Good Bye 2009, Hello 2010!

Wow this is only my 3rd post of 2009 and the last. In 2 hours it will be January 1st 2010. This year has gone by so fast and so much has happened.

Clay left for the sand box back in Sept and who knows how much longer he will be there. Clay's mom got remarried earlier this year. David has started talking really well and is no longer in speech therapy. Amelia is walking and talking. Thats just a few of the things that have went on in 2009.

I am really looking forward to 2010. Clay will pick up a promotion, reenlist and come home at some point in 2010. David will start playing sports at the YMCA now that he is old enough (he starts Basketball on Jan 5th)

The only problem for me is what to call it. Yeah I know silly but think about it, all my life I have mainly called the year by the last two digits (IE: 1999 was '99) but its sounds kinda strange to say yeah ten is going to be a good year. So I guess I am stuck with twenty-ten or two thousand ten. Yes I am strange, not really a huge surprise I'm sure.

I am also really excited for a few of the goals (resolutions just sounds so cliche). One of them is to eat less fast food. Since Clay has been deployed fast food has been my best friend but it hasn't been kind to my rear end. I figure that by doing this I can also accomplish a few other goals such as loosing weight and cutting some of the fat out of the budget (seeing as I STILL have two kids in diapers). Another goal is to get David out of diapers but thats a whole other story. I also would like keep up with this blog and post a little more regularly.


HappyNewYear

diapers are breaking the bank

Why do they have to be so expensive? With 2 kids in diapers we spend about $100 a month on diapers. I cant wait to get David out of them. Unfortunatly at 2 1/2 he doesnt seem to have to much interest in ditching the diapers. He will get really excited about the potty one day then will not want anything to do with it for a couple weeks. I know its not a huge deal until he is 4 then its considered a delay but my wallet cant handle this strain for too much longer. And dont get me started on the cost of wipes. Not when David keeps pulling them all out of the box and squeezing the liquid out all over the place. I am open to any tips you may have for potty training.

Long time no post!

I havent posted in over a year and a LOT has changed since then. The last time I posted I was pregnant with Amelia who was born on July 16th 2008. She was a healthy full term baby who was 9lbs 12oz at birth and was delivered via c-section. We have decided that she is our last child. She is now crawling and eating finger foods and growing like a weed. she is wearing 12 months and some 18 month clothing. She has 4 teeth and is trying to talk and loves to sing and listen to music. Its so fun to see her personality develop.

We know that Clay will be deploying some time closer to the end of this year but not sure of exactly when. While this isnt our first deployment it will be a whole new ball game with kids involved (for those of you who dont know, Clay and I got married the day before he deployed and he was gone for 6 months).

Clay's mom got remarried a couple of weeks ago and will be having the ceremony and reception at the end of May so we will be heading down to Valdosta,ga for that. And while we are there we are going to take the kids to Wild Adventures.

Our cat Toby had to go live with my parents because he doesnt like the kids. He was never crazy about David and would pee on his stuff every now and then but once Amelia was born he got even worse so we decided to send him to live with grandma and grandpa where he would be a happy kitty with no kids around.

I have started to make cakes. I started with the cake for Davids first birthday and had so much fun that I decided to learn more and keep going.

This is a cake I made for Easter and sent to work with Clay

David also has had to say goodbye to the first of many friends. It was sad but its a part of this military life. I grew up in a college town and many of my friends were there because their parents were students and as soon as they graduated they moved away and it was hard but it taught me the meaning of true friendship and I think it prepaired me for this gypsy lifestyle we lead in the military.

I think that covers all the major events that have happened in the past year.

baby clothes

Ok I know I am not the only parent who has this problem. In order for pants to fit David in the length they are to big in the waist. We have had this problem since he started wearing 12month clothing . Just as the pants start to fit in the waist they become high waters.

why oh why cant they make childrens pants longer? Or at least give you the option of regular or long? This is the reason you will often see my son with out pants on, he has usually crawled or walked right out of them.

I just feel like sharing a few pics with you

This is Clay and I before the ball this year. I love him so much! Even when he makes me mad.

This is my beautiful son, David. This was at christmas time when he got his new big boy bed. He has slept in it ever night since except for the nights we have not been home. He loves his big boy bed and his Matter pillow.

This is Ramsey. He is a Rott/Chow mix but he is also the sweetest most loveable dog ever. He was given to us by a family who was moving to Japan and unable to take him with us. There are days I want to hurt him because he just doesnt know that he is a big dog, im not sure that he even knows he is a dog i think he may think he is a cat. If we let him he would sit in our laps on the couch and he loves to snuggle in bed but we had to kick him out because he is a bed hog. He doesnt mind David beating on him or pulling his hair and once he has had enough of it he just gets up and goes to another spot or another room.

This is Toby. He is our fat kitty. He is about 17 lbs and he is a lover. He always wants attention and loves to cuddle. He was a barn kitten when I got him from a lady that works with my mom. There were 3 other kittens who did not want me to hold them because they were too interested in playing but Toby let me pick him up and was content to sit in my arms and watch his brothers play.

This is bubba. He is our one eyed cat. He had both eyes when I adopted him but he had an upper respitory infection at that time that caused him to develope a cyst on his eye. The vet did everything he could to save Bubba's eye but we ended up having to remove it. He does just fine with out the eye and only occasionaly runs into stuff. Clay calls him creepy kitty because sometime he will just sit there and stair at you.

Well thats it for now. Thanks for lookin.

Only child Syndrome

Yes, I am an only child and there is something that has been nagging at me since I found out I was pregnant with my second child.

How does it work to have a sibling? How do parents manage to handle more than one child? How does having a sibling change you life?

Ok I always wanted an older sibling but never really a younger one but since that would never happen I substitued my cousin Leah who was three years older than me for that job. But I didnt see her all that often since we lived in neihboring cities and went to different schools. When I got older it always drove me crazy when my friends with siblings would fight with their brother(s) or sister(s) because i just couldnt understand how they could fight like that.

I always said I would never have more than one child since i turned out fine and never really felt I was deprived of anything. I was spoiled by love and had my parents undivided attention. But when I married my husband who has a sister who is 9 years older I agreed to THINK about having more than one. As time went on we agreed on two children but that thought scared the CRAP out of me (and still does). I had an IUD placed when my son was about 2 months old so that we wouldnt have any accidents before we were ready. I wanted to loose some weight so that hopefully I would not have the same complications that I did with David (Gestational Diabetes and Pre Eclampsia) and we wanted to save up a little money for a down payment on a mini van. Well in december I went to the Dietitian at the Naval Hospital here in Beaufort and she asked me when my last period was and I had to think about it because... well gosh I havent had once since around the 6th or so of OCTOBER. So I stopped at the dollar tree on my way home from that appointment and grabbed two tests and took one as soon as i got home but surely it couldnt come out positive because I was using a 99.9% effective form of birth control right? WRONG!!!!! It turned positive instantly so the next morning I took the other one which again was an instant positive. So we got some snacks and a couple of toys for David and headed over to the hospital to have some tests done. The results came back that I was 8 weeks and 5 days pregnant so they did an ultrasound but couldnt see the IUD so they send me for an MRI which also showed no signs of the IUD so it is assumed that it came out on its own and I didnt even notice (they are tiny and really flexable). So I am now 15 weeks into this pregnancy with baby number 2 (Hoping for a Girl!!!).

So back to my quesions. What am I going to do with 2 children. A toddler and a newborn at that? My son is an attention hog and though he will go to sleep at night on his own he still makes you laydown with him while he falls asleep for naps. And now we live in a two story house so how am i going to carry a baby and a toddler up and down the stairs that I have a hard time going up and down on my own (i have bad knees)? David can crawl up on his own but then he takes off in what ever directions he chooses (usually to chase a kitty) but he cant go down yet and I dont think he will be able to go down by then either.

Also if they both have a function on the same day at different places how do you decide who goes to which one? How do you make sure that all toys, food, and any other activities are even? How do you deal with the sibling rivalry?


Would someone please help me?

Happy birthday Babe!

Today is my wonderful hubby's birthday. He is 24 today. I didnt get to spend much time with him this morning since he left at 6:30 to go to the gym and I deffinatly was NOT ready to wake up yet even though David thought it was time to drink his milk and watch tv while propped up againest mommy (this works out well for me since it lets me sleep a little longer).

I guess I will tell you a little about my husband. His name is Clay and he was born and raised in Valdosta,Ga and joind the Marine Corps right out of high school. He didnt really know what he wanted to do with his life and the Marine Recruter just happend to get to him first. That was 5 1/2 years ago. When we first got married he was going to get out of the Corps once his contract was up but while we were pregnant with David we decided that it would be really hard to trasition back into civilian life with a 9 month old so we he should reenlist and since by the time the next contract was up he would have around 9 years in so why not just keep going until retirement. And once our son was born prematurely and all the bills were taken care of and the medical paperwork was all taken care of for us and his command let him take the time he needed to be with me while I was hospitalized and then with David when he was transfered to the closest NICU 50 miles away in Palms Springs,Ca, We decided that the military life was indeed for us.