Sleepy Sammy

What happens at the supper table when Sam is allowed to skip nap. He did this for probably 30 minutes!

Singing Sam

Here's Sam singing some favorite songs. The first he just started singing today and it took me a while to figure it out. It's the Hot Chocolate song from The Polar Express, which we have been watching in the van this week. Then when he sees me, he moves on to the Thomas the Tank Engine song.

Tea Party

Gabby had a birthday party for a friend today. They did a Tea Party theme and it was beautiful! They made hats and were given boas, gloves and fans. The girls had fun!

Forward Roll Video

Gabby taught Sam how to do forward rolls this week and now he's been doing them all week. Here they are practicing their rolls.

Train Tracks Video

Sam is a big train fan. We took Jordan to the dog park the other night and went over to the tracks after we were finished.

Pillow cases

I've been on another pillow case making binge. I made a bunch a few years back for Gabby, her friends, and her cousins. I did Christmas ones for all the cousins that year and Cinderella ones for Gabby and her friends. Now I'm making McQueen and Thomas, too. And I have made some princess ones for Gabby and her friends again. The last two I have made I have used as gift bags for her friends' birthday presents. I really dislike the expense and waste of wrapping paper.

Here is a good description on how to make them. As you can tell, I don't usually do the smaller accent. I have but I usually skip it. There are other directions out there - just Google it.

I can whip one up in about 30 minutes now that I've done it a few times. And it's one of those projects that making more doesn't take too much more time. It's a good assembly line project. And because they are quick they give me a little sewing fix without leaving another unfinished project lying around.

Six Months

So Robert left six months ago today. Halfway there. Halfway to go. At about five months I was doing pretty well thinking, "Hey, we're at five months. Almost halfway. Doing good." Then someone asked me how much longer and when I had to say seven months, it hit me again how much longer we have to go.

Since four months we have had Gram come visit, enjoyed a few weeks of summer, and started school and everything that goes with it. We've had a head cold and another round of the stomach bug. I've had to have the van fixed and we went to the Great Wolf Lodge for some fun.

And I had my six month meltdown. Don't know what it is about approaching six months but it seems like that is a point where things just fall apart again. When you feel like you just can't do it any longer. And it feels like you've been doing it forever. And when it seems like it is never going to end. Halfway is a bit like no man's land. Hard to look forward, hard to look back. And people start asking when he's coming back and you still have to say "March of next year," which seems like so far away. But now the time will start ticking down, however slowly.

We have two more months until he comes home for R&R in November. I tried to push it back as far as I could so that we would have less amount of time left after he goes back. So now I can focus on this short-term goal and forget about the long time still ahead. I've been making plans for fun and have already started stocking his favorite things. So I'm working on the two month goal now. We've actually never had R&R so this will be a new thing for us.

Six months down, six months to go...