Different kind of weekend

We, here in the Warren Casa, like our weekends long and leisurely. But that is all about to change my friends. Brandon and I are being sent on a marriage retreat this weekend! As much as the Army seems to hate for us to be together, and consistently makes sure that I go days without quality time with my husband, they want our marriage to be strong. Go figure. 

So the Army is whisking us away for a romantic weekend of, well, I'm not sure exactly. I know that it has to do with the 5 love languages, maybe some team building exercise of some sort, who knows. I am excited because a) free hotel stay, baby! and b) as much as I cherish the marriage that we have, I know that it can always be stronger. 

I'm slightly apprehensive about it though. I'm not quite the social butterfly I was in my youth, and frankly, being in a room full of strangers for three days is not my idea of a fun time. I'm also on edge about Addie. I love my little buggy, and being away from her physically pains me. She's sleeping in the room next to me right now and I already miss her. And she doesn't do so well away from me either. Other kids tend to pull on her luscious locks, take her toys, and be meanie-poop-heads. Her stranger anxiety is through the roof, so I guess we will see how it goes. But other couples who have been to these retreats before swear that the child care is amazing, and I can stop by and see her any time I want. And it's only a few hours each day.

Silas will be easy peasy because I get to keep him with me. He is little enough that they can't take him away, so I have a slight bit of comfort there. Plus the whole breastfeeding thing makes it hard for us to be separated. 

Most people are dying to get a tiny break from their kids. You'd be crazy not to. In the throws of a stage-5-clinger-toddler-temper-tantrum, mixed with a hungry screaming infant( maybe a stage 4 clinger on his part), and some out of control dogs, I also may think I need a break. But who am I kidding? These kids are my life force, the very essence of my existence. I don't even remember functioning as a human being before them. It's almost as if my life began the day I had Addie. And having itty bitty Silas has only intensified those feelings. 

Some people claim that they don't want "mom" to be their identity, or that motherhood isn't what defines them. Heck, most of my life I swore I'd never have kids, and if I did, I'd be rich and totally have my nanny raise them. But I'm not rich, and I'm 125% sure that my mother would have killed me. And I'm also a very different person. Motherhood does define me, being a mom is who I am. I'm aware that my mom is probably reading this and laughing, and telling Breezi "I knew she'd feel that way." It's true. I love being a mom with every fiber of my being. It's what I was made for. Sure, someday I'll work again, and pursue my love of photography, but now, when people ask me what my dream is, I already live it. I feel no shame whatsoever when my answer to the question "What do you do for a living?" is "I'm a mom." Although a more fitting description would be " I created 2 tiny humans, who are adorable beyond all reason, and who are more awesome in their little selves than you will ever hope to be." Somehow I don't think that answer would go over so well. 

But I digress.....

I'm excited for this weekend, I really am. I love my husband so so much, and I am genuinely looking forward to spending this weekend getting to know him better, and building on our already incredible bond. And we have definitely earned a little getaway. Our itinerary has a slot labeled "date night" and it has been far too long since we have had one of those. 

Father's Day Weekend

Happy Father's Day! 

Last year was Brandon's first Father's Day, and unfortunately, he didn't get to spend it with Addie because he was away at training. So this year, I was very excited that he got to spend the day with his kiddos. 

We had a fairly lazy day, as we are wont to do on weekends, and it was very enjoyable. I used our waffle iron for the first time, and made some yummy waffles. In hindsight, I shouldn't have put syrup on Addie's, or maybe I should have fed her with a fork, but she enjoyed them. We watched some of one of our favorite shows, The Office, and had lots of babies on the laps time. I ordered 2 presents from each of the kids to Brandon, and due to my awesome procrastination skills, only 1 of Silas's was here in time, and his second one and Addie's 2 should be here this week. Fail. 

Brandon slow cooked a delicious chicken for dinner, and a great day was had by all. I cannot wait for the Father's Days in the future, where the kids hand make presents, and excitedly wait for daddy to open them. It makes my heart happy to think of what the future holds. 

This weekend we also did lots of adorable tummy time.

This kid has a smolder that'll melt your heart.

And then his head got tired.

Addie watched us from above.

Mmmmm, cheese! 

But Silas wasn't done being cute just yet. 

Then he gently let me know that it was time to eat. 

I love that grumpy old man face. 

Addie let me do her hair! I try all the time, but without fail, she destroys my work in a matter of seconds, if she even lets me finish combing it. So today, I was ecstatic when she not only let me finish putting her hair up, but left it in long enough to show daddy and take some pictures.  

All of her attention was immediately focused on her best friend, Gunner. 

Daddy was able to get her to hold still, only by showing her a video starring her favorite actress, herself! 

Gunner quickly regained his buddy. 

"Kitty, are you in there?"

Kisses! 

"Gotcha Gunner! Now you can never escape!"

And more running.....

Then she got tired of chasing the dog, and tired of her hair-do. She crawled into daddy's lap and oh so subtly hinted at what movie she wanted to watch. 

 And of course, daddy couldn't say no to his princess. I love this girl! 

Spoiled

To say that my daughter is spoiled is an understatement. She has so many loving grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, and of course mom and dad, who love to shower her with gifts. I mean, come on, who can say no to this face? 

For her birthday, she got a princess castle that she loves. Unfortunately, the castle did not love her. The sound was glitchy. It didn't work at all at first. Then one day it magically started working. Addie was ecstatic! And about 2 weeks later it got really quiet. We changed the batteries, but alas, no dice. And then one day, nothing. And me, being the genius that I am, had already thrown away the box and the gift receipt. Addie still loved to play with it, but she would get frustrated at the lack of sound, and soon the castle would be abandoned.

 So on Sunday, we finally exchanged it. Luckily Walmart doesn't need receipts for all returns. We had previously tried exchanging it, but our regular Walmart can't keep it on the shelves because it is so popular. They offered to refund us, but Addie loves this castle so much, that I said we'd wait till they had it in stock. It has sat in my trunk, unused and lonely, for 2 weeks. We went to a different Walmart, with hopes that they would have one. 

Success! 

We got it home and I put it together the next day. I forgot what a pain in the booty that thing is to assemble! I snapped the plastic into place, screwed in all the screws, and painstakingly put all the stickers where they belong. And then I realized, we don't have the right batteries. Ugh! So I pulled some almost dead ones out of another toy, just to test it. It worked! And then it died. But still, I'm confident in the new castle. 

And Addie is very happy with it.

But when the sound died, Addie was not amused. 

Luckily she has the attention span of a goldfish. 

Belly!

While we were at Walmart, we wanted to get her a ball. She has recently fallen in love with any type of ball. She yells "Bow!" and throws or kicks them. She has lots of little ones that are part of other toys and one spikey ball, so we wanted to get a bigger one. Brandon saw a Jake and the Neverland Pirates ball in the past, so he wanted that one. On our many excursions, we hadn't come across it again, so we put off buying a ball. While at the store, we walked up to the giant ball cage, and Addie just about had a heart attack. "Bow bow booooooow!" So we grabbed a big purple one. She was in love! Brandon then finally found a Jake ball. But I couldn't stand to take her giant purple ball away, so I decided to extra spoil her and get both. So now she has all sorts of awesomeness to play with. 

I think I am an enabler..... 

But seeing her so happy makes me happy, so it's totally worth it. 

Weekend

We had a lazy weekend. 

And by lazy, I mean LAZY! Like the kind of weekend where you do nothing at all, and by the time 4pm rolls around, you realize the whole family is still in p.j.s, and that "walk to the park" you planned and the "dishes" and "laundry" you wanted to do, are nothing but a pipe-dream. The only thing we accomplished was a last minute trip to the store tonight, because we were out of food, and when you have little tummies to feed, food is kind of important. Other than that, we didn't do much. 

But we had some pretty epic naps.

Speaking of naps....

Addie has decided that she is now a one-nap-a-day kind of gal. Throw in some new teeth coming out, and it makes one cranky baby! So we have a long nap in the morning (which we are trying to move to a later time), and some quiet (or not so quiet) crib time in the afternoon. She usually spends this time "reading", entertaining her stuffed koala, or emptying her crib of all of its contents. Which keeps her happy and contained for about 45 minutes, and then the screaming begins. 

So today, thinking I was being productive and creative, decided to try my hand at military fade haircuts while she was having quiet time. I had the right tools and YouTube on my side, so how hard could it be? This could save us many trips to the PX and many dollars, plus Brandon looks really really really good with a fade, so I was all in.

 Let's just say it turned out like more of a "bowl cut done by a blind 4 year old" than an actual haircut, and leave it at that. 

My poor husband. 

He was very cavalier about the whole thing, and patiently sat still while I shaved all of my hard work, and all of his hair, completely off. All the while, Addie was chatting up a storm. And as I cleaned up my mess, it got quiet. Too quiet. Anyone who has ever been around a toddler knows what that kind of quiet means. Trouble. With a capital T. 

*Back story!*

The baby room gets hot during the day. Really hot. It has an east facing window, so as soon as the sun comes up, the temperature in that room rises. We have blinds, blackout curtains, and a fan set up, but it still gets pretty warm. So for nap-times, usually Addie is in a onsie to sleep, or sometimes just a diaper. Since she spent all day in her warm fuzzy jammies, I put her down in a diaper. 

*Return to story*

I think anyone with any child rearing experience knows where this is going. The silence made me suspicious, so I pulled up her image on our fancy-schmancy video monitor. I had to do a double take. What is that white thing she's throwing over the rails? No.... it cant be! Wait, are those buttcheeks?!?! Sure enough...

There was Addie, in all of her naked glory. And she was darned proud of herself too.

Clearly, quiet time was over. 

In leu of a nap, she decided to dole out some daddy snuggles.

While they snuggled, Silas played.

And made some seriously silly faces. 

He also had some amazingly wonderful smiles to share. 

And surrounded by all of this cuteness, I sat in my corner of the couch, pretending to be jealous, but feeling incredibly blessed.

 I love lazy weekends.