Crazy with a little caution

Sometimes I sit and watch Addison as she nose dives off the couch, jumps on the ottoman teetering near death on the edge, climbs the ladder to the bunk beds, attempts somersaults on the wood floor and other things, and I am left wondering how in the world this child is going to survive unbroken for very long.

But an amazing thing has happened.  While children all come as they are - which in Addison's case is CRAZY - she has recently also come with the ability to know that she should practice some safety in her craziness.

 (Shirt says: "Little in Size BIG in Attitude"...a favorite hand-me-down from Claire)

And here's a little video we took about a month ago when Addison was first discovering how to REALLY jump on the tramp.  She has gotten a lot better (which is probably why she wants the helmet on now) and can now jump and get both feet off the floor in the house as well.  Marty will be so proud if she grows up to be a little basketball star!

P.S. the movie may seem long...because I just think she's cute...but you really only need to see a few seconds to get the idea of how she jumps.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hopefully we'll see a little more caution in her life now...but I'm not holding my breath.

Teasing Lessons

I feel like I've kind of dissappeared for a while...and you know what?  It's been kind of nice!  But at the same time, I've been racking my brain trying to think of SOMETHING to blog about.  Sometimes it just flows, other times it's a drought and I've got nothing.  Right now we're in a drought...if you haven't noticed. 

You want to know the AWESOME parenting moment I had yesterday?  I know you do...plus it's something to blog about...I guess.

Marty likes to tease Brielle, mostly because she doesn't take teasing well and he's either trying to toughen her up or is cruel and thinks it's funny how worked up she gets over nothing.  I'm sure it's out of the kindness of his heart and wanting to make sure she can handle the brutality of first grade next year.

After listening to her whine that daddy was teasing her for a while, my childhood came flashing back.  All the times I was teased by an older sibling of mine, who happened to be a boy (insert sad violin playing) and was left in tears over...well....nothing really.  I couldn't take it anymore, and I did an awesome thing.  I taught Brielle a rhyme Marty's family used to say about his name when he was little.

"Marty farty had a party, everyone was there, tooty fruity let a beauty and everyone ran for air." 

All she needed was the first portion to feel totally vindicated.  She said it over and over to him, laughing so hard that she had this on her daddy.  "Marty farty had a party! Marty farty had a party!"

He did say to me, "Uh...I'm the dad, you can't teach her that." 

Too bad...I did...because I'm awesome.

But he one-upped her and made a rhyme up about her name.

"Brielley smelly had a belly, that was full of poo.  She sat in plants and pooped her pants, because that's what big girls do."

I'll admit it, we laughed. Good parenting?  Not so much.  Hilarious?  YES!  

But of course Brielle didn't agree.  The fun was once again over as she cried "I did NOT poop my pants!  STOP IT!"

I tried to explain to her that if you can dish it out, you've got to be able to take it (a lesson I obviously never learned as a child).  

So then she started saying,  "Daddy, stop saying it, I didn't tease you, so you have to stop teasing me."  

She apparently missed my lesson, teasing doesn't conform to the golden rule.

She was supposed to learn to come up with her own stuff and tease right back!

(I guess the lesson should have been to ignore it or laugh along with him...but hind sight is 20/20 isn't it?)

Another point towards earning my Mother of the Year Award!

An Attitude of Gratitude-BIG Announcement/Changes ahead

The other day, in the midst of a raging pity party for myself while feeling homesick, it occurred to me that maybe things weren't as horrible as they seemed to be.  Sure things haven't always been easy for us, and we seem to do things in the most difficult way possible, but it's always worked out.

I thought back at all the twists and turns our lives have been taking the last couple years, and although at times I have felt annoyed, upset, sad, scared, frustrated, angry, lonely etc., I realized that we HAVE been blessed.  So I've decided to show a little gratitude for those blessings.

The first blessing - although it didn't seem like one at the time - was that it took us a while to get pregnant with Addison.  We had been trying for a while and had basically decided to stop and wait until Marty had finished basic training.  We found out one month before he left that we were pregnant.  The reason this was a blessing, is because Marty's dates for basic training were changed, and if we had gotten pregnant when we wanted, Addison would have been born while Marty was gone.  Instead he was able to be there for her birth.

Then there was the whole Korea prospect.  We were making plans and were sure Marty would be headed to Korea for 1 year for his first duty station.  But last minute, it changed and we were able to head to Washington together.

Then Marty was set to be deploying with his unit here in the next few months.  But things have fallen into place, and only a small portion of his unit is now deploying, and Marty is not going!

And finally...

The big announcement that I've been keeping from people...

(sorry friends...I REALLY wanted to say something.)  

We are getting out of the Army and will be moving home THIS SUMMER!

I cannot even tell you how excited, thrilled, elated etc. I am.  

And since I know people are going to want to know why/how this is happening, I will give the shortened version (not that short versions are my thing).

Basically Marty's back and hip were injured a while back, and he's been doing this constant cycle of being injured, going through physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments and doctor's appointments, gets just about healed and then gets re-injured during an exercise or something with the Army.  So because of this, he hasn't been able to maintain some of the physical standards to be in the Army.  Marty discussed his problems and frustrations with his first sergeant. He replied that the Army would like to keep him, but if he wants to leave and get himself taken care of, he would make it happen.  

After some prayer, discussion, talking it through with some family members, platoon sergeants, and the chaplain, we decided that this opportunity doesn't present itself....well, ever.  So we told him it's what we felt was best.  Right now we do not have exact dates, we are playing the waiting game - of course.

Marty has a job already lined up at home, although he will be applying for BMET (biomedical equipment technician) jobs as well, so we'll be praying something falls into place with that.  But the good thing is, no matter what, he has a job lined up and we will be just fine.

I cannot help but feel SO blessed and grateful for how things are turning out for us!

And I am SO happy to say that ready or not Utah... 

The Davis family is COMING HOME!