Catching Up

Wow I haven't sat down to write a blog post in a very long time... I do have to say I miss it. But at the same time, I'm okay with how infrequent posts have been. I've been busy and investing my time wisely and that means this blog takes the back burner.

So here we are today, March 6, 2013. What can I catch up on? Isaac? Deployment? Hailey's Hope? Other "stuff"?

Tomorrow Isaac turns 19 months old so I guess I'll start with him first. He is an absolute delight. He is my sunshine. My laughter. It's hard to not make him my everything. I adore him. I adore my time with him. I absolutely love the age he is at. It by far is my favorite... He is still tiny and cute and has a touch of baby left in him, yet he is a little boy who is running and talking and learning a thousand things a day and I love it.

He is cuddly and snuggly and affectionate. We cuddle on the couch in the morning while he drinks his milk and I watch the news and at night before bath when we watch Happy Feet 2 together (his favorite movie by the way). He hugs and kisses, spontaneously and usually by request. When I put him to bed, I always ask for a "neck squeeze" and he wraps his little arms around my neck and squeezes tight resting his head on my shoulder. Then I ask for a kiss and he gives me a little baby pucker on the lips. It's the sweetest part of our day.

He is friendly yet shy. Of course like most toddlers he thinks he is always the center of attention and wants to be that way most of the time, but he is still a shy, curious, watch from behind mom's legs type of boy who still pops his fingers in his mouth when he's a bit nervous. But he loves people. He doesn't just like saying "Hi" and waving to everyone he sees, he is obsessed and will do it repeatedly until they acknowledge him and say, "Hi" back... When do we start those stranger danger lessons again... He still has separation anxiety but definitely is getting better.

He is silly and goofy. He is all smiles and laughs. He makes me all smiles and laughs.

He is a dare-devil like most boys his age I'd guess. He is very into climbing and is quite ninja like. I've had my fair share of heart attacks the past few months. Thank God he hasn't been seriously injured by any of his dare-devil acts gone wrong. He's been taking a monkeynastics (gymnastics for toddlers) class for a month now which has just upped his antics, but we both really enjoy it. So he's very good at running and climbing, but we're working on jumping - can't quite figure that one out still. We're also working on throwing and how to shoot a basketball. His best friend is bball obsessed and quite the talented toddler - Isaac wants to be like him but doesn't quite have those skills yet. ;)

I also have to say I have the smartest little 19 month old. No really. :) His vocabulary is so impressive to me. I swear he learns so many words a day I can barely keep up and am often surprised by what he knows. Most surprising to me was that he learned the word umbrella last week, though he calls it a "brella." He loves learning about shapes, colors, and counting right now. He always wants me to take his finger in my hand and have him point as I count things. He has been able to identify and say "heart" for awhile. This week he's finally saying "circ" for circle. He knows orange, blue, and pink and can say those fairly well although he calls orange "heart" sometimes too but he knows the difference between the two. He jabbers all the time and will repeat whatever he's saying until I figure out the word and say it for him - sometimes a bit frustrating. Some of his newer words are orzo (we had it for dinner the other day), neck, noise, bath, nap... and I could go on and on but am already writing too much. Oh and he also enjoys pointing to pairs of things and identifying things that are the same. Lately Isaac has been calling out for "Mommy," "Opie," and/or "books" when he goes to sleep or wakes up.

Let's see what else about Isaac... He loves his friends Luke ("Guke") and Emily ("Emi") and loves and is obsessed with Opie our dog... yes again obsessed. Most days 75% of what he talks about is "Opie." He enjoys antagonizing Opie, climbing on him, pulling his tail, chasing him, sometimes hitting him :( but really he loves him - he even kisses and hugs Opie goodnight.

Isaac alternates between an awesome eater and a picky eater which can be frustrating. Speaking of frustrating, he can frustrate easily when playing and something doesn't go quite the way he wants it to - tends to be what sets off a quick tantrum/ temper... trying to work on getting him to stop throwing toys when he gets frustrated and to not bite when he's mad.  He remains tall for his age and skinny for his age based on all those fun percentiles. And yep still has those baby blues with the most gorgeous long eye lashes ever.

Oh and can't forget to mention that Isaac knows daddy flies helicopters.

So speaking of that I'll switch subjects...

We are just over 6 months into the 9 month deployment... Really just over 2 months left if I want to be optimistic. :) It's slow. It's gone fast. Depends on the day. It's been stressful and horrible being a single parent on some days (usually when sickness is involved) but most days we get by with a little a lot of help from the Lord and family and good friends and awesome neighbors. God has sustained me every step of this deployment and I am so very thankful. He provides through and through. And we're making it through okay. But of course, we miss Josh terribly. I won't write much more about my feelings on the deployment...a bit too personal for me to share right now. But He is definitely using this deployment to teach me many many things... maybe some day I can and will go into it all. But for now... we're just trying to patiently endure the next few months praying for Josh's safe return to us and cannot wait to be a family in the normal sense of the word again. Please keep us all in your prayers as we continue through this deployment, protection, provision, and to keep our family binded together as a strong unit.

And with that... my hands are cramping up from typing... sad... but true. And I've written enough as is...

Still have some other thoughts to share, mostly regarding Hailey's Hope but I'll save that for another post to come soon I hope.

Sorry for all the typos...Although I was able to carve out a chunk of time to do so tonight it wasn't a big chunk and written in a hurry. :P I'm such a bad, former English teacher.