Category Archives: Kids

Book recommendation: My Sailor Dad

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So my bestie Janelle recommended this book for deployments. I’m not much into these kinds of books normally because they are generally pretty dumb and I don’t like them. I was spending a gift certificate (finally!) That my mom had gotten me from Barnes & Noble and grabbed it along with some cookbooks. (Can’t wait to dive into the newish PW!)

Anyway, this book, My Sailor Dad, is ADORABLE!  I love the writing, even if it’s in rhyme, why every children’s book must be in rhyme is beyond me. I love the illustrations and how each page has additional artwork like flags, or semaphore as well.

And yes, it is very Daddy-centric. No sailor mommies are present in this book.

At this point I got a little misty, especially when Omar pointed out that daddy did the same thing when he left (manned the rails).  Although there was none of that waving nonsense going on, parade rest, Sailors!  I think the book did a pretty good job of explaining why daddies have to leave in terms that my five year old could understand.  You can find it at Amazon & B&N.

Weekend recap

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We actually had a busy weekend. Shocker. Normally we have zero plans but this weekend we were running around a bit.

Saturday started WAY too early, Omar had soccer pictures at 8:15. That is just wrong. So we had to get up really early to get over to the spot they were taking photos. 

This is me taking a photo in blatent disregard of the no camera signs. But it’s not like I was trying to take any posed pictures, I just wanted to show the BEAUTIFUL location right on the water. Damn I love living here!

After pictures we had some time to kill before his game so we ran over to the exchange and I grabbed a coffee and some supplies for a deployment craft. (will post as soon as it’s done)

The hulks had another awesome game and won again! (Doesn’t it totally look like Omar is about to do a header? That would have been cool!)

After his game, we ran home and showered him so we could meet up with some of the spouses from our ship. It was very different from what I was expecting since my last experience was with an aircraft carrier with thousands of sailors and now it is a destroyer with a couple hundred. On the carrier the officer’s and enlisted spouses didn’t even meet together which I thought was so weird. Whatever. Anyways, so I guess I thought this was a big spouse meet and greet. Nope. It was our two ombudsman and  6 wives. As of right now we don’t have a Family Readiness Group or FRG but we are trying to get one started. So we are the ‘get it started’ group. Not that I mind, I do love to volunteer and everyone was really nice and enthusiastic. 

Our ‘spouse support’ group. We did have a nice lunch. (And I recommend the Italian Chicken Panini at Wright Brothers Cafe!)

Mckenna holding one of my neighbor’s twins at our meeting. Seriously folks. This is where I live.

After lunch we ran to a friends house for a bbq. We are on the football team together and I was feeling really bad because we were running about an hour late because my other meeting ran long. Wouldn’t you know it? We were the first people there? Rude! I can’t stand people who don’t show up for parties! And no one else showed up for almost another hour! I felt terrible for her! Eventually everyone showed up and the kids had fun playing. She has a son Omar’s age and Mckenna got to play with ANOTHER set of twin boys!

I swear I feed this boy!

Look at these gorgeous ladies! What good looking football players! We ended up having a good time, I met another wife from the ship, the kids had fun running around and I didn’t have to make dinner. Win-win!

Sunday we ended up having a lazy morning. Mckenna was driving me nuts so I called another football friend and asked if her daughter could come play. Thankfully they live really close so it worked out perfect! The girls had a great time playing with American Girl dolls.

They wanted me to take this picture to submit to American Girl magazine. They are so cute!

Finally it was time to get ready for my football game. I was kind of dreading it because we had lost the last two and I was kind of demoralized. I play center so I am the one who snaps the ball. If I have a bad snap it’s a dead ball and we lose yards. Its VERY stressful! Anyways, we ended up playing Army and we won! It was SUCH a fun game. We were laughing and having fun and kicking the crap outta them. I did end up getting hit pretty hard, I was chasing after the running back and some broad came outta nowhere and plowed into me. I was SO pissed, I came up swearing. Its FLAG football, not tackle! My team had to rein me in a bit so I didn’t get into trouble and the other team ended up getting a personal foul and losing 15 yards. Meanwhile I have a lovely scraped upper thigh as a trophy.

We also had team pictures taken. I am happy we were all wearing our pretty new jerseys on Sunday!

So that was our weekend. We succeeded in keeping busy, the less time we are home the less time we are moping about daddy being gone! Can’t wait to talk to him on the phone again! Emails and chat just don’t cut it! (Such a spoiled 21st century Navy wife!)

Someone got a job!

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And no! It’s not me!

Mckenna got her first babysitting job and she is SO excited. Our neighbor’s husband is on the same ship as Omar so we are going to be deployment buddies! Well she is home with a 3 year old and a set of twin baby boys. Yikes! 

Anyways, we had gotten together with a few of the other spouses on Saturday and Mckenna was all over her babies. She remarked that she  would love to have Mckenna come over and help anytime!

Mckenna took her seriously and after a few texts back and forth went over this afternoon for a couple of hours.  She isn’t technically babysitting, just being a mother’s helper but she had a great time. Plus it’s great practice for when she CAN babysit in another year or so.  Our neighbor really appreciated having an extra set of hands and Mckenna loved playing with babies.

I am so proud of her! I am so happy that she is responsible and that parents are happy to have her help out!

Happy Birthday Omar!

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I wish your birthday could have turned out a little better. I don’t think having your daddy deploy on your birthday is a wish anyone could have had!

The past year you have grown and changed so much! You are hilarious, charming, adorable, my sweet stubborn baby boy. You are still very shy around new people but your sister was the same way when she was your age. You have a temper just like your daddy did when he was young and go from zero to MAD in about two seconds. It is perfect that your soccer team is the incredible hulks.

You’ve done great moving from Spain to Hawaii, even though it meant leaving behind the only house you’ve ever known and all of your friends. You are doing GREAT in kindergarten and your teachers wish there were twenty more kids like you in the class.

Your favorite past times are playing video games (especially your BRAND NEW 3DS XL!), driving your sister crazy, and wrestling with Bowser.

I hope this next year is wonderful for you! Mommy and Daddy love you SO much!

And so it begins…

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Soccer season that is. It has already been a little bit crazy just to get him on the team.

I’d been looking into the MWR sports that are put on for the military kids but the only sports they had were flag football and volleyball (for Mckenna) and they were full. So I am searching the internet trying to find something, anything to put my kids into for fall.

I finally find AYSO and see that registration has already ended but I don’t care, I am going to be THAT parent who wants to register their kids late. Through multiple emails back and forth with the lady in charge of registration, I am finally able to meet up with her and get him registered. Mckenna is on a wait list and probably won’t make a team which really sucks. But at least this is a two season per year league so she’ll be able to play in January.  Anyways, while I am registering him I ask if he can get moved up an age group. The U5 group that he is in is that whole “kick the ball around the field with daddy” thing. Been there, done that, he was bored when he had to do it LAST year, I didn’t want him to suffer through it again! This boy loves soccer, plays ALL the time and just wants to get in a game!  So the registrar tells me she’ll get back to me as she has to get approval from whoever.

Luckily she emailed me the next day letting me know he was good to go for the older U6 league and that they had a team that was short and needed him.  We got a call from the coach last night saying there was a game today, could we make it since two kids had dropped out and Omar made the 4th kid on the team! So at 7:45 we run out to the exchange to but cleats and shin guards (why can’t our stuff get here already so I can stop buying multiples of everything?)

We get to the field and find out coach, change Omar into his uniform and get him on the field to warm up. (NO time for cute poses with the ball in his adorable uniform!)

He even picked number 4 because he is four (for two more weeks anyways).

Oh, and his team name? The Incredible Hulks. I could die.

Running laps around the field.

Kick it in, baby!

Water break!

Taking a break

halftime snack

Boys are weird.

They ended up winning 5-3 and Omar scored TWO goals! Visions of World Cups are dancing in our heads! But really, he had a great time out there and his coach seems like a really nice guy. I actually had to cut out early due to this mutt:

I brought him to soccer because we (he) had his first obedience class and I didn’t want to have to run home. Well he was horrible at soccer, not wanting to sit still or lay down and wasn’t much better at class. I had no less than 5 people suggest putting a pinch or prong collar on him. I don’t know how he can be so wonderful IN the house (seriously, obeys EVERY command, perfect sit/stay/recall) and is just terrible on a leash! I don’t know how many more dog classes I am going to be able to make because most of Omar’s soccer games overlap and I really don’t want to miss out on those.

Anyways, so we had a great morning (besides my ill-behaved dog {which I know is all my fault}) and we are getting ready to go see ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ with the kiddos!

This Girl

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*sitting around the dinner table talking about carpet (I don’t really know why)*

Mckenna: Just call a carpenter and they can install the carpet.

Me: Mckenna, you do know that carpenters don’t install carpets, right?

Mckenna: uh…….

*cue us laughing our butts off*