August/September Recap

This was shaping up to be a quarterly recap but I'm gonna squeeze in a dual month recap while I can still remember our goings on...


Ben - While the wife and kids are away, hubby will... go tanning? This really deserves a post all it's own but I have to do a little more investigative reporting on the subject. Those fresh tan lines appearing while nary a UV ray in the sky raised suspicion, among other evidence - at least he had the decency to tan so as to have tan lines. More on that later.

In other news, Ben has informed me that he will no longer be taking call at the hospital. This info is 50% 60% a relief and 40% a disappointment (it would be proportionately more of a relief if he had taken a lot of overnight call before but in Hawaii they had a good system to avoid it - a month of night float). I actually enjoyed the occasional evening alone and I think Ben actually got a better nights sleep at work. Now he will be subject to home call and the dreaded second pager - and nothing is hotter than a man with two pagers on his belt. I know I shouldn't be complaining because it makes him more available at home but it can also be quite disruptive. Now if they want to do something about those ultra-long work days, that's another story.

Miles - Besides giving us a warm-up to the terrible-twos, which for M. means saying all day and all night I hungry followed by go mommy go (who does he think I am - Diego?)and then refusing every morsel that is offered to him, actually he will say yes he wants a pb&j or whatever else and then once it's made he will refuse it. That's going to get old very quickly. He is learning how to string words together in sentences, especially if it to argue with his sister but he is following a more verb-subject-object or object-subject-verb sequence which makes him sound like he is a little Chinese boy learning English as a second language.

In more exciting escapades Miles has his first girlfriend (in WA at least). I always thought he would go for older women like his dad but apparently the youth of one pretty little lady has caught his eye. And perhaps her forwardness. If you have a few seconds (24 to be exact) you can check out our little man in "action" HERE. As Ben says, he's not allowed to sleep in our bed anymore.

Avery - She started AWANA cubbies again this month. She has also enjoyed getting started on a fall/winter wardrobe with a jacket and some new boots "like aunt Brittany's", which makes her feel very sassy. They are Ugg-like boots. Don't tell her they are knock-offs. She wears them well. And it's a good thing because her flip-flop days are quickly coming to an end.

Me - Besides our fun visit to California and the wedding in St. Louis I have just been trying to move our house building forward. Some days show promise of progress, others just promise delay. We wanted an education and we're getting one.

Perhaps the highlight of my month, however, was discovering the gym on base. I say "discovering" but really I have been led by fabulous friends who know the ropes and are willing to share (like Sarah for instance who clued me in the whole bus to the airport thing, among other tips). So to add yet another reason why I love being in the military (the only downside I think are those polyester pants) - there is a gym on base with free child care. Not only free but they have ample, trained staff who play with the kids, do artwork and they even change diapers! The only drawback is that they have a cap on how many kids can come in at a time so potentially you might have to wait till a spot opens up. But I go at off-peak times so I haven't had a problem yet. The classes they offer are good too and they play P90X and kettleball training videos in other areas of the gym which I am a big fan of. See ya later *unnamed gym* with your expensive childcare and caregivers who couldn't care less.