4/8 - March Madness no doubt

I can see this blogging thing isn't going to get much better until the summer hopefully. I'll continue to plug away because for me, this my scrapbook. I will find a balance and it will happen in about 1.5 more months.
Eli has continued with therapy and is doing so great and really making some progress. Here are a few samplings of what Eli has done over the past few weeks. He has worked on buttoning a little and finally has started to figure it out. He put the vest on an buttoned it up almost by himself. He loves to play "rocket" with Ms. Lisa. He lays down a scooter board and the scooter and his feet go up against a door to a closet. On the count of three, he has to push as hard as he can and then I catch him. All of his muscles are getting so much stronger. He then made a little obstacle course which he loves to do. It wouldn't be a therapy session without a swing and he was able to use the barrel swing. He's finally got it figured out how to push and pull on the straps and how to move his body to make the swing go. This is huge progress for us. He finished this particular therapy session with writing some letters (which he won't really do for me at home) and holding the marker in an appropriate way.

Here is a therapy session from last week. Eli is constantly seeking out to feel and experience sensations so that is one reason why swinging is so good for him. He was trying to swing in a normal swing except this swing swivels around and that makes it really hard. He does like to go on his belly and then run and push off with his legs to go really high so Ms. Lisa mixes "her way" (normal swinging which he can't do yet) and "his way" to keep him compliant and happy. He then had to cut some paper and put together a little puzzle and he chose to sit in the ball pit to do that (more sensory input). He then had to find little bean bag animals we placed at the bottom of the ball pit and then throw them out. To help with his fine motor skills, he had to then pick up the bean bag animals with a gripper toy/device. It's great to help build-up his hand strength and he thinks it's pretty fun. His activity of choice at the end was to play with these little magnetic monkeys that he has to push a lever and make them flip onto a magnetic board (good for fine motor skills too). He is still switching hands all the time but it looks like his right hand is more accurate but for whatever reason, he likes to still use his left.

 Something pretty exciting happened for me a few weeks ago. I unhooked the washer and dryer I bought in college and that we have used for the past 13 years (it was GE and I didn't have a single problem the entire time I/we used them)!!! We then went shopping and I found a new washer dryer. I was excited about the new washer and dryer but the boys were ecstatic about their new boxes that they turned into forts! They have colored and written all over them. We have draped the boxes with sheets and outfitted them inside as well. I just put them away for a bit because they are huge and take up our front entry way but the boys just love them.

There was a birthday party for the daycare that Eli goes and parents were invited (it was the birthday of the school, not a child). Brad has not been able to do anything for either child in regards to their school and attending things so he decided to go. He was going to fly at night so he slept in like normal and then woke up a little early to go to Eli's school. Brad was one of just a few parents there but Eli had so much fun with him.

Aiden was finally able to have a play date with a friend at school the Friday before Spring Break for him. He had so much fun. I'm hoping we can find some friends to play with around here this summer. There are no kids his age within a few houses of us and then there are a bunch of empty lots so it's not looking so promising for friends right next to us but hopefully at least a few in our housing development which is huge.


A few sunday's ago, Eli comes out his room saying he needs help with his shirt. I notice one button is already done and ask how did he get his shirt on with that button already done. He said that he did it himself. I was so happy for him. I told him we don't do the very top button but that was awesome he was able to do the tiny button on his shirt!!!

Brad's schedule has continued to be just insane. We took at 5 day break and went to Orlando for part of Aiden's spring break and met up with Mrs. Rusty (his former therapist and a great friend to me). On the way down to Orlando, we stopped at the outlet mall so I could see if I could find any clothes for the boys next winter. Brad and the boys had lunch while I shopped and here is a picture that Brad sent me saying they were coming to find me but got a little side tracked (see picture of Aiden with the muppets). We stayed at a timeshare we have stayed in before and loved but this time we were in a different building. We then find out they just put a new children's water park somewhere (there is a HUGE one already). We got to our room and went to our balcony and this is what we found. The new water park and it just opened. Amazing!

We had a good time just getting away and having family time.
We went to the little water park in our backyard once Rusty and her family came over the next day. It's been much colder in Florida for this time of year than it normally is and man, was it cold. I was in a sweatshirt and pants at the pool but the kids were determined to go in the water. They ran in a got pretty wet going down the slide and running through spraying water. They then crawled up the chairs and strikes a pose for me (pictures to the right). Aiden was pretty cold so he just rolled up into a ball. After Eli's lips started turning purple and blue, we decided to move the other pool which was just a few steps away. That water was much warmer but it was also pretty deep so the kids wanted a grown up in the pool. My awesome husband volunteered went in because our kids are too cute and love their daddy so much. It was a little chilly for him (freezing for me) and he went in a played with all the kids (Rusty has 3 kids).

We had fun with the Becker Family!!! Since this blog is in-place of a scrapbook, I'm going to post a few pictures from there:

We went and ate at Cracker Barrel and that was fun. I went to a consignment sale the night before we left and bought a $6 barrel of tinker toys. I came home and cleaned every single piece with clorox wipes and decided to pack them and take them with us because the forecast called for some rain while in Orlando. I'm so glad I did. These toys kept these kids busy for a few hours which enabled the grown-ups to talk. It was great. It also worked out that Rusty's kids showed mine how to use them and put them together since Aiden had never seen them before.

We went to a few different playgrounds in the resort (timeshare) and went to the big water park too. This is going to be the summer when the boys learn how to swim. I just now it. Eli loved putting his goggles on and even put his face in the water a few times. Aiden loves the big fast slide and Eli loves going in the zero-entry entrance with a tube and playing bumper boats (he bumps in to you). This game is also a favorite of Aiden. I was fine in the water but it was too windy to be getting in and out.

Here is our family having fun. Eli was looking so cute with his goggles on. The boys were so excited to see Brad so much and just play with him. I was glad to see Brad too and watch him play with the boys. It's always fun to hang out with the boys because they are so different yet get along so well. Eli's imagination just cracks me up and Aiden continue to surprise me with wanting to wrestle and do things that involve touching (which he would never do before). 

I was getting annoyed with the boys asking to play on their kindle's so much so I put some small activity pads in the van and they are really liking them. Eli, who normally won't color if it's voluntary, asked to color a picture in one and then proceeded to pick up the chunky colored pencil (in his left hand) and hold it somewhat correctly. That was amazing and awesome to me.

I was able to go on a field trip with Aiden's class to Diamond Ranch last week. It was originally scheduled for a Tuesday which was the spring break at Jacksonville University (where I work) but it was rained out. It was rescheduled on a Wednesday which was good because I was still able to go (I work on Tues/Thur). Aiden had a great time. He wanted to hold my hand as we walked everywhere but it was great to see him with all his friends/classmates. He rode a pony, fed cows which were totally nasty, and let goats lick oats from his hand. Did someone take my Aiden. The feeding of the animals was amazing and so beautiful for me to see. Before he would have screamed when a tongue touched his hand and he would have been done. Nope. Not anymore. He went back for another handful of oats and continued to feed the cows. In the bottom picture on the left, he's standing in the back on the right. His favorite thing of all at the farm, this barrel roll. If I had to bet, I would say he would never go on it and if he did, he would want to do a half roll (versus going all the way around). The kid was first in line and said he wanted to go all the way around. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes and ran to his seat. I wasn't sure if I was going to be taking pictures of him puking or smiling but I was ready. He seemed to enjoy it (or the kid sitting across from him that was about to puke just hated it that much that it was all relative). Aiden is the one sitting closet to us holding on to the pole.

Just when I thought Brad's schedule couldn't get much worse, we return to find out he's on the night flight for 3 days in a row AND he always has the latest flight (which means he then stays even later for water washes to clean the helicopter). Talk about a punch in the face from his squadron. He has meetings all day on Monday and doesn't have time to get any work done so then stays late to do work but tries to come by 6:30ish. We generally eat dinner around 5:30-6:00ish these days. From Tuesday to Thursday, he slept until about 1-2pm and then would wake up and get ready for work and then get Aiden from the bus with me at 3:00pm and then head in to work. He would work and then fly and by the time he's done with water washes and debriefing from the flight, he drives the 35/40 min home and would shower and crawl in to bed sometime around 4-4:30am. On Friday, he slept until just 10am because he had a noon meeting that he needed some time ro prepare for. Needless to say, Eli didn't see him for a few days and Aiden was lucky enough to get a huge from off the bus and then he was gone. On Friday had a full day and then we needed some groceries from the commissary so he didn't get home until about 6:45ish. This kind of schedule can kill a guy and a family. We rarely saw Brad last week. He hasn't been home from work on a weekday to have dinner with us in about 2-3 weeks. The good news is he came home tonight for dinner with the family!!! It was great and I'm so thankful God (and the squadron) have given him a night or two off of night flying (even if it was because I made him complain).

On Saturday we were able to celebrate Grace's 5th birthday at her party. It was at O2B Kids, which is an amazing place we will be visiting much more this summer. The kids had a lot of fun. They had giant-sized Connect Four and a foosball table (Aiden and Eli versus Brad). They also had a huge kitchen area which Eli especially liked. One of the things Grace chose for her party was gymnastics so they were able to go on a small tumbletrak and bounce around and use the cheese mats for forward rolls. She also was able to use the playgrounds outside and both boys loved that. Aiden loved climbing up this huge open structure while Eli preferred the more traditional playground around the corner. They had a ton of fun and it looked like the birthday girl did too.

I have massive amounts of grading to do starting tomorrow night so it will probably be another month before I post again. Playing single mommy during the week with my teaching schedule and also trying to keep up with Eli's therapy at home, housework, meal planning, meal cooking, etc is so challenging. I am so looking forward to this summer so I can take a break from so much work (teaching/grading) but am also a little nervous for having the boys all summer (they are usually in daycare). It will be good though because I treasure the fun times I can have with them and that's so limited right now with all the other responsibilities I have. 

8/5 - Our vacation to Orlando

So I have some updating to do as usual. We got my mom moved in and had 2 days to enjoy her company before we all left her. Here is the evening before we left. We were having some backyard fun. Since our yard situation is so drastically different from Alabama, we've had to be creative. This is one way that entertained us for a while. Brad is using the stomp rocket and sending missiles upstairs to the balcony to my mom's room. The boys love hanging out up there with her so it was pretty cute.




They tried catching the missiles for a while and then they both actually came down to try and send some rockets up themselves. Aiden did pretty good because he will jump high/hard enough to give the rocket enough ump to send it high enough.


We were pretty excited for Eli this evening because he finally learned how to blow bubbles on a consistent basis. He always blows too hard and can't make bubbles but Nana must have given him some awesome instructions because he finally got it!!!







On Wednesday morning, we packed up and headed to Orlando. We made a quick stop at IKEA and then checked in to our resort. It was called Reunion Resort and it was awesome. We had a 3 bedroom, 3 bath with full kitchen, a huge dining room and living room, and a huge balcony. There were something like 11 pools within the resort. The first day we were there we went to one of the pools and the boys got in the hot tub for the first time. Go ahead and judge me. I was so stinking excited Aiden got in. He is very temperature sensitive and has never gotten more than a toe in the hot tub. I was equally impressed (maybe even more so) with Eli who eventually got in. Eli is way temperature confused (he gets hot and cold mixed up all the time) and sensitive as well. That little guy eventually even got in!! Another highlight of the first day was being able to ride to shuttle (aka rocket bus) with the boys. They were so excited about it. Here they are to the left waiting for the rocket bus to come pick us up. Unfortunately we had to wait 20 min!!



Here are Aiden and Brad relaxing on the balcony. That was the part out of the master bedroom and there was another part with a round table and 4 chairs over by where I was standing taking the picture. Aiden stayed out here during almost the entire nap time just relaxing.

On Thursday, we got up and went to Wet n Wild. The new family splash park was huge. I was a little nervous to see how the boys would respond but they did really well. I was completely blown away with how quickly Aiden adapted and how brave he was to go on the slides. First of all, the water was FREEZING. Also, there was falling/flying water EVERYWHERE. It was a little much but nothing we could do about it. We tried to teach the boys how to go around some of the water or how to block it out of their way and I ended up carrying Eli a lot up the slides. They had a blast. We eventually took them on the lazy river and then we also went down one family ride where we got all got in a huge innertube and went down a ride. We got there right after it opened and stayed until about 12:30. Eli missed his nap the day before and we wanted to get back in time for him to nap this day. 

The boys changed clothes (it was Aiden's idea to bring dry clothes). Here is Eli waiting for Aiden and daddy to come back from changing clothes. As you can see, he was so tired. We headed off for the what seemed like 2 mile walk to the van. Eli was exhausted so I was carrying him. We were almost to the van and it started POURING. I mean POURING. We ran for a bit and then I had Brad and the boys hide out behind a car which blocked a little of the rain and I just took off for the van. I was soaked. I got in and hurried off to pick up the boys. Needless to say, they were wet but not as bad as you would have thought with the amount of rain that came down. We just hung out at the hotel that afternoon and eventually, our friends Arin and Grace came to visit and stay with us for a few days. 

Here is a staple activity when we are on vacation and the environment permits: playing with the sliding glass door. You would think the boys have never seen one with how much fun they can have with a door. 

On Thursday afternoon we went to the water park that is in our resort. It was pretty amazing. It has a water playground type thing, a lazy river, and then a zero entry pool. The kids had a ton of fun playing on Thursday afternoon. Just below is a picture of Brad getting ready to go around the lazy river with the boys. 

The picture below is Aiden doing one of the shape puzzle (like tangrams) that I brought.

On Friday morning, we headed off to the Rooftop pool. Aiden had been asking to go see this pool when he heard us talking about it. I must say, it was a pretty amazing pool. Here is the view from the pool on the right. 

The kiddos were all ready to go swimming. Eli just loves his floaty and his arm bands and thinks he is such a big boy now. 

On Friday early afternoon, our friends (and Aiden's former therapist - The Beckers) came over. They were also vacationing in Orlando (from Alabama) and we decided to hang out for a few hours. We headed down the resort water park. Eli and Brad stayed back for a while so Eli could nap and the rest of us went on down to the water. It was a great time. To the right is a picture of Rusty and I.

And here is Arin and little Ms. Grace.

Eli of course had a great time and loved going down the lazy river with no inner tube and just floating down in his water wings and vest.












Brad was a great daddy as usual and the boys enjoyed playing bumper boats with him with their inner tubes.

Aiden had worn himself completely out and didn't have the energy the to walk home. Luckily for him, Rusty is a sucker and carried him the whole way home. He really does love this sweet woman though :)

And this last picture ... well, I had to include this for me. To many of you, it may just be a picture of 2 drenched gals. For me, it makes me laugh and smile. Rusty is one of 2-3 people I know who could totally work this picture if I put it on Facebook. I love the lactating mom look!

Below you can see that Brad has turned Aiden in to a burrito. When Brad learned from Rusty that doing that was actually really good for him, he took full advantage of that :)









And the picture below: two boys enjoying their iPads.





Overall, it was a great vacation and it really fun to see and hang out with friends. I will update the blog again soon. We were home for one day and then Brad took off for a few months. Ahh the life of a Navy family.

7/23 - Unpacking: what a LONG process

So we are getting there. Just 1 box in the boys' rooms and about 4 in mine. The office - well that's a different story. I took the boys on a bike ride the week we got here to give Brad some time to mow the yard. The boys did great. Eli has graduated to Aiden's bike and Aiden is now riding a bike that our former neighbor gave him. He wouldn't ride it for the longest time because the training wheels were a little shorter than the real wheel and Aiden freaked out if the bike would rock a tiny bit. We gave up on trying to convince Aiden he was still safe so Brad adjusted the training wheels and now it's rock solid and Aiden is back in his comfy place and will let his brother ride the other 'big boy' bike. After 2 years of Eli pitching a fit if I even tried to put the helmet on his head and not even click it together, he has decided to freely and voluntarily wear one now. What gives? Even though we are supposed to be living in a really nice area, I like our old development better. It had huge sidewalks and they were on both sides of the street throughout the major parts. Here, we can go on the sidewalk for 2-3 houses and then have to go in the street for 1-2 lots because houses are not built yet and that means there is no sidewalk. It makes it very challenging to go for a bike ride. I think we will start putting the bikes in the van and then driving over to Oakleaf and riding on their huge sidewalks.

The local Wal-mart here is like a small chuckie-e-cheese. Here are the boys playing on the rides for a bit. They are getting smarter though and now they know if you have money, cooler things can happen to those machines! :)

It's been pretty rainy here lately so we even tried hitting up the Orange Park Mall. The boys used to love this play area. They were really excited to go back but unfortunately, they have taken about half of the fun things to climb on out of the play area. 

We went up and down the escalators in a department store which always makes them happy. We tried to wear them out. Another thing: they are used to relatively short drives from one place to another. Those days are LONG gone here in Jax. Everything is about 30-45 minutes here and that is taking some adjusting for all of us. They are bored, I mis-plan and am late everywhere, and I spend $70 a week on gas. 

I have taken the boys down to the pool. It was ... not Oakleaf (which has huge water features for kids to play with) but there is a baby pool which has a little slide and a bigger pool with a 100-ft slide that is crazy fast and something my kids will not go on probably while we live here. If they do, I better put a swim diaper on them because they might actually poo in their pants with how fast it is. I love it! There is also a 1m and 3m diving board but you have to know how to swim in order to use those.

Eli tried this speedo vest on and water wings for the first time the other and LOVED them. I was shocked. He was swimming around everywhere and wouldn't let Aiden have the wings back. He didn't want us near him and said he could "do it by himself." I informed him that unless he knew how to swim and float with the vest and floaties, a grown up would always be by him while swimming.















The one thing that saved us at the pool was that there are a few water spout things and the boys love to play in those.

Aiden is all registered for Kindergarten. I'm still looking for a daycare for Eli but think I have it figured out. The boys both went to their former daycare last week for 2 days so Brad and I could get some work done and they could socialize and play with friends. Both had their physicals done and we already have an appt set for Eli for an ENT and it's the same doctor who did both sets of tubes and his adenoids which I'm super happy about. These super hero boys have been troopers lately with so much going on.










The boys have really been wanting to go in a canoe in the lake where we live at. We finally did that last week. It was going great until it suddenly started pouring. I mean absolutely went from no rain drops to POURING. Aiden freaked out a little. He was in Brad's canoe and they came racing over to the dock and Aiden got out and ran for shelter. Eli was in my canoe and we got to the dock first. Eli thought the rain was pretty fun.

Our friends that we met in Maryland 5 years ago just moved from CA to FL. We are so excited that they are in the same city as us now even though we live on opposite sides. We got to meet up with Mike and Arin (and Grace, their 4 yr old daughter) last week. It was great and I can't wait for more visits and hang outs to come. 

The boys have been asking to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for a while now so we finally went. This one is right down the street from us which is nice. The boys had a blast.  

And I do mean ALL the boys (Brad is so cute).

I have another post to do. We went to St. Pete on Friday and moved my mom in with us on Saturday. Things have been overwhelming lately and I still have unpacking to do but I never seem to have any time to do it. We are about to enjoy a 4 day vacation in Orlando before Brad leaves for a few months. We just found out today Brad's next orders are longer than he thought. In addition to that, he will have a 9 month cruise. Our lease is for 2 yrs which means it is likely that I will have to move our entire household during his deployment to another location for a few months which totally would stink. Our landlords are military as well and they have 2 yrs orders and are planning to move back in here (and retire) so I'm not sure there is any wiggle room. I have to trust that this is God's plan and He will provide and guide us and worrying about things is not going to help me at all.