One month

One month ago today, Andrew left.

In lieu of the weekly deployment picture as I had planned, I decided to do a monthly family picture - much more reasonable. So there we are a month ago, and here we are today.

What has changed? I have a newer haircut (which I love, although you wouldn't be able to tell from that picture of having just walked in the door from the gym). Unfortuantely, I weigh exactly the same...oops. (Good thing I have 3 more months until Operation Beautiful Wife comes to a conclusion.) I have a deeper appreciation for family, friends, and prayer. I have gotten back into the habit of reading and am currently devouring Jane Eyre. I go to the gym every day. I hate the hot weather and it makes me irritable.

Leighton is closer to walking and cuter than ever. He signs "dog" ALL the time. Yesterday we walked past a car in our gym parking lot with 2 dogs in it. Today when we walked past the same spot, he remembered and signed dog. He also signs "airplane" and waves hi and bye. I know, a little more of a limited vocabulary that his sister had at this age. But he is much more active than she was - he is always climbing into the dishwasher and getting into all the cabinets, which is new to me. He is a handful. He still adores his sisters and just stares at her all day. While he's sitting in his highchair, she'll dance around and talk to him, and he just soaks it up.

Eva's attitude is worse every day, and some days I feel like all I do is discipline and say no and try to teach her better behavior. But she is also sweeter and my best friend on days when I miss Andrew the most. She demands attention - when Leighton was whining at dinner the other day, she yelled, while pointing to her chest, "Bubba, it's about ME!" As incredulous as I was at her brattiness, I couldn't help but laugh - especially when Leighton tried to imitate her. The last couple days she has taken to tackling him and laying on top of him. I stopped it the first couple times, until I discovered that he likes it. So I let her wrestle with her poor, beat-on brother.

Andrew, as you can tell, looks incredibly handsome in his giant, nerdy headphones. Thanks to his current desk job, we have been able to talk to him every day, and sometimes twice. It won't last more than a few more days, so we have been taking advantage of the frequent contact. The kids LOVE talking to him on Skype.

We had a pretty eventful month. Almost 2 weeks in Houston and a week with the Webbs here, plus a few extra days with Mikael. (Eva misses Moochie!) We have had the hottest indoor weather we've experience in our lives so far. We've had a few awesome trips to the farmers' market. 4 Single-Mom Sundays, which I am surviving.

Here is a summary of our ONE month of deployment so far:

One group of visitors, one trip to Seattle, one trip to Northwest Trek, one go-round of the stomach flu, one horrendous plane ride to Houston, one LONG heat wave, one permanent-marker-on-the-carpet incident, one trip to the mall where Eva shoplifted a headband, one broken glass cup that shattered all over the kitchen, one first birthday, one day at an amusement park, one barbecue with friends, one messy house, one sweaty mama, one happy boy, one vivacious girl, one Skype camera, one month of missing Daddy...but still one happy family.