Confession.

I am super excited about watching Prince William and Kate's wedding on Friday. Yes. I know it's just about the dorkiest thing in the world to be excited about but I am. I had a huge crush on William as a little girl...had to be the prince factor because he's physically not my type at all.

I want to see it all. I want to see the dresses...what the guys wear...all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds it.

I am a reasonable person, however, so I plan to DVR the event and watch it when I wake up.

Feel free to mock. My husband already has.

A, E, I, O, U, N, Y

My son is the MOST literal person I have ever met. He will do anything I ask as long as I specify exactly what I expect. And once he has something in his little head, that's it. He's not going to change his mind...can't imagine where he got that trait from...

When I was in 1st grade, my teacher was going over vowels...A, E, I, O, U (N...and sounded like N), Y. I refused to believe either my teacher, my mother or anyone else when they tried to tell me N was not a vowel. I'm told it took a year and a whole new teacher to get me on board with the idea that N was not a vowel.

But back to the boy. In many ways, having a son who is so much of a "little soldier" ...who follows orders and isn't overly emotional is awesome. It's exactly what I wanted because as I've always said, I can deal with broken bones, but not so much broken hearts. Don't get me wrong, he's a very loving boy, he's just extremely cooperative and logical.

Here's the downside of having such a literal child...my child, who is almost THREE years old, won't leave his bedroom in the morning or after naptime until I turn on his light. Ever. His room is a loft bedroom with a light switch upstairs and a light switch downstairs. When he was still in a crib, he'd wake up and play for a little bit before I went to get him. I would always flip the light on from downstairs, let the dog out back (the door is just a couple feet from the stairs) and then go get the boy. It's a ritual the boy has very much embraced and now no matter how many times I tell him, you can come down and wake me up...you can go potty without me "releasing" you...you can even come down and turn on a movie or play with your toys. Nada.

I've recently discovered another little quirk of his slightly OCD/totally literal personality...when he looks in a mirror or at a picture of himself and you say, "who is that?" He doesn't answer with his name. He says "You!" Because we have said, apparently too many times, "there YOU are."

I have a feeling that this is just the beginning.

Priorities.

If deployment has taught me anything thus far, it's that priorities are relative. The priorities in my life right now are...pretty much in the following order...

Keep the boy safe, healthy and at least mostly content.

Stay pregnant.

Stay sane.

Keep the house from totally being overrun with laundry and dishes.

Keep the dog and both cats alive (last time Joshua left, we had two dogs when he left and one when he returned...I can't start being known as the woman who kills an animal every time my husband leaves...it would be bad)

Keep up with what's happening with my friends and their lives (kind of falls under keeping sane but in and of itself, it's lower, sorry friends but it is what it is).

Manage morning sickness (six months in) with at least some grace...difficult when you're SO pregnant that every time you throw up, you also pee your pants.

Everything else.

Like I said, those are my priorities right now but regardless of the day, the top two are always the top two so yeah, I'm going to have days when I don't put that stinkin' load of laundry away or unload the dishwasher. There will be days when I should probably call and check on a friend and don't (I do regret those days). Days when I never make it out of the pajamas because the morning sickness makes even just the idea of getting dressed feel more like an iron man triathlon but I'm doing my best and I'll get through this. One day of relative priorities at a time.

Too much time=Tons of Tutus

I have an obsessive nature...shocking, I know. *dripping sarcasm.

I've managed thus far in my life to direct my obsessive nature into good outlets...vacation planning, photography, time with my husband, motherhood...all good things. And now I've found another...

With this deployment and being pregnant with a little girl, I've been thrown into a pink world and I've fully embraced it...somewhat to my own surprise. I'm not much of a girly-girl at least when it comes to clothes and accessories myself. I enjoy nice things and jewelry is fabulous but I'm a ponytail, jeans and make-up-only if I have time for it, kind of girl. But I love to create things. I love photography and designing pretty things.

So...I've gone overboard with baby girl's room...and loved every second of it. I'm also that mom who prefers my kids be dressed properly, as in matching, unwrinkled and unstained, even if we're just running to walmart...no judgement on anyone else-it's just my little OCD coming through BUT, I'm also the child of a hard working single mother who would have had a hard time going to the extremes I have with my kids' rooms and clothes so I know how blessed my kids are (and one of them isn't even born yet!). I do have concerns that they may grow up taking it all for granted. But I'll worry about that tomorrow...today, I shop...and decorate.

I've decided that instead of putting our daughter's name on the wall...as we did with our son and so many people do, I want to do something unique. I had already planned to buy a medium sized wall shelf to help take up room on a specific wall but now what I want to do is buy nine (the number of letters in her name) wallet sized photo frames. Then, I plan to print off each letter of her name on card stock, cut it out and put each one in a frame...cute, right?!

Well, in addition to decorating her room, I've taught myself how to make hair bows, head bands and tutus. Here's what I've done so far...

^ -The 1st Tutu I made and a matching hair puff clip

^ -Just a couple bows/barrettes...I need to get better at these...

^ -Tutu #2 (I like to call it the "I Love Lucy Tutu) and a matching hair puff (that I clipped onto a newborn hat just 'cause it's cute)

^ -Tutu #3...I love it when little girls wear blue (the pic doesn't show it very well-it was late when I took the pic and lighting limited but it's a purplish blue tutu with wisps of glittery white)

Tutus, bows and room decor have been a great deployment distraction and I look forward to making at least a few more before this pregnancy gets too tiring to stay up late cutting tulle and gluing clips.

We don't matter.

It's a hard pill to swallow and it may be pessimistic but the reality is that to many Americans, military families just don't matter. Whether they're republicans or democrats, wealthy or poor, unless they have a service member in their family or as a good friend, they don't care. Sometimes, not even then. They don't educate themselves politically. They don't send care packages. They don't check on military families in their own neighborhoods. I would hazard to guess that they don't even realize we're still at war. By the way, WE'RE STILL AT WAR.

Regardless of the political language, there are still Americans fighting and dying for this country. There is a giant, grand canyon sized divide between the military and civilian worlds. How many Americans (outside military families) can answer the following questions:

What is a blue star family?

What is a gold star family?

What does it mean to PCS?

Can you locate Iraq or Afghanistan on a map?

These are the most basic things to any military family and so many civilians can't answer them. Should military families reach out more. Yeah, probably but why don't more Americans educate themselves? Why do so many bury their heads in the sand and ignore what's happening around them?

I had a college friend post on her facebook "So why does my TV have a countdown to "government shutdown" in the bottom left corner of the screen?"

It's a big deal people.

I don't care what side of the political spectrum you fall on. I don't care if you're shouting that Obama is the next Messiah or he's the anti-Christ. In fact, I prefer it....shouting for either side to silence. I'm tired of people not caring. I'm tired of the lukewarm attitude towards politics because it matters. It's my husband's life. It's our family's livelihood.

Step up, educate yourself and make a decision. Any decision.

Then again, most of the people this is directed towards, will never read this because I'm just another military wife complaining and we don't matter.

My Life: Alpha to Zulu

A milwife blogger I follow, Wife on the Roller Coaster has decided to summarize her life as a military wife in a nutshell and I've decided to participate with my own Army National Guard version...it's a double sided version because in many ways we live two different lives...our "normal" day to day life, and a deployment/pre-deployment/post-deployment life.

My Civilian/Army National Guard Life:

Alpha:
Alone by choice *** Alone by Army's choice/Afghanistan

Bravo:
Bedtime with the boy (whose name starts with B) *** Blue Star Family

Charlie:
Cell phones off at night *** Cell phones always on and within reach/Care packages

Delta:
Disney World *** Deployment

Echo:
Energy surplus *** Emotionally exhausted

Foxtrot:
Fun *** Flexible

Golf:
Gear for baby everywhere *** Gear for Daddy everywhere

Hotel:
Hugs *** Homecoming signs/Hiring electricians, lawn guys, plumbers

India:
Inseparable *** ID Cards

Juliet:
Juggling civi job schedule and Guard schedule *** Juggling being Mom and Dad

Kilo:
Keeping up on facebook *** Keeping sane with facebook and blogging/Kevlar/Keeping my own schedule

Lima:
Lovin' *** Labor & delivery of baby #2 alone/Letters

Mike:
Museum trips/Midnight Movie Premiers *** Murphey's Law

November:
Nights out with the girls (and not having to find a sitter) *** Name tapes

Oscar:
Operation: Must Take Pictures can get annoying for the hubs *** OPSEC

Papa:
Pin trading (it's a Disney World thing) *** Proud

Quebec:
Quiet nights at home *** Questions that can't be answered

Romeo:
Reading together *** Red Fridays/R&R

Sierra:
Sleeping in while Daddy takes over *** Skype

Tango:
Team parenting *** Tricare

Uniform:
Understood by many *** Understood by few

Victor:
Vehicle problems are easily solved *** Victory

Whiskey:
Weekend drills *** War/Webcames/Waiting

X-ray:
XOXO *** XOXO

Yankee:
Yawning as the hubs gets up too early *** Yellow ribbons

Zulu:
Zoo trips *** Zero to 90 in no time

24 Weeks

It's official. I am over 24 weeks pregnant. If you've ever had a miscarriage or a difficult pregnancy, you know what a milestone this is for our little family. Granted, it's still very early. It would not be good to go into labor today but just knowing that if I were to go into labor, the medical community would do all they could to save her and she would have a fighting chance of survival is more of a relief than I think can be said. This has been a week FULL of baby news for our friends and family. Three babies have been born with one more on the way...all four have amazing stories and equally amazing families.

Baby #1 came as quite a surprise for my old college friends. He's baby #3 for the family (the first boy) and he was a couple weeks early because mom had a placental abruption. They were in the middle of the mall and it sounds like it was pretty bloody and definitely scary. Thankfully, mom and baby are doing great...in fact baby boy is doing better than the doctors had expected and both will be home soon.

Baby #2 was also a surprise at least to me. An old childhood friend, he was the little brother of a guy I hung out with all the time and now, he's a dad. He has a beautiful little girl and I know he'll be a great dad...it's just a bit surreal.

Baby #3 came on Friday. He's my cousin's son and already has a special place in my heart. He's amazing...tons of hair and tons of him. He was born full term measuring 24 inches and weighing 10 lbs 7 oz. And she delivered vaginally. Yeah. That's a huge baby. He's apparently able to fit into some 3-6 month clothes already. When I heard his size, it dawned on me that he weighs just under TWICE what ALL three of the triplets weighed combined. (For those that don't know, before I got married, I was a live-in nanny for 3 years to a family with a set of triplets).

Baby #4 will most likely join us Wednesday. He or she already has a special story. Mom and dad have opted to be surprised with the gender but I'm hoping for a girl-their older two are boys and are great friends with our boy and selfishly, I'd love for them to have a girl to befriend our little girl. But gender surprise isn't the biggest surprise of this baby's birth. Mom is scheduled for a c-section. Dad is an Air National Guardsman on deployment. He was scheduled to come home today but as is so often the case, things changed. We're not sure when he'll be back now but baby 3.0 as the family has affectionately dubbed him or her will be born loved in that special way only a deployment family can know. My heart and prayers go out to dad and whatever mom needs, I'll be there. Even if it means dealing with a meconium diaper (something I've managed to avoid in all my years of both nanny and parenthood).

An amazing week to be sure. So many babies. So many stories.

Deployment Schedule

Well, we're getting back into the swing of our version of a deployment schedule. No one in our family is really a morning person except maybe my husband and even then, I'd just say he's more average than an actual early morning. Meanwhile, the boy, the dog and I all feel that anything before 8 or even 9am is pretty much wrong. As time progresses, at least the boy and I will have to adjust...first to baby girl and then in a couple years to the boy starting school (although we plan to send him to a blended private school where he'll actually be home-schooled all but two days a week). I sincerely doubt the dog will ever adjust. He doesn't even go out to do his morning thing sometimes until nearly noon. No accidents so I don't push it.

Anyway, we're living it up, night owl style. We usually have breakfast around 10am...or our version of it...again, not morning people and although the mother in me would love for my son to eat some homemade waffles or an omelet and turkey bacon every morning, it doesn't happen. I'm lucky if I can get him to eat a pastry, some yogurt and fruit but it's all about picking your battles and since even my husband's not a big breakfast person, I'm not surprised the boy isn't one as well. Lunch is usually early (to mid depending on the morning) afternoon and while Joshua's gone, it's quickly becoming our big meal of the day. Something I couldn't have done with Joshua here...his schedule just wouldn't allow for it. THAT is the one big benefit of deployment. The schedule is all mine. I don't have to clear things or arrange things according to my husband's civi job, the guard or his plans. It's all about whatever I want (well, whatever I want that will also work with the boy). Dinner usually starts with me staring in fridge and ends with leftovers or a quick sandwich and veggies.

Meanwhile, TV has become essentially non-existent at least in live form because I don't really believe in watching television, especially any sort of adult (meaning How I Met Your Mother and Criminal Minds, not bow-chica-wow-wow adult) television. I would never get to watch anything but cable news and late night hosts if it weren't for the DVR. A big ol' THANK YOU to whomever invented it...words cannot say how much I appreciate you-you have kept me entertained and somewhat sane. So instead of television in the evenings before the boy goes to sleep, I've been doing all the basic household stuff, shopping online (another sanity savior) and becoming more and more domestic. I have made baby girl's first tutu. It's pretty small and I hope to use it for her birth announcement pics but we'll see when she gets here. Here's a pic (sorry about the quality...camera phone pic and the dog decided to investigate the tutu-read: got his nose in and pushed the tulle around a bit...just as I took the pic).

This weekend, I'm hoping to clean out the bathroom cabinets (not a small project) and sew baby girl's new curtains. Like I said, this deployment schedule (and this pregnancy) are upping my domesticity.