Almost 2

I’ve been learning about the word patience. The meaning has taught he that one must have the ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay in order to survive military life. It seems that our entire life is focused around having patience with our future. As many people know the Air Force is in our future, but when is still the main concern. We have dedicated this past year to committing ourselves up to the military and wherever it takes us. It currently controls us without providing its benefits to us. Our experience is where few have traveled and with that few answers to our many questions go answered. I am at lost to describe the emotional state that this patience has caused our family unit. Through the many uncertainties we continue to cherish our moments together and look forward to a time when we will have something else to complain about.

I have been slowly collecting teaching experience through the amazing life of a substitute teacher. Each day brings new adventures and sometimes-intense misery. I will never be able to see substitutes as warm bodies with the purpose of “baby-sitting” a classroom. I have learned that it is one of the most challenging jobs because of how flexible one is required to be. However most days are very enjoyable. I like the variety of schools and classrooms I get to work in. There is never a dull moment in the life of a sub; just last week I taught kindergarten, 2nd and 6th grade and high school math. I determine the job difficulty by my tiredness level at the end of the day. Props to primary grades it is a workout being with 4-8 year olds ALL day!

Now for the not so depressing life of a two year old. Klayton absolutely amazes me each and every day. His word understanding and usage is so neat. He is successfully making a few sentences like “NOOO! That’s mine MOVE!, please.” Now says body parts, like eyes, nose, teeth, elbow, knee and lips when asked what they are. He says Grandma, Poppy, Bubka, and Ciotka but struggles with Klayton and often refers to himself as KeKey (his favorite monkey) We always like to visit with friends, it’s wonderful to see him play with little ones close to his age. He is currently excited about babies and points out any and all babies. One of our friends has a seven month old little girl and when we visit he wants to pick her up and gives her tons of kisses because she’s a baby. His super pickiness is in full-force and I have a difficult time getting him to try things I know he will like. I worry about when this phase will end. He really enjoys playing shinai wacky with daddy and we are on the search for a kid sized one. He is very good at color matching and can say pink, blue, purple, and green. We are trying numbers, but seems to get stuck after the number two. He says one, two, NINE! We are also working on the alphabet, he likes to listen to me sing the song and will say A, B, and C but just wants to listen to me sing it. He is obsessed with the movie Totoro and wants me to sing the opening song (which is in Japanese so I’m not sure I’m singing it properly)