Life of a Military Kid

Military kids often experience things that most other kids don't (ie- MOVING being the big one.) With that being said, here are some things that I have noticed about Logan and Audrey that are different...

*They use words like commissary and bx. These words simply refer to grocery store and "mall" on base.

*They pretend to be landlords or real estate agents.
        When we first arrived in Germany, we stayed in TLF (temporary living facility) or base hotel. We started house hunting right away and always took the kids with us. One day after we had been here about 2 weeks, the kids started showing me around our hotel room. Logan would take my hand back to their bedroom and say, "Here is a bedroom, it has a nice closet. There are 2 bedrooms in this house." He would continue to show me the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen and how it had a nice fridge, living room. Then he would say to me, "Well, what do you think?" So I played along and asked how much it would cost. He would usually tell me 2 and well that is cheap for a house, so I would gladly accept "the property". The one day I think he showed me the same "house", five times.

*They pretend to be movers/packers.
      Today, the kids were playing and walking around with a pen and paper and marking things down. Then the questions started (Gwen you will appreciate these, since you have been through the process with us)- "Mom, does this go (referring to the stuff in the cupboards)." "Yes" I reply "however, the stove, microwave, dish washer, and coffee maker stays."
"Do the bananas go? Does anything go in your fridge? What about the fish tank? Does the table go? How about the couch and the tv? Is there anything upstairs that goes? How about the candy, does it go?"
Each time I answered as if I were talking to a moving company and each time both kids made some marks on their papers- No the bananas don't go. Don't worry about the stuff in the fridge, I will deal with that. The fish tank will be empty and ready to be boxed up. Yes the table, couch and tv all go. Everything upstairs needs to go. No don't take the candy, I will be taking that with me.

*Finally, since we move so often, Logan and Audrey refer to their different houses about different things that have happened.
       "At my wog (log) house..."
       "In our Texas house....."
       "Our Germany house has a camel for a neighbor."

Sea World- Part 2

We wanted to see as many of the shows as we possibly could. The first show we saw was the dolphins and the white beluga whale show.

White beluga

Waving

Kisses

Dolphin

 

The next show we saw was the sea lion and seals show.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we saw the Shamu show and in my opinion, this was by far the most impressive. The killer whales are massive, but can still do flips and it was really neat to see the interaction between the trainers and the whales.

Sea World- Part 1

Sea World is in San Antonio, which is about 3 1/2 hours away. This is perfect distance for a weekend getaway. We decided to take the kids over Labor Day. Fortunately for us, there is a program that once a year military families are able to go to certain parks and get in FREE. The best part of all is you can choose when you want to use your free admission. 

BREAKFAST WITH SESAME STREET

Since it didn't cost us anything to get into the park, we decided to treat the kids to breakfast with the Sesame Street characters.

I don't think Audrey was impressed!

Still not sure, but at least an attempt at a smile.

"Please don't touch me!"

From a distance- Logan thought the characters were cool, from a distance.

"Daddy, don't let him touch me!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEXAS

Life has quickly passed me by and well obviously I haven't taken the time to write about it. Each night I lay in my bed and kick (not literally) myself for not writing down the days events. I really wish I was better about it. I know as my kids get older and will want to know what we did, I will have to rely on my already fading memory and it won't be good.

At this point in our lives, the kids are saying and doing things that I don't want to forget, so I am going to try and be more diligent about documenting these things. LOL

Let's get up to speed. Since July we have been living in San Angelo, TX. It is a little town in the middle of nowhere. For the most part, people are extremely friendly  (you always have a few that don't fit the category).

Interesting things we have learned about Texas:
a.) Geckos- yes we have seen them and the kids like to move things (pieces of wood, rocks, cans, etc) to find the geckos.
b.) Dust storm advisory- in other words, stay in your house, unless you want to get very dirty and have decreased visibility.
c.) Stickers/thistles/ thorns- whatever you want to call them are a NUISANCE and our yard is full of them. They get on your shoes and clothes and they hurt if you step on them (speaking from experience).
d.) Cactus/Cacti- are used for landscaping and decorating the front yards. You can also find them along side the road, unless you are Tessa. he he
e.) Hats/boots- anyone wearing these articles of clothing are cowboys/cowgirls in my kids' minds.
f.) It can be REALLY HOT!!!!!- Therefore, clothing is optional for outdoor activities.

New Names

A recent conversation between Logan and I.
Me: What is your name?
Logan: Woen Sniff
Me: What did you say?
Logan: Woen Sniff and I have a Grandma Sniff (Definitely started laughing at this point and couldn't correct him)

I sometimes sing the kids' name to the tune of the Mickey Mouse song. So instead of  M-I-C-K-E-Y, I will sing L-O-G-A-N, Logan James, Logan James and I do the same with Audrey. Well, we were riding in the car and I heard Logan singing. I listened closer and he was singing "Audrey James, Audrey James". I asked Logan if he knew that Audrey's middle name was Joyce, not James and he insisted that it was James. I have also caught him "scolding" her in brotherly way- "Sisser James or Audrey James".

So for now, the kids have new names, and I am ok with that.

WE ARE ALIVE!!!

I am not even going to attempt to catch up. Obviously a lot has happened since Audrey's first foods, especially since that was way back in June. A quick little update- Audrey turned 1 in January and we had a Minnie Mouse party. Her personality can be so sweet at times and she is definitely a daddy's girl. Anytime the phone rings, she thinks that it is daddy and goes through the house saying "Dada dada". Besides dada being a favorite word, she has also learned the words "NO", "Mine", and "some" (she usually wants a snack, candy, etc.) These are not all the words that she knows, however, these are the most common ones. However, she can also be quite sassy and tends to give Logan a piece of her mind. Since her first birthday, she has mastered walking and is improving on running. She has also figured out steps, which fortunately we don't have too many. LOGAN Logan can be extremely sweet also, however, he has been deathly gripped with a terrible case of the terrible two's. I have recently been informed that the terrible two's can last for years (thanks for the encouragement dear stranger- I thought that I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.) An example of Logan's sweetness, if Audrey falls asleep in her car seat he will reach over and hold her hand, then he says "Momma, sisser asleep and I hold her hand." Totally melts my heart every time. There have been times at the church where he has held hand to help her to her Sunday School class. He recently has mastered the driving of his tractor. Logan taking his friend Cameron for a ride He has even been able to help me with some lawn work. I load the weeds into the trailer and he drives them to the woods, where I unload them. He also doesn't mind taking Audrey for a ride in the trailer.

Audrey's First Foods

Second children are handled differently than first children, everybody knows this. I was trying not to fall into this trap, however, it just sort of happens. Anyway, Audrey's first food was not the usual rice cereal. No Audrey's first food was a tortilla chip. We were playing games and Ben was eating chips. Audrey kept watching it and then she would kind of dive for the chip, so Ben decided to let her try it out. After the tortilla chip, we gave her rice cereal and she did pretty well for a first timer. P.S. These videos were taken June 11 when she was 5 months old.