San Diego.......and hellos.......

Meeting Elmo and giving him five




family pic
no sand on my toes daddy

birthday boy

Well, I know it's been a while so here goes........


In late March we went to San Diego for a friend's wedding. We decided to turn it into a little mini vacation before daddy's deployment. We visited Sea World and the Wild Animal Park and enjoyed the sunshine and beaches. Little man had a blast learning about and seeing whales , dolphins , giraffes and many more but the polar bear was by far his favorite and the lions. We talked about polar bears for weeks. He did have a nice time with our Breakfast with Elmo and Friends. That was a big hit and well worth the money. He met Elmo, Big Bird, Count , Cookie Monster and Bert. Great fun!
Little man was so good ....at the animal park he had an explosion of massive proportions after we had been in line for about an hour to do the safari ride......there was no turning back and luckily I had replenished the wipes and diapers, right?? But did I remember shorts.....no, but had a great onesie...like that helped. So we managed to use all of our wipes in one diaper change until one other mommy saw me and offered me more....thanks to you understanding mommy of another toddler......and little man had no more pants so he walked around in a onesie , a polo and crocs the rest of the day.....boy did we get funny looks , hey we're from AL dressing him like that was normal :) Not really but it was funny so I will post pics of pantsless child later.

Then we had another eventful day but not the kind you want to remember. LM had a fever and it rose RAPIDLY.....we tried to bring it down but it didn't help and he ended up having what they call a complex febrile seizure at the Navy Lodge in Coronado, ambulance arrives, go to hospital (short version of course as most of you have already heard this in great detail). Arrive at hospital and notice he isn't using his left side at all. His face is droopy, can't use his left side at all.....that's when we got really scared. His movement came back in about 8 hours which they said is atypical for it to take so long to come back. ........he went through a batter yof tests that would make any mother cry to watch her kid go through and being pregnant I couldn't do so many things with him like xrays, CTscan , etc. so very happy daddy was there to do it with him. LM was scared and is still a little leery of dr.'s and nurses. All in all he is fine and febrile seizures are very common but it was likely caused by a virus that was going around. It's the complex part that worried us.....because the prolonged paralysis on one side isn't normal but we will just watch out for fevers and hopefully be able to control it somewhat.

So that was SD and then we came home and were all sick for a while with a nasty cold being back in the oh so pleasant 40 degree weather and rain. It was nice to be home but not with this weather.......we actually had snow last weekend 2 inches to be exact and this past weekend we had 70 and sunny.....insane!!! But i suppose the south has had unusual weather this year as well.
We did celebrate LM's birthday early with an Elmo party with a few friends. It was a nice time and he talked about birthday cake and presents for a few days and still sings happy birthday to himself from time to time :) Little does he know he gets to have two birthdays due to daddy's deployment this year.
We have enjoyed our last few weeks together and done some fun things with LM and tried to spend some time together amongst the running of errands and the many things to take care of while daddy is gone. I have learned to use the mower, weedeater, do various things to the cars, put car seats in (yeah, daddy always did that), etc.......still trying to sell our car, no luck so far.
If you know anyone who needs an extra car here in WA let us know......
So today was the day and we had dreaded it for the last few days. We have had some nice farewells from the Wing and everyone has been so supportive and helpful. I through the Lord mustered enough strength to hold it together for my boys and did minimal crying. We went to the airport and there was another family there from the wing going through the same thing so we all stood waving bye to our loved ones and shedding some tears together. LM loved the airplanes and cared way more about that. Daddy of course held it together very well as usual but I know it was killing him to hear that boy say I love you daddy! He told the dogs to be good and not have any drama this year, we'll see if they listen. It was tough , not gonna lie, but I have to buck up and do this now.....got two babies and three furry ones. I can't bring myself to clean up his messes , like his towel in the bathroom and shoes left out right now. That might mean he isn't going to come home and do it himself tomorrow or next week so I am not facing reality in some ways I suppose but I knwo i'll get around to it, not just yet though :) I know God will get me through this next year without my best friend by my side because this hello (goodbye) went better than I thought it ever could...and we both will be stronger for it. I'll keep yall posted and I know Daddy would love to hear from anyone anytime as that is his connection to home......he'll need that support too :)