Happy 4th of July!

I first just want to say thank you to my amazing husband for sacrificing time with his family to help keep this nation independent and free. I'm so proud of him, he is the best husband, father, and sailor : ) Brian, thanks for everything you do for our country.

So, now on to JJ : ) We went to a "family baby shower" yesterday which actually turned out to be pretty fun. There was BBQ, drinks, and a bounce house for the kids! JJ's friends were there, so he had a great time. We didn't have to play any games or really even talk about the baby at all!

Today was relaxing, we just hung out at home and JJ's girlfriend Avery and her parents came over for dinner. It's always fun to have them here even though the kids can get a little crazy. They were fine playing together for awhile but then JJ got into a serious "mine" phase. At one point Avery was playing with his new backhoe and JJ stole it away from her which made her upset. Luckily I saw the upcoming "consequence" and was able to intervene right as his arm was raising and he was about to hit her in the head with the truck! He then cried and hit me and she cried. Very dramatic : ) After awhile, they both calmed down and then played great together for the next few hours, running up and down the hall, sitting and "talking" in JJ's chairs, and harassing the poor cats.

JJ has been sleeping HORRIBLY again which is no fun for any of us. Yesterday after Brian put him down for a nap, he wasn't sleeping and Brian asked if I'd seen the cat, which I hadn't. Sure enough, about 1 minute later we heard JJ yelling, "out, out, out meow, out, meow out, out." Brian went up to his room and JJ was standing in his crib point and yelling at the cat to get out! JJ then cried and complained for about 20 minutes before finally taking a nap. Lately at night he just doesn't want to go to sleep and once he finally does he keeps waking up crying over and over again. Possible culprits include a new "2-year" molar, his really bad eczema on his legs, growth spurt, being a toddler, being JJ, torturing his parents. We may never know why he has sleep problems, but we keep praying that one day he'll figure out how to sleep.