Gifts from Daddy

I'm trying to keep Mike incorporated in as much of our daily life as possible while he is away. I have pictures posted around the house and I just framed some pictures of him with the kids for Ryan and Caitlin's bedrooms. I also spent time last week videotaping Mike with the kids so they can watch Daddy on TV.

Now that he's gone, we're already looking forward to his Homecoming. I started an M&M countdown jar - the kids will get to eat an M&M each day and when they are gone, Daddy is home! And lastly, I'm going to give them little gifts every month that Daddy "sends." In reality, Mommy is secretly buying them because I don't know how great the toy selection will be in Bahrain or some other foreign port! I'm hoping this will help mark the time passage as well.

This morning, the kids woke up to notes from Daddy and their first special gifts. Ryan got Fearless Freddie, a Thomas train and Cait got a Tigger which is already treating like a new baby.

Since they don't really have a good concept of time, I'm certain the time will pass quickly for them. We have a couple of fun trips planned this summer - to Whistler and the Washington Coast. I'm hoping to get away - ALONE - to go see my girlfriends in the LA area for a few days. I'm trying to come up with fun things to do every couple of weeks so we have things to look forward to.

Let the countdown begin!

Our goodbyes are done. Whew! Tomorrow morning, Mike's ship (the one on the right) will head west.

The last couple of weeks have been so emotionally draining that saying our final goodbye was a relief. Tonight, I'm working on my to-do list of things I want to accomplish when Mike is gone. I should be able to get a lot done in the next seven months.

Let the countdown begin!

What I'm looking forward to

According to a typical military career cycle, we're lucky that this is only Mike's second deployment. Usually, soldiers and sailors face deployments every couple of years - sometimes for as long as 15 months. Mike hasn't deployed in five years. Last time he deployed, we were living in San Diego, we'd been married just over a year, and had no children - my, how things have changed in five years!

I wouldn't change a thing about our life - even though it is difficult at times. The military has provided our family opportunities that probably wouldn't have been possible under other circumstances. We've lived in places I never imagine we would live and we have dear friends all across the country. Mike had his undergraduate and graduate degrees fully funded. I'm thankful for that - and I'm really trying to remember how grateful I am right now - when I'm sad that Mike is gone.

But, instead of being sad, I'm focusing on Homecoming. It's an amazing experience. The excitement is unrivaled - the emotions felt while standing on the pier, watching the ship pull in truly cannot be described. It's incredible. And then, when your loved one gets off the ship - again, I cannot describe it - it takes your breath away!

I found a picture of last time Mike came home. I thought I'd share it with you - looking at it brings a smile to my face.

And the verdict is...

...a second bout of the stomach flu. I took Caitlin to her pediatrician yesterday, just to make sure nothing else is going on in her little tummy. The doctor feels like she coincidentally (and unfortunately!) got a second case of the flu. She is starting to eat a little bit, but still acts quite lethargic. She has lost 2 pounds since her 18 month check up - thank goodness the girl has some chub to spare! On top of the stomach yucks, we are battling colds too - when will it end?!

We do love the wet, wild, windy Washington weather (how's that for alliteration?!) for one reason: Mike's imminent departure has been delayed by a day. He is scheduled to leave on Friday now - we'll take any extra time we can get!

Monday morning blues

We're sick...again.

Poor Miss Caitlin has the stomach flu for the second time in two weeks! She started getting sick, in the car of all places, Saturday afternoon and although she has stopped throwing up, she is barely eating anything. I'm taking her to the pediatrician tomorrow to make sure there isn't anything else going on. And in regards to the throwing up in the car, if anyone has tips for cleaning a suede purse, I would appreciate them. Right now, it's too yucky to even take to the dry cleaners!

Thankfully, no one else has come down with it this time. I'm praying the rest of us stay healthy - I don't think I can deal with another extended stomach flu bug. Ryan appears to be fine. He is reaping the benefits of having a sick sister - lots of TV time. I've tried banishing him to his bedroom for some train time, but he always finds his way back in front of the TV!

In other news, Mike is leaving on Thursday. I added a countdown to his return to the sidebar - only 200 some days until he comes home. Ugh - that makes me sick to my stomach.

Those crazy McGee kids...

Here are few more pictures from our pint-sized exhibitionist. Caitlin always wakes up in the morning with her PJs slightly unzipped and the zipper just keeps comin' down! Here is Caitlin brewing my morning coffee in her kitchen.

And here she is drawing pictures...she was shortly dressed after this picture. :)

Ryan has some crazy antics of his own...namely wearing Mommy's shoes. Here is wearing my boots, with a heel. He enjoyed the challenge of walking around the house in these babies!

Homemade bread - YUM!

A couple of months ago, I was inspired by something I read and decided to try my hand at making homemade bread. I bought a used bread maker off of Craig's List, so if my bread making wasn't successful, I wasn't out a lot of dough. Ha Ha - pun intended!

I haven't bought a loaf of bread since I started baking my own. It's so much tastier and it's really easy to throw it in the bread maker. I've only attempted making wheat bread with this awesome recipe, but I might branch out soon and try other recipes. The recipe I use doesn't include directions for a bread maker, but it's really easy. I just put the machine on the dough cycle, add the ingredients in the order listed, and turn on the machine. I only use the machine to mix and knead the dough. After the dough cycle ends, I put the dough in a loaf pan, cover it and let it rise for another 20 minutes in a warm place, and then bake it at 350 for 30 minutes.

One of Ryan's favorite snacks is "fresh, warm bread," right out of the oven. Yum!

Fun food find

Thanks to my good friend, Christina, we now have yummy, nutritious, organically grown produce delivered right to our door!

The Organic Produce Shoppe (www.organicproduceshoppe.com) is operated by Stanwood's Klesick Family Farm and provides a weekly drop-off service to families throughout Snohomish County. Each week, we receive an assortment of produce - it's fun to see what is going to be delivered. Today our delivery included: baby spinach, red leaf lettuce, cauliflower, tangelos, oranges, apples, blueberries, an onion, an English cucumber, and a tomato. I enjoy the challenge of incorporating the delivery into my weekly meals. And the best part of the whole deal is the home delivery - one less trip to the grocery store is TOTALLY worth it for me!

Showing a little skin

I simply ran upstairs to try and use the bathroom - alone - and I heard Ryan yell, "Mom, Caitlin is standing on the table with her shirt off."

By the time I made it downstairs (with camera in hand because I couldn't miss this photo-op) she decided to sit on the table - which is still a 'no-no' in our house. I had to snap a few pictures of her before asking her to get down - some good blackmail material for her teenage years!

Here she is again, victoriously waving her hands in the air. I know what she is thinking - 'Yes! I've defeated mommy yet again!'

Oh - and Ryan wasn't complety innocent in this whole ordeal. He helped Caitlin take off her shirt because she was 'hot.' Umm, not very believable!

If you haven't gathered from my recent posts who the challenging child is - here's one more from the 'archives' to make things very clear! I think this was another trip upstairs - with Ryan saying, "Mom, Caitlin's standing on the piano!" They certainly keep us on our toes!

Spring has sprung in Washington!

Like father, like son

Ryan loves "working" in the yard with Mike. Here they are pushing their wheelbarrows.

On a completely unrelated note, if anyone has tips for potty-training a very stubborn three-year old, PLEASE share them with us!!

The wonders of Tylenol

Caitlin is running a little fever today...following a couple days of a stomach bug, lucky us! Here she is on the couch this morning watching Blue's Clues. She looked so sad - it made my heart break!
Not even two hours later, following a dose of Tylenol, Caitlin was running around the backyard! It's amazing how quickly they perk up after some drugs! Hopefully she'll still be feeling good after she wakes up from nap!

Not-so-noteworthy news

Only two more weeks until I celebrate the big 3-0. Time to say goodbye to my twenties! I had big plans to accomplish all sorts of things before this big birthday, but the only thing I have accomplished is being published - I guess that's an accomplishment.

Caitlin has entered the "throwing everything" phase - and she's got quite an arm. Today at lunch, she was launching apple slices across the room.

I registered Ryan for preschool in the fall. How did he get so old? He'll be attending a great little preschool at our church. I'm excited for him - he'll love it.

Mike is spending his "vacation" tearing up our backyard. Anyone want to help him (and Ryan) dig up some pesky ground cover? :)

I'm going to compete in the Danskin triathlon in August. I'm going to my first spinning class at the Y tomorrow -- gotta get my seat ready for bike riding. Ouch!

First Haircut

Today (in anticipation of a family portrait scheduled for tomorrow), we decided to cut Caitlin's hair. It was time to say goodbye to the blonde wisps of baby hair and opt for a more manageable (and more uniform) bob. I was fearing the worst as I strapped her into the bright, red airplane at the kids' hair salon. Her lips started quivvering and tears rolled down her face, but after I pulled out her baby and her beloved paci, she was surprisingly well-behaved. Her new 'do looks awfully cute and here wild mullet exists no more!

Angel baby

As Caitlin approaches the grand age of two, she's turned to some not-so-angelic behavior. I snapped this picture the other day and she looks so sweet to me. I don't mean to imply that she isn't sweet, but most of my time is spent telling her "no" and having her react in the following ways:

1. Walking the other direction.

2. Laughing at me.

3. Continuing to do whatever she was doing.

4. Pretending she doesn't hear me.

5. Smiling coyly to try and win me over with her charm.

Although she's a little, walking challenge with her own opinions, she still appears angelic in pictures!

Our "new" family member

Ryan has a dear friend, a duck named Mallard, who many of you may have met. We introduced Ryan and Mallard a couple of years ago, when we were desperate to get Ryan sleeping through the night. Mallard seemed to help. Since then, Mallard has a place reserved in Ryan's big boy bed, silently spending the night nestled in the crook of Ryan's elbow.

But a couple of days ago, things changed. Mallard talks. Ryan will be in his room playing and I'll hear this conversation.

Ry: Hey, let's pick out some books.

Mallard: Quack, quack, QWACK!

Ry: Oh, you want to read the tiger book?

Mallard: QWACK.

Mallard has an opinion about lots of things now. He'll spontaneously "quack" at the TV and he loves "quacking" to the Veggie Tales in the car. Ryan wants to take him everywhere, but he's forbidden to leave the house. It would be tragic to misplace the little fella.

The worst part about the whole thing is that Mallard doesn't quack like a normal duck. He screeches and whines and shrieks. It's very bizarre...and annoying to the other members of our family (especially mommy!).

So, we'll endure this phase, as it shall pass...hopefully sooner rather than later. I'm not sure how much more QWACK I can take!

The Chicken House

First, a little background...

Since he could talk, Ryan has affectionately referred to McDonald's as "The Chicken House." I have no idea where he came up with it, but I don't correct him because I'd much rather have him call the Golden Arches by some obscure name than blurting out, "I want to go to McDonald's!"

Fast forward to this morning...

At almost 20 months old, Caitlin is starting to repeat everything - every word, every gesture...everything that we do. She is particularly interested in her big brother. She follows him around the house - singing if he is singing, jumping if he is jumping. Apparently she is also listening closely to everything he is saying.

This morning, as we were driving to Stroller Strides, she got very excited and started pointing out the window. I turned to look at what she found so exciting and of course, it was The Chicken House. After pointing for a bit, in her little, not-so-clear voice, I hear her saying, "House! House! House!" So, in her very limited vocabulary, she has essentially added, "McDonald's." I'm so proud of her! Ha!

Bring on Spring!

There was a small window of time last Friday afternoon when the sun peeked through the clouds and it was warm enough (in the low 40s) to spend some time outside, so we got adventurous and headed to our community park. The kids had a blast, but our fun was short-lived. As soon as we got there, black clouds started rolling in. We played for a bit, but didn't want to get caught unprepared in a rain storm. I'm getting anxious for Spring!


And, here's an unrelated, slightly crude, story that I just had to share. We're in the midst of potty-training Ryan and I think Caitlin is more interested in the whole process than he is. She is his biggest cheerleader when he successful "goes" on the potty and she's right there checking things out when he doesn't quite make it and needs a diaper change. Today, we had one successful poop and one not-so-successful poop. Caitlin was "hooray-ing" him this morning and hovering over him this afternoon as we changed his Pull-Up. She's just starting to talk and this is what she had to say about the whole ordeal. "Yuck...oh, wow!...poop." She's a girl of few words, but she certainly tells it like it is.

At it again...

After a year-long hiatus, I've decided to resurrect our family blog. With Mike gone nearly all the time, I thought this would be a great way to keep in touch with him, as well as our family and friends throughout the country. Check back often for pictures, stories, recipes, etc.

In the meantime, here's a picture of our two little Seahawk fans. Compare this pic to 7-month old Caitlin's sweet, cherubic face in the post below! They have both changed so much in a year!

Caitlin's funny face

Here's Caitlin's latest funny face. It's hysterical. She'll make it when she gets really excited about something. Usually it will appear when she is playing with Ryan or eating fruit and oatmeal - two things she really enjoys!

She has some other new tricks too - saying ma-ma-ma-ma and da-da-da-da, in addition to the ba-ba-ba-ba we've heard for the last month or so. She's also trying her hardest to be mobile, but it's a challenge with all of her chub! She's rolling from front to back and back to front, but she hasn't mastered consecutive rolls to actually travel somewhere. When on her tummy, she's starting to push herself up and lift her bum, but then she slides backwards, which results in frustration since she's farther away from the object she was trying to reach! Her loves to play with anything that is not a toy - Daddy's baseball hat, diapers, magazines, etc. She sleeps through the night most nights, which is a treat for mommy and daddy! She's fighting a bit of a cold, but she's still a sweet and content little girl who is very, very smiley.

SNOW!

We finally got SNOW! Earlier this week, we got about 3 inches of snow. Ryan enjoyed putting on all of his new snow gear and throwing snow balls. It didn't stick around long enough to make a snowman, but it was fun while it lasted. Now, we're back to sunshine and 20 degree days!

Bathing in Unison!

Tonight, Caitlin joined Ryan in the big bathtub! She took a late nap so she was still up and at 'em at 7pm. It was a lot of fun for both of them! Caitlin loved playing with all of Ryan's Finding Nemo toys - we've never given her bath toys, so she thought they were pretty great!

Best buddies

Ryan and Caitlin are finally beginning to pay attention to each other. It's so much fun! They'll play next to each other on the floor - I have to watch Caitlin because Ryan gives her Matchbox cars to "play" with, although they end up in her mouth! And, after every nap, Ryan goes into Cait's room to say hello and then he wants to sit next to her in the glider. I can only hope that they'll continue to want to be around each other as they get older!

Playing at home

Caitlin loves the exersaucer. Ryan loves having all of his toys again! It's so cold here that we spend a lot of time indoors.

7 Months Old

Our little lady is 7 months old - unbelievable! Here's a picture of her in the bathtub last night (before I wiped away the sweet potatoes!) She LOVES food - especially rice cereal. She lunges at the spoon when we're feeding her. We just started fruits and veggies last week - so far she loves her sweet potatoes and apples...up next are carrots, peas, bananas, and pears.

Wild woman

Caitlin has inherited her big brother's crazy hair! It's just about as blonde as Ryan's was - and stands on end! I think she's entering an awkward hair stage - it'll probably be pretty wild until it's long enough to comb it. There still isn't enough to try and put a barrette in it...and I'm not a fan of baby headbands, so she'll be going au natural for awhile! I guess she'll just always look "wind swept."

Caitlin's nursery

Caitlin's nursery is complete, too! For the first time in her seven-month existence, she has her own room! Yea! The poor girl has been relegated to a pack 'n' play in our bedroom since birth. It's a perfect place for our little girl! A big thank you to Grandma Barb for making the quilt and bedskirt.

Big boy bedroom

Ryan's room is FINALLY finished! I just hung the last picture tonight while he was in the bathtub. Here's his new big boy bed - complete with transportation sheets and special pillows - Bob the Builder and emergency vehicles. Ryan was in a crib up until two weeks ago when we made our big move. The day we moved into our new house, Ryan moved into his new bed. It was quite traumatic - for all of us. There were many days last week when I was convinced that he was never going to sleep again. He didn't go to sleep until 12am and would wake up at 6am. We were all a bit delirious with sleep deprivation. Thankfully, he's gotten the hang of it!

Rolls

Caitlin had her 6-month check-up this week and tipped the scales at 19lbs. 13 oz. You can tell by this picture (and all of her rolls) that she is a very healthy eater. She looks as if she is preparing for a baby sumo competition!!

At 6 1/2 months, she was still not rolling over and I expressed that concern to the pediatrician. He said (as politely as possible) that "bigger" babies sometimes take longer because their "rolls" get in the way!! She must have been offended by his comments because yesterday, she finally began to roll over! The problem now is that she'll roll over onto her belly and then get mad because she hasn't figured out how to roll back. Last night, we'd hear her screaming and go into her room and she'd rolled over in the crib, gotten stuck, and woke up angry! I'm sure rolling the other way will come soon!

Christmas 2006

We had a very special Christmas this year in Seattle. It was so nice to be able to celebrate with ALL of our family - grandmas, grandpas, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. We feel very blessed that both of our families are in the same community!

At 26 months, Ryan just started to understand the concept of Christmas - well, he understood the present aspect, not the true meaning. He did run around singing, "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus" - and happy birthday to Daddy, too - which makes things even more confusing!

He loved opening presents, but was a bit overwhelmed. When he opened a gift, he wanted to play with that particular toy. He didn't want to continue opening presents. He is very loved by all his grandparents and aunts and uncles - he made out with an entire fleet of Tonka vehicles, and many other cars, trucks, trains, etc. - a 2-year old boy's dream!!

Caitlin was Caitlin - happy and content to take in everything and occasionally chew on some wrapping paper if she could get her hands on it!!

We hope that you and your family had a blessed Christmas season!

Another Monterey favorite

Here's a picture of Ryan at our other favorite park - the Tot Lot. It's wonderful - we go there at least three times a week. It's a perfect park for an active 2-year old! It has a fun structure to climb on, rubberized ground cover, grass for soccer, a "forest" of trees to explore...and best of all, it's completely fenced in. Ryan loves it because there is so much to play with...I love it because I can visit with my friends, drink a cup of coffee and relax because he can't escape!

Bath time

Check out those rolls!
Caitlin LOVES her baths!

We'll miss the park!

I've been taking my camera everywhere to try and capture Ryan and Caitlin doing the things the love to do in Monterey, so we have pictures we can share with them as the get older.

One of our favorite places is a little park near our house. It's an easy 10 minute walk away, and it has a great play structure for Ryan, it's always deserted and it has a car track. Ryan LOVES driving his cars around the track - he could do this for hours on end.

I know we'll find other parks in RI and WA, but this little park will always be special!

Caitlin is officially rolling from tummy to back!

Caitlin first rolled over on October 6th, but it didn't happen again until Halloween. Today, every time I put her on her tummy, she was flipping over onto her back. She doesn't like being on her tummy - she likes to be on her back where she can grab at her toys.

On a side note, Ryan told me I had a "beautiful belly button" yesterday. His expanding vocabulary results in some very funny comments!

Halloween pictures

I know I haven't posted since before Caitlin's birth, but I figure now is as good of time as any to start up again! I'll try to "retroactively" post some pictures of the summer, but I'm going to start with some Halloween pics.

Ryan went as a cow. We went with some friends to an early toddler trick-or-treat. He loved ringing the doorbell and saying "Trick or Treat." He especially liked doing it once he realized that people were going to give him candy.