Being a mom is made up of lots of little moments. The first smile, the first laugh, the first time they slept through the night or stood up on wobbly legs… it is moments like these that make the incredibly difficult job of parenting worth it. On nights when Benjamin doesn’t want to go to sleep, even though he is so tired his eyes are red, I look at pictures of him smiling his big, beautiful smile and it makes me smile again. When he cries and cries and cries, I think of how excited he gets when I walk into a room, and it gets me through it.

We had a family readiness meeting last week, and the battalion provides childcare during these meetings. I look forward to those few baby-free hours every month! But what happened when I went to pick him up was even better. He usually spots me as soon as I open the door, but this time, he was completely absorbed in his own little world. He was crawling on the floor, over towards some toys he wanted to play with. I just smiled and watched as he checked out the toy basket, and then decided that he wanted to stand up instead. So he crawled over to a chair and pulled himself up to his feet, which is when he finally looked to his left and spotted me. His face broke into a huge grin, and there was just this look of absolute joy that made my heart just melt.

Yesterday, Ben was doing one of his favorite things to do these days: walk around the furniture. He can’t walk on his own yet, of course, but he can walk like a pro as long as he’s got something to hold onto. And our sectional in the living room is his favorite spot to walk back and forth. I typically try to just stay out of his way. As he was on one of his trips back to the other end of the sectional, he suddenly stopped and looked straight at me, and reached a chubby little arm in my direction. So I scooted over closer to him and wrapped my arms around him in a big bear hug, and he again gave me that adorable grin, as well as squeal and giggle in absolute happiness — all because his mommy gave him a hug. He nestled up against me, smiling happily, and really, does it get any better than that?

Little moments. They’re so small in the larger scheme of things, but they make my life so much richer than it ever was before I had a little person to fill my life with little moments that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

What are the little moments that you get you through the difficult times?

Unstructured play is much better than TV or videos for encouraging brain development in infants and toddlers, a new American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement says.

Free play helps children under age 2 learn to think creatively, problem solve, and develop reasoning and motor skills at an early age. It also teaches them how to entertain themselves, the pediatric experts pointed out in an AAP news release.

While a large number of video programs for infants and toddlers are marketed as educational, no evidence exists to support this claim, said the AAP. The group also said that extensive exposure to TV and videos puts children at risk for delays in language development when they start school. Read more>

We also snack in the car

I can see how riding in a car with the warm sun shining on your face could make you sleepy. I get that feeling many times when I’m driving and I have to blast the AC or the radio to keep myself from dozing off. So I understand that when Saioa’s all cozy and snuggly in her car seat she has a tendency to fall asleep.

Luckily, when this happens, I am still able to get her out of her seat and transfer her to her crib without much interruption. It wakes her up but she goes back to sleep. This is something I could NEVER do when Serophina was that age. Once Serophina fell asleep in the car I had to keep driving if I wanted to keep her asleep. Sometimes I would park and let the engine run and just wait, so that she could sleep as long as possible, cause I knew once she woke up, there was no going back to sleep.

Saioa, thankfully……miraculously…..will go back to sleep. The only time it poses a problem is if I have multiple stops to make. Once she falls asleep in the car all my errands must end and I have to either go straight home or keep driving until she wakes up or stay parked in a parking lot until we can resume errand running.

It’s not unusual for me to plan to hit the grocery store after morning gym class, but I end up coming home with no groceries cause you know who fell asleep before we could get there. Or if I plan to meet a friend for lunch, it always has to be an early lunch or a late lunch so Sai can nap at home….or else she most likely will fall asleep on the way to lunch.

It’s just interesting how my day can change depending on whether or not Sai falls asleep in the car.

Do you ever find yourself in that situation?

My husband’s homecoming was quite the event with Abigail. He was supposed to get in around 10 am so I went to bed around 9:45 with my alarm set for 4 am so I had time to wake up, get ready, do all I needed to do, and get to base by 8.

I was woken by a text message…from my husband…at 11:15 pm. WHAAAT!!?!?!?!? I knew the only way he could be texting me was if he had landed. I jumped out of bed in a panic. He was about 10 hours early! Thankfully he hadn’t left Cherry Point yet so that gave me a little time. I knew once he left it only took about an hour to get to base and then maybe another hour before I could see him. I called up everyone who was going and told them to book it.

I got dressed and ready in about 15 minutes. Abigail woke up about 11:45. I went to base immediately because I was not going to be late. His bus didn’t pull up until about 4 am which was still 6 hours early and we still hadn’t been notified officially.

There were a total  of 3 busses that pulled up. I scanned the first bus, no Jon; the second bus, no Jon; the third bus, no Jon. I turned around to say “What the??” to our family and I bumped right into him. His first words in person to me in a year were “Who are you looking for?” I laughed and hugged him. It was great.

We went back towards his family and he got to meet Abigail. He was here for her birth and first 10 days before he left. He did get 2 weeks leave in August but she was sick the whole time teething so it wasn’t much of a meet and greet.

Stay tuned for our new adventures as a complete family!

I have spent the past 6 weeks attempting to train my baby to get back on her normal sleep schedule.  The onset of a fever, learning to sit up in her crib, crawling and cutting two top teeth has completely thrown our trusty sleep patterns right out the window. She is waking up 4-8 times a night! I don’t think she woke up this much when she was a newborn.  She isn’t sick, and teething remedies have done nothing (since I truly believe her teething does not bother her much).  My sleeping beauty has turned into a little monster of the night!

She was a very good sleeper prior to the past few weeks.  How, might you ask? With the guidance of my pediatrician, I was able to train her to sleep through the night by using the dreaded cry-it-out method about 4 months ago. That’s right.  I admit it.  I used cry-it-out and it was the best thing I did for my baby.

It was not easy, but it worked like a charm and didn’t take but one night.  She was happy to go down in her crib awake and rarely woke before 3am.  So I thought that was that.  I wouldn’t have to go through it ever again.  I had given her the tools she needed.  She had learned to sooth herself and put herself to sleep with no help at all from me.  We were a happy, well rested pair.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.

What have you tried to get your little one to sleep through the night?

Everything is better after a bath.

You’ve heard the saying, “If you have a crab put it in water”? For both of my girls this has always been true. No matter what kind of mood they’re in or if they’re sick or upset about something, the bath always seems to make things better.

A warm bath is in our nightly routine and Saioa loves it so much that she rushes to get in before we’re even ready to put her in. She takes off as much of her clothing as she can, then comes to us saying “bash! bash!”

Once she’s in there she just loves playing in the water. Excessive splashing has become a regular activity during bath time and our poor bathroom walls have to suffer from it. I can’t even be near her with my phone or kindle or else it’ll get all wet! I have to watch her from across the bathroom or else I’ll come out of there soaked.

We’ve gone through a lot of bath toys, and the one that tops the list as all time favorite bath toy, is the one that hooks to the faucet and creates bubbles as the water pours in. The girls LOVED it so much, unfortunately it was made very cheaply and only lasted a couple more times.

Toys or not, the bath is one of those things that I don’t know what I would do without!

What are your favorite bath toys? How do you make bath time special for your children?

An example being playing in the dogs water dish. I say her name loudly and as I’m walking towards her she laughs and runs to something else as if pretending she wasn’t doing it. I pick her up and bring her somewhere else and she goes right back and repeats.

Is she too young to understand so correcting is pointless? Or does she really just think it’s funny to disobey? I know she is only one but I swear it seems like she knows the difference between right and wrong.

Has anyone else struggled with this? How did you start teaching your children right and wrong? At what age and how?

The top four have proven to be a tough batch.  Sleepless nights are here once again.  I re-entered the Zombie-state and had convinced myself that I would never find relief again.  Thankfully, the world of facebook and other multimedia networks have given me the ability to reach out to those who have been there before.  To these women, I owe a lot.  Their tips and words of encouragement did wonders for my bag of tricks and my attitude.  I was beginning to feel defeated and paralyzed by exhaustion, which as many of you know can really effect your emotional state.

Among the many helpful tips I received, the most valuable thing I received was piece of mind.  I was reminded that this too shall pass.  Knowing this, I was able to mentally push past the exhaustion and plug right on through. With the right encouragement, you can really surprise yourself.  To quote one mother, “You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish on 3 hours of sleep and a granola bar.”  This exhaustion has turned out to be something I feel I can control.  Sure, I had to have a good cry and a strong cup of joe, but was a new woman afterwards and back to my fully functioned, less emotional self.  Thank goodness for coffee!

What helps you plug through the tough times?  Are you going through one now?

We're going to be whole again!!

Once your child lays down for some sleepy time, do you stay up or go to bed too?

Sometimes I really need a nap during the day so if I’m able I will lay down and sleep while she does. Night time is a whole different story. She almost always goes to sleep at 8. Which is great because I normally don’t go to sleep until 11 anyways. Once she is out for the night it’s like a party. The first thing I do is pick up the messes around the house and then there are usually dishes that need to be put away or cleaned. And the living room is always a mess.

Then I get myself a snack, grab my computer, and plop into the recliner in front of the tv. I usually catch up on all my shows, mostly NCIS. After an hour or 2 of that I feel guilty for not getting more accomplished so I will do my homework or write some blogs.

No matter what I do I enjoy it because it’s kid free. Now that my husband will be home with me it will be our quality, kid free time. I’m very excited to see how we spend it. Probably almost identical to how I spend it alone. Except maybe some cuddling on the couch instead of alone in my recliner.

How do you spend your kid free time?

What kinds of problems, other than outgrowing clothes at a ridiculous rate, you ask?  Food problems.  We have to buy the big bunches of bananas these days since a little bunch of five won’t even make it through two lunches.  A loaf of bread only makes three days’ worth of sandwiches.  We’re regularly finishing off two gallons of milk a week.  It’s impressive how quickly everyone’s appetites have grown.

Our other major problem is that some of our favorite food items are packaged in quantities of eight.  When there were only four of us eating real food, this was awesome.  Everyone got two hot dogs or two cinnamon rolls.  Now, though, only three people get two and two other people have to look hungrily on after they’ve finished their first.  Buying a second package is awkward, because we really only need two more.  We’d eventually eat the other six hot dogs or cinnamon rolls in the second package, no worries there, but do we need to eat them?  My scale says no.

The scary thing is that these guys are still little.  Joshua isn’t even two!  Heaven help me when they hit their teenage years and all three are in high school at the same time.  My budget is already afraid.  Is it too early to start saving money towards those future grocery bills?

Are your little ones big eaters too?  How are you handling the change?