a winning bid of $85!!

The best part about all of this is its really fun things I can do with the boys to help keep us busy while Sean is gone.  And the money I spent goes to help others with college scholarships.  Wow, I'm so excited.

Great night, now off to bed.  I have to get up early tomorrow and get the boys to the base CDC for Give Parents a Break day.  Its a free 8 hours of child care the military provides to people who's spouses are deployed.  Then I have to run a few errands and come home and use most of the time to try to catch up on studying.  Hopefully I'll be able to get ahead so I won't have to stay up late during the week.

Good nite all!

Thankful

As I was driving to Boise today I was thinking about how God works in such amazing ways.  Since Saturday night I have been on my own with the boys and I was so dreading it.  I didn't know how I was going to handle Ryan's tantrums or Bryce's lack of sleep from teething.  And this week I was hit over the head yet again that God doesn't give you more then you can handle.

This week has been a blessing.  Now don't get me wrong, I miss my dear husband like crazy, but my little men have been amazing!  The day after Sean left Bryce's teeth finally broke through and he is back to sleeping through the night.  And Ryan hasn't reacted the way I expected at all.  He has been so helpful, trying to help me carry in my bags from the car, opening the door, cleaning up his dishes after meals. Plus he has become so sweet.  He insists on giving Bryce a hug, kiss and telling him he loves him before school everyday.  At night when I tuck him in he always tells me to save some of dinner for Daddy since he gets hungry.  I never knew my little man had such a sweet streak.

So while my To Do list is still way too long and I have more homework then I know how to get accomplished at the end of the day I am still left with the fact that I love my boys more then anything else in the world and everything will get done eventually.  It might take awhile, but it will get done.

24 Hours

So we survived the first 24 hours without Daddy.  Here is a break down of the day.

The boys decided to be nice to me since I was up late dropping Daddy off on base and I only had to go get one of them at 11, 1130, 12, 5, 6:30 and 7:45.  (Sadly this is actually a decent night recently since Ryan is potty training and wanting to pee in the middle of the night and Bryce is teething and still wanting a night time bottle.)

They managed to play in the office with me after breakfast so I could try to study for the big test I have tomorrow and catch up on all the reading I'm behind while we spent last minute family time together.  (This translates to I got about 5 pages read of the 150 I needed to.)

We had a fun lunch together.  (I made Top Raman since I was tried and it was almost nap time).

There were only two technical issues, somehow I don't have rights to the hard drive to organize digital pictures and for some reason the receiver keeps turning off during movies.  (Sean is totally my IT support, I freely admit that I'm lost without him technology knowledge.)

Ryan had his first poop on the potty!!! (This translates to this is the first time I've been able to catch him pooping and able to sprint him to the bathroom to finish. )  I praised the heck out of him and gave him a slice of ice cream cake.  Here's hoping that he will now get some motivation to start on the potty next time.

Friends came over for build your own pizza night.  Ryan had a blast playing with two other boys.  (But was having WAY too much fun to eat dinner.)

Got both boys in bed by 8pm.  (They might have been in bed but no one was sleeping.  Bryce was crying and crying and I decided he needed to learn to put himself down.  Meanwhile Ryan was lying in bed yelling "BRYCE be QUIET! 1, 2, 3, time out 2 mins, TOO LOUD!"  I did get a good laugh out of that.)

After cleaning up the house a little, taking out the trash and recycling, I'm attempting to get caught up with my reading.  At the rate I'm going I'll be caught up in Sept.  The classes end in May.  Ohh well, here's hoping for a productive night.