All Together Again

d has finally made his way back home to us. i'm very proud to say that he passed his training course and is a nationally registered emt. (woo hoo!) the last 18 months have been a non-stop roller coaster ride of moving- 4 to be exact- and separations while trying to maintain some type of normalcy for raising a little.

i'd be lying if i said i haven't been worried about d and birdie's bond. afterall, they didn't get that time after her birth. he came home from school during her fourth month of life and then had to leave again 4 months later. likewise for d- when he left for school the first time i was very, very pregnant. he became a father over skype, video messages, text messages and facetime. when he came back he suddenly had to get to know this little being while finding his own rhythm of parenting.

at times i would panic over it. i'd keep others from holding birdie as a way to "save her" for d as if she had a limited number of times she could be held by others. i would show her pictures of d everyday. it always made me happy, especially during our last separation, that she would break into a large smile and a quiet little giggle when she saw his face. but, then, a thought would creep into my head- is she smiling because she recognizes him or is she smiling because it's a picture of a person smiling?

the first few hours of d arrival back home was a little difficult. birdie screamed when d said hello to her in  our car at the airport. i chalk this reaction up to a few things- she was mad she was in the car seat, she was tired, i suspected the beginnings of a fever (turned out to be right later that night), and i think she thought d was a doctor. (she had been seen by the doctor a couple times that week- all of them male- and was not thrilled either time. thrilled= understatement.)

with a little bit of time, patience and some reassuring loves from mama- these two were peas in a pod in no time.

in the short time he's been home i no longer worry about their bond. she gives him her biggest grins and belly laughs, shouts to get his attention, cuddles, asks for him to hold her and looooves to rough house with him. she remembers the little games they used to play together. yep, their bond is still intact. my mama-heart is so happy when they're together.

We Kept Busy

before d left we had the opportunity to help a friend in need. her family had purchased a house in northern alabama and found themselves pressed for options when their current house sold faster than expected. she and her daughter needed a place to stay to finish out the school year and the dance lessons they had invested in. when we moved to mobile we were given so much help by a family from our church. we decided to pay it forward by hosting our friend and her daughter. it just happened that the time they would need a place would coincide perfectly with d being away. it was wonderful to not be totally alone everyday. birdie had an older playmate and i had a friend to keep me company. we already miss them.

"i don't know how you do it," is the response i get a lot when people ask how i've been doing these last 7 weeks without d. "we keep busy!" is always my overly enthusiastic response. for those who have experienced a separation from their spouse, while still maintaining family life and raising a little one, it just plain sucks most of the time. there are good days. days where the time passes all too quickly and you're laying in bed- exhausted- thinking about all of the things you'll catch up on tomorrow because you had too much fun that day. there are also bad days. days spent in pajamas with a fussy baby on your hip while you yell for the umpteenth time at your dogs for chewing up a cheap little toy. those are the days that seem to drag on. nevertheless, it was still helpful to have a couple extra hands around to bounce a baby while mama was out in the field dragging dogs back in the house, eating nightly meals with people other than a baby, and having company during reallyreallyreallyreally scary storms.

we kept busy, basically, because we didn't have any other choice.

i crafted... a LOT...

i painted our table and chairs. i absolutely love how they turned out- a seafoam green and coral.  

an old picture frame + scrapbook paper= a dry erase board for our kitchen

i jumped on the bandwagon and made a "southern" wreath for our front door.  

our couch got a little more cheery with four newly recovered pillows 

i tried to keep our garden alive... (and succeeded!) 

 marigolds that we grew from seeds 

 yellow squash

my beautiful hibiscus makes me excited for hawaii later this year.  

cherry tomatoes and a pepper- a very small portion of our harvest  

our porch peach tree 

i discovered wild blackberries behind our backyard

we played...

mama read countless books over and over to our little budding bookworm.  

birdie spent lots of time outside in her birthday suit. things are a little more fun when you're in the nude.  

water play with friends. 

won't keep a sun hat on but she'll wear a chef's hat for over an hour.  

her new pretend kitchen 

we napped (mama, too!) a lot.

we spent our evenings on the porch enjoying the weather.  

we laid low for a couple of days while we nursed our furry brother back to health after he suffered a snake bite. (normal paw on left, very swollen paw on right.)  

birdie sat patiently on my lap while mama got a haircut. (love that my new hairdresser was so accommodating to us!)  

birdie turned into a tummy sleeper.  

now that we're at the end of our family separation it seems as if the time has flown by. i'm extremely happy that this is our last separation for a looooong time. 

This Time

E, C and I in Yosemite around this time last year. 

This time last year... I broke down emotionally during dinner with my mom at a restaurant. It was hard to watch my mom find words of comfort to make everything all better.

This time last year... I had a really fun visit with e and c. (pictured) And was secretly wishing they'd start dating.

This time last year... I had random, crazy reaction to a medication I've taken before.

This time last year... all of the hard work that d did was wiped away in one injury.

This time last year... I kept telling myself over and over and over that everything happens for a reason. (right?)

This time last year... we were getting ready to move back to Oregon.

This time last year... we were surprised (understatement) to learn that a little bird was soon to be on her way.


This time... I am the happiest I've probably ever been.

This time... I'm counting down the days until I get to see e and c again. (11 to go!) And I'm over the moon, tickled, thrilled that they're now married.

This time... all of d's hard work and sacrifice paid off in a huge way.

This time... all I can think about is how things happen for a reason, and someone else knows of a bigger plan than I do.

This time... we're starting to plan our move to our next station in Mobile, Alabama.

This time... I have an almost 3-month-old (what!?!) birdie sitting contently in my lap as I type this, chewing on her soft, chubby hands.


What a difference a year makes.

Moving: It's What We Do

Literally.

I feel like it's ALL we do. Especially lately. Granted that last move was one of those thing life throws at you.

And here we are, two months post- last move, in the middle of packing up our house to place in storage for the remainder of the year. (For the record I just unpacked the last box from the last move about a week ago... *she says through gritted teeth*) Military orders are not something you can argue with so away we go into a whirlwind of boxes, closing up loose ends and figuring out logistics. 

With this move we have more control... which I thought I would enjoy more, but alas, it made things SO much harder. D's command, aware of my impending due date, presented us with a few options for D to go back to school: 

1. Report in early August
2. Report in October
3. Report in January

Option number 3 was automatically out for us. I would never want D and Birdie to bond and then rip them apart for months and months when she doesn't understand. Long story short- we decided to go with option number 1. For our family, it's better for us to move asap, get me (and pups) down to family in California, and have D take off and come back while Birdie is still little. D will most likely miss her birth as he reports a week before my official due date. (I don't know why is surprises me that he selflessly sacrificed missing her birth to make sure that she and I were well taken care of... but it does in a way. And makes me fall even more in love with him.)

While this whole situation is not fun for both of us we keep reminding ourselves that both of our families are getting an opportunity to be around Birdie in her very first moments, days, weeks, etc., that they previously would not have had. We're also reminding ourselves that there are many, many other military families that have dealt with this before, and most for longer periods of time.

Our next task is to figure out how to condense our stuff, dog stuff and baby stuff into our subie for the 12 hour drive. Did I mention I'll be pushing 38 weeks, too? True story. We will be saying adieu to Oregon and hello to sunny California by the end of this week!