Christmas Times Four

The joy of being home for the holidays is multiplied many times over as we have multiple celebrations to attend when visiting. Our cross to bear is that our families live within an hour of each other which means we don't really have an excuse to NOT bounce back and forth. This can be quite overwhelming and exhausting, but I always try reframe it as a blessing... is it really a problem to have so much family that loves you and wants to see you? I take a few breaths and remember this between the eye-twitching moments.

Christmas number one was spent at Grandma Marian's:

Uncle Bobo seems unimpressed with the speed in which Landon opens presents. 

But Uncle Bobo does score with one of the best gifts, an empty Cheez-It box.

Landon mistakes Pequena dog for one of his plush toys.

Hooray for all the craziness!

The next morning was spent at Grandpa Jim's house (where the heat runs a little higher so it was a shirtless Christmas morning for the little guy):

Another empty box? Wonderful!

The next day it was back down to Maryland to Papa Dude's to hang out with the extended Halvorson clan:

Yay, we're all looking at the camera in this one!

Papa Dude photobombs our pic with Great Grandma Halvorson.

Would you believe we hit the road again a couple days later to head back up to Pennsylvania for another celebration? This time at Aunt Jill and Uncle Bob's; despite her best efforts, Landon proved most baby-proofing efforts futile as he found other things such as pulling register covers out of her floors and stuffing blankets down the HVAC chutes. Gosh, I love that little guy. *Sigh*

Landon finds a stash of party paper goods in a corner cabinet. Exaltation ensues.

There's a lot of cool stuff here!!!!

Aaaand then we were back to normal hanging-around-the-house moments, like catching a nap in Daddy's arms.

Snore.

This is officially our last week here on the East coast; Landon and I will be flying on Friday evening to Washington to converge with Erik to head to our new home town. I cannot wait for the day when we are in our new home, boxes are unpacked and life is normal. Even if it's boring - I'll take boring.

Hope your Christmas was wonderful whether you sat on your buns in your own home or party hardied at four or more holiday functions.

Snow Day

It snowed last week while we were at grandpa's house so we took our little Texas nugget outside to experience the cold white flurries. Yeah, he didn't even notice them. This kid has no concept of hot and cold weather... just that he's annoyed by the constraints of additional clothing and accessories.

Cue music: "You're going to make it after aaalllll."

That rusty gazebo looks perfect for some tetanus - let's head that way, Mom!

Nature show voice: "And here we can follow the tracks of a homosapien of the 14 month old toddler variety. He stealthily approaches hazards such as creeks and horse shoe pits, yet survives. Fascinating."

Surprise! It's a... Surprise!

There is no big news to report on baby número dos - I am going into my 16th week and am happy to be rid of the nausea, which wasn't that horrific anyways. [As a side note, my beloved Moby carrier wrap is quickly becoming max capacity with this rapidly growing baby bump in combination with a rapidly growing toddler... I have to find a way to stretch that magical sleeping machine thing out!] 

Anyhoodles, we are a bit in limbo since I had my last appt at 12 weeks before I left TX and am waiting until I get up to WA to see my new doctor which will be around 18 weeks. The one thing I wanted to do differently this time was select a doctor who was engaged in my care and had enough heart to ask how my son is doing and who would remember to call me Kate instead of Katherine. I am excited because I had a bunch of glowing personal reviews to work off of this time around. 

The other thing we are doing differently is that we decided to not find out the gender of the baby this time around. Say what? Yep. There are not many things in life that can surprise us, so why not embrace it and have some fun. This was not an easy decision for my type A planning personality, but once we said "Yeah, let's do this!" I started to get really excited... In a good way. I figured there isn't much planning to do anyways. If it's a boy, we'll officially pull out all of Landon's old clothes and if it's a girl, well, I'll probably still pull out a good amount of Landon's old clothes. Nursery planning? Pssh, you know I was just going to paint it green anyways.

What's my guess? Well the pregnancy has progressed very similarly to Landon's thus far, so I'm tempted to say there is another human with a wiener on the way, but we've got a ways to go before final guesses are tallied.

Happy New Years and All That Jazz

Things have been a little nutso as we have been - and continue to be nomadic - in between our move from TX to WA over the holidays. Erik was here with us in MD for Christmas and New Years (in which we spent our fourth anniversary eating unsexy amounts of Indian food) and that was a blur of family, friends, toys, meltdowns, giggles and any other craziness you could think of. Erik is now back in TX with the movers and to scrub-a-dub-dub the ol' homestead to prepare for the next round of flight students who will soon be musing "Wow, is that peanut butter shmeared on the baseboard? Have you been finding Cheerios everywhere, too?" Sorry, dudes. 

I am way behind on posts such as Erik's soft winging and official winging, our Christmas photos, updates on the baby planning (hello, glorious second trimester!) and house hunting, etc. I'll belatedly post about all that once I find a computer to upload some photos. In the meantime, I have a couple grainy gems from my iPhone. 

Taking a carriage ride through Frederick with daddy and friends. 

L quickly learned how to open and empty the adult beverage fridge at Grandma's, but at least he is very orderly about where he sets the contents and he knows what kind of beer I like.

Sweet Child O' Mine

I was baking muffins this past week and had some Christmas music wafting through the air to put some pep in my step. Along comes Landon to the kitchen to "help" like usual. Except this time he sees my toes tapping and sure enough, he starts "dancing" to Funky Rudolph along with me. It was so adorable I almost burst from the warmth that spread through my heart.

The best way I can describe his dance moves is that it is a combination of a pecking head up top and the (attempted) side shuffle swagger of Axel Rose moves on the bottom. It is very disjointed looking. Kind of like the Elaine dance. It is the most awkward yet ridiculously adorable thing.

Hoping your holidays are filled with equivalent moments of warmth and swagger.

I Couldn't Put My Arms Down

It was 55 degrees a couple days this week and I had Landon in abooouuut five layers of clothing, including a hat and mittens. It was pretty mama bear-ish. But love and thermal layers know no bounds to a new mom, nor will it diminish through the years, I suppose. I was looking through some old Christmas photos and tangentially thought about how darn much my mom must have loved James and I; I say this because I don't think we were able to put our arms down in any Chicago winter growing up. She bundled us up like Eskimos and gave us warm (not hot!) baths afterwards. Again, these are things I notice more readily from the perspective of being a mother myself these days.

We lost her a year ago, but my thoughts of her are as strong and warm and fuzzy as ever. It's like my heart can't put its arms down. Merry Christmas, Mom!

We were able to bend our limbs a little bit to successfully go sledding later in the day.

Our arms started to hang a little lower as we grew, but the dexterity in our fingers was still compromised.

Members Only.

"I just met you, but I think I sure do love you," thought baby Katie. "Me, too," thought Mommy.

Dash Two*

Before things get too crazy around here, I should prooooobably mention that we have baby numero two on the way. No big deal.

Umm, actually yes, big deal. We are thrilled. To answer questions: (1) yes, we planned to have them this close, (2) yes, I got pregnant while still breastfeeding and (3) yes, I sincerely believe it would be great if the gender rolled either way. If it's a boy, I feel like I know what I'm doing and if it's a girl, I get to raise a little lady! I think the most exciting part will be seeing how this different character and personality develops. We are, of course, also off the charts excited to see how the sibling relationship evolves... we expect them to be best buddies, no doubt.

Little bean is located in larger dark bean on lower left side. Two feet pointing upwards!

The second booger is scheduled to arrive in late June. We already have names picked out for either direction, but I promised promised promised I wouldn't spill the beans before delivery day this time. [That may be harder than the pregnancy itself.]

So far the experience has been similar to my previous one, but with much less anxiety and without the five pages of questions for the doctor each visit. The first trimester nausea rolls in once or twice a day, but Landon is a sport about it and keeps himself occupied. When Erik is at home, he helpfully takes the little man and let's me sway and moan over a sink in private, bless his heart.

*Dash two is another - you guessed it! - aviation term. It refers to flying multiple jets in formation where the first is "the lead" and the second jet is "Dash 2", etc. So it's not uncommon to hear in the flight community that a -2 or a -3 is on the way. Military lingo lesson for today: complete.

Santa = Meh

The base held a "tree lighting" party for kids and families over at the O Club on base this week. These things aren't the most glamorous or well funded events, but you can tell the people at MWR put a lot of work into it and the kids were all running around having a great time. Landon, of course, is a little too young to absorb any of the festivities, but he always enjoys new environments and people so he was a happy camper.

The coolest part of the evening was that Santa came in a helicopter. A helicopter! I guess that's a perk of a base activity. It. blew. the kids'. minds. Holy shamolies, if you ever want to hear a chorus of excited mini screams, have Santa hang out the side of a freakin' helicopter.

Daddy is able to run over and join us after a debrief! Yay!

Well he didn't cry, so we'll take it.

"Never mind the chubby guy in the red suit, gimme' that BEAR!" Couldn't keep Landon away from this thing.

Lady Eagle Day

Today was the equivalent of "Take Your Wife to Work Day" over at the squadron. The whole shtick is that you wear your hubby's flight suit and take a tour around places like the control tower, simulator, the gear shop to try on the G suit and helmets and also to hook into a jet. It was a tiring day, but a good time. The only bummer was that Erik was flying so he wasn't able to join in - I think I would have had a lot more laughs with him making fun of me throughout it all. Especially when I was dangling from the parachute hang or when it took a couple pairs of hands to zip up my G suit ("Hmm, maybe you're a medium..." says the lady in the gear shop).

My "sweetheart" wings and call sign.

Thankfully, my "graceful" entrance into the cockpit was not caught on film.

Erik says "Add a photo where you can see the cockpit." Here is a photo where you can see the cockpit.

"Look like a maniacal goober hanging from the ceiling." Okay, I can do that!

Erik stops by between briefings to say howdy.

More Excitement Next Week

So I've been lacking a bit on the blogging front lately. I suppose a teething baby (yes, he FINALLY is sprouting his first toofie!) and the holidays had something to do with it. Or not. I've just been lazy.

The end of our time in South Texas is rapidly approaching as Landon and I will be on a plane in a couple weekends to head up north for the holidays... with no intentions of coming back afterwards. Erik will stay behind a few extra days to do some paperwork (and potentially a packout*) and then join us for Christmas. He WILL come back to TX after the New Year to wrap things up and then drive the car to Whidbey Island** where we will all eventually reunite (Landon and I will just fly directly from PA/MD). Do you want to drive from TX to WA with a 14 month old? Yeah, me neither.

In the meantime, besides the Toofie Terror 2011 we've been working through, Landon and I have been enjoying the break in the weather (its gotten down to the 70s and even 60s on some days!). We are able to spend time outside where he likes to conquer the neighborhood curbs and chase after the local chihuahua, Rosita. And of course he enjoys interior antics as well such as rearranging the fridge and just bumbling around the house looking for mischief.

Climbing in and out of beach chairs is the pastime du jour. Also, I'm losing more and more flower petals to curious fingers. Meanwhile, Landon has proven ingesting petunias is not poisonous.

Can't find your car keys? Check the vegetable drawer in the fridge.

Taking a break to watch some Oswald (blue octopus show on Nick Jr). Commence open mouth stare...now!

The best 99 cents I spent last week: A package of fuzzy balls. ROI is about a 100 right now if I consider how long they've kept him occupied vs the cost of a babysitter.

So! That's all she wrote for now. Stay tuned for exciting news next week when Erik will likely receive his "soft wings" as he completes the syllabus and ties up any loose ends on required flight hours! His official winging is on Friday, Dec 16th and we are so looking forward to having the Halvorson gang in town!!!!

*Packout = military lingo for when the movers come and pack up all your stuff into an extraneous amount of boxes.

**We don't have orders yet, but we are still feeling confident that we will make it back up to the VAQ community. I have even more faith that Erik will select Growlers, although I know he'd be fine if he worked with Prowlers again.