Of babies, quilts and big boy beds

I finally got Big Boy’s airplane crib quilt done – just in time to kick him out of the crib and into a big boy bed. (Poor kid won’t even be in the same room for much longer.) Why is that boy moving to a big boy bed and changing rooms? Because we want his little brother or sister (!) to be in the crib in the room next door to us right away.

That’s right:

a) We’re having another kiddo!
b) We’re going to be surprised on the gender again.
c) We’re already in the seventh month – I’m extremely late getting the word out. Due May 20th.

What a weird pregnancy. Let’s see.

1) I fell at about five months, taking down a fence and landing on Big Boy no less, necessitating an exhilarating trip to the emergency room.

2) We were falsely diagnosed with amniotic bands, (a terrifying condition, but thankfully not the case).

3) I had the capital (HA!) pleasure of riding via military van from the Pentagon’s clinic to Bethesda all IV-bagged up during my tour earlier this month. (The “medic” that accompanied me turned out to be an admin troop from the podiatry clinic. What the heck was THAT guy gonna do?) Oh wait, yeah, and when they decided everything was okay, I got to spend two hours on the DC metro getting back to my hotel in Arlington by myself. That was a fantastic day, incidentally.

4) A couple of other little complications may cause us to have a c-section this time, which hurts my pride a little after birthing Number One sans epidural, but it’s a little early to call for sure. We have another ultrasound in a week or two that will give us a bit more insight.

In other news, Big Boy blows us away every single day with everything he’s doing and learning. He waited until 17 months to walk, but once he started, he jumped full-tilt into a major cognitive leap. His vocabulary has expanded exponentially – with new words added almost every single day – and he’s making a ton of connections we didn’t expect. For example, the other day during a diaper change, he pointed to his manhood, which we affectionately call a “tweeter,” and said, “Boy…teeter.” I didn’t realize he’d already figured out the key physiological variable there. He’s also trying to count, although it mostly consists of him pointing to individual items and saying, “one…one…one…one.” But if you say, “three,” he immediately jumps to “four.” You, “four,” him, “five.” And he manages to keep track of which items he’s touched and which ones he hasn’t. That surprised and impressed me more than the numbers.

Although the Arabic word for “airplane” was his first real word (long story), his obsession with flying machines has converted to a love of ground speed. He’s totally and completely enamored with cars. Daddy has stashed five or six Hot Wheels in every single room. In church on Sunday, while the rest of us sang “O Sacred Head,” he gave us his own loud rendition of sing-songy babble with “CARS!” as the only intelligible word reappearing every few syllables.

The Big Boy Bed has been a surprisingly big hit. He’s only fallen out twice – once on the very first night around 10 p.m. and the second time at 2 a.m. when he was sick and rolling around. Otherwise, he’s done great with it. And he loves being able to crawl in and out on his own. I suspect he gets a certain demented pleasure out of getting up and banging on his door at 6 a.m. to be liberated.

We finally got Big Boy's first haircut on Dec. 26th after three or four weeks in a row of people saying things like, “Oh, she’s a little doll…how old?” SuperHusband couldn’t stand it and incessantly commented on our boy’s mullet. I finally gave in – even if I did cry all the way to the salon. For the record, it’s not that I wanted my son to look like a girl, okay? It’s that I knew the instant we cut his hair, he’d look like a little boy instead of a baby. I just didn’t want to lose my baby. There, I’ve said it, and I’m a self-assessed wuss. And yes, he looks absolutely adorable with a haircut…I am still his sappy, biased momma.

As for SuperHusband and I, we’re totally digging Colorado, although the whole romantic concept of buying an “old house with character” has begun to look more like the Tom Hanks movie “Money Pit” as compared to our last two new homes.

SuperHusband’s year as a graduate student has been utterly amazing – especially after all those years of constant deployments in spec ops. Admittedly, though, the volume of time together has occasionally inspired comments like, “Wow, it’s time for one of us to go TDY (aka on a trip).” Seriously, though, I think the biggest plus for him has been feeling like he has a few years to watch his kids grow before he plunges back into the lifestyle of a gunship guy. We’re not taking anything for granted.

I took a new position in the Air Force Reserve. Soon I won’t be traveling to Washington, D.C. for work anymore. I’ll be traveling to Frankfurt, Germany! (I know, it’s a rough life, right?) It’s a great deal for us, because it’ll put me in a position to get promoted again in a few years. I’m super-jazzed about learning a new mission, broadening my perspective and experience, and getting back out into the field after four years on the Air Staff. My anxiety about making major is gone now – it’s been a huge plus walking around as a “field grader.” I never would’ve expected it would make such a difference, particularly in the Pentagon, but the biggest change is that people actually consider your words. The perception is that you might finally, possibly, MAYBE have something of worth to contribute to the conversation. It’s refreshing to be taken seriously, even if sporadically.

With such a long break between postings, there’s always more to tell, but I’m running out of steam for tonight. To those good friends who are still kind enough to check, I’m sorry for the long hiatus. And yes, we are eventually going to send out Christmas cards. Remember ’07? We sent out Big Boy’s birth announcements in December – six months late – with our Christmas cards. It’ll probably be the exact opposite this year…Christmas cards with the May/June baby announcements. So please don’t take us off your list just yet.