The long view

We are getting ready for our “vacation”…which it isn’t really, as much as it is a flurry of flying, driving and saying goodbyes. This is dh’s block leave, and while we still do have some time before the deployment begins I am feeling suddenly like I can see the summer slipping away before it’s even begun.

I think I will be able to blog while we are away, although it may be more of an issue of time than internet access, just so you know. But I am going to see my in-laws, which always gives me something to write about!

I hope to come back with lots of photos, and the Holga and film are travelling with me. After getting this last roll of film developed I think I need to get it out more. The picture above was taken in late May and the view is from the Shrine of Sun (which ABW and I ran to the top of not too long ago). The view is pretty spectacular, although slightly more enjoyable after you’ve ridden up there in a car as opposed to hoofing it.

Have a good rest of your week, and I’ll see you when I see you.

Who’s this?

Just when you think reintegration from a deployment is complete. Yesterday morning the dutchkid woke up at around 6am. She’s been sick again and has quite a nasty cold. I took her to snuggle in my bed for a few minutes in the hopes of getting another hour or so of sleep. Dh is normally gone to PT by then, but he was still asleep on his side of the bed.

“Who’s this?” she pipes as she reaches over to touch his face.

“Who’s this?!” my dh asks her back, now wide awake, “Who do you think it is?”

“Oh. Daddy! Hi Daddy.”

” ‘Who’s this’. Who else has your mother been sleeping with?” He laughs.

The truth is, she got really used to it being just her and I in the big bed while he was gone. But I guess we’re making progress, she recognized him!

Lost in translation

My dh just came home at the beginning of August. This was not our first experience with deployment, but it was our first with a child. I was so worried that she was going to break her daddy’s heart by taking a long time to warm up to him. She was only 7 months when he left. Ironically, the dutchkid handled the adjustment of having daddy back home very well! It was me that had the trouble.

It has been a lot rougher going than I had anticipated. I think every military spouse has a little bit of a control freak thing going on, I most definitely do. That tendency is what gets you through being alone, what makes you independent enough to survive. It’s just hard to turn it off sometimes. I get ultra sensitive about any comment about the way I run things. You add to that my very opinionated dh, the new dimension of parenting, and you have a recipe for disaster.

We have a running joke between us about “the translator”. Words come out of my unsuspecting dh’s mouth and somehow midair they become the most hurtful barb known to womankind. I speak in some sort of foreign language — it sounds just like English, except for the words have different meanings. My dh has been known to stop, mid-argument to say, “Hold on, let me turn on my translator!”

It turns out translators get a little rusty after a year or so of not being used. I was a little worried mine was broken, but I am happy to report that they are both back online. Now if I could just learn the language…