Limbo.

The fun new Playdoh set that my parents got JJ for Valentine's Day

Here's us all dressed up before we went out to a formal dinner for Brian's command. It was fun and JJ got to stay up late, which he enjoyed.

We've been living in limbo basically since we left our house in San Diego at the beginning of December. Now I'm very, very excited to say that we'll finally be moving into our new house on Friday! I've felt bad for JJ because we've been talking about moving to our new house for so long that I think he stopped believing us. We're so excited to finally start to get settled in.

JJ's been making me kind of sad lately with some of the stuff he says, but then most of the time makes me laugh. He likes to talk about what we're going to do "next week" but I'm pretty sure he has no concept of time so has no idea what that means. Yesterday he told me we will be going to see Aunt Krista next week, and go to Disneyland next week, then today he said we will be going to Grandpa's house next week, and riding a big bus. Apparently JJ and I have a very busy schedule next week, starting with finding a bus that can drive us across the Atlantic Ocean : )

We've gone to Ikea multiple times over the past week getting stuff for our new house, including a new bed for JJ which he's really excited about. The other day, JJ was showing me a new toy that he wants at the store and he told me that once we "go home" he will buy it. I asked him where we live and he said "Ikea!" Then today we had this exchange in the car -

JJ: I want to go to Grandpa's house

Me: No, sorry sweetie, we can't, it's too far away

JJ: I want to go to Tristan's house (in a very sad voice that made me start to tear up)

Me: No, I'm so sorry sweetie, we can't go there because it's too far away

Brian: JJ, remember, we moved and won't be able to go to their houses for awhile. Do you remember where we moved to?

JJ: Oh yeah, we moved to Ikea!!!!!

Sometimes it's great that a 2-year-old can make you laugh and cry all within a minute. I'm thinking that he'll be very excited when he sees his new bed in our new house instead of at the store, or he'll be disappointed that we're really not going to be living at Ikea!

Puddles.

It's been pretty cold here the last few weeks. Definitely not as cold as up north, but cold for us. We had a little bit of snow on the ground Saturday morning which JJ enjoyed. Brian took JJ outside in the morning and made him a snowball. JJ really enjoyed it until it melted and he accused Brian of throwing it away and threw a huge tantrum! Trying to explain melting snow to a 2-year-old is a little difficult.

I think JJ's favorite part of the snow though was that it turned into puddles in the afternoon. JJ, like most little boys, never gets tired of jumping in them and getting soaking wet. He didn't stay outside too long though because it was freezing.

So JJ has a new phrase these days, "I can't want. . ." We thought it was kind of funny and cute at first, but now it's kind of annoying! Tonight, Brian and I have each already had to go into his room a few times because he's yelling "help" but then when we go in his room he says, "I can't want that pillow" or "I can't want that blanket" or other nonsense that then you have to "change" for him so that he stops yelling and goes to sleep! When he told me tonight "I can't want dinner" I asked him why and he said "ummm, ummm, cause 5 more minutes." Oh the things kids say : )

Hanging Out.

We have done absolutely nothing glamorous since Rome, but it's been nice to just hang out. It was raining for awhile, then JJ was sick last weekend, and this weekend it's raining again. JJ's been having fun just playing cars and trains, reading, coloring, and painting. He also likes to play hide-and-seek all the time and likes to pretend to put Brian to bed : )

As JJ gets older and talks even more, we start to realize the sayings that we say all the time. JJ was pretending to put Brian to bed the other night and Brian asked him to read another book and JJ said, "ok, one more book, but that's it." Apparently he knows the bedtime routine very well.

We're still in temporary housing and are very, very ready to move into our house. The military housing office operates incredibly slowly here, so it's been very frustrating. We're hoping to be moved in the next few weeks, but you never know what could happen. JJ will sometimes ask for his toys and we'll say they'll be here soon but then he says, "when I go home I can play with them." For some reason when he asks for his toys he'll also say sometimes that Tristan is playing with them, which makes me laugh and cry at the same time. I don't think that he understands that this is where we really live since we don't have our stuff. Hopefully once we're moved we can all get settled in and get a more "normal" life back.