Taking a Second to Just Breathe…

asouthernmother
April 25, 2013

It seems like lately life has just been completely chaotic for me.  There is always so much going on.  I feel like I have to balance my time being a full time “single” parent, and trying to sneak in a few minutes to myself.  I say single parent because when your husband has been gone with the Army for 2.5 years, I became a single parent by default.  Right now,  I know I should be asleep but instead I am writing trying to clear my head.

Gabe had soccer pictures and a soccer game on Saturday.  I seriously thought I might cry.  It was his first official sports team photo.  He is growing up too fast.  I also caught him blowing his babysitter a kiss goodbye tonight.  I am pretty sure he has a crush on Miss Morgan.  I took Escobar to the dog park, and he was just a big ball of energy.  I also discovered Aldi grocery store over the weekend.  My life seems rather monotonous.

Today was especially difficult.  Gabe has been acting out lately.  He realizes his fathers absence and he struggles.  He barely knows either of his grandfathers.  My husbands brother lives in Florida and he has seen Gabe two times since he was born.  My brother Brandon is probably always watching over us from up above and there is Stanton who has been trying to get his own life together.  Gabe has no real relationships with men.  He hangs with my girlfriends and myself.  He attends childcare at the YMCA while I run and workout, but even those caregivers are all female.  When Gabe has basketball at the Kentucky Basketball Academy, he will do anything to get and keep his coaches attention.  He wants to be a little boy with a man to play with him.  I played basketball in high school, but I don’t want to be the only one teaching him to dribble or shoot a basket.  I watched as all the other dads interacted with their children and I couldn’t help be heartbroken for Gabe.  He deserved to have a male role model months ago, and her certainly shouldn’t have to wait months more for his dad to return.  I have similar experiences with soccer. I didn’t even have the option to play soccer growing up.

There is nothing quite as delightful as a 32 year man who has never even gotten up during the night to feed their child saying he is too young to remember all this.  Every time he says that I want to shake him (him as in Gabes father not Gabe) and say what do you know about parenting.  I interact with our son every day and I watch him struggle to interact with men.  He has attention seeking behaviors.  I rightfully worry that these last few years will gravely alter his personality.  I have half given up trying to convince my husband of anything relating to Gabes behavior, admitting I am right would mean he knows he needs to come home

My husband and I are so different.  There is no job that would keep me away from my son for months on end (or my spouse).  I guess this a huge sore spot for us.  I just wish I felt like he loved his family as much as he loved the Army.  I’m sure I’m not the only military spouse who has felt this way.

This is enough of a vent for my blog and the day.  I really need to sleep.  I get to drive to Washington, D.C. tomorrow for the Nike Women’s half marathon on Sunday.  There is nothing quite like a road trip with a 3 year old!

Happy Whining Wednesday!
XOXO
~Jess

Calipari the Bluegrass Bear: The New Urgelles Family Addition Thanks to Honda and 4moms

asouthernmother
April 23, 2013
Special delivery from Honda

The stork didn’t make a special delivery today but the UPS man did!  Honda sent a new addition to our family and no it wasn’t a new car 😉  Honda and 4moms sent all the Mom 2.0 Summit attendees a very cute teddy bear.

He arrived in a blue confetti filled box, and I realized the only name befitting a Bluegrass Bear would be Calipari.  If you aren’t from the Bluegrass state (heck, you should know this even if you aren’t from Kentucky) our University of Kentucky basketball coach is John Calipari.

Calipari the Bluegrass Bear 

This household bleeds blue no matter what the season but we especially love basketball.
The University of Kentucky Wildcats and Coach Calipari are the 2012 NCAA National Basketball Champions.  Calipari even plans to join his big brother Gabe at the Kentucky Basketball Academy for Wednesdays game.  Our beloved Calipari was almost named Calapari thanks to the autocorrect on my phone wanting to continually change Calipari to Calamari (he is named after a basketball coach, not seafood).  The phone eventually went with Calapari hybrid.

My son is quite fascinated with Calipari and I am looking forward to posting about their mischievous endeavors.  I’m sure the two of them will be up to no good!  Welcome to the Bluegrass Calipari the Bear!

Calipari showing University of Kentucky football Coach Stoops some love while playing basketball

Happy Manic Monday!
XOXO
~Jess