Timmy With His "Baby"

Timmy has recently started asking me to swaddle his favorite Webkinz, Thomas the Yellow Lab. I give him a nice tightly bundled Thomas right before bed every night and he cradles him like a baby.

So tonight I gave the boys a digital photo album tour of when they were swaddled as babies:

This is possibly the only picture I have of Jacob successfully swaddled. He couldn't stand it! In a matter of minutes he'd wriggle out and arm or a leg.

Timmy, on the other hand, LOVED it. Perhaps it's because Timmy was born in January and it was a little chillier...yes, even in Florida. Both boys were born in Melbourne, FL.

One of the bazillion differences between my two boys...enjoy!

Working Girl

At least for this week...

...and part of next week...

...and a teensy part of the following week.

After a 2 1/2 month hiatus, Monday was my first day of doing any reserve work. My first workday since we moved to Nebraska. I'm working every day this week here in the local area, telecommuting with my Reserve Unit I'm still assigned to in South Carolina.

So I'm sitting in an unoccupied office right downstairs from Dave's cubicle.

Yes, I have an office...he has a cubicle.

No, not even. He has a desk in a large area. No walls. He's okay without them...

Anyway, while it's great to be back doing good stuff for the Air Force, this is Timmy's indoctrination into a full-time child care center. We're using one of Offutt Air Force Base's child development centers, which is a top notch center...the military's child care center standards are stricter than any of the 50 states, so you know it's good! We will be able to use the center full time when I take my trip to the desert in January.

In North Carolina, Dave took time off to watch the kids or else one of my friends would watch the boys while I worked. When I worked in Norfolk, my Mom would watch one or both of the boys. Definitely one of the things I miss about living in the east.

Dave dropped off Timmy on Monday and when we picked him up 9 1/2 hours later, he wasted no time telling us what a great time he had. He was even okay with going back again Tuesday.

WOW!

So I got a bit cocky and figured I could drop off Timmy today. I walked him to his classroom (the Purple Room) and he went right over to the circle area where a teacher was reading a story. I said goodbye and walked right out. But then I forgot to leave Timmy's backpack with his change of clothes. Without thinking I walked right back into the room -- Timmy saw me and proclaimed that I can't leave without him. And he ran over to my leg and made quite the scene.

Thankfully, the teachers were good about peeling him off me and diverting him so I could sneak out.

When I picked him up today, he again seemed okay. He showed me more artwork and talked about some friends he made.

As for Jacob, he's enrolled in a before/after school care program run by his school. So he goes to school early each morning, and we pick him up at the school once we get home. Jake enjoys going to Kid's Time with his classmates.

On top of the full time work this week and the full time child care, we still have soccer this week, and I'm still trying to keep the kids fed. Monday was absolutely nuts -- I feel like all of my interaction with my boys on Monday was drill sergeant style:

"WAKE UP! TIME TO GET DRESSED!"

"BREAKFAST! WE'RE LEAVING IN SEVEN MINUTES!"

"YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES TO GET ON YOUR SHOES AND GET IN THE CAR!"

"JACOB, READ ME THESE TWO BOOKS FOR HOMEWORK!"

"YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO WOLF DOWN YOUR PIZZA BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR SOCCER!"

"BATHTIME! BRUSH YOUR TEETH! PAJAMAS! GOOD NIGHT!"

I was exhausted beyond recognition last night -- I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and didn't feel a thing until my alarm clock went off this morning.

Tonight wasn't quite like that -- no soccer, for starters. I was able to make a nice baked chicken dinner for the family. I did some light house cleaning and caught up on bills. And wrote this blog.

PS: Late next week Dave goes solo -- he has both kids and he's still working, while I hop on a plane and fly to SC for 4 more days of work. I'm playing major catch-up on the workdays, I shouldn't be required to work again until December after this stint...

Our Amazing Weekend

This past weekend we rented a camper from the Air Force base and drove it 280 miles west of here to the town of North Platte, Nebraska. They were holding their annual "Railfest", this big Union Pacific Railroad/Town of North Platte celebration weekend. The UP sponsors everything, lots of fun for everyone. There's a festival at the town park, plus lots of train-related activites throughout the rest of the town.

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

We visited several historic UP locomotives, visited the 8 story Golden Spike observation tower, and got to ride in a little mini-train.

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

For Sunday morning, I made arrangements for tickets for a bus tour of Bailey Yard, the UP's classification yard. That was one of the most incredible experiences for any railfan, and even *I* found it impressive. Dave writes more about it here.

We drove home right after the tour, taking our times by driving east on U.S. 30 from North Platte to Grand Island (about 115 miles). This way we could parallel the UP tracks and saw at least 20 trains!

As for the camping, once Dave and I got over the initial shock of (a) requiring about 40 gallons of gas to get the camper from Omaha to North Platte and (b) everything you have to do to set up the camper at the RV campsite (water, power, leveling, starting up the fridge), we figured we'd have a relaxing weekend on our hands. I made a nice chicken and rice dinner with our dutch oven, then we toasted marshmallows and made Smores with the campfire.

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

From 2008 09 20 Camping_RailFest_BaileyYard_NorthPlatteNE

But at 1am Friday night, we were awakened by an alarm bell: the propane detector was telling us "no more propane", although we hadn't used any since dinnertime. Actually, a circuit board went bad in the 3-way power converter unit (which is what seamlessly transfers power from battery to AC for the onboard fridge, water pump and lighting)...so overnight the power switched from AC to battery and the battery died.

Dave and I did about an hour's worth of troubleshooting, between 1-2 am Friday night...and gave up and went back to sleep angry. By Saturday, we just told ourselves we have a big hardened tent. Then we went on and enjoyed the rest of our weekend.