Blessings of the day…

Baby George and the Dino Hat Baby Blue Eyes sent him!

This morning, I’ve been sitting here crying. It may be because pregnancy hormones have gotten the best of me, but I know it’s because Baby George is cured! Yesterday his family had the amazing blessing to receive news that the bone marrow transplant had finally engrafted. No more Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome! No more bone marrow transplants, no more pain, and no more heartache watching him in pain and knowing there is nothing you can do. Amy and her family have a beautiful healthy boy. It will take a while for him to be completely healthy and normal, but it’s not just a faint hope anymore, it’s a future reality. I couldn’t be any happier for my friend, and then she posts this amazing picture of her little man wearing the Dinosaur hat we sent when he started to loose his hair. You can always follow George’s amazing recovery on Amy’s blog.

As if that wasn’t enough great news yesterday, I clocked out of school for the last time. As with all things that come with an end I’m in a little bit of shock. I’ve been going to school three plus days a week for over a year. I still feel like I have so much to learn. 1600 hours drags on forever and at the same time it flies by. For th most part, I feel comfortable with cuts, styles and waxes. I don’t mind color, although I get a little nervous when it comes to three or four colors, or trying to even out multicolored hair. State Board testing is just around the corner and even though I’m finished with school, I will set up a nice little spot here at home to practice and study. Speaking of which, my friend from school, E. Passed her test last night, as I was finishing up my time! I’m so excited for her, she really didn’t have time to wonder if she would pass, in the next couple of months she’s got a big wedding and a move coming. Now with her license off her mind, she’ll be able to concentrate on the wedding and move.

Last night I went looking for something and Blue Eyes got into my purse. Usually it’s just a nuisance, but yesterday he happened to find a pen. If there’s paper around, we can usually avoid a disaster, but like I said I was searching for something and didn’t notice the pen. By the time I got back, Blue Eyes had turned himself into living artwork. Thank goodness it’s usually easy to get off of him.

Blue Eyes becomes Living Artwork

Blue Eyes woke me up super early just to play in a box and watch tv. He loves the box forts daddy set up in the living room. I love that he crawls out of the box when there is music and sits there wiggling his little butt to dance. My little string bean has some rhythm. That definitely came from my side of the family because daddy can’t dance. Thank goodness he is such a morning person, I was not ready to wake up, and he’s been entertaining himself all morning.

My final great news yesterday was when I walked in the door. Hubby had the day off and had cleaned up almost every room in the house. They weren’t spotless, which is virtually impossible with our wild boy, but they were cleaner than they have been in a while. You could see a couple areas where he had cleaned and little fingers had followed behind tearing things back up. It was so great to see all of my hubby’s hard work. He did a lot of cleaning that’s been driving me crazy, but I haven’t been able to do. Including pick stuff off the floor that I’m having a hard time reaching these days! Then to wrap up a great day, hubby went and got pizza while we watched one of our favorite tv series. Even Blue Eyes approved of the pizza.

Blue Eyes eating Pizza

Good morning world…

The world is waking up. A few short hours ago it was pitch black. I should be grateful for another day, but I am not a morning person. So here I sit, bleary eyed and dreading the moment I have to wake Blue Eyes up for another day. This is one of those mornings I wish I still drank coffee. I quit drinking it a couple years ago, when they weren’t sure what was causing my migraines. That and I hate watching that beautiful dark liquid be poured down the drain yet again because I’m the only one drinking it.

The dumb dogs decided that 3 am was an expectable time to get up and want to play. It’s a last straw for me, they woke the whole house up, minus BIL who sleeps in the room with them! So the puppies will revert back to kenneling at night. I would feel bad, but Bear actually loves his kennel, and Gamble is learning to tolerate it. But in this case, they did it to themselves. 3 am is not okay to wake up. Especially since they woke Blue Eyes up. He was not in the best of moods. He refused to go back to sleep. Hubby tried cuddling with him, and that didn’t work. So we tried letting him cuddle with mommy… that didn’t work either. We changed the diaper and made a bottle (yes I caved). Then we dug around the dryer for his freshly cleaned blankie, and I even got into the crib and found his light up bear. Nothing worked until about 5 am. At that point mommy was having Braxton Hicks again, and was hungry.

I tried getting a snack and curling up back in bed, but the sweet spot of sleep was gone. Little miss decided to start kicking on top of the Braxton Hicks. So we got up. Like many people, I can be addicted to facebook games and pintrest. Even those haven’t held my attention this morning. I’d love to go back to sleep, but I can hear my alarm in the other room informing me that it’s time to wake up. I’ll give Blue Eyes a few more minutes of sleep and then it’s off we go to start our day. I promise to pull out the camera sometime this week. It’s been a couple days since I followed Blue Eyes around with the camera. The last day or two he’s practically lived in the cardboard box we put blankies in. He even tried to take his nap in there yesterday. I’ll never know what kids see in boxes, but if he’s happy, I’m happy.

The Mommy who Cried Labor…..

As the time draws close, I feel like a new mommy again. I can’t remember the hiccups and pains that I swore I’d never forget. Blue Eyes was by definition an easy pregnancy. The biggest problem I had with him was that I had a hip pop out of place and nobody told me I could have a chiropractor put it back into place. So for the last trimester, walking was extremely painful, but having puppies and a hubby who worked at night, I walked through the pain. Little Miss is different though, I have a ton more of those annoying Braxton Hicks. Sometimes I can time it down to where I start to think “uh oh, this might be it.” But as soon as I go to call my hubby or wake him up, or whatever, next thing I know they have disappeared again. Talk about feeling like the boy who called wolf, or in my case the mommy who cried labor.

I find myself panicking at the things that need to be done still. I have a babysitter for Blue Eyes, at least until my family can come…. and I have a couple friends I know who would be willing to be backup, but I’m still nervous. Blue Eyes has never spent a full night away. I know he loves the people who offered to watch him, but what about bedtime? Or not really bed time, it’s more of the waking up in the morning. He did well with my little sister, Bing; but Bing has a similar temperament and personality to me. Plus we look a lot alike. Once he realized she was good he spent weeks looking for her after she went back home.

My house is a disaster zone. Between hubby trying to finish his school, and me trying to finish mine, nobody ever has time for basic cleanup. We struggle to even get the dishes done some days. It’s starting to bother both of us. I did manage to get most of the clean clothes folded today. A major improvement from the laundry basket they’ve been living in. The puppies got their summer haircuts and BIL is back from seeing his son. SO I really shouldn’t be worried right? Well there’s still a dozen things on my mind.

I need Hubby to re-stain the dresser in the garage so I can get little miss’s clothes organized. Thank goodness for a sister with a little girl. I haven’t had to buy any clothes unless I just couldn’t resist. Blue Eyes needs the too small clothes removed from his closet yet again. I swear he’s growing too fast, he’s already over 32 inches tall! But he’s so skinny we have to get those pants with the draw elastic in them. SO out go his clothes. I need a nice big container for those. Hubby isn’t ready to get rid of them yet because we are undecided on how many kids we actually want.

Oh and that mommy hospital bag? I have to laugh at the idea. I read post after post, and blog after blog on what I would need. Yeah, I ended up sending hubby home a couple times to take things that were pointless and get things we needed. I remember being grateful for my own shampoo, my own pillow, and a blanket since our hospital is always freezing. He also had to bring me a baggy pair of sweats and a hairbrush. Anything else, forget it. I don’t care that my newborn pictures look like hell. It’s my little family, and I could care less what others think.
This time we have been looking at a “big brother” present that’s “from the baby”. People keep telling me to get him a baby so he has his own to copy mommy, but I’m not sure if that’s how we’re going to go. I have no problem with him having a baby, but he likes stuffed animals a lot, and he loves books. I’m thinking maybe just a couple of his favorites and then food. lol our little boy sure loves food. Anyone have ideas on what works with introducing a new sister to that young of a baby? Blue Eyes will be just over a year and a half when his little sister arrives.

Puppies, Haircuts and Mommy’s Day

I can’t believe this was just a year ago

It’s been hot here. I mean like summer hot. Then again, we never really get a spring or fall, so I’m not surprised. Poor Blue Eyes discovered that if you walk on the patio in bare feet, it will hurt. I felt so bad because I had the water on and I was trying to cool down the area he was playing, but I wasn’t quick enough. After he cried, I put him inside and hubby helped me gather all the dogs. As mean as I feel doing it, It was haircut day yesterday. Blackjack loves it. He lays down and enjoys cooling down while he gets pet. The only part he doesn’t like is around the legs and tail. So we just trim him up and skip the rest. Gamble was so curious and kept getting his nose in the way. So once Blackjack wandered off, he willingly took Blackjack’s spot for a turn. He didn’t do too bad. I was surprised because they weren’t around last summer. Gamble doesn’t have very thick fur, so it only took a couple of minutes to get his undercoat done. Bear wasn’t too bad either. As long as one of us sat there petting his face and telling him he was such a good boy, he didn’t move a whole lot. He did get antsy at first, but can you really blame him? With all our overheating black puppies done, it was time for Domino. Domino is my little lion. He has thick fur and hates getting a hair cut. It’s hard to do a decent job for him. We have to pin him between us and the house and then one person pets and loves on him, while the other person cuts. For all of Domino’s amazing golden colors, his undercoat is almost pure white. So he always looks so funny with a haircut. Pure white body with a golden head and tail. I say give it two weeks and they won’t look so funny. But at least they won’t overheat now. And we never cut it so short that they get sunburnt.

Instead of a sweet mommy’s day boy, I got my little monster. He woke me up by climbing on top of me and bouncing. He then proceeded to run around the house screaming, snuck outside before I could get the door shut. Put all of his toys behind the Aloe plant, which daddy is allergic to, so mommy gets to save the toys. Then while I’m getting the toys, he sneaks inside to throw dog food everywhere and proceed to eat it, even though he knows better. I gave him a waffle, but he decided it was a great thing to share with Domino. I went to let the puppies out and he sneaks into mommy’s room and proceeds to play with the toilet plunger (thank god it’s new) and run around screaming again. All of this in two and a half hours!

Happy Mother’s day to all of you wonderful mothers out there…. hopefully your little monsters are being sweet today. :0)

Let’s play catch….

Blue Eyes loves boxes

Last night Blue Eyes played in mommy’s box from her school supplies. What is it about all boxes that kids love? I wish I could go back and look at it through their eyes so I can be relearn the wonder. Mommy folded in the sides and put little man’s favorite blankie and a sippy cup in the box and he spent all evening climbing in and out of it and watching Mickey. Surprisingly he went to bed fairly early, even with double naps.

Now Blue Eyes is unraveling balls of yarn all over the living room. I shouldn’t be surprised, I keep a small basket next to the couch with smaller balls of yarn that I’ve been working with. What could be more natural than a 16 month old throwing those tempting colorful balls in all directions. What’s better than watching the colors mesh and intermingle until mommy is pulling out her hair trying to untangle them?
Somehow he knows my frustration and tries to come cuddle with me. That’s when I notice the smell….. it’s an odd mixture of dirt and daddy’s deodorant. A quick scan of the room shows me what I already figured, the dogs had let themselves out again, and he’d gone out with them. But what I couldn’t see is the daddy smell. Which means it could be hidden anywhere. Now there’s the choice, do I continue trying to untangle my balls of yarn, or do I try to find the missing deodorant? I’m thinking for now, the deodorant can stay hidden, I want to get this yarn up and out of sight.

He was super tired all day yesterday. I think part of that is because we were at the hospital for mommy the night before. It wore him out. He took two naps and both were over 2 hours long. I’m really hoping that means he will be super happy and ready for the babysitter today. Just in case, I’m going to find his, “I’m crabby but cute” shirt. I already founds socks and pants, let’s hope I don’t forget to bring the socks. Little miss thing is already kicking up a storm. It’s a little early but at least I know she’s doing well in there. Anyone have any tips on getting her to stop kicking my hips? I wouldn’t normally mind, but she seems to get lower and lower and I have seven weeks left!

To blog or not to blog….

Daily Prompt:
Give your newer sisters and brothers-in-WordPress one piece of advice based on your experiences blogging.
If you’re a new blogger, what’s one question you’d like to ask other bloggers?

I don’t normally post twice in one day, unless it’s some adorable picture of my son that I can’t help but share…. and I haven’t done a Daily prompt in a while. Mostly because I don’t always have time, or the knowledge to write about the topic. But today’s topic seemed to sink home a little. Especially since my younger sister asked me a similar question this week.

Truthfully, I’m considered a new blogger. I’ve been writing online for less than a year, and I have under 60 viewers, but it seems that I’ve always been a writer. It’s a way to say what you can’t always put into words, and sometimes you can add pictures to help your point along a little.
To me a blog has always been just that. I live in a changing world. I went from a military member, to a military wife, to a mommy and student, with another little one on the way. Life changes too fast.

If you’re going to write be sincere. I may not always have the best content, or the best writing skills, but what I lack in the writing area, you can see in my honesty. I write about what matters to me. Sometimes that’s just my little boy making mud pies and sometimes it’s issues like my grandmother’s breast cancer or my friend’s baby being diagnosed with WAS. (follow her struggles with bone marrow transplants here www.wasgeorge.wordpress.com)

Any way you look at it, I write about what affects me. If it entertains, touches or affects someone else, it makes me happy. I like adding pictures for family that lives a little far away, or to show the world through my view but that’s just a bonus. Maybe I can help someone where nobody else can. Maybe I can crack a smile that’s been missing for just a little too long, or maybe just hearing about dealing with deployments lets you see how hard our military work. But in everything, I stay sincere.

Migraines in Pregnancy.

Sleepy Blue Eyes playing with Uncle’s Shoes

Had another migraine last night. You’d think I’d be used to them by now. It seems like it’s always worse when pregnant though. They monitor little miss thing, which I’m grateful for; but they also wait almost a full hour before they’ll do anything about my migraine. Being as I already took what I could at home, and my head is still pounding, it’s rough to sit there and know you won’t have help for another hour. The good news is little miss has a strong heartbeat and the contractions were just practice ones.
My normal doc was on call last night, so thankfully I didn’t have to fight to get help. He knows my history with migraines. They tried one med and I ended up getting sick and it didn’t do anything. Almost four hours later they were able to figure out that the maternity ward couldn’t get the meds I needed and I had to go downstairs to intensive care. Blue Eyes thought the wheel chair was the greatest thing in the whole world. Thank goodness he was so good. He just played with his chickies with daddy, ate goldfish and watched Cinderella. When they finally got me the right meds, they made sure my headache was on the downside before letting me go.
I really don’t understand why everyone is so scared to treat pregnancy migraines. Especially when I have a history of them, and there is a list of approved treatments in my record. It always takes several hours, but at least they do eventually treat them. I’m looking forward to trying something new after pregnancy. I’ve tried several different preventatives, but unfortunately I’m one of those people who can get a side-effect that makes it so I can’t continue taking the meds. I’ve heard that acupuncture, the chiropractor and botox have all become major break throughs in treatment for migraines. I know they aren’t necessarily traditional methods, but I’m at the point where I’m willing to try. There has to be something healthier than medications and living with constant headaches. I do know that while I was on Herbalife for weight loss, I found that the multi-vitamins helped a lot. I’m not sure what makes them different from other vitamins, but I may have to try it again, see if it really helps. I just didn’t want to risk health while pregnant.
Like I said before, Blue Eyes was a champ. He ran around with daddy in his Dino Hat and made the ladies melt. They loved his little hat and that he ran around roaring. Blue Eyes was even nice enough to come cuddle with me this morning instead of insisting I get up at an early hour. When he did finally wake up, he poked mommies belly and giggled like crazy. His new favorite toy is BIL’s new shoes. He loves to put them on and try to walk around. He’ll tell me bye and head to the door like he thinks he’s going somewhere.
On a happy note? The asthma/allergy doctor finally got approval for a home breathing treatment for Blue Eyes. They should deliver it sometime today. That means I have other options beside midnight runs to the hospital because he’s struggling to breathe. I’m excited to see how this thing works and hopefully it will really help little man. He’s been doing pretty good lately, but I think that’s partly because the weather cooled off (shockingly) and the allergy levels have been at 6.9 instead of 10.2. I never thought I’d have to monitor allergy levels so closely, but if it’s above an 8 I don’t even dare let the cool breeze in. We use air filters and air conditioning. And little man gets kept inside.

Blue Eyes discovers Mud Pies

During the day BIL accidently left the back door open after the lawn got watered. It wasn’t a big deal, until Blue Eyes discovered this fact. It got awful quiet, really quick. I looked down for two seconds and looked back up just in time to see Blue Eyes putting muddy hand prints on my leg. Yay for boys! He ran quickly back outside and since he was already covered in mud, I thought I wouldn’t miss the opportunity for a photo op. I ducked back inside and grabbed my camera, making sure my little monster didn’t follow me in. So here is my lovely blue eyes enjoying every moment of the wonderful mud.

what is this gooey stuff?

running, running, running…. keep those little feet running

This isn’t pie….

Domino could care less that Blue Eyes is covered in mud

Hey this stuff feels squishy!

Water!

Hey something’s missing

What gets dirty, must get clean

All clean again

Dinosaurs and Homecoming!

Dinosaur hats for our little girls homecoming.

dinosaurs spikes

With Blue Eyes I didn’t realize that when babies come home from the hospital, you can’t even see their outfit. We let him wear the hospital hat and didn’t even realize I would never get a picture of his adorable little outfit. A year and half later, I can’t remember what he was wearing. Makes me very sad. So I decided this time, I was going to do something special for both kiddos. I made Blue Eyes a little dinosaur hat by putting together three different patterns for baby hats. It turned out so cute that I made a baby sized one for our little girl. So when we come from home from the hospital I can get pictures of Mr. Blue Eyes and his baby sister in cute little hats. I hope you guys like how they turned out. I used my childhood toys to get the spike positioning back.

This just makes me giggle

I read a sad military spouse article….

It’s not often I feel like I have to defend myself as a military spouse. I served my country too. I put on combat boots every morning, and spent more than 2.5 years of my marriage praying I’d see my spouse for a day or two in four/five months. I’ve cried in front of my command when they asked how I was doing, and I had to admit, I didn’t know where my husband was or if he was even alive. We would go to sea back to back for months and my husband was never sent to the same ship twice. I’d go weeks without an email and months without hearing his voice. No, I don’t often have to defend myself. But I read a recent article and it did touch my heart that some women have to deal with more than I do. I’ve been in combat boots and in heels waiting for a ship to pull into port. I’ve learned that my “free” medical which we have to pay monthly for, doesn’t always help when my child is struggling to breathe. That Skype is a blessing, not a right, and not often allowed. That shopping on base sometimes means they jack up the prices and even struggling to push a full cart with a baby, I’m expected to tip the bagger who doesn’t receive a paycheck. That spouses groups on base don’t always receive information either. We go months wondering what day our loved ones will pull in, only to find out they’ve been extended two more months. I’ve learned that sometimes sitting on the shore is harder than being away. At least when I was away I could pretend the ship was my whole life, that I didn’t have an empty chair at dinner and that there would be no warm body in bed (well my lab tried to fill that spot).

Sometimes it’s hard for me to relate to non-military. They make plans weeks and months in advance. Our plans always are contingent on if he’s in port, or if he doesn’t have to go somewhere. If there isn’t a broken plane or an inspection, or he’s on the same schedule he was yesterday. I don’t mind, you wonderful ladies in my life keep making plans! I’ll join you if I can, but I don’t always count on it.

This is the article that made me sad. I don’t often have to defend my choices. I choose to be married to military. I choose to support my spouse.

http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2013/04/military-dependents-are-a-suck-on-society.html