Wish I updated this more.

This is probably going to be one of those "ohmygosh-it's-been-almost-a-year-since-I-updated" posts.

Life is good in Washington, D.C. Devin has finished 5 weeks of casting to correct his achilles contracture. This is awesome because it is dang hard to keep a cast (and the toes inside) clean with a super active 1 1/2 year old. WHOA he is 1 1/2!? I am looking forward to going to the splash park on base much much more - and not having him kick me with his boot, stomp his foot like a peg-leg, or step on my food with the sole of his little cast shoe (ouch!!).

Devin is saying alot of things these days. Favorites are most definitely any kind of truck and he will say "tow truck" and "dump truck," though he doesn't necessarily use them for the correct ones. He likes to say 'car,' 'mommy,' and 'daddy' quite a bit and speaks in this non-sense babble all the time. I don't remember Luke doing anything like that, but he had a much bigger vocabulary at this age. However, Luke was not quite as goofy or energetic as Devin is. It is amazing seeing the difference between two kids with the same parents. :) One awesome thing that Devin does is confuse his name with the word "jumping," so much of the time when I call his name he will climb up on my bed or the couch and start yelling "jumpin'" "jumpin'."

I am starting to go through a letter of the alphabet each day with Luke with coloring sheets. He knows most of the letters, but I would like him to try writing or maybe recognizing/spelling his name. Preschool registration starts soon and I am very excited to enroll him in the T/Th 3-year-old program. I don't think they are going to teach him much, but I am soooo looking forward to some time alone with Devin to play or do grocery shopping.

We have recently started going back to story time at the library, which has been made possible by Devin & Luke being older. It is not so easy to control 2 toddlers in a small environment with books all around just begging to be ripped from their shelves. Luke really does great and completes much of the activities by himself while I try to keep Devin from tearing up the library. Each week has a theme and a craft and most days we take the craft home because by then the boys are hungry, tired, or mad.

Luke has started saying that anyone who doesn't immediately say "Hi" back to him and looks the slightest bit ethnic "doesn't speak English." He announces this loudly to me and always within earshot of the person he is referring to. It's a little embarrasing, but I laugh about it privately.

Justin is out in Arlington today, which I am happy for since it is the part of his job he loves the most. Yesterday there was a vicious storm in the afternoon and on an after-dinner walk with the children, Justin noticed that a flag had been knocked down from a home. This flag happened to be in front of the Chief's house. So he stopped and spent a good 5 minutes picking up, brushing off, and rearranging the flag. It was a moment that made me very proud, but also a little nervous to be standing in front of the Chief's house on the sidewalk. I kept expecting him to jump out and ask us what we were doing.

C'est la vie

With Justin's crazy schedule leaving me little time for downtime with the kids, it's difficult to find time to write blog posts. So, I suppose I will do the best that I can for now!

We are doing PT for Devin, Luke is fully into his terrible two's (woops - I mean "terrific"), and Justin is out from the break of dawn until just before the boys get to bed.

To make things easier for myself I have started to use the baby backpack ALOT more; This means that when we are on a walk and Luke throws a tantrum I have two free arms to carry him back. Usually he does this while we are walking the dogs - so I have two dog leashes in one hand, a baby on my back, and a toddler that I am carrying in a football hold. But we do have to get those dogs walked and also get out of the house.

I also usually refuse to go grocery shopping unless it is on the weekend. While it is busier, Luke will not be still/quiet/have ANYWHERE. Any thoughts of having a third child anytime soon while this far from the support structures of grandparents and aunts and uncles has been wiped from my mind. I tip my hat to those with small children and deployed spouses. My GOODNESS toddlers are.. a challenge?

Lukas has those wonderful spontaneous displays of affection and alot of cute things that he comes out with. To get him to eat broccoli I rip the heads into tiny "baby" broccoli's and Luke says they're going "WAH!WAH! They're crying." He turned to me today and said that "Trees are happy." He loves Thomas the Train, all things chocolate, and is smart as a whip. Though I am his biased mother.

I LOVE Trader Joe's

For those of you who don't know, Trader Joe's is a specialty grocery store similar to Whole Foods except alot better. I was going to Whole Foods for months to pick up special things that I am unable to find at the grocery store on base, but Trader Joe's is so awesome I will never be going back to Whole Foods. Here is why I love it there:

1. The food - including produce - is actually CHEAPER! than on base. I like to buy organic, but I had stopped for awhile because of the heavy hit it puts on my wallet.

2. They are committed to having tons of gluten-free stuff, and label everything prominently. I love their labels. No small font, but HUGE handwriting-looking stuff. At Whole Foods it's difficult to find "organic" on the labels and annoying when I'm in a hurry (which I am, always).

3. Their employees are SUPER friendly. They invite me over to the checkout, and actually help when they see me struggling with a two-year-old. SO so nice to a mom that is trying to get in and out quickly. The last time I went the checkout girl asked Luke if he wanted stickers, gave him a whole long string of them, then proceeded to ask me if I found everything on my list. I said that I didn't find the beef jerky and right away someone steps up beside her and says he'll go back. And he brought the beef jerky right up! After reading the labels to make sure that they were gluten-free.

4. Not only are the employees nice, but the people that shop there are too!!! Everyone smiles, chats, jokes with Luke. The first time we went, a gentleman came over and handed Luke a cookie from a sample table and said he loves to do that since he is diabetic and can't eat them himself. The second time, we were checking out and as I am bagging my groceries an elderly couple starts chatting with Luke about the choo-choo train he was carrying. It's AWESOME!

5. They have a huge selection of store brand stuff - delicious chicken sausage, nuts, different kinds of flour, pasta sauce - and it's good for you and cheap!


If there was one thing I could say I didn't like about Trader Joe's is that they aren't everywhere. It makes me sad that when we move from DC I probably won't be able to go to one.

Sorry about the excessive CAPS use, but I was just so excited to write this blog. I always leave Trader Joe's with a good feeling and don't think I'll be visiting my commissary for much anymore!

Crossfit Kicked My A$$

Justin has recently started going to Crossfit classes at the Gym and proposed an arrangement that we exchange the kiddos in the morning so that he'd go to the early class and I'd go to the one right after on days that his schedule allowed. Well, my first opportunity came during Julie and Dave's visit to our house this last Friday.

The workout on the board looked deceptively easy - 3 x 15 reps some strength move, 15 reps burpees (a cardio move). We warmed up with butt kicks, jumping jacks - all standard stuff. Then we moved onto the other part of the warmup.......... 10 Pullups/10 pushups/ 10 squats. Right there I probably would have left if Julie wasn't standing right next to me. However, Julie jumped right in and suggested that we use the boxes and do jumping pullups as a modification. Thankfully I was able to get through the warmup doing those, and I did eventually switch to girly pushups during the warmup (thought I was going to get yelled at for that).

After the warmup and before the workout the instructor joked about how he'd gotten 6 people to throw up so far, which made me a little wary of what was to come. Sure enough about halfway through I started to feel vomit in the back of my throat. The end eventually came and I was left with a feeling of giddy accomplishment. Though I had gone the girly route with pullups, pushups, and weight, I had actually finished a Crossfit workout.
I'm hoping to go back soon and maybe someday do a proper pullup/burpee/any olympic weightlifting technique.

On another note, I did go to a Zumba class the next day and got my grove on even though I was the only white girl there and it was my first time ;)

p.s. Big thanks to Julie for being there and jumping in with modifications because I probably would've walked out before the instructor offered one!

Devin's Do's

Took these a few weeks ago when I was having some one-on-one time with Devin. Figured I might as well try to style his hair since it goes crazy and usually looks like a mess. I even named them all but couldn't get the subtitles below the pics. Enjoy~

I call this one the Jerry Curl

SO BUSY

Summer is full of so many things to do. We visited North Carolina and saw Crandall two weeks ago. Justin then had the debut of "Air Strike" at the Tattoo last weekend. The first show was good, but the second was AWESOME!! They tweaked a few things and it looked fantastic.

Devin now has two bottom teeth. AND it is already time for bed..

Luke's Pet Fly

A poor fly got stuck in our house the other day and Luke decided to make it his pet. For about 20 minutes, Lukas laughed at the top of his lungs and followed this fly around trying to get it to land on him. He would hold his hand so close to the fly and ask him "please." SO CUTE. Eventually the fly escaped and I found him dead on my bedroom floor that evening. I haven't told Luke yet! SHhhh.