Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Santa...

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and out of both of my children Gyllian has inherited my love of Santa. From the time she was an infant she loved Santa Clause. I remember her second Christmas right after she turned one, we went to Rock City. When we got to Santa I was afraid she might freak out. This Santa looked really annoyed (he had a HUGE group of teenagers just come through). When it was our turn,I handed Gyllian over and she just stared at him. She couldn't take her eyes off of him. The first picture came out looking like Gyllian was whispering in his ear. It took us about five minutes of dancing around to get her to look at the camera for a split second. When it was all over, Santa told us she was the best child he had seen all day! He didn't want to give her back!!

Yes, I still believe in Santa Clause as does my grandmother. I believe in the spirit of giving...not just presents, but love and understanding. That being said...my son, Sam, HATES Santa Clause! He loves Christmas, but HATES Santa. He tolerates him at a distance, but if he has to get close to him he completely freaks out. This year I put up a 60 inch singing and dancing Santa Clause (yeah, I'm a bit obsessed). Sam is fine when it is off, but you turn it on and he bolts! Don't believe me??? Check this out...

I know it was probably mean, but come on...you know you're laughing!

Let the Stress Begin...

My husband is back out to sea, and things couldn't be worse! This has been the hardest underway so far...even harder than their deployment! From the time my husband has left, my kids have turned into strangers. Sam was pretty much potty-trained, and now he has been peeing in his pants. He knows what he's supposed to do, but just hasn't done it. Gyllian has started crying at the drop of a hat. She'll be laughing and playing one minute, and crying the next. I am trying to hold on to my sanity, but it's getting harder by the day. I know it's because they miss their dad. Before the deployment they were used to their dad being gone all the time. He would be home for about a week at a time, and then be gone for 2-7 weeks at a time. They've had the past almost four months straight with him home every day, and now he's gone again. It's been hard on all of us. To take our minds off of everything we are going to decorate the house for Christmas. We are cleaning from top to bottom and putting out everything that puts us in the Christmas mood, and brings back previous Christmas' memories.

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2008

I know this Christmas will be great, and my hubby will be home to celebrate it with us once again.

From Baby to Big Boy

My son, Sam has exceeded my expectations of raising a boy. When I was pregnant with him and we found out he was a boy I heard it all! "You know, boys are much harder to potty-train than girls!" "Boys develop slower than girls." Yada, yada, yada!

As a baby, Sam was all snuggles and smiles! He was sweet, layed back, and super easy! He even was a great nurser! (If only my milk would have lasted longer than two months.) He was putting himself to sleep by five months, and got rid of the binky on his own by 13 months. I would wish a baby like this to everyone!

Now don't get me wrong...when he hit two it was worse than terrible! It was catastrophic!!! He kept me on my toes, and that's putting it mildly. He grew a short fuse, he shaved part of his eyebrow once while I was cleaning the tub, and while his sister was taking a bath one time, he decided to jump in fully clothed! I'm telling ya, I wanted to pull my hair out!

Even with all of the naughty things going on there is one thing that overshadows all of it! He is potty-trained! Yes, I said it! POTTY-TRAINED!!! I bought him a potty in June, and by July he was peeing in it. It took a couple of months, but eventually he started pooping in it. I went to Papoose (a natural maternity/baby store in Norwich, CT) and picked him up some "Imse Vimse" training pants. He is now a pro! He even takes them off when he has to go and puts them back on when he's done! Now what's so amazing about that is he is only two. My daughter, Gyllian wouldn't even sit on a potty until she was three and a half. So, the moral of the story is don't judge a book by what everyone else tells you! Way to go, Sam!!!

Head Games...

It's been a while since I last posted anything on here. It's been crazy hectic with Halloween to get ready for, Kevin's next departure, and on top of everything the car has failed it's emissions test! Something is wrong with our fuel sensor, and it could cost $75 to $550 to repair. On top of that, Connecticut says we owe them two years of vehicle taxes! Because my husband is in the military there is an afidavit we fill out to be exempt, but they are saying that we don't qualify! Kevin went down to the office to try and figure this out, and they don't even have any of this in their records. Talk about a major headache! All of this and my husband leave within the next few days. They were supposed to leave this past Tuesday, but now who knows when! It's hard to prepare and say your goodbyes when you don't know when your husband is leaving. It's a HUGE head game! I can handle him being gone (it's not a very long underway), but I can't handle not knowing when. I guess I shouldn't complain. I know wives who haven't seen their husbands (other than Skype) for almost seven months. Now THAT'S a head game!!!