The last three weeks have been strangely normal. Although its been good its also sad. When I grieve to appears to other people that I am doing it quickly. Typically while in the height of the storm I tend to stay strong and focus on the future. I never want sympathy and I rarely show feelings. Once life gets back to normal the reality of what happened starts to sink in. That is when my heart starts to hurt. I start realizing what I am leaving behind and I get a sense of emptiness. That is where I am at today. Although life is normal things are not the same. A part of me will always wonder why, what if and now what? But life moves on and I need to focus on the good... ALEXA!
The last month has been one of our busiest travel months in a long time. We took a quick trip to St Louis to see Jay, Susan and Caleb. Alexa had a great time swimming. We went to Grant's Farm, the Budweiser tour and the Science Museum. We had record hot 100+ days. Alexa loved playing with uncle Caleb. This was also Alexa's first time using her Puddle Jumper. She was cautiously hesitant at first. She did not want us to let go of her. She does NOT like water to get to her mouth level at all. She had a great time jumping in and even met her twin. There was another little girl who ended up having the same birthday as Alexa, her father is active duty Army & they both weighed 23lbs. They both had a good time playing in the water.
Fourth of July weekend was our next big adventure. We went to the post celebration. Alexa rode her first horse and loved it. We saw some friends, listened to music, looked at olde time cars, jumped in the bounce house and endured the heat. We spent the evening at one of Justin's soldiers house. They guys played spades and Alexa played with Heaven who is also a friend of hers from school. Alexa was cranky but survived the busy day. We ended the evening with the post fireworks. Alexa watched them with a bit of fear but decided she would rather sleep.
The next day was my 25th Birthday! I remember think on this day that life is pretty good. Little did I know it would be our last "normal" day for awhile. I had to work for most of my birthday. Justin however was home because it is a training holiday. Alexa ended up with a fever and sounded like she had some respiratory stuff going on. We took her to the local urgent care and they confirmed it was respiratory. We gave her antibiotics and a preventative for pneumonia and started her breathing treatments. She was better within a few days.
That weekend was one big blur. The next weekend was serious Disney packing. Alexa and I spent our evenings getting the house ready and getting everything ready to go. Looking back I do not believe I over packed. I could have gone without a few things but overall I would call it a success.
Disney was a great vacation. I think I will create a separate post about it so I can post a bunch of photos.
When we got back into town we were exhausted. We spent the entire day unpacking, cleaning up the house and getting ready for another week. Not much happened with Alexa during the weekend. But that weekend we packed up and headed to Iowa. We had the once traditional Watson Reunion. Alexa meet a lot of family and played with Matthew. She completely remembered him, Megan and Steve from the previous week. She took some time to warm up to everyone else. In the end we all had a great time. Alexa at chocolate cake for one of the first times and was able to show of her motorized bike to her cousins.
When the weekend ended we had to drive Justin to the airport to fly to Boston. This was the start of my 3 weeks as a single parent.. again! The first week was great. Alexa and I got into a great routine and really took advantage of the cuddle time. When it is just the two of us things are slower and quieter. We tend to do less getting out and more playing around the house. I really enjoyed the relaxed evenings but the mornings were another story. Since Justin returned from Iraq he has been taking Alexa to school. This means the mornings are mine. For these three weeks I am having to wake up 30 minutes earlier, get Alexa ready and leave the house 20 minutes earlier than normal. It makes for a busy start.
Our weekend alone was great. We washed the cars inside and out, clean the garage and basement and had LOTS of playing. The high light of the weekend was swimming with Alexa.
Developmentally Alexa has been making some changes. I can tell cognitively she is really picking things up. Verbally we are working on getting her to enunciate her words. She says a lot of words but most of them are only understood by Justin, myself and her teachers. She does recognize all of her colors and most of her shapes. I am impressed that she knows the difference between a circle & oval. Her brain is working. :) We are also working counting. She insists on starting at 2. She knows 2,3,5,9 & 10. Everything else gets skipped.
We are both really looking forward to Grammie coming in town next week.
