Jingle Bells

We FINALLY got a tree on Sunday. There was much debate at the Tater-Tot household; get one, don't get one, artificial, real.... So while hubby was at a friends watching the game I made an executive decision because my little girl wanted a tree. She was so excited to pick out a tree, although I was a little bummed because going to wally world is not the same as going to the real tree farm in Ohio. Anyway, the entire time she kept talking about jingle bells. "Are we going to put jingle bells on our tree mommy? I really want jingle bells!" Mind you I had no idea what jingle bells were. The next morning we could not find the tree stand, hmmm maybe the shed. I braved the spiders to look for the stupid thing. Not there. Hubby went to storage, not there. Well maybe the garage, yep right where he said it wasn't! Well our tree stand is from the lovely tree farm in Ohio. It is the kind with a spike in it that you pound into the tree. Only at the farm they do it for you, well obviously that was not going to happen. So hubby pounded away. After not much progress I suggested that he should hit it harder. Well that is all it took to crack the water bowl. Next step, improvise. While I was telling him to go get a new one, he had it in his head that it would not be that hard to make one. So when I was not looking he took one of my nice big plastic mixing bowls and drilled a hole in it. Nice. For now it is holding its own. So, a couple of hours after planned the tree was up. Which actually worked out nice because it was Alex's nap time. As I opened up the bin with all of the decorations Hannah exclaims "Jingle bells! Are we going to put them on the tree?" I was kind of surprised to see that they were the actual bulbs that she must have noticed when we put up the rest of the decorations last week. When I told her we were, she shouted "Cool dude! High five!" It was so cute.

Here she is with her jingle bells. The entire bottom of the tree was full of glass bulbs, which I explained we had to move so that Alex could not reach them. She did not mind, she thought she was big stuff helping and kept saying "I put this high so Alex can't reach." She was quite proud of herself. In the end there was this small group left.

OVERWHELMED

I have been feeling a little out of sorts lately. A lot of it has to do with our life circumstances, it seems like everything around me is changing and my personality hates change. Not to mention the stress of not knowing what the future holds. Not knowing if hubs will find a job in time, not knowing if we will sell the house before we run out of income, not knowing in what city to start looking for a new house etc, etc. So I am feeling overwhelmed, beaten down, low and basically depressed. Which is such a bummer because it is Christmas and I want to be all holly and jolly but I can't. I am trying to just breathe and trust that God has it under control. I am having a hard time trusting. I am really just trying to take it day-to-day and just enjoy having my husband home but, every day brings us one day closer to not having an income. That freaks me out just a little bit. I am really at a loss, I have never felt this way before and it is starting to scare me.

Nothing but a house full of sick kids

It started on Friday with a routine check-up for Tater. I took her to her new PCM in order to get a referral to the endocrinologist. During the check-up the doctor looked in her ears and said that it was so full of wax that she could not see into it. She gave us some ear wax softener and sent us on our merry way. Saturday shortly after I put the drops in she started crying saying that it hurt. I looked in her one ear and it had blood in it. I was a little freaked out by this, but hubs did not seem to think it was that big of a deal. When asked if it her Tater always said no, but she would not let us touch or clean out either ear. Normally she loves getting her ears cleaned so this kind of worried me as well. We ignored it for the night thinking that if she complained that it hurt we would take her to ready care. Then today when I put the drops in her ears she did the same thing saying that they hurt her. So at about six I convinced hubs to let us go to ready care. We got there and the doctor looked in her right ear, the one with the blood and said it was fine. He looked in her left ear and she SCREAMED, and fought because it hurt. She then would not let him finish the exam without a fight, that girl is a tough one. Daddy held her arms, the doctor her head and I held her legs. Fun times. The problem: a badly infected ear. Not sure what the blood from the other ear was, he said it possibly ruptured and is repairing itself but he just saw some scar tissue.

As we are about to leave I decide that maybe Alex should get checked out. He has had a cold since we were in Ohio. Whenever he has a cold that drags on like that it is always the ears. So, once again I convince hubs that we should stay at ready care to get the boy checked out. His story is slightly less dramatic as he had an ear infection in his right ear and a "slight" upper respiratory infection. So antibiotics all around!

By this time it is a little after seven. Hmmm, I wonder what pharmacy is open on a Sunday night? I take out my phone and start calling every pharmacy under the sun, to find out that all of them close at six or seven on Sunday. As I am calling hubs is driving through town to all the ones that I have yet to call. Apparently, you can go to the auto parts store, get a tattoo, get fast food, rent a video, and go tanning BUT if your kids are sick you cannot get them antibiotics.

Ball

Here is a picture of us last night at the Marine Corps Ball. I was a little sad knowing this would be our last one, and the last time I see hubby all spiffy in his dress blues. He on the other hand was very excited knowing that this was the last ball!

The pirate and the princess

Alexander has been making this face lately, we call it the pirate face. He makes it when he is mad and fussing and he makes it when he smiles. It is quite the face!

Here is the princess, showing off her outfit that Grandma Fries bought for her. I put it on her to see how it fit and she did not want to take it off!

In the blink of an eye...

Just the other day it hit me how fast my children are growing up. It started with a conversation between some friends about sleep habits. One of the gals was talking about how she loved to rock her three year old to sleep because that is the only real snuggle time she gets with him. Another, who has teens, said that she missed that age and how she wished she could rock her kids again. That started me thinking, it won't be long before I do not get to hold, snuggle, hug and kiss my children like I do now. I was holding Zander just eating him up, when it hit me that one day I won't be able to do this. One day he will be a young man embarrassed by his mom's kisses and not long after that he will be a man. Once he is a man I will only get the hello hug with a kiss on the cheek; no more snuggles! The same with Hannah, she is such a big girl already that I have started laying down with her for nap time. Just so I can smell her hair and snuggle close for that little bit of time. I mentioned this to hubby and he got nostalgic, saying that he too misses cuddling with Hannah. He said how much he enjoys it when she crawls up on his lap and reads a book or watches a movie with him. He too noted how it will not be long before she no longer wants to do these things. I remember the day she was born so vividly, how could three years have passed so quickly? It saddens me to realize how much I take for granted during my time with them. How often I shoo them away so that I can "get something done". Already they are so big, no longer babies but a toddler and preschooler. I know they are still so young, but before I know it they will be tweens, teens and young adults. So, for now I have decided to stop worrying so much about homework and keeping the house spotless and instead focus my attention on them. However, when I fail out of school and I cannot show my house because it looks like a tornado tore through it, at least I will know that this season too shall pass.

The crazy man has moved in

I never knew the craziness that was involved in selling a house. I mean seriously people, do not call and expect to see a house in 20 minutes! As a mom of two young children I need more than 20 minutes to frantically run through the house and shove a bunch of junk into hiding places, um I mean put things in their rightful spot. This has happened twice now. Once yesterday in which I obliged and once this morning. This morning I told them no way, the kids were still sleeping and the kitchen was still a mess from supper last night. There was no way it could be ready to go in 20 minutes. So, we kindly asked them to pick a later time, for which they no showed. Ah well at least my house is spotless again.

Also, the house knows man! It knows that we are trying to sell it and is working against us I swear! Since we put the house on the market we have had: the dishwasher break, the hot water heater start to leak and the tub faucet start to leak. Therefore we have spent a lot of money in plumbers lately.

The worst part of it all is that we do not know where we will be relocating to. This of course means that we cannot start to house hunt. I mean the best part about selling your house is knowing that you are going to find a bigger house...hopefully a much bigger house.

Mean Ole Mommy

Poor Alexander Jay has been subjected to a very mean mommy the past five nights. I decided that it was time that he be weaned from the rocking, nursing and paci all in one shot. I figured that it would be easier than doing one at a time and that he would be so upset about being put to bed awake that he would not even notice the paci being gone. It all started when my friend called to tell me she was going to get rid of her sons nuk that night and she wanted some moral support. We went back and forth for awhile talking about the pros of doing it and so forth. I talked about how I wanted to get rid of Zander's soon and how I should start placing him down awake and she encouraged me that now was a good time. So on Sunday night we went through our regular routine and I nursed him and started to rock him, but he was fighting me. He did not want to go to sleep, so I gave him some extra snuggles and kisses then I placed him in his crib. I did however nurse him beforehand. (I have yet to decide if we are ready for a complete wean, he does not seem ready and I'm not sure if I am either.) He cried his little eyes out for maybe fifteen minutes. It was not that bad.....the bad part came at around 1:30 am when he woke up for his midnight snack. He screamed and screamed. It broke my heart to hear him cry like that but I knew that if I went in it would only get worse. So, husband went in and it got worse. We knew at that point the best thing to do would be to let him cry. Thankfully, after that he slept until 7:30. By then I was so engorged I caved and brought him to bed with me. Monday for nap, he barely cried five minutes. Monday night, same thing maybe five minutes. By now I think he is getting used to being put to bed awake, but he still makes noise about it. He also still wakes up around 1:00 every night, but sleeps until 8:30-9:00 which is much better than before. He is also taking better naps now as well. So I know that he is getting better quality of sleep, but it is still hard to hear him cry and know that I need to let him cry. I do not remember it being this hard with Tater. She basically weaned herself, so that was not a problem, and she was already sleeping through the night when we started putting her to bed awake, so maybe that makes the difference. We tried to skip the nursing part tonight, actually hubby tried and it.did.not.work. Mr. Zander was very upset, worse than usual and I could not stand it, so I rescued him. At least we are down to only nursing at night, for awhile it seemed like we would never get there. Before Sunday we were down to before bed, then usually 1, 3ish, 5ish and 8ish. Which is a lot, but he did not nurse during the day. It is sort of funny because when he was nursing all the time I remember thinking that I could not wait to be done with this and now that he only nurses once I don't know that I am ready. Like I figured he has not missed the paci at all. Maybe he does and he just cannot vocalize it, but he does not act like he misses it. He is more of a blankie guy anyway and I figured it would be easier to do it now then wait until he is older and more attached to it.

My girlie-girl has been really into lip gloss, purses and anything girlie right now. So when we are at the store she always asks to pick something out and depending on the day we let her. (I am trying to teach her that she does not always get something every time we go to the store but that is an entirely different post.) Lately she has been choosing these little make-up bags only they are full of the plastic make-up. Which is actually good, only I wanted her to be able to play with the real stuff as well, so I pointed out that she could get a little box full of make-up. It had lip gloss, lipstick, eyeshadow, rings, earrings, brushes and nail polish...everything a little girl could want. When we got home that night she put some on and was so happy to have her own make-up. Shortly after it was bath time so we cleaned her up and put her to bed. I meant to move the make-up somewhere high so she would not see it in the morning, but I forgot. So of course first thing in the morning she wanted to put her make-up on. I obliged and she put her eyeshadow on and some lip gloss. She was gorgeous. Then we spend all day working around the house and I forgot all about the make-up. Until bath time when I went to wash her up and noticed that her eyes were all red and a little swollen. I do not know if it was from wearing the make-up all day, or if it was from being outside around the mulch, but her little eyes were red. She looked pretty awful, I almost wish I would have taken a picture just to post it here, but I did not. We gave her some benadryl, but they were still a little red this morning. Needless to say the make-up went in the trash just to be safe....plus now I do not have to worry about her getting into it when I am not around...BONUS!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After seven LONG months of cute husband being gone, he is finally home. In case you were wondering, he has actually been home for almost two weeks now, but still he's home. As the time drew near there was much to be done. The most important thing was getting all our junk packed up and ready to make the long trip back to NC. I was so stressed out about that, anyone who knows my son knows that it is not possible to get anything done when he is awake. He is in constant motion and always getting into something. You can't leave him alone for more than two minutes as that is the window of opportunity for him. However, I did manage to get everything packed, somewhat organized and ready to go. Thankfully, my parents went with me for the long drive so that I would not have to try to do it on my own. It was sort of a bittersweet end to our time in OH, as we do not know what the future holds for us. That could very well have been the last time that we were up there for that long of a period. On the other hand my husband was coming home, so that excitement outweighed the sadness. We split the drive up over two days and the kids did surprisingly well.

We arrived in NC on a Saturday and cute husband was coming home the following Friday, less than a week to get all of our junk, I mean stuff unpacked and to make signs for Daddy. Luckily my parents stayed through Tuesday giving me a little help with both. The kids loved making the signs....well Hannah did, Alex did not get to get too close to them. We made two big sheets for Daddy, the one pictured above that we hung on base and the other (that I do not have a digital picture of) we hung on our porch. We also made a couple of smaller signs, one for at the end of the road, one for in the yard and one for on the stroller. There were quite a few hung on base and a couple really creative ones. My mom and my favorite was one that said Iraq: 120 degree, our bedroom 1,000 degrees. Welcome to the heat! We laughed for days over that one.

By this point Hannah was getting very excited about the idea that Daddy would be home soon. I had explained to Hannah that Grandma and Grandpa were driving us to NC and they would stay with us for four nights, then when they left we would have three nights left until Daddy came home. I think that in her three year old mind she took this to mean that the sooner Grandma and Grandpa left the sooner Daddy would be home. Everyday she asked them if they were leaving, when they would say no she would say "Yes, I want you to go and my Daddy to come." It was a little bit cute and a little bit sad at the same time. Anyway, Daddy's plane was scheduled to land at 11:15, then they had two hours of processing and we could see them at 1:15. Unfortunately their plane was delayed...of course and they did not land until 1:15, meaning we could not see them until 3:15. I had struggled for days with what time we should arrive on base. After all I had two children and I did not want to end up sitting there for two hours with two crazy kids running around. At the same time I did not want them to end up being there early and us missing him. So, I decided I would leave my house at 2:00, planning on getting there around 2:15; only an hour to waste.We were in no hurry and kind of took our time, I dropped off some videos, got gas, got Hannah something to drink at McDonalds, and then went to the designated area. When I unloaded the kids it was 2:30, and I was like great, what am I going to do for 45 minutes? By the time I got the kids in the stroller, the sign attached and over to the homecoming reception the guys sea bags were already unloaded and sorted. Hmmm, maybe we wouldn't have to wait long after all. I took a few pictures of the kids waiting, took some video and the buses were pulling up. What?! It was not even 2:45!

I actually sort of ignored my husband and video taped Hannah's expression as he walked up. She was so excited and she jumped right into his arms. Alex was a little wary but went right to him as well. In fact it did not take him long to warm up to this guy called Daddy. As you can imagine, Hannah was Daddy's little shadow for quite a few days. She would even sit in the bathroom while he took a shower. She was worried he was going to go back to "Myraq" and kept asking about it. I explained over and over that he would just be going to work on base and would be home for lunch and then home for supper and to spend the night. I think she understands although she will still ask sometimes if he is working in "Myraq". We are somewhat adjusted to being "married" again, now if he could just find a job we would be all set.

So much to do....such little time

I have not had much time to get online lately....there are so many posts swirling around in my head right now. I just need to make the time to get online and do something about it. For now I will leave you with a video of Zander walking on the beach. I just love it when babies are learning to walk, they look so cute toddling along.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

My dear sweet baby boy, it does not seem possible that you are already a year old! It seems like it has just been a blink of an eye and already you have grown and changed so much. You are such an easy going little man, so happy and full of laughs. It does not take much to make you laugh. You have such a love for your sister, it is evident in the way you light up in the morning when you see her and in the way you follow her around throughout the day. All of the sudden you have turned into quite the little monkey. You climb on anything that you can find, just today I have had to get you down from the little rocker (many times), the fireplace ledge, the fish tank ledge, your sister's doll bed, a step stool and I'm sure there are more! You are so busy....always getting into something, finding the one thing in a room full of toys that you should not have! Not to mention the fact that everything goes straight into your mouth. Right now you love peek-a-boo, you just laugh and laugh at that game. You also love the water and taking a bath, in fact you try to climb into the tub whenever you get the chance. You have taken to milk quite well, although you still prefer your mommy's milk and are quite boisterous in making it known. You cry and throw your head around trying to make your point known.
You are an amazing little boy, with an amazing personality. It has been so much fun watching you grow these past 12 months. I am excited to continue on this journey with you and I hope that the joy that you have now stays with you as you grow. You are my baby, and I am so thankful for the blessing of your life. Happy birthday little man!

Fun at the Beach

Look how sweet and cute these kids are! My two little water babies, well one is a water baby and the other is a sand crab. I bet you can't guess which one is which...

For any wiggles fans, the song running through my head right now if "Having fun at the beach. Fun, fun, fun at the beach" I'm sure you know the one I am referring to. Anyway, we have been visiting the beach daily since being in NC and the kids have been loving it. Well, Hannah has been loving it and Alex has been loving the sand. Seriously, the kid eats the sand. Can't get him to stop, to him it is some sort of delicacy. Whenever we look away he shovels it in. Hannah is finally enjoying it. At first she was nervous and did not want to play unless she was hugging right on my side. Gradually she has gotten better to where now she is back to where she was last summer. Wanting to go out in the "big" as she calls the deep water, and jumping and playing at the edge. We took a ferry to an island yesterday and she loved it. She wanted to stay on the boat, of course by that point in the day with no nap I would have gladly let her...I don't think the captain would have been down with that though. We only have a couple days left and I am sad. I wish we were here to stay, and mostly wish that hubby was here with us.

MIA

Geese, it has been so long I forgot my password! We are past the half-way mark, officially we have 96 days until the middle of October, unofficially hubs thinks he will be back the first part of October. Of course we all know how that works....nothing is official until the day of and even then it will change. Last homecoming I almost missed because my KV did not call and inform me that it had been moved up an hour. How awful would that have been if I missed his homecoming because she was "out for the day and didn't have her list with her to call". Ummm, I am still bitter over that one. Anyway, I can't believe that it has been over four months. Yet October seems so far away. We are visiting our house in NC right now, so it almost makes things worse. Everything here reminds me of him, everywhere I look there is a bit of him left behind. It is comforting and hard at the same time. Thankfully I hear from him quite often, I do not know what I would do if I didn't. I am actually very blessed because I usually hear from him daily via email and IM. I do not usually talk about how much I miss him. I'm not sure why, maybe I feel like I need to be strong for those around me. Maybe I feel like it is a sign of weakness, or maybe I feel like I am protecting my children. Who knows, but I miss him so much that it hurts. I can't wait to hold him in my arms again, to smell his neck and kiss him endlessly. I can't wait to be able to reach out and touch him whenever I want, to be able to talk to him whenever I need to and not have to wait until he calls me in order to do so. As a matter of fact, I am even looking forward to arguing with him and not feel the guilt over the fact that he is so far away. To you two-and-a-half months seems like the blink of an eye, but to me an eternity.....I miss you my love, please know how much I miss you.

Changing

Month seven has been a fun month for Alexander. Although he is not crawling yet he is well on his way. Whenever he is playing on the floor he is always on his hands and knees rocking back and forth. It won't be long before he is chasing Hannah around the house getting into her toys. Won't that be fun for all? He is also sitting up and trying to stand! His two bottom teeth popped through and he got his first ear infection....a double ear infection. Most of the time he is still his happy-go-lucky self despite the problems with his ears and teeth. He loves "playing" with his sister and it is so much fun to watch them laughing! I can't believe another month has flown by.

Where's Waldo?

My girl loves to sleep with stuffed animals, especially ones that are as big as her! The other night when I went in to get ready for bed this is what I found. Can you see her?

Changing

Here he is looking handsome in his Easter suit at six months old! (Just pretend this was posted a month ago) It is hard to believe that he is six months old. It almost seems like he grows overnight, we wake up and he is bigger. He is eating his vegetables now, we are slowly making our way through them. He has had squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and green beans. Next he will eat peas and then onto the good stuff: fruit! He is still very grabby and everything goes directly to his mouth. Everybody we meet wants to know if he is always so happy, which he is...unless he is hungry or tired, even then he is not too bad. He just smiles so easily, all it takes is for somebody to look at him and he gives them the biggest smile. Such a cutie! As you can see he is very tall, here are his six month stats:
Height: 28 1/2 inches 95%

Weight: 17 pounds 7 ounces 50%

I haven't forgotten you

Ummmm, hi. What can I say....uh, the dog ate the internet and that is why I have not posted in so long. What? You don't believe me? Then you obviously don't know my dog! Anyway, we are in Ohio and Hannah is enjoying all the extra attention she is getting. She loves playing with her cousins and every morning she goes through the list of names asking if she is going to see them today. I see Yah-yah? I see Abbie? I see Anna? I see Grandma Pries? On it goes until we have covered everybody. A few times she has asked to go to Hannah's house, but for the most part is happy to be here.
************************************************************************************
On the Daddy front, Hannah misses him so much. Occasionally she asks if we are going to see Daddy, or if Daddy has to work tomorrow. It is hard to explain how long it will be before we will see him again. She has her own little collage of Daddy pictures and shows them to everybody that walks into the front door. It is pretty cute. She finally talked to him on the phone, she is not a big phone talker so she was just listening to him talk. The other day she said about four sentences to him so he was excited! He says that he is bored over there, which is a good thing to hear! He is working the night shift so there is not much going on, but it does give him time to work on school work....or watch tv or play video games! When I talked to him on Sunday he said it was like living the movie Groundhog Day. Everything is the same over and over again. What more could we ask for?
**********************************************************************************
So, from now on I will try to keep this thing updated on a regular basis, especially since Alex is seven months tomorrow and I just posted his six month stuff! Ooops!

Just Because

Today was sort of an off day; we did not do much. I had to write two article reviews for my class, one in a memo format and the other in a paper format. Of course they were both due by tonight and I waited until today to do them! We did go to the post office and mail a package out to Tony. When we got back home I told Hannah how messy the living room was and she looked at me and said "Oh.My.Gosh.Mommy, it's messy." It was so funny I just laughed! I think she picked that phrase up from her daddy because I do not say that. Then, she was running around without a shirt on because she spilled water down the front of her and just because she has a perfect nose like belly button I drew a face on her belly! She was running around in her typical fashion and since I was busy most of the evening working on my papers, the hurricane Hannah roared through the living room again.
Alexander is just getting so big so fast...and I'm not just talking size wise either. He no longer stays in one spot on the floor because he scoots. However, he hates to be on his stomach so he scoots on his back. If I recall correctly this is how his sister started out. He is just so grabby, he will stare intently at something I have (like a glass) and as soon as it gets in his reach he is grabbing it! I have to be extra careful with what I'm holding now. He is also getting very vocal and is very loud. He just squeals away. Since Daddy has left he is getting pretty spoiled; when he wakes up at night I end up just leaving him in my bed. Oh well, we have seven months to break that habit.
I am so excited because Tony is settled in and has started working, which means e-mails. In the past two days I have gotten almost 50!!! Mind you that is back and forth chatting so most of them are only a couple of sentences, but I am so blessed to be able to stay connected with him. I talked to him on the phone last night as well. He is working the night shift right now, which is great for me because his hours are like 3pm-12am my time. Meaning I don't have to wait up to talk to him like I did last time.
Anyway, that is just a bunch of ramblings from today. My creative juices have not been flowing lately, so I apologize for the randomness of this post. I do have a picture to post of Hannah's belly face, but I will do that in the morning.

Top of the mornin' to ya!

One of the local beaches was having a festival to honor all the local Irishmen and women. So we went along with our friend Becky to have some fun. Hannah had the best time! Of course Becky spoiled her (and me) rotten. She bought her tickets to ride rides and me some coffee and food. The first thing she wanted to do was to ride the helicopter ride. I wasn't sure if parents were allowed so I just put her on the ride and left. She got upset and would not wave at us or even look at us the entire time. Instead she just sat there with her mad face on. We then attempted to go on a couple of the blow up things...of course she couldn't go in by herself. In both of them she freaked out and wanted to leave, but as soon as we got out she wanted back in, go figure. We finally went back and she rode the helicopter again. This time when I put her on the ride she said "Mommy watch." She waved and wore her proud face this time around. I think she realized that she could do it by herself. Alex was a trooper the entire time, just hanging out in the stroller. There was Celtic music (bagpipes) that Hannah really enjoyed, as well as lots of different craft booths. Of course what is a festival without food? Unfortunately, by this time it was getting crowded, Alex was getting fussy and we were all getting a little cold; so we just grabbed some food and left. No funnel cakes though:( I wish I would have thought to take the camera with me because I would have loved to get some pictures of Hannah riding those helicopters.

Update...

Just a quick update, so far we are doing pretty good in the Tater-tots household. We have an awesome ya*hoo group for the families that has been great! Haven't heard from hubby yet, but I got a message from the KV and she said the hot line had been updated today. So I called it and it said they were waiting for transport to their location. So, hopefully I will hear from him in the next couple of days. Tater seems to be adjusting well, she has been her usually joyful self. Yesterday when we were picking up her prescription she was prancing around in circles singing one of her praise songs. Very cute...until she started yelling them! Anyway, just wanted to put a quick update.

*******************************************************************************

Update on my update...I just talked to him!!! The connection was great and we got to talk for about 20 minutes! They are still waiting on transport so please pray for safe travels

********************************************************************************

P.S. Are my comments working? I haven't gotten one in a long time, so give me a shout if you are out there....

Broken

Well, today was the day that we have been dreading...Daddy left for Iraq earlier today. It was a lot harder then I expected. I thought I had prepared myself mentally for it, but I was not prepared for the emotions that flooded me when I saw my husband say goodbye to our children. It was especially hard when Hannah was crying:(

We thought that she was prepared because she was so excited about going to Ohio, unfortunately I think that she was just focusing on that to "help" adjust. When Tony got dressed today and said he was getting ready for work, it was an instant meltdown. She did not want Daddy to leave. I think this made it even harder for Daddy.

Here are my two men, looking so identical:) Of course Alexander did not understand what was going on, so he was Mr. Personality. Smiling away at Daddy, which made me so sad. He loves playing with Daddy and all the sudden this person is going to go "missing" from his life. In seven months when Daddy returns, Alex won't even remember him.
I wish her hair wasn't blowing in her face for this picture, it is such a sweet shot.
Daddy with his two kids, notice the tears in the girls eyes! They are going to be so big when he returns...well Alex will be so much bigger, Hannah will just be older.

The highlight of the day was when Daddy took her over to the "big truck." It was the first smile of the day and it got better from there! Here she is driving!
She has already talked about him a couple times today; wanting to call him or show him a picture she drew. As you can tell it has been an emotional day. I do not remember it being this hard the last time!!! Thankfully, we will be going to Ohio soon and that will keep us busy for the deployment. If you haven't noticed there is a countdown at the bottom of the page. It is tentative because I don't know the exact date or time that he will be returning so I just have it set for October 15th at 5pm. Please keep us in your prayers as Daddy travels and we adjust!

Tub Time!

Changing

The boy is now five months, geesh he is getting so big. He has been discovering so much lately. About a week ago, he found his feet and now he loves grabbing them. He has also figured out how to really get his jumper to bounce. I think that is one of his favorite places to be, sitting in his jumper just a bouncing along. He has now rolled over I think three times without any assistance, but that is few and far between. Last night we gave him cereal for the first time. I was planning on waiting until he was six months, but I wanted Hubby to see it before left. Hubs laughed when I told him we were going to do it and said he didn't think he was ready. Well, boy was he wrong. Alexander opened his mouth right up and would practically eat the spoon he liked it so much. I guess he was ready!

I go to hio Mommy?!

I haven't posted about Badoo lately so here are a couple of little stories about what the girl has been up to:
Two Fridays ago I took her to get her hair cut. She was such a good girl, she sat there with no problem and admired her puppy dog cape. The problem came when she was all done. She. did. not. want. to. take. off. that. cape. She was so mad at the hairdresser. She would not even look at her.... Later that day we were talking and she said "Hannah, get a hair cut," and used her fingers as scissors across her bangs. It was so cute. Then she said "I wear puppies..." with a sad expression!
************************************************************************************
We have been talking to her lately about Daddy leaving for Iraq soon. Trying to explain that he won't see her for a long time but he won't forget her etc. We also add that she will be moving to Ohio and will get to see her grandparents, aunts and uncles and play with all her cousins. I think she zones in on that point and forgets about Daddy leaving. The first thing she said to me this morning when I woke her up was "I go to hio Mommy?"
*************************************************************************************
We gave brother some cereal the other night, Hannah of course thought this was such a fun thing to do. She sat next to me as I fed him and watched. I asked her if she wanted to taste it and she exclaimed "NO! I TOO BIG!"

It's not polite to play with your food!

Alexander has learned a new trick....drum roll please. When he is nursing and is almost full he pulls off and makes a raspberry with his mouth....with the milk that is still in there. He thinks that it is so funny and does this over and over again all the while I am getting sprayed in the face with milk. I guess it is never too early to start teaching them manners. I can just see it now, he is sitting in the high school lunch room spraying all the cute girls with milk. The teacher on duty will walk up and say "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with your food boy?" Yeah, we better get on that one! Also, I think that we might have picked the wrong name out for him. He has been growing like a weed lately and already fits into 12 month clothes. So I'm thinking something along the lines of Jolly Green would fit or maybe Andre.

I was reading some old posts the other day and came across one where I was saying what a difficult baby he was. I guess I should update that because he is now the world's happiest baby. I mainly think that it was reflux because at his two month check-up he was put on Zan*tac and that made a world of difference. He is so happy the kid hardly ever cries, seriously it would be easy to forget he was around if it weren't for the squeals and laughter he shares with us. Of course as I'm typing this the voice inside my head is telling me that now I jinxed myself. Oh well, if that happens it will make for some interesting posts.

Apples and Oranges

Lately I have been noticing a couple differences in the personalities of how Hannah was as a baby and how Alexander is. For instance, Hannah loved the paci and used it all the time. In fact we just got her off it a few weeks ago. Alexander on the other hand, rarely uses one because he would rather suck on his fingers. Unfortunately, he hasn't quite figured out how far he can stick them in before gagging himself. Alex laughs so easily, a complete stranger can get a smile from him. Hannah was always a little harder to get laughing, and she would only "belly" laugh for her Daddy. Another difference, loud noises never seemed to bother Hannah, but Alex gets startled easily and then wails. He also shows a little stranger anxiety, but Hannah was always very social. When it came to bedtime, Hannah used to go to sleep easily and would wake up early (as a baby) and Mr. Alex prefers for me to put him to sleep and will sleep most of the morning. Nursing the two has been pretty similar in the fact that they ate supper fuss. The difference, Hannah would fuss a little to cue me in that she was getting hungry. Alex, the barracuda, can get really upset and when I pick him up he starts attacking me to try to get to the food! I'm sure that as they continue to grow there are going to be so many more differences. It is amazing how they are the same, yet different.

Dead Dog Walking

Last night as I was preparing for bed, I glanced over and saw a wet spot on the sheets. What? A wet spot on the sheets....the girl can't get on our bed without assistance so I was at a loss to what the spot was. I called to the hubby and asked him to do the sniff test. Urine he said. Well if it wasn't the girl, me or the hubs, that leaves the dog. Mind you our dog is not aloud on any of the furniture, let alone our bed but what else could it be. The dog peed on our bed. He jumped up there and peed on the bed....thankfully on hubby's side and towards the foot, but still. I was so mad, of course it was like 1:30 when I found it. So we had to clean the spot as best as we could, then we put a towel over it then sheets. At that moment, I no longer wanted a dog. He is just lucky that the hubs was in his corner or he would not be here today. However, if he ever does it again I'm putting my foot down and he is either an outside dog or an adopted dog!

Happy Valentines Day

Two very cute kids wishing all our friends and family a Happy Valentines Day!!

Time flies

Just a little note: I was sitting here thinking about the date and realized that one year ago today the faint pink line popped up on the EPT! I can't believe that it has been a year since then and the little Bubby has been here for four months already!

It's like finding a needle in a haystack

If you walked into my house right now you would see chaos, sheer chaos. I do not know what it is, but since I had the second child I cannot stay on top of the house work. I would be so embarrassed if somebody stopped by right now because that is how messy it is. I must clarify; messy, not dirty because I do manage to keep it clean, you know dusting, sweeping, mopping etc. It's just that I can't keep the "stuff" picked up. I just can't seem to find that balance of playing with the kids and cleaning during the day. Not to mention that I will pick up a room and five minutes later it will be messy again. Mostly from Tater, but also from hubs. OK and a little from me. Regardless, it never fails that when we need something it is nowhere to be found, until we don't need it anymore. Right now hubs is missing his beloved video game and apparently I am the keeper of all things in this house. I should know where this game is because the last time he saw it was in the computer room. Obviously if he would put it back where it belonged it wouldn't be missing, but that is neither here nor there. We tore the entire office/spare bedroom apart last night looking for this stupid game. Do you think we found the game? Nope, and I am tired of hearing him whine about it. So if it is not found by Valentine's Day guess what hubs is getting....the newer version of said game. That takes care of that problem, now if somebody could just send the maid over I would appreciate it.

Four month stats

Today was the dreaded four month check-up. He actually did pretty good with the shots. It was a little cute, in a sad way. He got four shots right in a row, I'm not kidding the nurse who always does our shots is awesome. It's boom, boom, boom, boom done before he really has a chance to realize what is going on. Anyway, back to his cuteness; he gets the first shot and kind of puckers up a little as I am talking to him. He acts as if he is going to smile when the second one goes in. It is then that he takes a huge breath in and just wails. As if to say, I'm ok with one...fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. After the fourth I picked him up and he was fine right away. Of course all day he has been a mamas boy and a little fussy, but not bad. The only problem was that I had a paper due tonight, so it was like pulling teeth to get it done. That is an entire different post, so here are his stats:

Weight: 15 lbs 13 1/4 oz
Height : 26 1/2 inches

He was about 55% for weight and 90% for height. I was a bit surprised because I thought he would be a little bit heavier, I knew he was pretty long because we had to break out some of the 6-9 month clothes. I can't believe that it has been four months already my sweet precious boy!

Changing

Here is Mr. Man at four months, getting bigger every day! He is so alert and loves to interact with Hannah. He is cooing all the time and laughs quite a bit. All it takes is a smile and he smiles right back. He is so ticklish that when I change his clothes he cracks up laughing, especially when I take his shirt off! He is also very grabby, when he plays on his floor mat he loves to reach up and grab the toys. We go for his four month check-up on Monday....uugghh shots, but I can't wait to see how big he has gotten. I'll be sure to post his stats when we get home Monday!

Lil' Miss Priss

Lately Tater has turned into quite the independent girly-girl. Not only does she have to pick out her own clothes, but usually she picks out a dress and her favorite color has become pink. If there is no pink available then purple will do. Along with this new girlness is fingernail polish. Her nails have to have polish on them at all times and can you guess what color? That's right pink. She also loves to have her hair in "pretties" as she calls them. Which if funny because a couple of weeks ago she would not even let me brush her hair! It is pretty cute when she dresses herself, especially her pajamas. She got a bunch of really cute pajamas for Christmas from her Dramma and Drampa Allison. The thing is Hannah does not think that whoever made them knew how to match, so she matches them herself. Pink stripe pants with a purple flowered top or snow signs on the top with pink flowers on the bottom. Like I said it is pretty cute.
On the potty front she is doing really good....except she has not had another successful poopy since the last post. For the most part she has stopped having wet accidents, unless she's busy and either doesn't want to stop what she's doing or just forgets. We have not ventured out with big girl pants on yet. Mainly because there are times right now when she has to potty every five minutes. (I guess she takes after her cousin Anna.) Maybe soon I will build up enough courage to do it. For those of you who have recently went through this (like Aunt Julie) we would appreciate advice on how you managed to leave the house for the first couple of times.


************************************************************************************

The four month changing picture will be posted after the boy wakes up from his nap; along with an update about him.

My little barracuda

I was recently flipping through the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Complete and Authoritative Guide Caring For Your Baby and Young Child Birth to Age 5. I know, I know, I'm a dork, but it has some really good information in it. Plus, I feel guilty reading a real book, when I should be reading my class materials, so this makes for a good bathroom read. Moving on, there was a piece in there about getting to know your baby's feeding patterns and it was comical. Anyone who has ever breastfed should enjoy this and should be able to "label" their child. Apparently it is from Yale University researchers who "playfully" attached names to the eating styles. The book also gave advice on how to deal with each style, but I'm only including the actual style.

"Barracudas get right down to business. As soon as they're put to the breast, they grasp the areola and suck energetically for ten to twenty minutes. They usually become less eager as time goes on.
Excited Ineffectives become frantic at the sight of the breast. In a frenzied cycle they grasp it, lose it and start screaming in frustration. They must be calmed down several times during each feeding.
Procrastinators can't be bothered with nursing until the milk comes in. These babies shouldn't be given bottles of water or formula. Continue to put them to the breast regularly.....
Gourmets or Mouthers insist on playing with the nipple, tasting the milk first and smacking their lips before digging in. If hurried or prodded, they become furious and scream in protest. The best solution is tolerance. After a few minutes of playing, they do settle down and nurse well. Just be sure the lips and gums are on the areaola and not on the nipple.
Resters prefer to nurse for a few minutes, rest a few minutes, and resume nursing. Some fall asleep on the breast, nap for half an hour or so, and then awake ready for dessert. This pattern can be confusing, but these babies cannot be hurried."

So, which type is/was your baby?

The one where all I talk about is poopy

The most amazing thing happened last night. While I was doing my homework, the hubs was in charge of the kids. Amazing right? Just kidding, the amazing thing happened while he was watching them. I heard Hannah exclaiming that she had to go poopy. Unfortunately everything is poopy to her. Anyway, they went running into the bathroom and he put her on the pot gave her some books and walked away. About that time I had finished my homework and went to check on her. As I walked in the bathroom, I noticed she had her game face on so I quietly left. A minute or two passed and I walked back in, she looked up and told me to leave. Apparently she needs her privacy. Anyway, she sat there for probably 10-15 minutes before I was allowed to enter. I looked in the pot and broke into a poopy dance, because there really was poopy in there. She was really excited to flush that one because she got to say bye to the poopy. We then placed two stickers on the potty chart. Two because pooping is definitely worth more then potty. We danced and sang, we called grandma; it was a big old party. Then right before bed she wanted to go again, this time it was just potty but at least she is initiating the bathroom trips now. I say that, except today she did not want to wear big girl underwear, nor did she want to go on the big girl potty. At least we're getting somewhere though.

The Epic Tales of Potty Training

We have been working on potty training with the girl lately, and by we I mean me. She is doing pretty good with the potty. Most of the time when I sit her on it she goes and we have no accidents. However, sometimes she doesn't want to sit on the potty. Usually a little bit later she comes running, "Uh-oh, I potty, I potty!" Meaning that she started to go, felt the wet and stopped herself. Which, is a good step because then she will finish on the potty. It's the stinky that we have problems with. She has yet to go poopy on the potty. Since she usually goes in the evening I thought I would watch her and when she runs off to do her business I would throw her on the potty. So, last night I caught her in the act and we went running to the potty. We made faces to "push out the poopy" and nothing happened. So, I decided we would try reading books. Seriously she sat for like 20 minutes reading and nothing happened. By then it was bedtime and I told her we would try again later. She made a serious face and pushed and I really thought she was going to go. She did go potty, just no poopy:( It was so cute though, when she got up she had the red rings on her booty from sitting there so long!
Uncle Matt would be proud, these are the books she read while trying to go!

So Sweet

Thanks Uncey Matt

Hannah absolutely loves her new Dora couch and big Dora doll. Although Uncle Matt wasn't with us for Christmas, he still got the nieces and nephew typical Uncle Matt gifts. We call them Uncle Matt gifts because they are usually not a typical birthday or Christmas gift. For instance for Hannah's first birthday he got her a wooden picnic table. For her second birthday it was a Dora Big Wheels. Very nice gifts, just Uncle Mattish. Anyway, Hannah likes to lay on her couch and watch her movies in her new Dora T.V. that Mommy and Daddy got her for xmas. Her latest thing is that she has to be covered up with a blanket while watching. It is so cute that we had to capture it on film!

Holidays

We are happily home from our extended trip to Ohio and things are finally settling down around here. We had a wonderful trip and enjoyed spedning time with all of our friends and family...however my children are quite spoiled now! The trip home was, hmmm how should I put it, AWFUL!!! The normal 12.5 hour trip took 16.5 hours!! Which would not have been so bad if it weren't that we were driving two seperate vehicles and I had the children with me for the first 12 hours. See, we decided to buy me a Mom car when we were in Ohio. That's right I now drive a minivan, WOO-HOO! Anyway, the deal was we would keep both children in the minivan and the dog in the car then switch drivers each time we stopped. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and we stopped plenty of times. Alexander still eats every two hours, so by the time I would feed, burp and change him we would have approximately an hour and a half of driving time. Not to mention the times when we would stop for an extended ammount of time then have an even shorter driving window. Then there was the fact that Alex HATES his carseat. So, I got to listen to my fair share of him screaming because he was unhappy. For the most part Hannah did really good, but often when Alex was screaming she would get upset and then start whinning because he was crying. I would call Hubby on the cell just so he could hear what I was going through. The worst part was, when Alex was hungry I would call him to let him know we needed to stop and he would say, as soon as he found someplace....or in the next 20 minutes. Funny thing was when I finally forced him to take over the van, the second Alex started crying he would pull off. Then he was saying how miserable he was because he had to drive them. Oh, poor baby had to ride four hours with crying kids....welcome to my world for the past TWELVE!!!! Oh, I don't want to forget the fact that we drove through some pretty heavy fog in the mountains. So heavy that you could barely see the car in front of you. I already get a little anxious when driving through the mountains, add a little fog and I was a basket case! Did I mention that we were driving on New Years Eve? How's that for smart travel planning? Add all of those ingredients together and that is why it took us an extraordinarily long time to get home. So, even though we left at eight that morning, we were still driving when the ball dropped. In fact we were on a strip of road in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the National Forrest. Happy New Year! I hope that you had a much more peaceful one then I did!

Changing

I can't believe that it has already been three months! He is cooing and laughing so much these days and he loves to play on the floor with his big sister. This little guy is getting sooo big already; just look how much his face is filling out. I just transitioned him into his 3-6 mos clothes the last few weeks of December and I think I should have done it a little earlier. This was the first time he wore the above outfit and he is so long that I don't think he'll be wearing it much longer.