During the last couple of months of the deployment, I really didn’t take JP out to ride his bike like I should have. But when John came home, he started taking JP out almost every day. So the progress that JP has made is just in the last couple of weeks. This is just a short clip of him riding it. Hopefully next time I can get a longer video, but it does show how good he is at balancing on it.
And yes, that is a Burger King crown he is wearing.
An article just came out earlier this week that talks about the benefits of a balance bike vs. training wheels. It’s about how it’s much easier to learn how to pedal while balancing instead of learning how to balance while pedaling. Every time I see JP ride his bike and pick up his feet, I feel so proud of him and glad that I stumbled across this type of bike before we ever gave him a bike with training wheels. At this rate, I don’t think it’ll be long now before he’s riding a regular bike.
In these last couple of weeks since John came home, we’ve been trying to relax and catch up on sleep as much as possible. As hard as it is to get in a new routine when he first deploys, it’s equally as hard to do the same thing when he comes home. Everything about how we used to do things with the kids has changed, so we’ve just been taking it easy and trying to get into a good system again.
Last Friday John was scheduled to get Lasik done. He had his initial appointment in the morning and then if he was a candidate for the Lasik, he was going back in that afternoon to get it done. At the appointment we found out that he didn’t qualify for Lasik, but he could get PRK. It’s a different method than the Lasik which a much longer recovery time. Instead of cutting the flap, they do the laser right on his eye and then put a contact in for a week to help it heal. He was okay on Friday and Saturday. But Sunday he was in a lot of pain. Now he’s doing better but he still can’t see clearly. Tomorrow he has another appointment to get the contacts removed and then he should be seeing better.
This week we kept JP home from preschool because it was going to be our week of fun. We planned on going swimming or to the park every day and go to Disney World and maybe another theme park. But what really happened was 2 dentist appointments on Monday, a Pediatrician appointment on Tuesday, John had to go into work for a few hours on Tuesday and his eyes are still not healed so no swimming. But yesterday, we did go to Disney World.
It’s been 2 1/2 years since we’ve been to Magic Kingdom and we were really excited to go because we knew JP would love it. And he had a great time.
He knew exactly what he wanted to do first. The carousal.
And then we were all able to ride It’s A Small World which was great for Emerson because there was so much to look at.
In the last month or so, JP’s been playing with my over-sized Mickey Mouse doll and even though he doesn’t watch Mickey Mouse cartoons, he’s learned all of the Disney characters and loves them. So at Disney World, we made sure that he got the chance to see Mickey and Minnie.
Even Emerson was loving on Minnie.
Oh, and it was raining off and on all day and all that extra humidity made Emerson’s hair go nuts.
JP rode his very first roller-coaster on The Barnstormer. In the rain, no less. Not sure how he liked that, but he was finally tall enough to go on some fun rides, like the tea cups at the Mad Tea Party, Dumbo, Peter Pan’s Flight and the race track.
JP loved watching the day parade and was waving to all the characters. Even Emerson enjoyed watching them.
At one point, a couple of the Disney princesses came down to walk among the crowd. Here is Sleeping Beauty waving at Emerson.
And John and I had this conversation.
John: Which one is that?
Me: Sleeping Beauty.
John: How can you tell?
Me: I just know.
John: Well who is that?
Me: Snow White. John, you know you’re going to have to learn your Disney princesses.
But he’s not the only one. During the night parade, we stood by another father who had his daughter up on his shoulders. He pointed and said “Look, it’s Cinderella!” to which his daughter replies “Daddy, that’s not Cinderella, that’s Alice!” I had to laugh to myself because I’m pretty sure Cinderella never sat on top of a mushroom.
At the end of a long, exciting day of going on rides and hugging his favorite characters, JP asks me a question.
JP: Mommy, are you happy?
Me: Yes JP, I’m happy. Are you happy?
JP: Yeah I’m happy. Daddy’s home.
So yeah. Pretty much a perfect day.
John finally made it home last night at 11pm. The kids were sleepy but in good spirits when we got to the airport and as soon as JP saw John he ran up to him, jumped in his arms and held on tight. Emerson was a little shy (and tired) but she’s quickly warmed up to John. We spent today wrestling, playing with toys, eating lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and taking naps.
JP never let John out of his sight for long. If John left the room, JP would ask over and over where he went. And all day, he’s been telling John “No more airplanes, okay daddy?” He still needs a little convincing that John is here to stay.
I’m going to try to set up the tripod sometime soon and get some pictures of all of us. But for right now, we are going to spend the next few days playing robots, giving hugs and cuddles, and catching up on sleep.
Today we bought a water table and played outside.
Today the dinosaurs and dragons had a showdown.
Today they both took a 4 hour nap at the same time.
Today they let me take pictures of their beautiful eyes.
Today we had this conversation:
JP (watching Shrek): Mommy! Mommy! It’s the tummy dragon!!
Me: The tummy dragon?
JP: Yeah!
Me: What is the tummy dragon?
JP: Tummy dragon’s gonna get your tummy!!
Today her hair was long enough to put in a ponytail.
Today I could say that John is coming home next week.
Today was a good day.
Emerson had a few Easter dresses to show off, so we got all fancied up and went for a walk outside.
She was just so excited to be outside.
I love how her hair looks in this picture. It’s getting so curly and long.
Then we changed dresses and got more pictures.
And I even got JP to sit down next to her and sit for a picture.
The funny thing is that JP kept sitting there and smiling at me and even tried to hold her hand when I asked him to. Emerson was the one who sat down for 5 seconds and then squirmed her way off the couch. Now that she’s walking, she will not hold still and always wants to be on the move.