Week Fourteen: The home stretch

Well, we've done it!  We made it through basic training! Brandon graduates on Wednesday.   And I fly out of here within mere hours. We are done!  We still don't know when Brandon is coming home, or where his next duty station is, but those are just minor details compared to the fact that we are done with the hard part.

On Tuesday Brandon got his cell phone back.  He's had it basically all week.  We've chatted on the phone every night.  And we've texted each other through out the days and nights.  After months of limited communication it is so wonderful to have the privilege of talking to each other.  It's amazing to me that I can think of a question and then have an answer within a short amount of time.  Seeing him in person is going to be unreal.    

So what did we do at home during this last week?  Not much really.  I was sick on Monday, and then on Tuesday Derrick was really clingy and cranky.  He wouldn't let me put him down.  He would only fall asleep in my arms. And he didn't want to eat much.  It was so out of character for him.  Check out this picture.  You can tell he's not feeling well because he's not sporting his usual grin.

Derrick was still acting odd on Wednesday.  But thankfully I was at my parents most of the day.  I was able to hold (and nap) with Derrick while my mom wrangled the twins.  We were there because my sister Hillary was going to open her mission call that night.  My mom was happy for the distraction.  

Hillary was called to serve in the Louisville, Kentucky mission.  She leaves in April.  Me and my brother were able to be there in person and my other sisters joined us via skyp.  Here is our family picture.  I just have to add that this is a terrible picture of me.  I'm only posting it here because I've already been tagged in it on facebook so most of you have seen it anyway.  Plus it shows what a toll Derrick's clingyness took on my ability to make myself presentable.  And you can see that he still is not feeling well because he still is not smiling. 

On Thursday Derrick finally fell asleep in his crib and slept for 4 hours.  He was awake for 2 hours and then went back down for another 4 hour nap.  When he woke up again he was back to his happy self.  Later 3 new teeth popped out of his gums bringing the total to four new teeth - 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom.  It's so nice to have my happy little buddy back.  Here he is showing off that he can pull himself up to a standing position.  See he's feeling better, the grin is back.  

 We've been going through the clothes that my aunt gave the kids.  Charlotte and Lydia found some sunglasses in one of the boxes.  They loved them and put them on immediately.

On Saturday we spent most of the day cleaning the house and getting it ready for my parents/Brandon's parents to come babysit the kids.  (BTW I am so happy that the kids are getting watched at home.  I didn't have to worry about packing any of the kids' stuff.)

We cleaned out the fridge because I didn't want my mom or my mother-in-law to know how much food I let go to waste.  Charlotte and Lydia love helping clean the fridge.  They think it is such a fun game.  We look under the lids of tupperware and scream EW, EW, EW and throw it away.  

Both girls were big helpers with the laundry and picking up toys.  Charlotte especially loves to help.  She's added "feeding Derrick" to the list of things that she likes to do.  She's actually pretty good at it - until Derrick steals the spoon and wont give it back.

 The girls have started tag teaming me with nap/bed time.  It seems like only one of them will take a nap while the other stays up.  Then around 5:00 pm the non-napper falls asleep on the couch.  At bedtime that one is wide awake while the other goes to sleep.  I've started to let the wide awake one get up and hang out with me and whatever I'm doing.  That one is usually up until 11:00 pm or so. It's turning into a problem that I'll deal with when I get back from Georgia.  In the meantime I've enjoyed some one on one time with each kid.

One day Lydia was asleep while Charlotte was awake.  Charlotte wanted to go outside.  I told her no, but after she put her coat on BY HERSELF I figured this was pretty important to her.  Derrick was awake so he came with us and we went outside.  After playing around for a little bit I decided that we would go on a walk to the 7-11 next to our complex.  We had a free redbox code that I wanted to redeem.  Charlotte was so grown up.  She held my hand on the way there.  And she carried the movie on the way back.  It was a fun little adventure for all of us.  Well except Lydia who slept the whole time.

Sometimes when I hang out with Charlotte I feel kind of bad for her. Most oldest children get a few years of alone time with their moms.  Charlotte is happy with 5 or 10 uninterrupted minutes.  I don't think she minds though, with two younger siblings she always has someone to play with.

The other day Charlotte was being quiet for a long time.  I went to check on her and couldn't find her right away.  Then I finally found her in the corner of her closet.  She was reading books to herself.  I love this little girl so much.

Our movie night this week was Toy Story 2.  We own the other two Toy Story movies.  I picked this one up at the library.  When I showed the girls they started jumping up and down and saying "Toys, Movie, Popcor, Cookie."  So, even though it was 4:00pm we had movie night right away.  It's amazing how much they have developed over the past three months.  When we did our first movie night they hardly paid attention to the movie.  Now they were engrossed in watching and talking about what was going on.

The non-stop movie of the week this week wasn't a Toy Story movie though.  It was the movie "Enchanted" The girls call it the "prin-ess" movie. (Often confused with Tangled, the other "prin-ess" movie)  We've watched it so many times that Lydia has started mimicking the actions in the "That how she knows" musical number.

Today the kids seemed determined to help me not miss them too much this week.  They woke up early evn though they all were awake until 11:00 pm last night (yeah ALL of them) and then I couldn't get all three of them to take a nap at the same time.  Charlotte slammed her head into me, and Lydia insisted on climbing on me.  (She pointed to me and said "stairs" - no joke)  Derrick even got a little clingy again.

On the other hand, church went really well.  Derrick was very good with his adopted sacrament meeting/Sunday school parents.  Charlotte and Lydia alternated sitting with the Sr missionary couple that sits behind us.  At one point, Lydia was with me but not sitting on me.  She was just drawing by herself.  I could actually listen to the talks without any distractions. I was very happy.

My Sunday School lesson went really well too.  I was so happy when I was done with my lesson.  It was really my last responsibility for the week.  My parents came over after church, and I was done being the only adult in charge.

All I have to do now is take a shower, pack my makeup, go to bed, wake up, and go on vacation!  Boo yah! I'm done!