Monday, December 10, 2007

On My Own Again

It's 8:00am on Monday morning. My parents left for the airport at 7:00am. Since then, I've swept and mopped the floors, hung sheets out on the line, threw in a load of laundry, sorted laundry for further loads, made myself breakfast, coffee and started a new post. Where are my kids you ask???

Both girls are still sleeping. It's mornings like this, becoming more and more frequent, that I question having a third child. They are both wonderful nappers, and sleepers (Olivia throws a fit before nap and bed - but, once she's down, she's down). They are starting to play well together and entertain each other without me. I'm becoming very very spoiled..in the morning, that is. Then, I'm faced with a reality check when Olivia strips naked and won't get dressed just as we're walking out the door. Or, Lila, teething, shoves her fingers in her mouth to press on sore gums and makes herself puke all over the clean outfit I just put on her. Or Olivia decides she wants different pj's on just as I cover her up and kiss her goodnight (thus begins a battle of wills).

At any rate, Matt is gone...again. He's out to sea with the Navy until Thursday (he left early Sunday morning). He was in Italy most of last week, came home for barely two days and left again. My parents hardly saw him. I'm trying not to get frustrated that this job keeps him away from his family so much. But, it's hard. I'm just bitter because, while I support my husband, I have a hard time supporting the fact that his duty to country comes before his family. I thought I'd be "over" it by now or used to it. I'm not. It's taking time and a 16-month extended deployment didn't help.
So, it was a good thing I had my parents here this past week because Lila and I both had colds. I used Zicam and fought off the sniffles. But, I had two back-to-back sore throats. Thank goodness for throat spray the local pharmacy has here that you can't get in the US (at least I've never seen it. The pharmacists here can diagnose and prescribe medicine for minor illnesses such as strep throat, pink eye, and ear infections). The stuff didn't numb my throat. I'm not sure what it did, but it got rid of the sore throat in less than 24-hours. I'll have to load up on that stuff before we move back to the US!

Aside from giving both my parents our colds, we had a great time (Olivia will be next, I'm sure). My father took Olivia across the street to the beach every day. They made sand castles, searched for shells and watched our dog run around. She's now obsessed with going to the beach. I'll have to take her now more often. I love the beach. I don't, however, like the sand that inevitably finds its way into my house upon return.


Olivia is becoming quite the hoot. She loves to read. She will read to her dolls (or in the case of the above picture, Grandpa) and recite as much of the book as she remembers. If the battery in my camera wasn't dying, I would have got the above scene on video. She was saying, "Mama, do you love me? Yes, sweetheart, I do. Very much."

Olivia has doll stations all around the house. It makes my house look messy. But, if I move a doll, she gets very upset (I think I've previously posted about this). My mother took some great pictures of her dolls lined up in a row, with towels on them (we try to avoid using paper towels in our house, thus we have a a few dozen white bar-type towels that we use instead and Olivia thinks they make great doll blankets) and when she emails them to me, I'll post them.

Well, Lila is now up. She's had her diaper changed and is eating breakfast. A load of laundry has been put in the dryer and I've topped off my coffee. I should end this post and wake up Olivia so I can get her fed and ready to leave the house for Mums and Tots group by 10:00. That'll be a challenge as 10:00 is an hour away.

7 comments:

Angie said...

You have to WAKE YOUR CHILD UP at 9! I don't believe that Ashlyn has ever in her life slept as late as 9. You are SPOILED. I would definitely quit now. I'm hoping my next child will be a late sleeper, but I guess it really won't do me any good if I have to get up with one, it might as well be two.

I'm sorry that you hate Matt's job right now. I alternate between disliking Allen's and loving it. Right now, he's barely working. I'm not trying to make you feel worse. Hopefully, Matt will end up having down time where you love it, too. It sounds like he has most weekends off, though??

Unknown said...

He has to go in on the weekends often and get work done. He also has his work cell attached to his hip at all times and takes up to several work related calls each weekend. So, even when he's home, he's distracted and exhausted from working 60+ hrs/wk. If he would skip PT, he could sleep in until 6:30ish and be a bit more rested when he comes home late at night. But, he feels that would be represent the US Army poorly. Also, he works very closly with a Navy Seal and that guy keeps Matt, generally, pretty motivated to do PT. I don't like him sleeping in anyway, b/c he'll wake the kids up on the way out the door and then be grumpy that he missed PT anyway. We're going to Sicily next week. But, he's not taking the full two weeks given to him. Too much work to do (according to him). Ugh!

House Dad said...

What Angie said, kind of. Ellie used to sleep until after 8:00 some times. Now, she's up by 7:00 most days. This morning, she walked into our room at 6:30 and told me that she needed something to eat. I guess I shouldn't complain, because she's been easy to get in bed at night. Naps? Hah. We're lucky now if she'll take one 2-3 days a week.

But that's a blessing because it gives me a couple of hours in the afternoon to do something solely with her. Campbell's game for crafts but she's more interested in chewing on the glue stick than using it.

Anonymous said...

I am hearing you about the work load. Chad is in a course and it is a challenge. Nora is officially poddy trained!!! YES! It took only 2 days. The trick was getting rid of pull-ups. She is also napping by herself as well as going to sleep on her own. I used the "quiet time" technique. I put a timer in her room and told her, "You need to have quiet time. When the timer goes off, you can come out of your room." Well, 9 times out of 10, she falls asleep. She is still getting up at 4 am to "snuggle." I would like to remedy this...any suggestions?

Unknown said...

Way to go Nora! Good for her! Yes, Pull-Ups DO NOT WORK. Ms. Yong told me this in AK. It took a while for me to finally listen and when I did, Olivia was trained very quickly. She was already doing an ok job, but the Pull-Ups I brought to hourly care would set her back and getting rid of them sealed the end of training.

No idea at what to do for the snuggle time at 4:00am. Could you set an alarm and tell her she can't get out of bed until the alarm goes off or until the numbers say 7:00...or something like that?

The Dunns said...

Wow, your post makes me appreciate my life. :) It's funny how horrible things can look in my own life until I see how things are for others. I feel like Steve is always busy with work, but at least he's here (although scheduled for another 15-month deployment next summer). And my boys sleep well (except for the newborn, but that's normal). The hardest thing right now is Mikey's temper. He is hitting the terrible 2's head-on with full force! Never really experienced that with Daniel, so it's a challenge. I have to remind myself of what I'd like to remember about this time in 10 years so I don't get stuck in the "everydayness" of it all.

The Matthaidess' said...

Natalie,

I love your blog! I'm so jealous that you're in Portugal! AND, you live next to the beach:-) Some day Ed and I will make it over there. It sounds like you're having a great time even though Matt has to work a lot. Hopefully his boss will give him a break one day.
Kellie