Mother's Day!

Dirk sent me flowers for Mother's Day! They came in a box from UPS. He timed them really well too. His mom was here when they arrived, so she was able to make them look bee-yoo-tee-ful. Then Kecia and Ed came by too, so lots of people got to see how thoughtful Dirk was. There are two dozen spring-colored roses in my bouquet, and I love them.



My other fun Mother's Day surprise was this morning, when Simon actually smiled at me! Simon has smiled at both grandmas, one grandpa, and at least two aunts, but he has not smiled at me. I got three or four really cute smiles from him. What a sweetie! We'll try to get his smiles on camera so Dirk can see them too, but give me a couple days. His smiles are still several days apart, and not very predictable yet.

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope you get fun surprises too!

Perspective

With two kids in diapers, there are days where I think, “I sure have to clean up a lot of poop.”

And then I think, “nah, I don’t have it so bad.”

Simon at one month

Here's a bunch of photos of Simon just after the one month mark.

Hanging out in his swing.

Just a cute face.

BIIIIG YAWN

BIIIIG TONGUE

Snugglies on grandma's shoulder

Brother photos

They will be best buds eventually, but right now, they're still kind of clueless about each other.



Benji checks out the new guy.



Nope, the milk and the belly button are more interesting.



Off to do something more interesting!

Springtime!

It's such a relief to have the world thaw out. I like living in a place that has seasons, mostly so I can be relieved when spring comes.



We're going to grow a boy in our garden this year. There might not be any other crops put in.




Simon gets to wear shorts and short sleeves! You know, that kid looks so much like a boy. People who think there isn't much difference between how newborn girls look and how newborn boys look have not seen Simon. You'd just feel bad if you had a baby girl that looked like Simon. But for a boy baby, he's pretty darn cute.

Goodbye, again

Dirk is en route. Contrary to the rumors we'd repeated, the powers-that-be did charter a widebody commercial jet, and the whole battalion is traveling in economy class comfort together. It beats temporary web seating in a military cargo plane!

He boarded sometime in the middle of the night, and is already on the East Coast. He just called me from their layover location. So many military flights go through that particular airport that the locals have rallied around our servicemembers. Welcome and farewell groups meet each flight, so Dirk and his friends were welcomed by a group of people shaking their hands and thanking them for their service. I'm glad the people at their last stop on U.S. soil are nice to them. There's a coming-home flight scheduled for this morning too, and some of the welcome wagon got mixed up and welcomed Dirk home! I sure wish he was headed the other direction!

They will stop in Europe, and then in one of the -stan countries, before finally getting to their destination.

We chatted on the webcam last night, and Dirk got to see both his boys. I thought that having him gone would be the same whether he was in Washington or overseas, but it turns out that it's hard all over again anyway. I'm glad my sister was here.

Goodbye, again, honey. I miss you.

Dessert Time

In case you were wondering about the proper way to eat an Oreo, Benji demonstrates it for you in this video clip. Please pay close attention to the "Oreo dance" as that's an important part of consuming an Oreo correctly.



These photos have nothing to do with Oreos, but here are a couple pictures of the boys together. Benji is getting more social with his brother.