February 2009

What a month! Where did it go?

It all started off with Ty having to return to work. He was given two weeks of vacation time once he got back which, was so nice for ALL of us! I couldn't believe how two weeks together could go by so fast; yet, the first two weeks of him being gone and the last two weeks leading up to his arrival, felt like centuries! Anyhow, it was back to reality.

Carter started the month learning all about the solar system. Each day he would come home and about mid-lunch tell Whitleigh and I an interesting fact about one of the planets. He developed a huge interest, so we purchased quite a few books on the subject just to help his little mind expand even further. He also started up basketball this month. Every Wednesday night, he and Ty would head to the gym and participate in a Start-Smart program that worked on skill building. It required 100% parent involvement and was a great way for the two of them to bond a little more. We were both pretty impressed with how much he had improved, skill wise, from last year. However, he was still much more interested in the running portion than anything else. They would do relay races or suicides drills at the end of each "practice" and it always reminded us of one of the last scenes in the movie, The Incredibles. You know, when Dash is running in a race with his peers and is purposefully making it a close race. We all know, of course, that Dash(being a super hero and all) could win the race hands down but instead he varies his speeds just enough to be able to look side to side and watch the others try their hardest to keep up with him. The whole time, Dash is going about 60% and is perfectly content just being a part of the competition and interacting with his peers. In the end, Dash wins the race, but not by the miles that he could have. Instead, with just enough room to look over his shoulder and smile back at his Mom and Dad. Now, is Carter-Man a super-hero? No... but, good grief, is the kid fast! It's amazing to watch.

Anyhow, he is continuing to read up a storm and his all about anything dealing with numbers! We seem to have an on-going timer running in our house. If I need anything done, or if we are leaving to go anywhere, eating, sleeping, shopping, cleaning, even just relaxing... he must ALWAYS know for how long. "Okay Mom... and how long do we get to do this?" "Mom... how many more minutes until bedtime?" "How many more days until my birthday? How about Christmas?" The hard part is, neither Ty or I can just say, "I don't know bud, just a few..." or, "A lot, don't worry about it." It has to be an actual number in order for it to compute with him. I SOOOOOO blame Ty on this one! This month has also been the month of Wii. So much in fact that for this coming month (March), we are implementing a new Wii rule called, "Wii Wednesday." I don't know who it'll be harder on, Carter or Ty. It has just got ridiculously competitive and way too addicting. Carter would wake up in the morning and, in his typical stammer to the table for breakfast, he would mumble, "Mom, ummmm, remember when I was Luigi in my Dolphin Dasher, racing Peach Beach in the Shell Cup and I got the Blue shell and took out the first place car to win the race?"

Seriously. It was all the kid could think about. We'll see how the new system works out and if it helps the Walsh Family Mario Kart OCD.

As for little Miss Whitleigh Jean... how much SAS can one girl have?! The talking switch has officially been turned on, full throttle. Unfortunately and fortunately, Carter is her only dictator. No matter if we make sense of it or not, she will just keep saying it over and over until we repeat the correct word. Thankfully, most of it is pretty easy to figure out. If all else fails we just say, "Show me Whitleigh," and she does. She knows exactly what she wants and when. We are still working on the "no" part though, especially when it comes from Daddy's mouth, which isn't all that often. She has blessed us, along with all of Walmart, our church, The Anderson's, countless restaurants and many more that I'm probably forgetting, with her wonderful fit-throwing ability. She has nearly perfected the knee buckle, noodle body, shrill scream and kicking combo (quite difficult) and also.... the pout (dun, dun, duuuuuuun!) Oh the joys of parenting a drama queen! We have said to each other, "Can you imagine when she is 16? What will her moods be like then?" Thankfully, she is a very quick learner and with one swat to the bottom, and a look from one of us, she usually straightens right up! I wish I could blame Ty on this one too... :-/ I have my hands full!

On the upside, it's unreal how much laughter she brings to ALL of our lives. She's a natural comedian and really knows how to put a smile on our faces. She's growing up way too quick. This month she attended her very first movie in the theater, BOLT, and did very well! At the end of the show she looked at us and said, "Again?!" Her biggest accomplishment this month has been potty training. We had quite a set back when Ty got back, but she made a quick turn around and one day just decided that panties where SOOO much better than silly old diapers. Especially if they have Cinderella on them. Who would ever dirty up beautiful princess panties?!?! Or Elmo for that matter?!! Whatever works, right?! The entire family has benefited from her cooking in her new kitchen that she got from Santa. My tea cup is never empty during the day and between the two of us, we eat 50 faux cupcakes every morning. Her poor babies are either being spanked, changed or strollered around the house most of the time. She's our precious baby girl and has been so fun to watch grow up and mature into quite the princess!

Ty's parents come out at the end of the month for a visit. That same weekend, we had a celebration for the squadron to attend, so they were able to watch the kids for us. Ty and I left that Saturday afternoon to do a little pre-party shopping. We got ready for the party at the hotel and just as I was slipping into my pantyhose, my finger nail snagged the top of them and created a huge rip. I knew that we'd have to go back into the shopping part of Boise to find anything, so I hurried and slipped into my dress and shoes so that we wouldn't be late. Ty tried to talk me into not wearing any, but if you knew how pastie white I was.... THEY WERE A MUST! The closest place was the Dillard's in the mall and I was too embarrassed to run into it, so my WONDERFUL husband did for me. I said, "TAN, Size A, nothing else matters.... just get me TAN!" Bless his heart, he comes out with package of size A, NUDE, Donna Karan, pantyhose and (girls, hang on) paid $30 for them! Needless to say, it started our night out with a very good laugh! I love you, honey!

The party was held at the CW Moore Penthouse in downtown Boise and started about 5:30. We enjoyed amazing food, catered by Kanack Attack (highly recommended), a wonderful band and of course, friends! We were able to celebrate the very successful deployment and also farewelled some of the "upper management." The party was over about 11pm and we both had good intentions of staying the evening up in Boise. However, we made a mutual decision to just drive home to sleep in our own bed and under the same roof as our kids... we're such chickens! It was a great night and we both had fun getting all dressed up!

The rest of the weekend we enjoyed our company and prepared ourselves for the busy month of March. Ty is going through some upgrades at work and I'm trying my hardest to complete some unfinished jobs around the house, such as my daughter's scrapbook that hasn't been touched since she was 3 months old! I apologize for being such a terrible blogger lately... this month I promise more up-to-date updates!