My little Super Hero

A couple of weeks ago (I just got the pics loaded in, so you are getting this story late), My Mom got Gunner a "Super Why" costume to wear for Halloween. She made the mistake of asking him to try it on so she could hem it...he then (naturally) refused to take it off and wanted to wear it all the time.

After taking it on and off a few times, it started to get a hole in it (kids Halloween costumes are not made for wear and tear). I told him we had to send it out for repairs, and it would be back for Halloween. Needless to say, this did not go over so well....so in the midst of the tears and whining, I made the dumb promise only a Mother trying to appease her preschooler would make "I will go buy you another super hero costume while you are at school today". So there I am, in the middle of a Nor'easter (really bad rain storm for you west coast folk), searching through K-mart for a 4T superhero costume with a mask (HAD to have a mask) before most of the costumes had even been put out. I was able to find a 5T Spiderman costume, after much frantic digging through overstuffed racks, so I settled for that.

Luckily, after the initial disappointment of not having another "Super Why" costume waiting for him after school; and me telling him how incredibly cool Spiderman is (he had no idea who Spiderman was), he tried it on.

Well, for the next week he wore that thing EVERYWHERE, I had to tell him that the school would kick him out if he wore it there,in order to get him to put on his regular clothes to go to school. However, I had to have it ready for him to put on as soon as he got home from school. When I picked him up from preschool, he would not say hi; the first thing out of his mouth was "we go to the new house and put on my Spiderman costume, THEN we can....(do whatever we had planned that afternoon)". I had to wash it every night after he went to sleep (after explaining the first night, amidst tears, that he could not put the dirty thing back on again after his bath and sleep in it). I had to endure "Hi Spiderman, don't scale the walls" from every person at the mall, supermarket, park and drugstore that week...but he was happier than could be. This is a pic of him on the way to the grocery store, in the rain.

I LOVE that he had to wear it with his green crocs and insisted on carrying around my pink umbrella on the day it rained (I have tried getting him to use another umbrella, but he will only use my pink one w/ white polka dots. I told him it was lost one day and he informed me that "Mommy has to find it, I can't use the black umbrella"...maybe he picked up something from Mikie when he was here!). I find this all hysterical, because he is totally not the kid that cares what he wears, he never shows interest in picking his clothes. I swear, it started with those crocs, they were the first thing he owned that he insisted on wearing all the time and now who knows what's next!

Anyway, on a final note, I got a cool idea from another Mom...after Halloween I am going to buy up some marked down costumes and put them in a trunk for him for X-mas...although this will probably mean I will be going to the mall with a pirate, superman and a cowboy in the new year, I thought it was a brilliant idea!

Why does it bother me....

Ok, I made a friend at my church who I like for many reasons...she likes some of the same things I do, she has a son just about Hudson's age and she is easy to have a conversation with...BUT, she is constantly complaining about how difficult her life is because she works.

On two other occasions she has said "Well, it is really hard for me because if Carson gets up in the night, then I have to get up for work the next day and be tired all day" and "Sometimes I think the military life is so easy" (because we have free healthcare and a lot of the wives stay home with their kids). At our housewarming yesterday she told me that she was expecting again; and when she said how much more tired she was during this pregnancy because she has her son too, I told her I totally understood, that it is much harder the second time around. She says "Yeah, but I work too". Now, I WANTED to say"You are a F-ing gym teacher and your Mom comes during the school year and LIVES with you so you won't have to take Carson to daycare...are you kidding me! What do you think I do all day, watch Oprah and sip Chardonnay!!!!" What I DID say was "I work all day every day" and she says "I know, I did it this summer"..What I WANTED to say "ok, are you kidding me...I have a 3 1/2 year old and a 1 year old and I have been doing this for 3 1/2 years...2 months at home with a 14 month old, who has a naturally easy disposition, is like a walk in the park!!! " What I DID say "staying at home with one is not hard all the time, staying at home with two is hard ALL THE TIME". I know it is terrible, but I hope her second kid has colic and is like Gunner on his very worst of days, every day. Why do I care what she thinks anyway!!!

Hudson's 1st B-day

We kept Hudson's 1st Birthday small...no theme, no food shaped like animals, and cupcakes made from a box of cake mix. Naturally the kids had just as much fun as the parties where I invite more kids, have crafts planned and make cakes that take me hours on end. I mean really, who do we do all that stuff for anyway, them or us? Remind me I said that after Gunner's 4th B-day when I am back to themes and decorations and all the other craziness! Anyway, Hudson had fun..we put the ball pit outside, which they all had some fun with!

He had fun playing in the yard, but looked a little confused by the festivities at times!

His favorite part of the party was playing with his favorite person (other than Mom & Dad) Mr. Terry, Marley & Mclayne's dad. Even after he was away on deployment for 3 months, Hudson remembered him.He is the only person he has repeatedly fallen asleep on, and Terry can get Hudson to laugh and reach for him, no matter what kind of mood Hudson is in!

I don't know how he does it, but I wish I could bottle it!

After a little playtime outside, we went inside for "CUPCAKE TIME" as the older kids called it. Hudson was pretty happy to be getting so much attention and definitely got into his cupcake...no tears what-so-ever!

He literally ate the entire cupcake, while barely coming up for air! This is what I get for feeding my kids all healthy foods and no candy and sweets (except on special occasions). They then inhale the sweets as if they are going to be stolen away from them at any moment!

We are in!

We are officially moved into our new house, if, by moved in, you mean still unable to locate critical items in various boxes littered throughout the new house.



I am just excited that I am officially on-line again after a week & 1/2 battle with Cavalier telephone (I quote "well, when you said your phone service hadn't been transferred, you didn't tell us there wasn't a dial tone...I mean it says on my screen it was done 2 days ago, I will have to transfer you to tech support..please HOLD")! I thought moving a block away would be a no-brainer, but I forgot that I was used to the Navy packing all my boxes for me during the last 3 moves. This time, I had to pack every single box all by myself...I wish I was exaggerating, but, I am not. My hubby started a new job working as the COS (Chief of Staff for you non-military types or for those of you who can't keep up with all those annoying Navy acronyms) for the East Coast EOD Commodore...lets just say that it is demanding, so he has been getting home anywhere from 6:30 - 8:00, often taking calls at home and doing work on days off too. All I have to say is, he better screen for command after this! So there wasn't much time for him to help me out..thus he packed 2 boxes and I packed somewhere around 500 (Ok, I might be exaggerating, but, it certainly felt like that much).


Anyway, we are in and I feel so blessed to be here. The house reminds me of something out of "Ann of Green Gables"...just picturesque and tranquil. My friend Alicia called it "the oasis" and it certainly is for us. I wake up every morning and have my coffee on the back deck, watching the lake and the occasional Blue Heron, before starting my Mommy duties. Lenny said that being able to buy this house made every sacrifice we have ever made to invest, and save, worth it. He is right. We sit outside at night with a glass of wine every chance we get, and I can barely keep Gunner in the house because he wants to be on the playground, in the pool or visiting and feeding the fish in the koi pond (his favorite being the catfish, because of what exuberant eaters they are..he was splashed head to toe one day because he can't throw the food far enough into the pond, so they have to fight to get it in the shallow water...he looked a little scared until I started laughing then he said "I funny Mommy, the scary catfish splash me!").


This is a shot of the front of the house, although you can't see the garage / garage apt. off to the right side and you can't tell that we are at the end of a long gravel driveway, so we can't see the street.



This is a pic of the lake view from our back deck, we are on a bigger finger of the lake, but it gets much wider in the middle. Many people have boats / water skis etc. (we are too poor for that right now..but maybe one day!)

This is a pic of the back of the house from the lake, the fence on the left is where the pool / pool deck & hot tub are.
Now, in case it sounds as if my life is a greeting card, I can assure you we have also had our growing pains! We are learning the joys of moving into an older home (built 1940) that was owned by people who must have been sensory deprived. The first thing I noticed was the overwhelming odor in the laundry room, it smelled as if something had died and then their cat had peed on it...repeatedly peed on it. I am not sure how they tolerated it in there, but I was gagging, so that was project #1. My poor husband spent our first full weekend in the house pulling everything out of the room, cleaning it and painting it....and, lucky for me, he located the source of said odor. The former owner's cat had dragged a dead bird behind the washer and left it there to decompose, and they NEVER NOTICED!!! Couple this with the fact that we needed to power wash pretty much everything and get an exterminator to come twice to get rid of the very troublesome ant problem...we were exhausted by the end of week 1. By the way, if I could have figured out how to use the power washer inside the kitchen, I would have, I had layers of grime to clean off...the cabinets were a different color when I was done...seriously!


I actually feel sorry for Tracy, who came to visit with her boys, 4 days after we moved in, because her hubby was in town on Navy business. I was yelling at Cavalier telephone when she pulled up and was generally frazzled and stressed out..luckily I think that Mikie and Gunner had fun (even if Mikie kept calling Gunner Jacob, which was hysterical). Naturally it was Gunner who almost slipped into the koi pond showing them his fish (resulting in the very firmly held "stay off the rocks" rule he now thankfully follows). Anyway, it was nice to see someone from the Whidbey days and hopefully some of Tracy's pics turned out because I was not sure where my camera was in the move chaos.

Well, that is all for now, I have pics from Hudson's one year party, but they might have to wait til another day, because the natives are getting restless and ready for quiet / nap time to be over....