Planes, Trains, and Classroom Transitions

This week is transition week. Caleb is moving from the 1 year old class where he's been since January into a new 2 year old classroom (which, incidentally, is much further down the hall from the entrance. Sheesh!)


So far, he's done okay. He wasn't excited when his teacher brought him to this new room. He kinda wigged out the first time on the new playground. And he hasn't napped as well as normal. But I suppose these are all normal signs of transition.


I was super lucky and had Monday off for Columbus day. Normally, most everyone on base would have had it off, but we're in the middle of a Big Fat Not-So-Greek Inspection. Or we were at that time. It ended today. Hooray!


These guys and girls on base have been gearing up for this inspection for months. Records have been scrubbed, gear has been checked, scenarios have been played out. These only come once every so many years and they are a big flipping deal. We'll find out Friday how it went. Fingers crossed!


One of the best (and worst) things about working where I do is that I drive around the perimeter of the flight line at least once a day. It's a pain because Caleb's day care, as well as nearly all the food and completely all of the shopping options are on the opposite side of base from my office. But driving around the flight line a few times a day affords you some pretty cool sites.


For instance, this week I was driving past the "play area" of the inspection where all of our players were "deployed" and playing out the scenario set by the inspectors. As I was approaching the area, bright red smoke was billowing towards the sky. I don't know what the scenario was, but I imagine our guys and girls were geared up to the teeth and running around trying to assess the situation and determine the next best steps.


And there I was, just a few feet away, driving with my windows down, listening to BBC Radio 1. Crazy. Anyway, it was such a surreal and oddly pretty sight, those big towers of red smoke. Certainly not something you see every day.


I also love when I get to base first thing in the morning, and there's almost no activity on the flight line. It's getting darker in the mornings, and sometimes there's a bit of fog on the ground, and it looks like the planes are all tucked in for the night. There's just something about being on base when nothing's going on that feels so peaceful that it almost makes you forget about the greater, real-world missions taking place around the globe.


But the best is when a plane takes off right over your car as you turn the very edge of the runway. I love that. I really do.


I wish I had pictures of this stuff, but it's not Kosher to stop your car on base to take those kinds of pictures, unless you're PA. If I was a bird watcher just outside the fence, that'd be a different story. But I'm not.


Anyway, I do have pics of my trip to the zoo with Caleb on Columbus day. So I'll just share those instead.


Here's Caleb inside the Farm portion of the zoo. The goats behind him were just babies the first time we went to the zoo this past spring. They've grown up, just like my big boy!

I've been wanting to get a picture of Caleb and this big ol' dinosaur for a while, but he was kinda freaked out by it. There's also a dinosaur park about an hour away from here, but I'm not sure he's quite ready for that yet.

I wasn't excited about bringing his stuffed Mickey Mouse to the zoo, because I thought for sure he'd be dropped a billion times and possibly lost. But Caleb absolutely insisted on bringing him with us, and he carried it the whole time! Never even put it in the stroller or asked me to carry Mickey. (In case the pic is too small, Mickey is peeking over his shoulder.)

Caleb loves trains. LOVES them. We've never been able to ride the little "train" they have at the zoo, so we stuck around with the express intention of getting to ride the "too too ten." I was worried he'd get bored and want to get off, but he loved it! When the ride ended, he waved at it, saying, "Bye bye, too too ten! I miss you!"

One more shot of my big boy and his Mickey on the train. One sure sign of Caleb fatigue: those two fingers. It was about 2:30 at this point, and he hadn't had a nap yet. He did really well, though, and we had a great time together!

It was totally awesome having a fun Mommy/Taybub day. I loved it. Hope we can do it again soon!