So the other day I was chatting with Scott online and told him how funny our daughter is. He asked me for examples, but I could only think of one story off the top of my head. Here it is:

After Halloween, the child thing acquired two very pretty princess dresses that had been marked down really low. She happened to be wearing one of them the other day when Grandmommy showed up to feed her horses, who live in the pasture behind our house. This girl LOVES to help with the horses, so she raced outside wearing her dress-up costume and everything.

She was only out there a minute or two before she astutely observed, "I think this dress is not a good thing to wear to feed the horses. I'm going to go change." So, she ran inside and emerged a few minutes later...wearing her other princess dress. He he he. And then she continued along with her business as usual.

Today I thought of another silly thing our girl did, so I figured I'd write about it for her Daddy. Alright here goes:

Once a week, we go to ballet class in the evenings, and on those days we usually either eat leftovers or pick something up on the way home for dinner. This week, the child thing requested Sonic (she likes it because I let her get a fruit slush for her drink), and I obliged. She wanted a corn dog kids meal with apple slices and caramel sauce for dipping...the apples, not the corn dog, of course. Just thought I'd clarify.

We get home, we sit down, we eat, then the baby holds up his cup and says, "ma! ma!" That means more, so I go to the kitchen to refill his sippy, and when I return, what in the world do you think is happening?

The child thing has removed her straw from her strawberry slush, has placed it into the little tub of caramel dip and is slurping it right up.

Oh my.

What do you do?

But really, deployments can be a very lonely time. Even if you're surrounded by good friends who know what you're going through, or with family who love and support you in any way they can, no one can replace your "other half." You can start to feel sad, lonely, incomplete, joyless. I'm so glad I have these two around to make me smile every single day.

The Last Soccer Game

Time flies, and this little soccer player's season came to an end this weekend. Though she was never totally enthusiastic about soccer ("It makes me tiiiiiiiired"), she definitely improved throughout the season. Her last game, she got the ball three or four times and dribbled it toward her goal. And for her first couple of games, I don't think she touched the ball at all. Here is a clip of our little soccer girl and a message from her to Daddy! Oops...sideways...I don't know how to fix that. Sorry.

Jump!

So Thomas is learning to jump, and it is SO CUTE! He squats down, gathering all his strength, then lunges upward with all the might in that little body. But his feet don't leave the ground. Sometimes, though, he'll lift one of them up at the end of his lunge. He seems to think he's jumping, though, and is quite proud of himself. I, for one, hope he doesn't perfect the jump for a while, because that means I will get to fawn over his adorable baby jumps for longer. :)