Kimber's Navy Family

Whew! Toddlers are no joke. And preschool? I have probably told you before, but I really felt that once the boys began school there would be a magical change that made life easier. That is a total myth. Little people, little problems; big people, big problems. The older they get, the more there is to deal with; I'm beginning to see this. I suppose that is why so many people told me to enjoy that first year. What they should have said is, "You think this is hard now? Honey, just you wait." We found our groove that first year with twins. There were difficult phases, of course, and my girlfriends can tell you I made many frantic phone calls, " Why aren't they napping? Will the crying ever end? " But the crying did end. They did fall into a nap schedule. There was a good balance between the rhythm of the rest of the family and the pace of the toddlers. Toddlers are complex little creatures. Much like a butterfly (or moth?) if you touch their wings, they c...

As I write this, it doesn't feel like a new year. We drove home from my parents' house today and it was a horrendous trip. I was in the mini van with the two toddlers and the dog. My husband drove the Jeep with our preschooler and our Christmas hoard (my parents spoiled us this year). I'm not sure how things went in the Jeep; my husband said D asked him every five minutes "What time are we going to get home?" or "Has it stopped raining yet?" I can only imagine that that did get grating at some point. I listened to one or both toddlers cry for over three hours. To make it even worse, neither of them napped. I sang Paul McCartney's All the Best album at full volume for nearly an hour to keep the crying at Antsy Unhappiness instead of escalating to Angry Out of Controlness. Ten minutes away from home, the crying stopped-- no fussing or whining. I peered back to their Fisher Price mirrors to see both toddlers had fallen asleep at 1645, well past napti...

    First, to my momma, do not read this blog post. For the rest of you, having your second (or second and third) child is not at all like having your first. Some things just are different. For the longest time with our first, I felt like we were "playing house." We had this little baby to dress up and bring places with us-- just don't drop him (for those of you who had to take care of "egg babies" in health class). When our next children arrived, we felt like we had the newborn thing down. We knew about late night feedings, nap schedules, and telling the grandparents--again-- that we do not want to put rice cereal in the bottle. (The confusing thing, for us, is that we had twins... a little different than having a singleton.) But we knew how to take care of a newborn and we knew what to expect from each newborn phase. Naturally, this made us actually enjoy  some of the newborn phases. "Some" being the operative word. I cannot imagine anyone s...

Navy/Marine Corps Birthday Ball 2012 Whew! My husband just finished the fall semester of his senior year. I can't believe that we are wrapping up semesters of college-- only two more left. It was around this time in 2009 when we found out that he was picked up for the STA-21 program . It was such a stressful whirlwind getting the last minute paperwork together (acceptance letters, etc) for college and preparing ourselves to move again. I can't help but feel anxious thinking about the uncertainty of the coming year. We need to set a date for his commissioning over the summer, which will mean invitations and hotels for out of town guests. I also need to figure out what I need to plan for this commissioning-- reception? Next year our oldest starts kindergarten. This will be our first school-age move. This will also be our first PCS with more than one child (our oldest has PCS'd twice). The bigger question will be when this move actually happens. We've been hearing ...

Wow. It is December already? The last time I looked at my calendar, I swear it was October... The toddlers are about 20 months. As everyone likes to say, " this is such a fun age ." As I like to say, this age exhausts me. It is so much fun watching them discover things. I love actually seeing them learn, like when they repeat a new word or when they figure out how to open a gate or door. C stacked his blocks nine blocks high the other night, then knocked them over to meticulously line them up in a row. Absolutely adorable to watch. Then there are mornings like this morning . C has decided that he doesn't want to put shoes on. I really think that is the dilemma. He won't leave the house in socks-- he must have shoes to cross the threshold-- but he does not like the act of putting shoes on. He also is exceedingly particular in what pair of shoes he wants. (Last month they only had one pair of shoes each. Why, oh, why did I buy another pair?) I was running late ...

Our identical twin toddlers are 19-months now. A lot of things have changed. For one, our boys were truly identical for the first year. We could tell them apart by looking at their different birthmarks. Now we tell them apart because they look different to us and we know their personalities. Having identical twins has been an adventure. Some ages have been easier to manage than other ages. It took a lot of adjusting when they first came home-- feeding schedules, nap schedules-- and even more adjusting when they became toddlers-- two toddlers! Here are some of my thoughts thus far on having identical twins. The identical twin factor has also lead to an interesting development: I hardly ever dress them in matching outfits. Now, I love matching outfits on siblings. I grew up wearing matching outfits and planned on dressing my children in matching outfits. Perhaps it is because the toddlers end up looking so much alike that I do not like the matching outfits. We (myself, the hub...

My small town, southern husband grew up living near all these different branches of his family. Thanksgiving was a time for them all to get together and cook great big, traditional Thanksgiving dinners. He told me he would then often drive over to friends' houses and eat at there as well. Thanksgiving was a big holiday for his family. At my house, Christmas was the big holiday. Thanksgiving was the last stop before Christmas. We always decorated the day after Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving meant day-after sales (my favorite). You can imagine the look on his face a year or two ago when I suggested forgoing the traditional turkey dinner for something more fun-- something my family often did-- tacos. (Hey, we lived in California.) I managed to avoid any serious Thanksgiving conversations on our old boat because his division was always invited to a big Thanksgiving dinner at his chief's house. Here in North Carolina we are on our own; Thanksgiving became my problem. Last year I w...