Umm, I'm supposed to blog about how life sucked here.

I didn't really want to post these, because I was afraid they might cause dad nightmares or flashbacks. :)

So here is the bay I've been living in the last two months. This was taken the first day, before we really moved in.



Yes, they are World War Two era Wooden Barracks, intended to be used for only a few years, yet still in use today.





If you notice the little hill peaking above the rooftops in the last picture, I zoomed in on it on one of the few clear days we had.

Mt Rainier


Inside the Barracks

My Rack, I have the bottom bunk.


Looking towards the next rack over.


The neighboring rack again.


Me and one of the officers on my team.


The team minus our other officer.



Then after weeks of training somebody had the great idea that we needed to know what it was like to live in tents. This was to prepare us for living conditions in country. Great idea, except for the minor detail of the tent city being far from ready and thus the conditions were much worse than they will be "in country".

At first it looks okay. Except the first night there was no light, electricity or heat in the tents. They scrambled and got us electricity during the night. But still no heat the next night. Then they got smart and took the heaters from the working tents we used during the day and hooked those up to the sleeping tents. So now we could be warm at night and in the mornings when we got up (unless the heater ran out of fuel during the night.) But those of us who worked in the tents froze all day.



The Shower Trailers which were only available for a few hours each night, assuming the water wasn't all used up too quickly, which of course would close them down sooner.


Inside the Tents




And the Heaters, except for the really cold nights they really put out too much heat. And luckily ours only ran out of fuel once and that was just shortly before time to get up so the tent wasn't too cold.



And finally, on April 1st, the First Sergeant came back from his nightly meetings to find his bed moved out of his room, and hanging about two feet off the ground in the middle of the bay.

He said it was very comfortable there.

Dear Sweetie,

I noticed something ironic just recently. It's been ironic for a couple months now, but I just recently noticed that it is ironic. I'm a little slow, lately.

Between the two of us, I am definitely the Luddite. I'm the one who likes pictures printed off and taped in a book, rather than just stored on a hard drive; the one who gets overwhelmed by too many special effects in a movie; the one who would rather pick up the phone and call instead of sending an instant message (okay, that one makes me a Luddite only because phone technology is so much older than IM technology); the one who checks out non-fiction books from the library rather than just reading the Wikipedia entry on a given topic. But I'm the one putting up all these fancy, multi-media blog posts! Where are you, my beloved technophile?

You have a digital camera, a computer, and an Internet link. What website can possibly be more interesting than this one? And only one of us is making it interesting! I want pictures here, honey. I want a description of what you've been doing the last couple months, complete with photos. You have a slow week this week. I want photos of the barracks, the guys you pal around with, the mess hall (do they really call it that?), and most of all, I want photos of you!

Your boy loves photos of you. He watches my screensaver with great attention. I printed off a couple extra photos of you and he packed them around until I put a magnet on them and stuck them to the fridge. You're a fridge magnet, honey! Mr. Boo has accorded you the ultimate honor, too - your fridge magnet likeness actually gets put in the magnetic Wiggles book that is his favorite toy. Imagine! Your magnet alter-ego gets to drive the Big Red Car! No other fridge magnet has been accorded such a privilege.

So, I want pictures posted. I want descriptions. Surely you can get at least one blog post out of two months of training. And let me just head off one objection right now. You're going to say there's nothing interesting to talk about. I will just remind you that I made an entire blog post about a toddler eating a peanut butter sandwich. See? It's possible to write a post about day-to-day humdrum details, because there is assuredly nothing in the world so ordinary as a toddler eating a peanut butter sandwich.

All those who agree with the requests herein, please signify in a comment.

Love you tons, honey! Get chatty!

:)
Melinda

Stupid Human Tricks

When my sister was a baby, she had an endless string of ear infections. Like any kid with a sore ear, she played with her ears. But once the infections cleared up, she kept playing with them. Eventually, the cartilage turned into tissue paper, and she has weird ears. Now she uses her ears to entertain small children, and liven up boring business meetings. Honestly, could you concentrate on customer service discussions with this going on next to you?

Fat baby! Good cow!

Because I'm a nervous new mom, Boofer got to go to the doctor on Saturday. Turns out he's just fine. But the cool thing was that he got weighed again! He's gained more than a pound in just 9 days (since his last visit to the doctor), bringing him up to a grand total of 11 pounds! Yay for a chubby baby! Check out those cheeks!

Dang, I'm on a lot of herbal supplements to make that much milk. I got the list of what herbs to take from faceless strangers on the Internet when I posted my question about milk-making on a mommy blog when I was trying to nurse Mr. Boo. Nothing like getting medical advice from the same place that brings you viruses and spyware.

Here's some cute video of him doing some random wiggling, sneezing, yawning and other baby stuff. He also sticks his tongue out at you.

Playtime!

Last summer, we decided to pour a cement pad in the backyard so we could put a shed out there. Dirk dug out a good-sized section of the lawn. This summer, I discovered that Dirk was not making a place for a shed; he was making a play area for Benji. The dirt is loose enough he can dig in it, but not sandy enough for the neighbor cats to use it as a litterbox.

Our lovely garden spot in the front yard, with its high quality dirt purchased from a nursery and trucked down from Ed's garden (remember when he put in a swingset and offered garden dirt to anyone who would come get it?), is prime cat-pooping real estate. Benji doesn't get to play in the nice dirt because the cats got there first. Oh well. He can't wander off in the backyard, so I'd rather have him there anyway.

Lunch Time!

Mr. Boo will occasionally eat a peanut butter sandwich. Here is how to eat the good parts first.



First you open the sandwich up and gnaw off the jam.



Notice that this leaves you with peanut butter on one side of your face, and jam on the other, rather than an even blended coating of PBJ on both sides.



Then you just stuff the rest of the bread in. Once the good stuff is gone, why pause to savor it? For that matter, why pause to chew it?

And just because I think video clips are fun, here's the action shot:



And yes, in case you were wondering, he did manage to chew and swallow that entire mouthful without choking on it.

Cute Boofer

Look! He's coming up on his three-week birthday!


Kisses for my sweet baby.

This video clip is Boofer randomly wiggling. He finally has hands! I've had him in gowns with mittens for his whole life (except for a couple sponge baths). Imagine you've worn socks for three weeks and never taken them off. Boofer had a lot of toe jam and lint on his hands. They're mostly cleaned off now, and his nails are clipped. However, he still doesn't know they belong to him.

And a HUGE "thank you" to Boofer's grandmas and aunt!

Today is the first day in a month that I've been on my own. A couple weeks before Boofer's birthday, my mom came down to help with Mr. Boo and make sure I wasn't alone in case something happened - like me giving birth. It was such a huge relief to have someone help. I didn't realize how worn out I was, both physically and emotionally, until I had help.

Susan came down the day Boofer was born, and stayed until she took Dirk back to the airport on Saturday. Mr. Boo loved having his grandma around. And I know Dirk loved having her here for his short leave.

Because of the trouble I had with my epidural, I was under instructions to not lift anything heavier than 10 lbs for two weeks while the puncture healed. Mom and Susan set up a tag-team to make sure I had someone living here for those two weeks. I couldn't have done it without them, literally.

Mr. Boo's grandmas were great sports in taking him outside to play. They also did all the Boo-lifting - in and out of his crib, up to the chair to eat, up the stairs when he was protesting a threatened diaper change, and in and out of the car seat.

And best of all, they are good company. It was wonderful to not be alone those first couple weeks after Dirk left. I needed my wonderful mom and mom-in-law as much as Mr. Boo needed them.

My sister was also wonderful. She took Mr. Boo that first week for most of the days when he had such a drippy cold. As a blessing for her sacrifice, she caught Mr. Boo's cold and then passed it on to all three of her kids. Sorry Chelle!

Many thanks and undying gratitude for your help.

12 days old and all's well!

At Boofer's 12 day old mark, I am finally starting to feel normal again. Mr. Boo has actually gotten within inches of his brother. Mr. Boo has not been very social with the baby, probably because I banished him for a week when he had a cold and Boo did not know there was a baby in the house.



Mr. Boo did have a bonding moment with his brother. He was in Boofer's room, and suddenly started shouting "Melmo! Melmo!" and rushed out of the room. He returned clutching one of his diapers featuring Elmo. In great excitement, he pointed to Boofer's diaper in the garbage can, which also featured Elmo! Matching diapers! How totally cool! Other than that, he's tried to push him off my lap a couple times, but has otherwise ignored him.

I did coax him up to pat the baby today. I showed him how to pat the baby gently. Mr. Boo took a swing and whapped him a good one on the chest. We'll have to work on that "gentle" thing. At least he touched him, right?

Boofer at six days

Here are a couple photos of Boofer just before his first week birthday.

Mr. Boo on the farm

Mr. Boo is a collector of animal sounds. He loves performing. He'll come up and say, "baa" and then sign "more" so I'll prompt him for his entire repertoire. Naturally, I think this is the cutest thing ever. He was initially a bit shy for the camera in this clip, but overcame his stage fright and gives a four-star performance.

Simon's first bath

Simon had his first bath today. He was not very impressed.





Mostly, I'm uploading photos to the blog so Dirk can see them, since his email box gets overloaded with military stuff. All these photos, plus more, are also on the gallery. Dirk, can you get to the gallery easily?

Proof of his Wrath

Since Grandma Susan cast doubt on how angry he was at being put in his car seat:







Need I Say More?

Lil Boofer Has Arrived

It is with great joy that we announce the arrival of Lil Boofer. He was born at 8:16 am on 3 April, he weighed in at 8 lbs 12 oz, and was 20 inches long.



His mother was scheduled to be induced at 7 am on the 3rd, but he wouldn't stand for that, things had to be run on his time. So at three a.m. HE decided it was time to go to the hospital. So off we went. Big thanks to Chelle for coming over to watch Mr. Boo that early.

We got to the hospital about four a.m. and four hours and a partially problimatic epidural later our new arrival was here. Mother and child are both doing extremely well.

Enjoy the pictures, and I'm sure many more will be posted in the following days on various family blog sites, and Da will most likely find some time in the next couple weeks to fill in on the details of this great event.



Brothers


The Happy Family


Ready to go Home!