Soil

American Soil that is! Mark is back in the good ole United States! (Lets see how many exclamation marks I can use in this short post :-)

Yesterday during Sunday School I got a text that read "I Love you!!! I'm in Maine!!!!" I stepped out and we chatted for a minute. It was a sureal feeling seeing his name pop up on the screen of my phone and not some funky number.

(Can you see him in the back?!)

There are some great people that meet and greet the soldiers as they pass through various airports on their way back home. They were able to capture Marks excitement of being back America, having real toilet paper and fresh air.

You can check out the other soldiers, here. He and the other soldiers will be in Washinton State for about 10 days (give or take) and then he will fly back to St. Louis, we'll pack up and head back to Idaho.

Welcome back Mark!

Catching up...again

I don't know what it is, but when I think about sitting down, making sure I have all the right pictures, and writing down our stories, I just think, "oh another day." The only problem is the motivation just doesn't come. Haha. But, because I enjoy reading your blogs and looking at the pictures, I too will blog for your reading pleasure.

However, I have been slacking in the taking picture department. I just need to stick the camera in my purse. Oh well. So, lets begin. A week ago, Katie packed up and she headed off to Atlanta to begin her Masters program at Emory. Way to go Katie! David was loving have free range of her room...and the big chair in her room.

He also got his 3rd haircut. Yes, 3rd. She went pretty short this time around, but hopefully it will last a little longer.

We're still working on the one nap. Sometimes are great, and others are just okay. In his defense, he is teething. His poor lower gums are so swollen. Anyways, back to the nap, I had to run to Walmart. I was pushing the time, so we stopped at McDonalds and grabbed lunch then ran my errands. He fell asleep on the way home.

We also went to the mall to get David his first pair of shoes. How exciting! Anyways, while at the mall, we rode the Train. He loves it!

He loves to ring the bell. And one final picture, just because he is handsome!

We are in the last little bit of this deployment. Mark should be back in the United States later this week! Please pray for the safety of him and his fellow soldiers as they travel back.

Surgery

David finally was able to get tubes on July 25th. It was seriously a miracle that we were able to get in when we did, and for that I am grateful.

We had to leave the house at 5:45am to be at the hospital by 6:15am. We signed in and were called back shortly. Once in the room, we met with a variety of people (lots of nurses, the Doctor, the Anesthesiologist, lots of residents, and I'm sure a few others were in there at one point.) Our first task, was to get David into his little hospital gown.

THe advantage to David not watching TV very often (uh, pretty close to never actually) is that when it is on, it works great as a distractor.

Somewhere between then, we met with some more people. David got a little restless, so we took a stroll down to the playroom.

Shortly after, it was time. I was able to walk him down to the doors of the OR. I handed him off to one of the residents/doctors/Anesthesiologists and through the doors they went. This is when I lost it. Handing my baby off to have surgery was by far the hardest thing I have had to do. I pulled myself together and went back to the room where I waited the longest 10 minutes of my life.

The doctor came in and said everything went well and he should be awake soon. Again, the next longest 10 minutes of my life. They called and said he was awake and to come back to recovery. I went through the double doors, to room 9. David was in the doorway being held by Julie. He was sobbing. I dropped my bag and took him. I lost it again. He snuggled right up. He was pretty groggy. He had these little moments of crying, a painful/sad cry.

Once he woke up a little bit more, and he kept the apple juice down, we were good to go home. He fell asleep (and took a 3 hour nap).

Look at those cute little cheeks! He was pretty groggy the rest of the day, but he is back to his normal happy self! Within 2 days of surgery, I saw amazing improvement in him. He is talking more and louder. He also is so close to walking, its slightly ridiculous. He pulls himself up on anything within reach and cruises along. He had his first fall last night actually. We snuggled and read some books and he was good to go.

He is in need of another haircut, but I need to figure a way to keep water out of his ears. He continues to love bath time, even without his hair getting washed.

He also has his first little bruise. It was from crawling actually. He was going too fast and bumped into a cabinet.

Hopefully he wont get too many more bruises. It's painful on me too. Hope you all are having a fabulous Friday! We are on the very tail-end of things; roughly 4-6 weeks! Wahoo!!!

Sunday Lovin'

Hope you all are having a great Sunday! Hug your loved ones a little tighter.

(Hanging out at Target on a Saturday afternoon. Too hot to be outside)

Fun at the mall

With it being so disgustingly hot, we have not been able to go outside for very long...or at all. The pools here do not open until 12:30, which at the point, it is nap time and dangerously hot. So, I had to get creative with various things to keep David entertained.

We have been going and walking at the mall, window shopping, sometimes grab a snack (our favorite is a pretzel from Auntie Anns :-)

The other day while at the mall, I let David ride in the little spaceship. He thought it was great, probably the best .75 cents spent.

Such a handsome little man. In other happy news, we had our long awaited ENT appointment on Wednesday. The Doctor said David is definitely a candidate for tubes (he has had 7 ear infections since the end of February. Poor little guy.) As I walked out of the room we were in, and was walking up front to schedule it, somebody called and cancelled their appointment for Monday!!! Normally, it takes at least a month to actually have the surgery, but we got incredibly lucky. He will have tubes early Monday morning. I'm a little anxious, but know he will be in good hands, and this will help him.

This picture is pretty blurry, but still so cute. This was after our long, hot day.

And flowers, Mark sent flowers last Friday. However, the floral shoppe messed up the date (I got my birthday flowers a month early). So, I have 2 beautiful floral bouquets to smell and look at.

(birthday flowers a month early)

(the flowers I was suppose to get first)

Davids new love: the stairs! He likes to climb up on the first step, and lay across it. He fell off yesterday, but did it well. He tucked and rolled, not hitting his head. Gave me a bit of a heart attack though. The days of letting him rome freely are long gone :-/

Determination

At 13 months, David has finally started to pull himself on things. I am going to blame genetics on this. I did not walk until I was 15 months and Mark (who David has done everything else like) at 18 months! And his ears. TOMORROW is finally the day we get to see the ENT about tubes. He has had 7 ear infections since the end of February. Poor David, the genes win this one.

Anyways, he has started to pull himself up on stairs, the bathtub (this gives me a heart attack everytime), and various pieces of furniture.

Stairs are probably the most fun though. Which means I can't let him have complete freedom from my undivided attention. The other day we were over at Gardners. David was crawling around and then I didn't hear him any more. When I found him. He was standing on the stairs.

He continues to love bath time! His new thing is to scoot back into the corner and just sit there contently and play. When the water is still running, he likes to stick his head under.

And reading. He will sit on the floor and flip through the pages, pointing and saying outloud the things he knows. He LOVES balls and balloons.

Excuse the lack of clothes in some of these pictures. It has been unbelievably hot.

One day I really will get around to blogging about Marks homecoming R&R at the airport. Hopefully before he comes home for good (in less than 2 months!!)

Firsts

Apparently that blog post just wasn't enough, so here's another go at it.

The hardest part of being a military family, is that a lot of the time, the soldier doesn't get to experience their child (or childrens) firsts. Skype has been a huge blessing in which Mark can see David every other day or so doing his thing.

The 2 weeks Mark was home, he was able to experience some of these things first hand. Probably the most exciting was Davids first birthday. I still can't believe David is 1. Where has this year gone? I'm so grateful to have David as my son and that he keeps me on my toes. To celebrate on Davids actual birthday we had a family dinner at O'Charleys (kids eat free, which is just a bonus).

David is a champion eater. There are seriously some days where I don't think there is enough food on this earth to feed him. After dinner, we came back to the house for cupcakes. I was so excited for this. But David just didn't seem to get it.

I eventually took his hand and smashed it in the cake. He wasn't too interested. Fortunately, this was practice before his birthday party. I love that smile. It is a great way to start the day.

Another thing, Mark got to participate with us in doing was church. Granted, we usually don't stay in all the meetings (but we are getting better). It was nice to be able to do this together as a family.

Then it was time for the party. I may have gone a bit overboard. I saw this a party for David, Mark was home, as well as a thank you to the many people who have helped David and I through this. Seriously, there are some people who have gone above and beyond and I am so very grateful.

And then there is the hair cut. Mark has been asking me to cut Davids hair for months. I was a little sad to see those curls go, but he does look a little more grown up. His haircut was just about a month ago, and he needs another one. He has a slightly ridiculous amount of hair.

He did not enjoy the cut. He wanted to know what was going on, to touch the scissors, not be held, etc.

But in the end, he was okay. We gave him a good bath, got all the extra hair off, and he was good and happy again.

Oh, and the blueberry incident. Mark and I went to the Temple and dinner one night. I told Dana that he would probably need a snack before bed. She gave him blueberries. She said he loved them, so a couple mornings later I thought I would give him some with breakfast. The reaction was perfect.

Haha. Oh, Dave. I was so confused, so I double checked again with Dana, and again she said he loved them, and would pick them up and pop them in his mouth. I probably should try them again, maybe not in the morning, and see how he does.

I should mention his stats. He weighed 22.8 pounds and is 31.5 inches long and is just growing constantly. He is such a happy baby (except when he has an ear infection-and even then I really can't complain.) We love you David and are so glad that you are in our family here on earth.

Alright, I think thats all for now. I still need to write about the homecoming. Soon. I promise. 2.5 months to go sounds so much better than 2.5 months in, 10.5 months to go :-)