13 months old, 10 months down & 6 weeks left!

Without fully thinking it through, I told myself that all I needed to do is get through the holidays, and then Nick would be home.  It didn't turn out to be a very helpful head game, considering we still have about six weeks to go.  This sprint to the finish line is beginning to drag.  Ugh!

As the deployment wears on, Emmy has been blossoming!  It seems that her personality and capabilities have become brighter and more impressive (to me) with each passing day. :)  These days, she is fascinated by stairs.  She climbs the first step at home and holds onto the rungs of the baby gate with a giant grin on her face.  I, absentmindedly, left the gate door open a couple of days ago, and in the ten seconds that I turned away from her, she was two steps away from the top.  She was glowing with pride over her accomplishment.  I am in trouble!  We have had "classes" on how to come down the stairs, but she is way too self-confident to be trusted to descend safely without my white-knuckle grip on her.  She, of course, LOVES getting into my pantry and emptying the lower shelf to the floor, which is the highlight of Molly and Darla's every day.  Emmy will be hugely disappointed once I install the flip lock that I've purchased to the door.

Her latest sound fascination is "uhoh."  She doesn't enunciate the letters quite yet, but she has the voice inflection down pat.  She loves saying it so much, that she will throw something to the floor, just to give herself a reason to break out her favorite phrase.  She always says it with a very concerned look on her face. :)

Lately, she has been resting her head on my shoulder and then, promptly, looking up at me with an eager smile to see my joyful response.  Such a people pleaser already. :)  I think she is starting to understand that her cuddles get a positive response.  Because they do.  It is pure bliss to cuddle with that girl, but given her busy-body nature, it rarely happens.  She also now pats my back when I'm holding her, another sweet gesture that always makes me smile.  To save the best for last, she has given me three kisses in the last week!  They are wet and given with a wide open mouth.  What makes them sweeter is that none of them have been reciprocal or requested. :)

Since New Year's, I have been focused on starting anew.  The schedule I have been keeping up since the summer finally wore me down, so for the last two weeks, I have left the house as little as possible.  Instead, the focus has been on spending quality time with my girl. :)  I have been committed to a few meetings, Marvin's Eagle Remembrance Ceremony, and planning the much anticipated welcome home party.  We've been talking the party up for the last 10 months, so we REALLY have to deliver to our tired Lancer soldiers and families.  It has definitely been a topic that has commanded most of our recent conversations and filled a lot of my down time (i.e. Emmy's naps) doing research and crunching numbers.  It'll be exciting to see these plans come to fruition!

Nick has been dealing with lots of difficult things lately.  He is working through counseling all of his soldiers, to see where they stand before redeployment and to identify potentially high risk situations.  I understand that there is just a seven day honeymoon period for reuniting families before pre-existing issues resurface (down from three months in the beginning of the war).  A very, very sad reality.  Hopefully all of the work that Nick is doing on the front end will help with soldier awareness and will prepare us for necessary interventions in the future.  He has continued to wade through the aftermath of SSG Dave Senft's death.  Dave's biological father has taken to grieving publicly, most recently to the New York Times.  It's definitely been a sad predicament for everyone involved.  Of course the army takes media speculation very seriously, as it should.  Nick responded to this situation, each and every step of it, in the ways that were expected of him, both as a caring and empathetic human being and as a commanding officer.  The hard part about free will, is that people can make their own choices, even if they are harmful ones.  I can only pray that, someday, the family finds peace.

Nick's been flying quite a bit lately and attending meetings galore.  He just placed the order for the garage Crossfit gym that he's been thinking about and researching for the duration of the deployment. (It's served as a welcome distraction during all of the heavy trials that he's faced.)  He is an active participant in the Mustache Manuary contest he initiated between all of our (male) Lancer soldiers. He tells me that he curses himself each morning when he looks in the mirror at the sight of his furry upper lip.  I can only imagine how, um, impressive it will be at the end of the month (considering it's only halfway over at this point.) :-P

Yesterday, as I was driving to the post office to mail Nick's care package, I, unexpectedly, started to tear up and was overcome with goosebumps.  January 15th was the cut off date for mailing packages to our Lancers.  It was the first tangible sign that this deployment is nearing an end.  If mailing a care package elicited such a joyful feeling, I can't imagine how amazing it will be to first lay eyes on my Nick, standing in formation, at the Fort Campbell hangar.  Only six more weeks (or so) and I get to find out! Praise, Jesus!