He's Home!!

For some of you, this is old news... but I realized that I never actually posted that Derek is back home. Like, home for good! It's actually been a little over two weeks and it's been simply fabulous! And also the reason for my complete social-network-neglection lately! We've been spending time together as a family and we've even gotten the chance to go on a few dates! We've gotten stuff done around the house and we've been out and about around town!

Derek and I at the top of Liberty Memorial overlooking Kansas City

We celebrated Derek's 27th birthday with family, friends, and cake!

Derek's been loving, cuddling, and soaking up the sweetness of our cute daughter.

 And he's been making sure Jackson gets out his energy in ways that don't leave our house in disarray... like rock wall climbing!

It is SO good to have our family back together. It just feels like this is just the way it's meant to be! 

Derek's been able to spend the past two weeks at home with us (minus two weekends he's had to report for Guard duty) and it's been great to have all that time with him! But he starts back at work on Monday; he's not particularly enthusiastic about it either. Wouldn't it just be great if we could somehow get paid for spending time together as a family so he wouldn't have to work!? Like in a non-train-wreck-Gosselin-family sort of way? Though, after spending a long nine (kidless) months with the army, he may actually be looking forward to a calm, quiet atmosphere several hours a day because goodness knows our house is anything but either of those two things!

It's March!!

It's March 1st, ya'll. Derek is coming home *this* month. If you haven't jumped up from your seat and shouted, "WOO HOO!" yet then maybe you didn't hear me correctly.

DEREK IS COMING HOME IN 17 DAYS!!

(per the tentative plan, we still don't have a confirmed date, 

but whatever day it may be-- it's close!)

And let me tell you that it won't be a day too soon! I miss that man so incredibly much! If I didn't have two children at home, I'd consider packing my things and just camping out at the airport.

In effort to make light of my missing Derek in the beginning of our separation, I made a list of things that I wouldn't miss so much about him being gone. I have definitely enjoyed the freedom to wear his clothes and always being able to pick my movie of choice (when it's not the Backyardigans or Thomas the Train)... and of course, the lack of conversations involving topics of farting and bowel movements has been nice.

But I'm really ready for him to come home and I'm more than willing to let go of some of those perks if it means that he's home! (Though, if he's going to fart in bed and trap it under the covers, he may as well just stay in Georgia.) I have a new list of things that I am looking forward to for when he comes home...aside from the super obvious, mushy I-just-can't-wait-to-have-my-best-friend-home reasons.

1. Having someone to warm my cold feet in bed.
2. Man smell of the cologne, deodorant, and shampoo variety.
3. Not having to drive absolutely everywhere we go (I never noticed until he came home at Christmas and I got a driving break. It was nice!)
4. Light bulb replacer. I will never hassle him about his obsessive need to have a bazillion light bulbs on hand.
5. Going to the movies together--like that will be easy with two kids, but it's our favorite thing to do together.
6. Sitting next to him at church.
7. Watching him play with Jackson and Belle- nothing is cuter than a man when he plays with kids!
8. Laughing with him at our lame inside jokes.
9. Being kept up to date about the latest technology/gadget news and silly websites that can waste hours of your time. 
10. So I can kiss him anytime I want. (Sweet Home Alabama style)

I have to quit re-reading my list because I'm just getting to giddy! Here's hoping the next couple weeks just fly by! 

ZZzzzz's

Ohmigosh... it's been SO cold here lately. And it's making me so sleeeepy all day long! The fact that I have practically camped out in front of my fireplace for the past week may or may not be contributing to the sleepiness.... The content of today's post is really about Jackson and his sleep though.

While having Derek home was simply wonderful, it wrecked havoc on Jackson's sleeping habits. BIG TIME. We were out of schedule, he was way over stimulated. Night-time and nap-time were horrendous feats for the first couple of days (He'd be up 6 or 7 times a night and he would cry so much he'd vomit!). I sought advice from friends who've dealt with deployments/homecomings and toddlers. I even emailed a fellow blogger that I've never even met. Desperation!

It basically ended up that I did all of the bedtime/naptime stuff, trying to keep it as normal as possible... and really, the only way for Jackson to get any sleep at all was to rock him completely asleep and put him down. every. single. time. It was time consuming and frustrating (I mean, didn't we jump this hurdle back when he was like, six months old?!... oh yeah, that was before he could climb out of his crib and open doors!), but I just couldn't bear to let him just cry it out. I feel so sorry for the little guy for all of the big things going on/about to happen in his life.

Because Jackson can successfully (and does) climb out of his crib, we introduced his toddler bed before Derek left. It doesn't have anything to do with the baby coming soon since she doesn't even have a room of her own for the crib to go! The father-in-law is actually coming over to take down the crib and we're (he is) moving it to the basement.

We didn't make the switch right away. I continued to rock him and pulled out the tricks used to sleep train little infants- put him down almost asleep, but still awake so he can learn to fall asleep in the crib. Progressively moving further away from his crib while I sang him songs until I was eventually out of the room. I may have given him a cup of milk a few times (gasp) in bed with him a time or two. He was even bribed with tic-tacs. I always make a BIG deal when he falls asleep on his own, without crawling out of his crib. His sleeping habits are improving.

We talked about his big boy bed at times and he explored a little bit. I checked out Big Boy Bed books from the library. And a few days ago he actually asked to sleep in his big boy bed. He's done okay with the transition. I've been sitting with him until he falls asleep each night. The first night he stayed in it all night. Last night he came to sleep with me for a little bit.

I am really considering my options (as if I should try a cry-it-out method or to work with slow progress getting him to go to sleep on his own). But I feel like he's dealing with so much that he deserves to be babied a little bit in this. Of course, my only fear is that it still takes an hour for bedtime once the baby comes and I simply can't offer that! I'm going back and forth....

But for reals... Jackson is in a big boy bed. Why is he growing up so fast?!

Life is good

Derek's home. Life is good.

We picked him up at the airport on Saturday morning. His flight was only 15 minutes late, but it felt like an eternity.

Jackson and Derek are having so much fun playing together. Several times throughout the day I hear, "Daddy... come on!!" Jackson is adamant about having Derek around and watching everything he does. It's so sweet.

"Oh cool! A tunnel!" Derek said. 

Jackson simply can't be bothered by the Daddy in his way... he kept crawling through on top of Derek.

Until Derek ended up just plain stuck. Haha. 

Thanks to some awesome friends (including our awesome exchange student) who were gracious enough to bless us with gift cards and babysitting, Derek and I enjoyed a date night yesterday evening. First we had a fabulous dinner at the Hereford House and then headed off for our first 3D movie experience watching Tron on the IMAX. We even managed to get a little Christmas shopping done. It was SO NICE to spend some time together! (and Brooke managed to get Jackson to sleep without a fight and he got his first full nights sleep since Derek's been home- a spectacular gift on it's own!)

The best part is... is that it's only been just a couple of days! We still have several left to spend together!!!

We're Ready!

Just plain ready! We've talked about Daddy coming to play all week. At the moment, Jackson's a little more excited to be going to the airport and seeing airplanes, but I know he is going to be so super excited to see Derek walk through the terminal!

And I have to mention the beautiful bouquet of roses delivered to my door this morning that Derek sent me with a message that says, "Can't wait to see you tomorrow." It totally made my day. In many ways, this last week has been one of the hardest yet. I feel like my will-power to keep going just gave up simply because I knew he was so close to coming home. Cleaning and being busy was my best attempt to avoid staying in bed all day, which is simply all I wanted to do! Being a wonderful husband, he totally picked up on my crazy mood (I blame the pregnancy hormones) and sent me flowers. I love flowers. He knows that. :)

He's heading out on a bus in about an hour (2:30am-ish) to head to the Atlanta airport and will arrive here in KC at 10:14am! Yay! He is sure to be super tired having only slept in short couple hour increments, but he is as excited to see us as we are to see him! And a family-nap sounds great tomorrow afternoon.