Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down - #1

The idea for this weekly post came from my childhood. When I was little, after we said nighttime prayers, we would all tell the good thing and bad thing that happened to us that day. If we had a bad day, it was a really good way to focus on the positives and sometimes we didn't have any bad things. I definitely plan on continuing this tradition when my kids are old enough!

UP:

• We can officially say that it is less than two months until Mike comes home! I can't believe it! It really has been hard without him. It helped being home with my parents for a couple of months and with Mike's family for almost two weeks, but since we've come home from our travels, time is not passing as quickly. Well I should say, the days go by VERY slowly, but the weeks seem to go by fast. At any rate, the end is in sight!
• I'm sure that I am biased on this one, but my Jackson boy is one smart kiddo! I think each day he learns 5-10 new words and now he is starting to connect dots between all sorts of concepts. For example, we were reading Brown Bear and were on the page with the blue horse. Jackson runs over and grabs his little Humpty Dumpty book, turns to the page that says, "all the king's horses," points and says "horse" then says "nay." I was super impressed!
• The hardest task each week is going to church with an active toddler. It normally wouldn't be so bad, but our church is under renovation and the cry room is closed. The only place to go with a fussy little one is outside. Not to mention that the a/c has been either turned off or barely working which makes mass hard for this insulated Mama! We switched mass times and have been going on Saturday night which works out much better. The up to this is that for the past two weeks Jackson has done really well! It's good to know that he can make it through mass without a tantrum and had the cry room not been closed, I probably never would have discovered it!

Down:

• Insomnia! I am having the hardest time getting sleep at night these days. I go to bed at a decent hour, but baby Kennedy doesn't seem to get the memo that it's bedtime. I can't find a comfortable position to sleep in where she is not doing acrobatics in my belly. Then once I finally get sleep for about an hour, I have to get up and go to the bathroom. Then I'm dragging the next morning/day and can't seem to get motivated to get around. To top it off, I've never been a napper unless I'm sick. I've tried multiple times to nap while Jackson naps during the day to "catch up" on lost sleep, but to no avail. Please pray for better sleep!
• Jackson is to the point that he understands right from wrong. In fact, when he does something he shouldn't he comes up to me, shakes his finger, and says, "no, no, no." Then he leads you right to whatever he did that he wasn't supposed to. However, when it comes to disciplining him, the kid does NOT listen. I tell him not to do something dozens of times over and he still goes back and does it again. I've resorted to time outs in the high chair facing the wall. Hopefully he will get the idea and start listening soon. The other issue is keeping a straight face because some of the time it is just so hilarious, I can't help but laugh!

In other news - Mike sent this to us in an e-mail this week and I thought I'd share it with everyone. Thankfully Mike is not growing a mustache like everyone else in the squadron! Here is what he said in the e-mail:

They're doing a USO tour out here right now, and Karl Malone and David Blaine (magician/illusionist) wanted to come out and see the jets.  It was pretty awesome.  I got to shake Karl Malone's hand a take a picture with him.  I didn't shake David Blaine's hand, because I saw him do some "tricks" and was quite sure that he's possessed.  They both got to sign a bomb and thought it was cool.  They were really down to earth guys, and you could tell that they were having a good time.  Jon Stewart is out here as well, but he wasn't able to make it over to see the jets.