Me Not a Baby Anymore, Me a Big Girl Now...

Our little girls are growing up fast.  Ellis is now eight months old.  And Leyton is now sleeping in her big girl bed!  We decided that because we had a long weekend, now was as good a time as any to switch Leyton's crib to a toddler bed.  So after her nap on Friday, we asked if she wanted to sleep in a big girl bed and she was VERY excited about the idea.  She couldn't wait to climb in and she played in it all night, bringing her toys back to show them her new digs.  We were of course concerned that she wouldn't stay in her new bed, so we told her that if she got out, that we would have to make it a crib again.  And it worked!  She slept all night in her new bed.  The following day's nap didn't go quite as easy, but eventually she drifted off, and night two was as easy as the first.  Leyton was very serious as she announced "Me not a baby anymore, me a big girl now."  And Mommy nearly cried.

Leyton decided to dress her sister up one day -complete with necklace, tiara and fairy dress

Hmm... I love it

Leyton kept things simple with a lovely blue beaded headdress

Love those baby blues!

Nana made Ellis a beautiful sweater, which she is modeling here

Here is the big girl trying out the new bed

I forgot to take 7 month photos with the sticker on.  Oh well.  I forgot 3 months too.

Happy Memorial Day and a huge thank you to our past and present military!

Happy Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day with my sweet family.  The girls gave me a lovely card and both made me a hand-print card at church.  My favorite part though was a well practiced "Happy Modder's Day, Mommy" from my Leyton, complete with a large huge and kiss.  In fact, she STILL tells me that several times a day.  She can be so sweet when she wants to be.  

Another great gift from my eldest is potty training.  She is doing awesome.  With peeing in the potty anyway.  As long as we ask her, she will go potty.  We have yet to brave an outing sans diaper, but soon I think we will be ready.  I owe a big thanks to Grammy and My Little Pony.  Grammy sent her some MLP panties, and she LOVES wearing them and keeping Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Flutter Shy and Princess Celestia clean and dry (she doesn't have MLP Twilight panties).  So our only problem now is going #2.  

Leyton has also FINALLY started her speech therapy.  She goes to class on Monday and Friday and she really seems to enjoy it.  Her vocabulary and sentence structure continues to improve, however it is still her pronuncitation that needs some work.  

Ellis is days away from crawling.  Every day I watch her get closer and closer.  She will walk out onto her hands and knees and rock back and forth.  And then her big sister will be having a FIT as Ellis goes for all the 'off-limits' toys.  Although, to be fair, I have seen Leyton be really sweet to her sister lately.. not all the time.... or even most of the time.. but she has it in her.

Here is LC on a 'not-so-sweet' moment.  I tried fixing her hair in pig-tails because normally her hair is completely out of control.  She often looks like Albert Einstein. 

Ellis being her generally, though not always, sweet self

Big thanks for Gramma (Ga) and Grampa for the beautiful spring dresses.  Leyton's happened to match one that she wore around her first birthday... which of course fits our 8 month old perfectly now

They wore their matching dresses on Mother's Day.  Wouldn't trade these two for ANYTHING!

Life at Sea

I had the opportunity to go to sea for a few days on the USS RONALD REAGAN. The Reagan is the ship our airwing (CVW-2) is attached to. The ship was getting underway for Carrier Qualifications (CQ) for squadrons in our airwing and for brand new pilots out of their perspective Fleet Replacement Squadrons. For me it was my first time being on a carrier with the airwing onboard. I have been to the carrier on both of my previous deployments as a transient helicopter delivering people/cargo/mail, etc. I also did about 10 days on board the USS HARRY S. TRUMAN for Hurricane Katrina Ops back in 2005. During the Katrina events, there was only helicopters onboard so it was slightly different. So this was my first true experience to the "carrier life." The aircraft carriers are enormous. These pictures really dont do it justice. Before we left the pier I visited the ship to try and get my bearings, drop off some things in my room and get take care of some business. A trip that I figured would take 30 minutes turned into a 2 hour ordeal. 

It really was a great experience. I was able to fly a lot and visit a lot of the places around the boat. The food onboard was really really good. Definitely different then my two previous cruises on the "smaller" ships. Here are a few photos:

 As soon as we pulled out of San Diego they ran through some drills and set up the aircraft barrier. This is used in emergencies to recover a jet if they had a broken landing gear or arresting hook.

 It felt a little weird to be out at sea again. Quite a difference from my first two cruises. I rarely felt the ship rock or move from a wave. It was pretty stable and moved quite fast!

 Our airwing has two helo squadrons. HSC-4 and us. We both broth contigents for this underway period. When the helos are not flying they are put in the "stuff" which is right next to the superstructure.  They fold them up and wheel them here until they are needed. As you can see it is quite cramped. Right behind them is the landing area with the arresting wires used to catch the jets.

 Here is one of the jets landing onboard. It was pretty unreal to see in real life. 

 This was the before one of my flights. 

This is the Ready Room which is the place where we brief for missions and hang out when we are not flying. These three knuckleheads are 3 of my junior pilots.

 This was us making our first landing on the Reagan.

 Taking off for a mission. 

 I had to come home early because I was involved in an operational test and evaluation for a new Anti submarine torpedo. The Navy is in the process of upgrading the brains of the Mk54 torpedo and had 7 for us to drop. I dropped the first one. The drop was right on target but the torp never acquired. Actually, all 7 of 7 torps ever acquired the intended target.

 This was the target that was towed out for us to drop on. It was simulating a contact being near the surface.

After the drop, we refuled and came back home. Overall a pretty cool event. I have previosuly dropped 2 other torpedos but none of them would run up. They would just float to the surface. This one was a live torpedo that ran and searched for a contact. Unfortunately, it never acquired. 

Silly Sisters

I love this video for several reasons.  First, it shows just how much of their Daddy they have in them.  If Ryan is anything, he's silly.  Second, it is a rare sweet moment between the girls.  Ellis LOVES Leyton, but the sentiment is rarely returned.  Finally, how stinking cute are they!?  I plan to watch this video over and over when they are being 'less cute' just so I can remember that they do have it in them.

Totally Normal Stuff

The beauty of this first picture is that there is absolutely nothing abnormal about it... at least not in the Campoamor household.  Leyton will sit on the potty for HOURS (literally, if we let her) as long as she gets to watch 'buzz' (the Kindle).  She still rarely actually goes potty, but occasionally she will go and earn herself two M&Ms.  Though she has only had a handfull, we are on our third large bag of M&Ms.  And my pants are a little tighter than they used to be. Weird, I know.  

We are also trying out a new 'reward' system at our house.  We have a vase and five Easter eggs.  If Leyton listens and obeys and is sweet to her sister, she gets an egg.  OR, if she doesn't listen, obey or she's mean, we take an egg out.  When she gets five eggs, she gets a prize.  So far it is working beautifully.  I am getting some good behavior out of that kid FINALLY!  I guess it was just operator error... Mommy had to figure out exactly which buttons to push.

Ryan is gone for the week, so it's just us girls.  So far, so good.  We've been trying some new stuff, like a harness for Leyton.  She LOVES it.  She pretends it's Halloween and that she is a dog.  I love it because she is worn out from all the walking and she naps good.  I haven't had any mean comments yet about me treating my kid like a dog, but I'm sure they are coming.  People can judge all they want.  I simply can not leave Ellis in the stroller to chase after Leyton.  This option is safe and allows LC to get her exercise, both of which are very important to me.

Because it takes days to do these blogs, we have an update!  LC pooped in the potty yesterday!  Woohoo!  She loves to wear her big girl panties -only the My Little Pony ones though- and she keeps them dry (for the most part).  She is far from potty trained, but we are working on it.  Slowly but surely.

Finally here are some pictures of sweet Ellis.  Ellis will no longer let me leave the room.  She will do her bloody murder scream.  She's okay as long as she can still see her sister, though, which is nice and sweet.  Anyway, I have to carry Ellis around now everywhere I go.  I purchased a new baby carrier for the occasion.  She is too big for the Bjorn and it hurts my back and shoulders after a very short while.  So looking forward to that package in the mail with my new carrier!

Lastly, here are some cute pictures of the kids :-)  Ellis is 7 months now and LC is two and a half!