just us girls

Sarge has been gone for a couple weeks now and Monkey and I are still trying to settle into a groove of our own. Things are different without daddy around, and we're finding it a bit strange to not have his work schedule to plan around.

I thought we were getting the hang of things, but over the weekend we had a scary introduction to food allergies for Monkey. She is still exclusively breastfed so they say it was likely related to some peanuts that I ate. I rarely eat peanuts, unless I am dipping apples in peanut butter, but reached for a quick easy snack late one night.

 A few hours later, my sweet girl was covered in hives and I was rushing her to the hospital. I am so thankful that we live very close to the hospital as the situation was critical when we got there. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing and my sweet girl was doing much better a few hours later. 

Tuesday night, we had a similar experience, except we aren't sure what caused it as I made sure I did not eat anything containing nuts! After another trip to the ER we are both quite exhausted and praying that things settle down for a little bit.  Any semblance of a routine is also a little thrown off right now so we're hoping to get back to it and settle back into a good groove really soon!

When we got home from our latest long night at the hospital I decided that we would take a day to just reconnect and refresh ourselves. Oh, how we needed that!

I knew going into this deployment that solo-parenting would be quite challenging at times, especially with Monkey being only 6 months old and still needing so much care 24 hours a day. Yet, I guess you can never really prepare for this type of an experience and how it will really affect each member of the family. 

We are doing the best we can, but we both miss Sarge very much!  I am surprised at how much Monkey is able to communicate with me that she misses her daddy. I'm not sure why I didn't expect it, but I thought it would be easier because she is younger. She really notices his absence! 

The first week he was gone, she would meltdown for 2-3 hours after we got off of the phone or Skype with him. Thankfully, she seems to be adjusting a little better and while she still gets sad when daddy has to go, we are not often having the long meltdowns we were having previously. 

 I have been working on editing together several videos Sarge made for Monkey before he left and watching her watch daddy is becoming an absolute favorite part of my day! It might just be a recording of Sarge, but that's her daddy and she savors every chance to interact with him. She is thrilled that he knows and never tires of her favorite game - peek-a-boo!

 I'm realizing more and more that right now my little girl just needs her mommy. The house is messy and less organized than I prefer, the laundry piles up a little higher, and the dishwasher is always full of dishes... but none of that matters in her life right now! All that matters is that she has a little extra time and attention as we adjust to having Sarge so far away, and as long as she is content I am happy to set aside those not so important things for another time. 

She's not always going to be 6 months old so I'm cherishing every second. I'm thankful that at least for right now all it takes to cheer her up is a video of daddy and some extra snuggles from mommy!

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