Christmas

This Christmas, we opened presents on Christmas Eve at my mom's house since she would be leaving for festivities in Salt Lake super early.  On Christmas, we opened the rest of the presents at my sister's place.  The kids had a fun time and spent the rest of the day playing with their new Wii games.  Good times were had by all! 

Cousins at Grandma's house

Seriously took so many tries to get a decent photo on both occasions

Gorgeous Dana and David

Happy Birthday, David

Yesterday, my baby turned three!  I can't believe how fast the time has gone.  Of course, as an annual "celebration," he got sick again.  This time, I held off of going to the ER, but it came close.  Four days of throwing up, diarrhea and no appetite can do wonders to a mother.  He got very dehydrated, but luckily, I was able to start a make shift IV and get fluids in him...just kidding.  I do however want to give a shout out to Pedialyte and some random Pediatrician's website!

This is the first year where David really was able to enjoy opening his presents.  It was very cute watching him get very excited over every present.  He wasn't the most gracious, though, about sharing.  I guess being an only child, so far, can do that to you.  Which brings me to my other news.  I'm------wait for it-----not pregnant.  Got you going there for a minute, huh?  As I was typing though, I could hear my niece in the other room saying she had a dream that I was pregnant.  I just had to laugh!  Kids say the darndest things!

Anyway, my son had a lovely birthday yesterday, Lightning McQueen cake and all.  Unfortunately, I had my camcorder recording the festivities for Billy and forgot to take pictures.  Here are a couple of him comparing how much difference three years can make.



How did he go from this





to that?



Just a bit in love

It's been a little over a year since I moved to 29 Palms and it's taken me that long to discover Joshua Tree National Forest.  Thanks to my sister, Grace, we took a jaunt up that way for her birthday.  Can I just say I fell hopelessly, helplessly, and incandescently in love!  I can't believe it took me this long to find it!  I've been up there a couple of times now and it's amazing how much stress is lifted off of my shoulders.  I feel so relaxed and at peace up there.  It's beautiful! The air is so fresh and clean, and there's so much to explore.  The campsites are gorgeous and sandy so sleeping on the ground doesn't seem like too much of an ordeal. 

David loves it up there, too.  So much so, that he's willing to go out of his comfort zone to pose for pictures.  For David, that is a huge deal!

View from the Keys Views.  By David's head, you can see Signal Mountain which is right on the California/Mexico border 94 miles away!  Sadly, you can also see the pollution haze.

The rocks are so much fun to climb and have great traction for little ones. 

My son the photographer.  David told me he wanted to take pictures so I amused him and let him have a go.  Not too bad for a beginner, eh?  Every rock we came to he would say, "Climb the wock.  I take a picture."

Such a pretty place.  I'm excited!  I've found a haven to go to during this deployment!  Yay! 

Disneyland



Mekhi, David, & Matt



David with Melissa and Mekhi or boy & girl as David initially called them.




David's reaction on most of the rides there.







This Mickey did not know it was his 82nd birthday.



Yet, this Mickey did...mmm.





Love that Lightning McQueen





Fascinated with Playhouse Disney Show



Transitioned from boy & girl & boy to "my friends."  It was so cute how he said it!









Laughter











Picture by Ali Griffin



Love this photo!  Thanks, Ali.  Matt and David became such great buds!  Matt was David's protector!  So sweet!



by Ali Griffin







 So went our So Cal trip.  I learned that it's really a good idea to wait until they are 8 or older before taking them to Disneyland (especially if they're afraid of the dark).  Otherwise, you end up at the unhappiest place on earth. 

The Simple Things

It's the simple things in life that can bring so much happiness.  Such things like crawling in between freshly laundered sheets, hearing your two-year-old son asking to go to bed, three nights of David waking up dry, and a week coming up in Southern California, on the beach!  Ahh...such bliss! 

To top that, David and I went on a shopping outing and he had not used OUR bathroom before we left.  I managed to convince him that we should go try out the public bathroom, which I knew was going to be a HUGE milestone in his potty training.  More for me than him.  We get into the surprisingly clean restroom, enter a small stall (the handicapped one was taken) and put down toilet liners.  I try to put him on with his pants still partially on, but it didn't work.  So, off came his pants and underwear and I sat him down on the liner facing the back (his favorite position when peeing). He did it!  I was ecstatic.  A small thing, but it gave me the biggest rush!  I did not realize how big of a burden this whole peeing in public thing was for me, but I felt free.  Now I know I can go places and he will be able to use public restrooms.  No more hurrying home and cutting errands short!  No more being holed up in the house and waiting for him to pee before leaving!  Such pure unadulterated joy!  On my part.

So, how appropriate that we leave tomorrow for the happiest place on earth.  Looking forward to some beach time, seeing old friends, and coming home with my mom and sis in tow! What a great week it is!  What a great two weeks it will be.   Pictures to come!   

To All Women ·

A while ago, Billy and I were talking about his upcoming deployment and the decrease in the number of men being deployed this time around.  I was so angry because while I certainly don't want this war to go on, I also didn't want my husband to be over there with fewer men to ensure that everyone got back home safe.  I was crying and ranting about the government and President Obama and why they would give us (the family of the deployed troops) added pain when there was so much pain and stress going on already.  I felt like they didn't care.  Billy just calmly listened to me rant and rave, which was maddening in and of itself.  I went to sleep and woke up renewed the next day (nothing like a good cry).  I felt that I'd gotten all of that off my chest and didn't think anymore about it.  After all, it was just typical pre-deployment anxiety.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I got this speech in my email.  Very heartening.  Thank you to the First Lady.  It helps to know that you care.   

First Lady Michelle Obama Speech Womens Conference Full Text ·

   
Bowling with David.  Love the dinosaur slide for the ball!  Watch your toes when bowling with David, though.  He stubbornly thinks he doesn't need help with lifting the ball, especially at the end when his muslces get tired.  Luckily, all toes survived the experience!

Halloween 2010

Library's Halloween Party

Grouchy Thomas, a little "towered"

Getting ready to go trick or treating

"I towered (tired).  I go home."



We had a fun Halloween.  I took David trick-or-treating with the millions of kids in the neighborhood.  After a few houses though, David was happy with his loot and ready to go home.  We got home and he had more fun answering the door for trick-or-treaters than he did while he was trick-or-treating.  I guess too many people make him a little anxious.  



Potty Training in 3 Days

Potty power!  David sporting off his new underwear...no more diapers!  Hallelujah!

I was thinking David would not be potty trained until at least a year from now.  I wasn't fully training him, but was occasionally encouraging him to try it out.  He would, but only when he was naked, which was when he was getting into his bath.  One of the books I bought suggested having naked time and I would try it, but my little David would much rather scream and throw fits if I even suggested naked time.  "Diaper on, diaper on, diaper on!"  So, needless to say, that didn't work. 

The same book also suggested not pressuring him into it, so I was pretty lackadaisical about the whole process.  He didn't act like he was ready and was anxious about it, so I laid off of it.  I did buy books and DVDs to encourage him along (hence the "Potty power!").  I bought Thomas underwear for him, too and told him not to pee on James or Thomas.  He wore it and proceeded to pee on Thomas and James, his beloved trains.  So, the books, DVD, and everything else was just a waste of time.  I felt bad that my son seemed to be behind everyone on the potty training bit, but had also heard that boys were harder to train than girls.  Then one day, as I was scrolling through my friends' news feeds on Facebook, I saw my friend was starting to potty train her son, who is 10 months younger.  I asked her to let me know how it turned out.

A few days later, I was on Facebook again and noticed pictures of my friend's son already in underwear.  I thought, "Whoa, that was fast!"  I asked her what she had done to potty train him so fast and she told me about Lora Jensens' 3 day potty training method.  I tried it and it worked.  It was a miracle.  Three days devoted to him was all it needed.  David was pretty much potty trained on the second day.  We still have hard times at night, but he hasn't worn a diaper since the morning we started the method.

Oh, a side note on that.  Before I even found out about this method, I had gone to Costco and bought a whole box of diapers.  A few days later, I read the ebook, and found that we were supposed to throw away all the diapers.  Ouch!  Oh well, what do you do?  No worries, they didn't go to waste.  My sister's son has the same size, so he can have them...when they come visit.  Always a proviso with me, I know.  So, Liz, if you want some free diapers, I'm only a hop, skip and a jump away. 

Here we go again

It's been a year since we've moved out to 29 Palms and with the year comes another deployment.  It seems strange how calm I am this time around.  Maybe I've gotten used to it and now I've got David, (read Trouble), to occupy my time.  Or perhaps it was the long hours that Billy put in at work which made it seem like he wasn't home much for that year anyway.  Either way, I don't feel as angry and resentful as I was with the previous deployments and I have to say that is a relief.  Poor Billy has had to deal with angry me for the last three years.

Remember in a previous post the positive spin I put on 29 Palms.  Well, after the hot, hot summer and the many miles driven to get to decent stores, I've decided I'm in the category of people who say, "I hate this place!"  I can't do positive attitude anymore about it.  I miss my stores.  I miss being able to drive 10 minutes anywhere and get what I needed.  I also hate being cooped up all summer long to keep out of the heat.  It's horrible!  Sorry, I had to let that out of my system.

Now on to David.  Poor little man.  He just doesn't understand why Dad won't come home from work.  He's still waiting.  When the doorbell rings, he thinks it's Daddy (not that Billy ever rings the doorbell, must be wishful thinking).  So far, the hardest thing about this deployment is watching him missing his dad.  They had such good times together when Billy was here.  They were always playing Thomas the Train.  I think for him, he's lost a play pal, because mom certainly doesn't take enough time to play trains with him.  There's only so much I can take (horrible, I know, but what do you do).

Well, that is that.  I'll probably, and that's a big probably, be updating this more frequently for Billy's sake.  I hope wherever he is, he will be able to get some computer time and get updated on Lyman life in Two-nine.  Oh, and to all family and friends, please come visit!  29 Palms is great in the winter ;).

Minneapolis

At the Minnesota Vikings game against the Detroit Lions!





This was how David was for most of the game.  There was too much noise and too many people and he was overstimulated.  Near the end, though, he was enjoying himself and even cheering "Go Hawkeyes!"  Grandma tried to correct him, but he was adamant about the Hawkeyes!   






 

Flight Plan

For predeployment leave--yes, he's going again, for the third time in three years of marriage. Sucks, but hey you learn to live with it, I think--but I digress.  Anyway, we visited Billy's family in Iowa. I had never been so happy to see Iowa as I was when I got off the plane. Getting there was a challenge and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that fate was against us going. To start with, Billy booked our flights and for some reason the agent booked them for August 22 rather than September 22. I finally got a chance to look at the itinerary the second week of Sept. and noticed that it was for August. Luckily, the airline was willing to work with us and we only had to pay the difference between the flights we missed and the cost of the new tickets and some charge for each ticket. Perhaps not so lucky, but better than paying the full price, again.

Well, on the day of our departure, we get up at 4 in the morning (if you have or have had a two-year-old, you'll understand the importance of the time). We get to the airport and try to check in. The kiosk tells us to see a representative. We see a rep, holding up the line for the other disgruntled customers. The rep tells us we don't have tickets and we wait a half hour while she calls the company and Billy gets fed up and calls customer service. They tell him we have tickets, but they weren't paid for. On previous calls to customer service to get our itinerary, not a soul mentioned the little problem. I remember having heard Billy say when he was rebooking that we were using the same credit card. So, why the tickets weren't paid for, I will never know. Anyway, the rep finally figured out what was what and finally charged our card. We got checked in, paid for three bags, one being a car seat. On discovering that, the rep, after we paid, said that car seats were free, but couldn't refund us the money. She told us to save the receipt until we got back and they would refund it. Weird, I know, but what do you do. So, after that debacle, we take our ornery selves and cranky David through security. Luckily, that went by smoothly. The security people just loved David so they weren't as willing to pick us out for extra security measures.

We get to our gates and find out our flight is delayed an hour. Billy goes to the hastily formed line and waits forever to see if we can get another flight in Denver.   As soon as he gets up to the podium, they tell him that the flight should land in Denver in enough time to make our connection flight to Iowa. So, Billy waited in that long line for that, comes back to where David and I were and next thing you know, we hear that our flight has been delayed another hour. So, back in the line Billy gets and the lady works on getting us on another flight in Denver. As she's doing that, we hear that the flight has been cancelled. They have to find us other times and flights to get on. She manages to get us flying to Los Angeles, then to Chicago, then to Iowa. Lots of backtracking, I know, but at that point, anything would do.  We wait a couple of hours for our flight to LA.  In that time, as expected, David was giving us hell.  He did fall asleep on the short half hour flights from Palms Springs to LA and Chicago to Iowa, but on the long flight from LA to Chicago, he stayed awake and was so demanding and cranky. Luckily, he wasn't horribly bad that he annoyed others, but it was still stressful to us. After that day, and the horrible landings in the windy city and windy Iowa in which I almost puked up a 9 dollar sandwich, I never wanted to fly again.

David and his Thomas carry-on

This picture is a good indicator of his behavior.  Good thing he's so cute.

Island Park and Yellowstone

Bear and Wolf Discovery Center

Nathan and David

Bears!

Waiting for Old Faithful...

...and waiting.

Thar she blows!  Actually, the waiting wasn't that long.  We got there with nine minutes to spare.

Sleepy Jace

Kaitlyn and David got along so well.  No more hits from David.  What a relief!

Yellowstone Lake

David loved riding the "'icle-ma" (his word for motorcycle).

Grandma was a surprise on this trip.  We were expecting Aunt Nancy's sister, but to our delight, there grandma was.  She bravely got on an airplane and flew in to see us.  It was good to see her, Uncle Mike and Aunt Nancy.

A big thank you to Liz's boss for the use of his cabin and ATVs. 

Bear World.

The petting zoo

A kiss from the deer

The clever little goat knew where the treats were stored.