Kids, Clothes, and Hair

Foster is officially crawling now. I can't leave him alone for one minute. He's into everything. At least he is still interested in baby toys, but he also fancies anything with straps. Bailey is a good sport about keeping him entertained and Foster squeals with delight every time she talks to him. Foster has always been easy to keep happy. There isn't much he doesn't like. Except maybe food. He doesn't hate it but he's not crazy about it either. Baby food does not keep his interest and it can be frustrating to feed him, but at the same time he could care less if we skip his meals, so that's okay with me. I'm not worried because he's still growing like crazy. Not even 7 months old yet and he's in 9 month old clothes. Jeremy and I are having so much fun with Foster that we practically fight over his attention. I encourage the "boy-time" as much as possible though. We just got the bad news that Jeremy is deploying again for 6 months in September. Foster will have to get to know him again when Jeremy gets back. I'm sure the separation will be hard on Bailey but I'm hopeful that we will be able to see Jeremy through Skype on a regular basis.

With this news I can at least plan what I'm going to be doing for the next year. I know we will be here for another year so we don't have to sell the house yet. I've got to start looking for pre-schools for Bailey. I can't believe she'll be 4 years old this summer. I should be getting my abdominal surgery this summer if all works out. Then I'd like to go back to work part-time after Jeremy leaves. Those are the big plans. We also have Ricci's wedding to go to in June where I'll be a bridesmaid and Bailey is the flower girl. We are so excited! Bailey tried on a flower girl dress today and completely fell in love with it. We didn't buy it so I had to bribe her with ice cream in order to leave before the meltdown got out of control. Ice cream beats dress... for today. I just love shopping for kids clothes. I get most of their clothes second-hand. I paid $24 for 3 shirts, two shorts, and one skirt. They grow out of clothes much faster than they wear out so why pay full price for new. I feel the same way about my own clothes. Half of my wardrobe is from Goodwill. My size and shape has changed so often over the last five years that it would be a waste if I bought new clothes in four different sizes to only wear them for a few months at a time. Plus this way I can change my look more often. Just like I've been changing my hair color. Bailey said to me, "Mommy, your hair is silly." It made me smile. Then she said to me a few weeks later, "Mommy, I want pink hair." All in good time sweetie. You'll have your day too.

Make me Gag!

Gag! It finally happened. I always knew this day would come. I've heard all the stories. Jeremy and his little sister. It happened to some friend's of mine. Today it happened to me. Foster loves to hang upside down and be swung in the air. Today I was doing just that and getting my daily arm exercises in, when Foster so suddenly pukes into my open smiling mouth. Warm, acidy, soy-milk formula in my mouth and down my neck. Uck! I grab a rag and spit. I then put my laughing, smiling baby down as I gag and try my hardest not to throw up from the lingering taste and smell. Quickly I pick up my coffee and take huge swigs to wash away the disgusting pukness that is overwhelming me. Okay, it's gone now. Time to change. Foster, I'll get you back one of these days!

Christmas 2009: Powered by Coffee

Well now that the craziness of the holidays are over it's time to find our routine again. I can now get back to my blog and update on the household happenings. Thanksgiving and Christmas were a big success. I say that like we were putting on a major production and that is exactly what it was. But I love it. I love the menu planning, the activity scheduling, the decorating, and of course the entertaining. Bailey makes it all the more exciting too. She LOVES Christmas, and takes every opportunity to tell you how much she loves it. When we got the Christmas tree (three weeks before Christmas) she hugged the tree and said "I love you tree." For a whole month I had to explain to Bailey that it wasn't Christmas yet. She got to visit Santa for the first time at the mall and I have to say I'm glad I didn't take her before. We had to wait in line for a long time, and pay $17.00 for two little pictures (this being the cheapest available). She wouldn't have cared or even understood the hype before. But now she totally gets it and all the traditions that go along with the holidays.

This year we had Erik and Kristy bring the boys over for Christmas and my mom was able to make it by dinner. For a few hours Aunt Pat even made it up before Christmas to finally see our house. We had already spent Thanksgiving at her place in Tallahassee where we ate lots, drank lots, and crashed hard. We had to cram the whole holiday into one day. It was Thanksgiving on steroids. But it was nice to have my mom and Aunt Pat around to hold the babies. Christmas was a little more drawn out. Jeremy set the scene with the ashy foot steps coming out of the fireplace. Once again the kids were overwhelmed with gifts, goodies, and lots of wrapping paper. It's all worth it though and it's just one of those few times of the year where we just let them go at their own crazy and sometimes testy pace. The babies were fighting colds and teething so there was plenty of fussiness to go around. The kids wouldn't let us sleep much so coffee was our main life force. I think the whole month of December could have been sponsored by coffee brands in our household. But the babies are only babies for so long. Hopefully they will sleep better next year. Nick was already crawling but frustrated with his lack of being able to go where ever he wanted; mainly to floor cords for chewing on. Foster isn't quite crawling yet but he does scoot or roll to get to where he wants. Two little teeth have popped up on the bottom front and he is eating a little solids but I think more for fun than for necessity. It was a princess year for Bailey and a dress-up theme for both her and Xander. I made them matching capes and added the necessary accessories for superhero/knight/fairy/princess -hood. The kids played well but we did have to separate them for down time every now and then because they'd get on each other's nerves. We did have one little scare with Xander. He was napping in Bailey's room when we heard some gagging noises. At first we thought it was from all his nose drainage but further investigation revealed that he possibly swallowed a plastic play earring of Bailey's. One half was wet on the floor, the other half missing. He may have thought it was candy since it was pretty dark in the room. We never did get the story from him so the mystery remains, but it doesn't matter, we are just happy Xander is fine.

I have to thank all our friends and family for their gifts. Everyone was so right-on with the choices. Bailey got everything she wanted except snow. I got enough great reads to last me all year. Erik and Kristy's gift to us was a night out without the kids, and boy did we need it! We went to see the new movie Avatar, which was one of the best movies I'd ever seen. It's hard to go on dates when babysitters are so expensive on top of going out prices. Jeremy's gift to me was a Karaoke Wii game with microphone, which has been entertaining the whole family and our friends since. I also got a mountain bike which will be very useful for me to shed the holiday pounds, as soon as the weather gets above freezing. My favorite gift from Jeremy is the two weeks of time he took off from work to spend with us.

Now Jeremy is back at work, Bailey is ready to go back to play-school, and I'm ready for her to go back too. I'm also ready to loose some weight. Now that Foster is almost 6 months old, I can get him flu shots and take him to the gym with me. I'm also looking into getting a part-time job at the base since Foster will be old enough for childcare. My plan for this spring is to:

Loose at least 10 lbs.

Get Bailey into Swim Lessons again

Get Bailey into Dance or Tumbling

Run a 5k and maybe a 10K

Get a part-time job if we don't get orders first

Make a visit to Destin

Eat more veggies and less sweets

Drink less Beer (damn you Jeremy and your homemade brew)

Don't take myself so seriously

Have more adventures!

I'm also working on the family DVD with all the little videos we took all year. I hope to be done by the end of this week. Then I can finally get those out to our family along with the Christmas cards. Yeah! So much to do and with the baby's needs growing, it's only going to get busier. Now, where's my coffee?