Big Babies

My babies are getting big. It's a happy sad kinda feeling.

Maya is now 20 months and my little baby Sagan is 5 months. I can’t believe it. Sagan is starting to really show his little personality. He’s so ticklish and loves to giggle.

He’s totally enamored with his sister and vice-versa. They have started giggling at each other and Maya has learned how to entertain him on occasion. I love it.

Maya is learning more words each and every day. Her new vocabulary and her sign language skills make it so much easier to understand her needs. She can easily tell us when she is hungry or thirsty, when she wants more and when she is finished.

Maya can now very clearly say Mommy and Daddy. She really just skipped over Mama & Dada. She used to call John DAAAAAA! And I was Dooa. Now she sweetly says Mommy about a thousand times. It’s cute.

This Father’s day we decided to drive around the area and look for rental houses. We were cruising around in an older neighborhood in Alexandria when we found a little red tricycle on the side of a street with a sign that said FREE. John slammed on the brakes, I jumped out to grab it. We were both so tickled when the lady who was in the yard there said that she asked around and no one wanted it. It’s probably 20+ years old, but in absolute perfect condition. I swear it looks like the one I had when I was her age (guess that would make it closer to thirty something years old!). We had put Maya’s little trike in our household shipment (items in storage) thinking that she’s still to small for it. Well she’s growing like a WEED and I’ve regretted it. We only brought her little radio flyer wooden scooter. She loves playing with it but her knees are almost dragging the ground when she rides it. She’s so excited about her new bike and loves to climb on and off it.

We’ve taken up “tennis” again. I say that with quotes because we’ve played just a few times and our cute little multi-sport court in the hotel courtyard isn’t quite regulation size. It’s probably about 2/3 standard size, but we have lots of fun playing and Maya loves to be our little ball girl. She is great about chasing after them and giving them to Daddy!

Anyway that’s all for us so far this week. I’m in the middle of a marathon laundry session. 6 loads at once! I hate laundry mats. Thankfully there is one in the building, but it only has three washers. Hopefully I’ll get it all done before the kids wake up for their afternoon nap!

★Cheers!

Liberation

Sagan playing on his mat & Maya after eating a very sweet plum.

I recently joined a MOM's Club International chapter and I was talking with one of the other mommies about our situation: we’re living in an extended stay hotel/apartment for a few months until we are able to settle into a house. She said "oh that must be so hard, not having your stuff". I thought about it for a while and responded that it's actually quite liberating not having to worry about my "stuff". It's all in storage. Even though we miss certain items, we don't need that much to live with.

We only have three rooms to deal with. There are two bedrooms flanking a living/kitchen area. We have one bathroom in each bedroom and a small easy eat-in kitchen with just enough storage for a few days worth of food. It’s actually really nice. I do miss Maya having a nice open area to play, but it gives us more incentive to get out of the house and meet people. We go swimming, play on the multi-use court that is just outside our windows, and we have a few meals each week in the lobby with the other residents. It’s a total bonus we didn’t plan on. Two to three times a week they cook dinner for us plus they cook breakfast every morning. I’m getting so spoiled. We have a wonderful hotel staff that cleans our room each day – changing the sheets and towels, dusting, moping, cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. Did I mention that they also load and unload the dishwasher if I let them?

Yeah, I’m in heaven.

I love cooking in my little kitchen too. Everything is right at hand (when you only have two and a half cabinets it’s hard not to have it at hand) and I usually only have to take two or three steps to get to the stove, fridge, sink and table. My prep, cooking, and serving time has been cut dramatically. I will tell you the pots and pans they provide are terrible, so I've had to suplement it a bit, but at least its a full size stove, microwave, and oven.

The only thing that is a real bother is the laundry and bringing things in from the car. I HATE having to do laundry at the upstairs laundry mat. Ugh…I miss my washer & dryer. And I don’t have my convenient garage to bring in the groceries. Right now I have to go back and forth down the hall to the parking lot leaving the kids in limbo until I’m finished.

Now don’t get me wrong…I wish we were in a house. I can’t wait to have our own place with space and people a little further than 3 feet away. Plus the pups really need some outside time other than potty breaks. I know they are suffering the most.

Gidget looking out the window & Ginger napping on my bed.

So we are in the countdown. Only two more months to go. I will miss the staff here. They have adopted Sagan and Maya and everyone grabs them from us when we go to the lobby for meals. It’s so nice that they are so well loved.

Maya getting a hug fom our favorite house keeper Zulema.

Otherwise the mommies group is great. We had our first play date and Maya had a blast. I’m looking forward to more play dates and outings including Mommy’s night out next Monday! Whoo Hoo!

My babies

How cute is this?

Popcorn Girls

We are settling in finally and enjoying ourselves here in Virginia. We had a quiet week and an even quieter weekend.

Bob Wheatley and Laura Galli came to see us and thier daughter Adele played with Maya. She taught Maya how to jump on a bed! They had a great time and we loved seeing our kids play together. We've missed our friends from the ship!

Christmas came early

It looks like Christmas exploded in our apartment/hotel room!!

We got our UAB today!! UAB in government terms means Unaccompanied Air Baggage. In mommy terms it means stuff we can live without for a few weeks, but would really like to have. Since we are in an extended stay hotel we don't have any of our "good stuff". I only brought what I couldn't live without & what could fit in my mommy van. Today, a wonderful day at the Davis house, our UAB arrived. At 8:10 this morning two wonderful men showed up with four HUGE boxes that contained all that is dear to us - not includeing little people and pets. 515 lbs worth. We got toys, and cribs, and books, and games, and colors, and clothes, and sandals, and CD players, and music, and our Wii (yea!)! Life is good.

Im busy organizing, but I just had to take time to celebrate.

So happy.

The Davis Whirl-wind

John flew in Friday for Sagan’s baptism on the 26th. . We spent Saturday going through the house and tying up all the potential loose ends. Sunday was Sagan’s big day and he was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t have been more proud. He was baptized at our home church during a very emotional ceremony. As soon as worship was over we had a quick lunch with a few friends then whisked John off to the airport so he could return for training on Monday.

My Monday was a bit different. The movers were scheduled to be there between 8 – 9, but parts of Dallas flooded so they didn’t get there until after noon. As soon as they finally arrived they hit the floor running and made up as much time as possible. They had me going in 10 directions at once, while I was still trying to pack up the van as well. Thankfully my in-laws had arrived in the early morning hours and were there to entertain the babies while I was busy with the movers. They finished up around 7 Monday and promised Tuesday would be an earlier day.

Tuesday started around 6 am for me. The kids and I were in a hotel since my room was one of the first things to be packed & Sagan woke up every two hours from 2AM on. I finally gave up 6. I made it back to the house and the movers had already started. Yea! It was a VERY long hard day - emotionally, physically and mentally. Thankfully throughout the day I had visitors come and say their final “see you later” and give Maya a big hug. It was hard, but it made me feel very loved. I was still going through my head figuring out what I would need immediately and what we could live without while we are staying in temporary housing. We got the air freight off (items that will arrive in a week or so) and my van was finally totally packed up. The poor moving guys finally finished loading the last boxes around 11:15 Tuesday night.

Mom arrived bright and early on Wednesday. I picked her up from the airport and we immediately started on our way to Virginia. Thank God my in-laws were there to finish cleaning the house so it could be put on the market!!! (Thanks BJ & Skeets!) So, we start driving and other than a few stops to feed Sagan and let Maya run around for a bit we did some hard driving.

We made it all the way to East Memphis the first day. Granted when we got there the kids were fit to be tied and we were starving. It was so crazy and the kids were so tired this was the conversation I had with the front desk when someone had called to complain about the noise:

(Sagan screaming in the background)
Front Desk Guy: "Hello Miss, this is Sonny from the front desk."
Me: "yes?"
Front Desk Guy: "Oh, is the baby crying?"
Me: "YES!"
Front Desk Guy: "oh, well we've had some complaints from your neighbors, but I guess you can't control a baby can you?"
Me: "If I could I would"
Front Desk Guy: "Uh, ok...well....I'll move your neighbors"
Me: "thanks...BYE"

I hated to be so terse, but there was nothing I could do at that point other than try my best to calm them down and get them to go to bed. After a few rounds of me singing to each of them they both were down for the count. Whew! Mom crawled into her bed and was out like a light. I tried my best to do the same after thinking of everything I forgot to do at the house. Oh well. It was way too late now.

Thursday we had to WAKE the kids up. (guess they were very tired after all of their crying and screaming then night before) We got on the road and made good time all the way to the other side of Knoxville before we decided to stop for the night. Mom and I chatted the whole time and loved the scenery along the way. The trees were all in bloom and the mountains were lush and green! It was beautiful! We had a much more pleasant evening that night, and our little Motel 6 felt like the Hilton.

(Shenandoah Valley)

Friday we got away a little later than expected, but we made it all the way to Manassas by 7:30 with little or no hiccups! Thank goodness. John was there waiting for us when we arrived at our little extended stay hotel. He was such a great sight to see!

Mom unfortunately left early the next morning. Since then I’ve been checking out the area little by little. Seeing what I can find and attempting to make our little extended stay hotel room a little more like home.

So far so good.

Easter week

Easter was so much fun this year. The kids and I went down to my mom and dad's for a week and everyone had a great time. Especially Maya. She played and played. She played with Gran, she played with Pop, she played with Gran & Pop's pup Jr. She danced and sang the entire week.

The only time she got bent out of shape was when we wouldn't let her play any longer.

We went to Easter service with my mom and dad at their little Episcopal church in Alice. It was a sweet service where all the children in the congregation "flowered the cross" before the processional. All of us cracked up because my child didn't demurely walk down the isle with her flower in hand, no she danced & pranced down the isle doing an occasional Charlie Chaplin walk while checking each pew to see if she needed to stop and chat with anyone. She's a riot. After church we all went to the fellowship hall and the children went into the court yard to hunt Easter Eggs. Maya found one egg then proceeded to put it in and out of her basket along with the pretty Easter grass.

This went on for about 10 min until she finally took out all the grass & the basket ended up on her head. Yup, that's my kid.

Sagan was an angel the entire time, no one even knew he was there until just after communion he got hungry and let everyone know!

Gidget didn't fare as well as the kids. She got a little beat up when she tangled with my parent's Rhodesian Ridgeback. She's been in and out of the vets office for a week, but seems to be on the mend and is in great spirits. She shocked me this afternoon and jumped onto her favorite purch - the back of the living room couch. I'm so glad! She's got a 2 X 3 inch open wound on her right shoulder that will take some time to heal but she is doing so much better than I expected. For a 13 year old mini dachshund she is such a fighter.

We also went to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus. I think Maya really enjoyed it except when a big fish swam by and scared her!

So we made the 9 hour trip back from South TX and getting ready to get packed. I can't believe the movers will be here on the 27th!!! Ugh!!! Thankfully I don't have to pack, but I have to organize. It's a little stressful with the two kids and a wounded pup, but I think I can do it.

Sagan will be Baptized on the 26th of April at our little church. I'm very proud that he will wear my Great, Great, Great Grandfather's Christening gown just like Maya did. I can't wait to photograph him in it. Maybe I'll try to do that this weekend.

Anyway, I'm off to organize & clean some more....wish me luck!