7 Months

Dearest A.J.,

Today you are seven months old.  ALREADY.  It seems to me that the time is flying by.  I guess, mainly, because you are so much more content to just BE than your brother ever was.  You are such a, well, BABY.  I love that you always want to be held or played with.  I only wish there was more of me to give.  Sorry that I am spread so thin these days.

I think, definitively, that when God gave you to me, he was chuckling to himself a little bit.  You are the answer to so many of my prayers and also, in so many ways, just like me.  In particular, you seem to have inherited all the parts of my personality that I sometimes wish I didn't possess.  :)  You're demanding and often needy and frankly a bit prone to dramatics. 

However, you're also cuddler.  And you're silly.  You love to smile but take a while to warm up to most people.  You are finally finding the motivation to roll around and explore.  Just like when your brother was at this stage, your main goal seems to be the dog's food and water dish.  (GROSS!)  A few times in the last couple of days I've even found you on all fours getting ready to try to crawl.  While I love the development child, you can go ahead and take your time on that, Mama is just not ready to have two mobile children.

Whatever happens baby, I'm just happy you're here.  I love you and I can't wait to see what next month brings.  (Although, if I get to vote, can it bring more sleep for the both of us?)

I love you!

Mama

One for the Grandparents perhaps?

This one's my favorite.  You make the same face in pictures as your Dad!

Sick Baby

Just when I didn't think I could be that surprised by anything that happens with my kids...


Not that I, by any means have any clue what I'm doing, but if nothing else I feel like I've been faking it long enough not to be, like, completely blindsided by stuff.

So this morning I took A.J. in to the pediatrician's office. She's had this little cough for over a week now, and it went from being occassional and dry, to being frequent and very, very wet. Her little baby voice became horse and pathetic. She had lots of snot to go along with the cough and laryngitis. This weekend she also started sporting an occassional low end fever.

I went back and forth about 2 zillion times as to whether or not I thought it was just teething or if she was really sick.

Then she started to sleep for long periods of time. Like way longer than she ever has. Seriously, there was this one night (2 days ago) where she only woke up once. And then she took 3 long naps that next day. THREE! Each of them lasted for at least 2 hours. This behavior, from the child who averages 3-4 wake ups a night, who also tends to take, at best two 30-45 minute naps a day? What the heck? She was definitely fighting something...

Her brother, always managed to get really sick, really fast with really really high fevers. His fevers were always so high that everybody and their mother would tell me he had to have an ear infections. His fevers were always the indicator that I needed to take him to the doctor. Then, he always had either brochitis or mild pneumonia. Always. Period.

And, because, let's face it, I'm used to the way my son got sick when he was a baby, the main reason I took A.J. to the Doctor was to ensure she didn't end up with pneumonia herself. Also, sometimes when she coughed she would really get going and be gasping for air and it sounded a bit like croup. And because this was going on for over a week. It had, actually, been going on long enough that I started to worry she'd end up in the hospital and (here's the insane bit on my part) it would ruin Peter's birthday.

So this morning, the nurse checks us in and weighs her and basically fails to get an accurate temperature or pulse/ox reading from her for about 15 minutes. Then the doctor came in. She looked A.J. up and down, and listened to her lungs which were ALL CLEAR!

I immediately started mentally preparing myself for the speech the doc was going to give me about being crazy and worrying over nothing and to stop wasting everybody's time....

However, then the doctor looked in my baby's ears.

Yup.

Double Ear Infection.

Neat!

We left with a course of antibiotics which hopefully will clear her ears right up and she should be back to her regular screaming, non-sleeping self in a few days.

Seriously though, who goes to the pediatrician about a cough and leaves with diagnosed ear infections?

That's the thing about kiddos I guess, they always find another way to surprise you.

Shh! Don't tell Peter...

 The birthday preparations are well under way!

(World's cutest baking assistant.)

Miss Independent

This morning just after I started giving A.J. her bottle my phone rang.  Realizing that it was probably her pediatrician calling me back about the cough she's had for over a week now I put her bottle down, left her laying on a blanket and ran to fetch my phone.

Naturally, as soon as she processed that the bottle was no longer in her mouth she started to cry.

Not to worry though, Peter went to her rescue.  He gently picked the bottle up, rammed stuck it in her mouth and held it up for her.  How sweet right?  Well, except that was only fun for about a minute and then he sort of wandered off again to play with his cousin. 

Yet, somehow, in the short time he held it for her, she figured out how to hold it for herself.

 
This reminds me how after lots of lots of failed attempts by my parents, my own big brother taught me to tie my shoes in about 5 minutes.  Ah, the magical powers of the amazing older sibling!

Pudding Pops

Last week, since it was warm here- mostly- and I'd mentioned that I loved them as a kid, SIL made a batch of homemade chocolate pudding pops. 

Peter and I have been sharing ours. 

Tell me again, why did Jello stop making those again?

Operation Kid Comfort

Alright readers, I'm sure the last thing you were looking for today when you logged on was ANOTHER public service announcement.  You were, in fact, probably hoping to find more pictures of me and my kids, because, well, obviously that is what I post most of the time.  And if you're logging on to this blog, you probably are a close friend or family member or mine and that's all you're interested in anyway.  In fact, if I were to guess, I'd say that probably when most of you log on and do not find any pictures you just go ahead off on your merry Internet browsing way, rather than read whatever it is I am spouting off about that day (yes that means you BIL.) 

But seriously, I have GOT to tell you all about another very cool program that we have benefited from during this deployment.   And when I say I've "got" to I mean it, because, well it's a really cool program and also I promised Matt I'd post pictures ASAP

What's that?  Did she say pictures?  Like, of her kids??  Hey well then maybe I'll stick around and scroll down after all!!

Okay, so:  back in April, right after Matt left us he spent about a week in San Diego.  Basically, he spent the time getting his uniforms issued, ensuring his paperwork was all in order and sitting through a whole lot of pre-deployment briefs.  He listened to lectures on everything from managing finances to preventing PTSD.  And, believe it or not, amidst the sea of "blahblahblahs" he did, actually find out about some interesting programs.

One of these was called Operation Kid Comfort.  You can follow the link for more information, but basically this is a program run by the Armed Services YMCA where volunteers make FREE quilts featuring photos of their parents for the children of deployed service members.  I mean, honestly, how fantastic is that?  Basically, all I had to do was fill out an online application form, then select and submit up to 9 photos of each of my children with Matt and wait for them to create our quilts. 

The waiting is/was the hardest part.  Their website says to allow around 12 weeks for the completion of your quilts.  Then again, 12 weeks out of a total deployment time of 56 weeks is, well, chump change. 

Earlier this week I received an email that our quilts were ready for pick up.  I called them, since obviously I am not currently in San Diego and once I paid for the cost of shipping, they sent them on their way here. 

The arrived 2 days later. 

And my goodness, they are A-DOR-A-BLE!

Both Peter and A.J. seemed thrilled to receive them.  But you know what, rather than me telling you about their reactions, how 'bout I just SHOW you.

A.J receiving her quilt:

A.J.'s Quilt

Peter (waking up from his nap) and receiving his:

Peter's quilt

Just look at the expressions on their faces!  These quilts simply made them SO happy.  And since they've had them I can not tell you how many times I've caught them looking down lovingly at their Daddy's pictures.

Obviously, I could not possibly have enough kind words to express my immense gratitude for the volunteers from the Armed Services YMCA and the American Sewing Guild for providing my children with these amazing keepsakes which will be treasured keepsakes, I'm sure, long after the pain of this deployment is behind us and forgotten.

If you're a sewer or quilter and are interesting in volunteering to make quilts, please go here to sign up.

I'm not sure if there are other needs for assistance, but I'm sure if you're interested in making a donation or helping with this program in another way you can kind find out about that as well by contacting the Armed Services YMCA of the USA with information found here.

I Win!

In regards to this previous post, I am happy to announce that I am the big winner.

The proof?

What's that you skeptics say?  This doesn't count?  That's just baby babble?

Pa-shaw!!

Trust me, this is still about 50 times better and closer than anything Peter ever calls me.  You know, unless you give stubborn creativity points for his INSISTENCE on calling me DADA!

Also, I made this bet with myself, so I'm pretty sure I get to decide which one of me wins.

So, about this, I only have one more thing to say:

With all due love and respect to my first born... here we have POSITIVE PROOF that girls are so much better and smarter than boys!

(Smarter, not because she "said it" first but because she's figured out who she keeps up at night and how to make that individual happy.)

Although, I guess I couldn't really expect her to learn to refer to her father anytime soon, seeing as in her little world he is just pictures or a stuffed doll or, on the best of days a talking head on the computer.

Support the Troops: Operation Write Home

I need to tell everyone about a really cool program called Operation Write Home. 

Before I get there, let me just say that I know most of us have heard of many different programs out there that strive to provide our service members overseas with various products and services.  Operation Thin Mint (note: that link is for the the San Diego version of the program, so if you live elsewhere, there is probably a better website for you to use for more information) is the first that comes to mind, because, well, first of all YUM-- cookies!  Also because when Matt was in Bahrain during his deployment in 2008 he stumbled across a room literally FULL of the cookie boxes waiting to be distributed.  Duh, obviously Matt works in Supply and distribution (even of things like donated cookies) is a major part of his job.  He has also informed me, happily, each time he's been on deployment that the cookies actually made it to him, um.... where ever he was, on board the ships.  So you know, that's good. 

But, really there is only one time a year when all of us have the chance to send cookies.

What else can you do?

Another interesting program I've heard of is Operation Caffeination, although neither my older BIL or my husband have ever told me they've been recipients in this program.  (I might ask Matt's youngest brother, because he's in the Army and has served a tour in Bosnia, one in Korea, one in Africa, 2 an Iraq and is now working his was through one in the Stan, he would know better than anybody what does and does not reach the troops.)  Still, if you're interested in helping to (over) caffeinate the troops I'd encourage you to look further into this program either by following the link above or inquiring about it at your local Starbucks.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post:

Personally, neither the cookies nor the coffee have affected my family quite like Operation Write Home.  This is a fantastic program where crafty people make homemade cards and donate them.  Boxes of the cards are then sent to the troops and the service members can use them to write home to their friends and families.  The best part is, the U.S. Postal Service delivers them stateside for the troops FOR FREE!! 

So far, here are the home made cards Matt has sent me and the kids:

Isn't this fantastic?

He tells me there is a box in his office where the cards live.  He goes to it almost daily and finds a greeting to send home to me. 

Let me post some close-ups of my favorites:

This one is the first one he sent.  I love the cute little robots and the utter randomness.

This one was supposed to be a birthday card but he sent it anyway because, obviously, COOKIE MONSTER!!!

This whole design, from the colors, to the sentiment, to the music notes just sings to me. ;)

I love yellow flowers and this simple design is just so cute.  Also, inside, Matt wrote, "I picked you a flower, sadly, it smells like butt(on.)" Hee hee!  (Get it? There's a button in the middle of the flower....)

Seriously people, while we are tremendously blessed, at this point, to be able to speak to Matt on Skype almost every day, there is nothing that helps me get through the days better than receiving a little greeting in the mail. 

So here's what I'm thinking. 

Who out there is CRAFTY?

And since it's summer, who out there has some spare time?

WHO OUT THERE WANTS TO MAKE AND DONATE A FEW CARDS?!?!?!

Better yet!  Have a woman's group?  Why not host a little card making party!?!?!

I already linked the information page above, but again, if you would like to participate you can get all the information by going here.

Specific areas to take note of, (from the site listed above) include their Welcome Page.  There you can find information on how to participate in this program, guidelines for making cards (there are some rules about what is and is not allowed,) how to submit your completed cards, and how receive a FREE stamp for the back of your card creations like one of these:

"But Jen," you say, "I'm not that creative..."

Well, dear blog reader HAVE NO FEAR, you can find lots of inspiration for card designs here!  Also, back on Memorial Day they hosted a blog hop featuring many of their card makers including my amazing Sister-in-Law.  You can access her blog, the card blog hop and all the associated links from SIL's blog by clicking here.  Oh my goodness the beautiful designs will just leave you in awe. 

And trust me when I say, SIL has 3 children of her own, plus my crazy family to deal with, so if she can find the time to donate a few cards then SO CAN YOU!!!

:)

So once again, I urge all of you out there to seriously consider taking at least one afternoon and making some cards to donate.  It might be fun! 

And I can promise you, your efforts will be going to support a fabulous  program that means the world to military families.

Just. Like. Mine.  

Genius or Insanity?

Crazy things happen when Mama is sleep deprived.

I mean, more than, you know, usual.

Last night Miss A.J. had a rough one.  I don't really know what the deal was, but her eyes were red and puffy, her nose was runny, she had this pathetic dry little cough and she COULD NOT FALL ASLEEP. She didn't have a fever, so I'm not sure if she just has some allergies since things here are finally starting to bloom, if she is starting teething or if maybe her reflux was just worse than usual.

So anyway, she started out in her bed at 8:00.  15 minutes later I was back in there, rocking her to sleep. And again, 30 minutes after that.  And then again.  And again.  Peter, by that point was standing in his own crib, leaning his head on the front rail, sucking his pacifier, holding his bunny and looking at me with BIG tired eyes that seemed to say "Seriously woman, WHY can't she just be quiet already?"

I tucked him back in and brought her to my room.  She cried and carried on for a good hour longer, possibly more.  Then finally I got her asleep in her swing.  I didn't even turn the thing on, but the angle of it seemed to help her not to cough and I think she still likes the swaddling affect of the way it is designed. 

Somewhere around 2 she woke up.  I fed her, although she didn't seem that interested in doing anything other than cuddling with me for warmth.  It didn't seem that cold in my room, but she has always been a baby who needs a soft blanket to sleep.  Since she's finally outgrown being swaddled I've been giving her a small thin, flannel receiving blanket to cuddle with each night instead.  The trouble was, these are all kept in her room and I didn't have one with me right then. 

I thought for awhile.  The idea of trudging ALL the way down the hallway and sneaking into the nursery for a blanket seemed impossible to my tired brain.  I was, quite literally, exhausted.  And trust me when I say that I do not use that term lightly.  I sort of hate that word, actually, as it just sounds overly dramatic.  But I was.

I briefly considered just holding her and trying to sleep with her in my bed although I knew this would never work for me.  I too am a cuddler and I need to pretty much bury myself under covers to fall asleep.  That just wasn't going to be possible if I was holding my daughter.

Then it hit me.  I have a whole drawer of tshirts right there in my room.  They're about the right size, softness and thickness to double as a blanket on the fly.

I put my girl back in her swing and strapped her in.  Then I selected an old and fairly plain Ohio State tshirt of mine from the drawer, ensuring that it didn't have any scratchy silk screening on it.  I tucked it around my baby, then gave her a pacifier and her bunny. 

She went right to sleep again. 

Worked like a charm.

Ridiculous?  Using a tshirt as a baby blanket instead of just walking down the hall to get one?

Maybe.  I don't know.

You tell me.

The Wager

I have made a $20 bet with myself.

I bet myself that A.J. is going to end up calling me "Mama" consistantly before her older brother ever does.

Because of course she's starting to verbalize more and more while he still calls me "Dada" faithfully.

We're all, "Peter, say Hello."  And he says "Hewwo!"

We ask, "Peter, say Please" and he says "Peas!"

and "Peter, say Thank You," and he's all "Tank toooo!"

then "Peter, say Mine." And he goes "Mmmmmine!"

and finally "Peter, say Mama!"

and then, my sweet beloved first born smiles, and looks at me, and points, and proudly says "Dada!"

*sigh*

A.J., sweetie, you're my only hope. 

(and when you help me win, I'll split the $20 with you.)

The First Day of Summer

The weather here has a rather mean sense of humor.  It likes to give us, on average one or two glorious days each week where the sun shines brightly and the temperature rises into the low 70s.  Of course, inevitably, the 2-3 days afterward will be dreary and grey and cooler.  It's enough to make a summer-lover like myself go a bit insane.

Anyway, Tuesday, as not only the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the last day of school for my niece and nephews the weather was warm and AMAZING so we heading out into the backyard in the afternoon for some fun.

Obviously, we started with some baseball.

This time, Peter even took a turn at bat.

Look who's come back and seems to have taken to hiding under the shed.  Welcome back Fatty!

Then it was time for some football.

Random, but OH MY GOSH look at the size of the slug BIL found.  If you ask me, this slug represents everything that is wrong with Washington state.  Because, seriously... ew. 

And no, before you ask, we didn't pour salt on it.  I wanted to, but the amount of salt we would have needed to dry that sucker out might have killed the grass.

I took the kids for a wagon ride together around the yard.  This was the first time A.J. had been in the wagon. 
Peter was unsure about sharing his chariot with her.

He much preferred pulling her.  (Don't worry, she was belted in but the yard is bumpy and I didn't let him get too far!!)

Me and my girly, cheesing for the camera.

I don't know what I went to do... chase Peter out from behind the shed where he was hunting KC probably, but when I got back, A.J. had my phone and I'm not even kidding, she was calling Gramma....

Happy Summer! 

(Now if we could just get another warm day...)

Tayler's Graduation

13 years ago, in the summer of 1999, my boyfriend (and eventual husband) Matt was about 6 months from graduating college and was struggling to complete the security screening paperwork he'd need to get his commission.  A large part of this paperwork included listing every address you've EVER lived at over the past 10 years and then giving contact information for a personal reference of someone who "knew you then."  He was struggling with the time he'd spent enlisted and stationed in southern California.  He hadn't been there very long and had basically lost touch with the few close friends he'd had there over the 4 years he'd been in college. 

Keep in mind, that in 1999 the Internet was a very different creature.  To access it, most folks still used (*gulp*) dial up.  Blogs were a very new and unpopular trend and social networking sights (like the ones most of us use today to keep in touch with our far-away friends,) hadn't even been invented. 

So, on a whim, Matt went online to the telephone book's site, searched for his closet friend from those enlisted days, and called him up.

He got his friend's father.

Happily though, the father was a kind and understanding man and after listening to Matt's explanation, he went ahead and gave him the correct number to call.  A few hours later, the two old friends, who'd met at boot camp (boy does Mike have some embarrassing stories about my young future husband,) attended A-School together and then finally ended up stationed at the same command in California, were on the phone together and catching up. 

After Matt had left for college, Mike had met and married Mishana who had two young daughters and by then, the two were expecting another baby girl.  Obviously the conversation rapidly progressed from "Hey dude, can I use you as a reference?" to "Oh my gosh man, you should totally come visit us out here in Seattle!!"

And for some reason, Matt was all, "Can I bring my girlfriend?"

So that's the story of how, back in late August of 1999, Matt and I went to Seattle for a couple weeks to meet our wonderful friends Mike and Mishana.  At the time, Tayler was a very young 6 year old starting kindergarten.  Tristen was the cutest and most mischievous little 4 year old, and the Riley was born the day before we left.  Despite constantly living on opposite sides of the country, we've all kept in touch ever since through various phone calls, trips and visits.  Their whole family flew to Ohio and Mike was the Best Man in our Wedding.  Then Matt asked him to be Peter's Godfather as well.  If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time even prior to our latest relocation, there's a fairly decent chance you've stumbled across a post mentioning them before. 

Needless to say, the fact that we had such close friends who also lived here played a major factor in our decision for me and the kids to come to Washington while Matt went to Iraq. 

And despite all the craziness that comes along with living here (TOO MANY PEOPLE IN ONE HOUSE) and the stress (HOLY SMOKES MY DOG GOT OUT YESTERDAY and if it wasn't for the kindness of a few random strangers I never ever would have got him back) there are also some really great things.  Like the fact that yesterday, I had the privilege of watching that sweet little 6 year old kindergartner I once knew, who's now all grown up and shockingly beautiful, cross the stage and graduate from high school. 

There she goes across the stage (terrible picture though, holding a camera steady with a sleeping baby on your lap can be tough!)

Peter cheered heartily for his Tay Tay

A.J. just kept smiling and gnawing on her fingers.

Afterward, Peter hitched a ride on Uncle Mike's shoulders out to find our Grad.  What else are Godfather's for?

Then they had a little love fest while we waited for the crowd to clear enough to get outside.  Geez, it's like they hadn't seen each other in a whole week!

Finally we found our girl.

A hug from Mom.

With the proud Parental Unit.

Sisters.

The whole happy family.

Meanwhile:



Peter found him self in the middle of a circle of adults.  And nobody was even paying attention to him!

Then he noticed some petals on the ground that had fallen off of Tayler's leis.  This was troubling.  They needed to be collected immediately!

                               






But who to give them to now that I've got them?

Oh, right.  Obviously... Tristen!!!  Here you go.  :)

Finally, there was a break in the photo taking action, Tayler noticed Peter and bent down to say hello.  So sweet!

Tay with A.J., Peter and I.  We might just be friends of the family, but we're so proud of her none the less!

See?  Look how happy the whole thing made A.J.
(Of course, this was only AFTER she vomitted Exorcist style all over the lobby.  If you don't believe me, just ask Tristen.)

Congratulations Tayler!  Best of luck next year as you head off to college!!