My man is gone!

Not for good.. but until Friday. ;) He's being trained to be a Field Training Officer in Little Rock at Troop A Headquarters. Meaning he'll be training one of the new guys we'll get down here when he's out of Troop School. So far I'm fine.. but I know once the kids are in bed tonight I'll be missing him. I guess the good news is, with him working shift work, I'm basically used to him being gone at all kinds of times of the day and night so I think it'll be okay. (as long as Carter hangs in there. Lately Daddy rules the world to him!)

Madison has let me breathe a sigh of relief over the unicorn cake. She told me she does NOT want a cake, she wants cupcakes! AWESOME! I can so buy or make cupcakes... now I'm excited about this party!

I get to go to parenting group at church tonight. I love it so much! To be honest, a lot of the time I sit and listen in horror at the things the parents of older kids have to tell and ask opinions on. I try to do what I used to do, (when I was the parent of ONE child that made me think I was a perfect parent), and think to myself, "my kids won't be that way." HA HA! Have all parents not eaten these words at one time or another? I swear, God gave me Carter for the purpose of showing me that I don't know nearly as much about how to MAKE a child behave as I once prided myself on. he's a great little boy... he really is starting to mind quite well actually, but other things that I always thought you could train out of a child if you did it "right" just don't work with him. Sleeping through the night? No... no way! SLeeping in his own bed all night? Big time NO. Eating with utensils perfectly by age 2? Don't make me laugh! The crazy thing is how little I care about any of these once so important things now. I've accepted my baby boy for the baby boy he is. Is it so bad that he wants to cuddle with Mommy and Dadd in the middle of the night? No.. it's actually pretty darn sweet. And the reality is, I now know he won't do these things forever. He will outgrow them, in his own time. Heck, I don't like sleeping alone yet... so I guess my parents never did properly train those feelings out of me! My only wish is I would have had this wisdom the FIRST time around. Ah well, Madison has turned out quite well so far so I guess it's just the way of life. The first gets treated a certain way, which makes them turn out, in general, responcible and thoughtful... the second turns out differently, and is treated differently. Should I feel sorry for the third baby we're trying to create now? ;) Poor thing... who knows what I'll be like as a mother by the time we get there!