Seeing Santa

Although we have been doing this military gig for awhile, this was the first time we attended the squadron Kids Christmas Party. Hailey is completely enthralled with Santa this year, and pretty much believes whatever I tell her about him. She was so excited to see him, and once her arrived all she wanted to do was sit and look at him and wait for it to be her turn.
Of course she wanted her face painted

Having a snack and watching Santa. She patiently sat there for over 30 minutes waiting for her turn.
Aubrey's first Santa Encounter
Me and my Big Girl

That same day we were invited to a birthday party. It was our good friend's Candie & Matt's youngest daughter's birthday. Hailey loves going to their house - which is good because Candie has saved me many times when I needed someone to watch the girls, and she also watched Hailey when we were in the hospital with Aubrey, and watched Hailey while Jon, Aubrey and I flew to Florida to look for a house last weekend.

Hailey's favorite thing to do at Candie's house is to play dress up, which what she did immediately after we arrived. Eventually she put her clothes back on, and a little after that I realized her jeans were on backwards. Haha!

Hailey and Trinity - and yes Hailey is in the Birthday Girl Chair...overall she was very well behaved at the party and let Trinity open all her own presents.

Aubrey is supposed to be taking a nap. She doesn't like napping.

Thanksgiving Adventure (yes, I am aware that it is almost Christmas)

Our impending move to Florida required us to change our holiday plans. We finally went to Washington DC to visit Jon's brother - Uncle Chris - and his wife - Crazy Aunt Ruth. Sadly they have lived just three hours away the entire time that we have lived in Virginia, and this was the first time we went there to see them.

I got the bright idea that we should see the sights of Washington DC while we were there. In general, I have a short attention span and low tolerance for museums and monuments, and therefore, in retrospect, I have no idea why I thought this would be fun. Jon loves that kind of thing, and Hailey usually enjoys going anywhere. I told Jon to pick one museum because I knew I wouldn't make it through any more than that. He chose the Museum of Natural History. Approximately 5 minutes into our museum tour Hailey started asking where the door was...and if we were done yet..and if we were heading towards the outside. It was very amusing for me. Aubrey promptly fell asleep, and Jon kept trying to get Hailey interested, but the only thing she was interested in was the gift shop and finding the door to the outside.

When we walked out the door (finally) she spotted the carousel and was very excited to go see that!
Then Jon wanted to walk all the way to the capitol building...and after a little bit I convinced him that we could probably take a picture of it and the Washinton Monument from right where we were. So we did, and THEN he made us all go to the Air and Space Museum, even though I had told him he only got to choose one museum and it was not my fault that he chose poorly and made us go to the most boring musem EVER.

Begrudgingly, I went to that museum too, and like the good little Daddy's Girl that Hailey is, she thoroughly enjoyed the "airplane museum".

Aubrey and I hung out on a bench and had a bottle...

After the museum adventure we went to Uncle Chris's house and then out to dinner with them. Hailey was exhausted at this point and had a complete and total meltdown and probably scared Crazy Aunt Ruth from having children ever - although it was actually her who got her to calm down and act normal for the duration of the meal.

The next morning we went to Ruth's mom's house to celebrate Turkey Day and Nana and Papa drove down and were there too.

Here is Nana and my smiley happy baby in her super cute dress that some nice Etsy person made me.

My Cuties

Crazy Aunt Ruth, Uncle Chris and their two favorite nieces

The Calm

I can't believe that I have not posted a blog in so long - but that shows you how busy we have been! These pictures are from mid-November, which is when I was still approaching our impending move with some sort of calm. In the picture above you see my laid back little baby chilling in her new high chair...she thinks her feet belong on the table. She loves being in her high chair and sits there when we are eating dinner - she feels like she is one of the big people.



The pictures below are of Aubrey's first experience with cereal. Even though she is smiling, it did not go well. She pretty much hated it and gagged the minute it touched her lips. We let Hailey try to give her a bite so that she would feel included - and I hoped it would help get Aubrey to try it. Generally she loves anything that comes from Hailey, but she REALLY does not like cereal. As it has taken me so long to post these pictures, I can now tell you that she is doing much better with eating. We started mixing a little bit of fruit with her cereal and she liked that much better. She is still way more difficult to feed than Hailey ever was, but she improves every day. She likes to put her hands in her mouth as she takes a bite, so eating time is often followed with a bath because she is covered in whatever she is supposed to be consuming.

Back in November, when we were still calm, we took Hailey bowling for the first time. The bowling alley on the base is very nice and kid friendly. Hailey loved bowling, and I liked bowling much better when I got to use the bumper lanes with her!
She has such an independent and competitive spirit. She wanted to do everything on her own, and really didn't want to use the pink ramp thing. After awhile she realized that using the ramp helped her "win better" so she used it. She is so much like her father it scares me...

Drippy Halloween

The week of Halloween was hectic for us, to say the least. My beloved husband volunteered himself to go to Las Vegas for the week to fly with a squadron there so that he could get some more flying time. Being the understanding pilots wife that I am, I told him that I thought that was a fantastic idea and that I understand that we all need to support the mission. (sarcasm…drip…drip…drip)

Oh, I forgot the part where the Friday before he left on that trip he came home from work and told me that we are moving. Surprise! You might ask, shouldn’t we have been expecting a new assignment? And the answer is yes, it is about that time and we would have been, except that we thought we were all staying at Langley for a bit longer. And I certainly was not expecting a report date of Feb 01 (which, when we got his paperwork earlier this week we discovered is actually Feb 10). And I also wasn’t expecting to be returning to Tyndall AFB, FL for a third time.

Now that some time has passed and we have thought about it, and talked, and formulated a plan, we are excited. I think it is a very good fit for Jon – he is going to be a great instructor – now he will have people that are REQUIRED to listen to him talk about jets. When we move I am going to retire, and start my second career attempt at Stay At Home Mom. I am very excited for that change – as I have come to the profound realization that TWO children are twice the amount of work as one. I feel like I am running a marathon that has no end most of the time – and there are certainly not enough hours in the day/week for me to do everything that needs done, not to mention the things I would like to do. Plus I have to support the mission…drip…drip…

But anyway, more on our upcoming move later when we actually know something.
Back to Halloween! Hailey had a party at preschool and I left work early so that I could be there with her. She is such a good girl at preschool and I love watching her in that environment. Her teacher says she is her little helper – she tells all the kids what to do and when. She loves being the “line leader” and was chosen to be the line leader on party day which meant she got to lead the costume parade. I took video, but can’t figure out how to post it.

The back of her costume
Her class picture

My cute Butterfly (no I did not make her costume - some nice person with an Etsy website made it for me)

Right before Trick-or-Treating

We spent most of Halloween day rushing around trying to get our house in order so we could take pictures and post it for sale. We are considering trying to sell it ourselves, but haven't managed to post it yet, so we will see what happens with that. Trying to remove the baby paraphenalia and toddler clutter from the pictures was a challenge and we ran out of time and never carved our pumpkins. At least we GOT pumpkins this year - last year we forgot and then couldn't find any when we tried to get some on Halloween. Maybe next year we will get pumpkins AND carve them...baby steps for this family!

Our little kitty and Jon's mask that scared all the neighborhood kids but made our daughters laugh

Sleepy Kitty

Things I want to Remember Forever

Every time I open the word file that I keep my journal in it opens to the very beginning – and the beginning of this particular journal was two days before Hailey was born. Instead of scrolling to the bottom to start this entry, I took a moment and read what I wrote when Hailey was 4-ish months old and realized that I do not document Aubrey’s developments quite as thoroughly as I did Hailey’s – which I attribute to second child syndrome.

I love my little baby – I want her to stay this size forever!

I know she won’t so I better write down what she is like right now so I will never forget

Helping with the laundry

Lil Chubbo has graduated to size 2 diapers and is rolling over from her back to her belly. She then gets really mad and yells till someone rolls her over – only to go and do it all over again. She doesn’t really cry so much as yell when she gets mad and its funny…and very loud. Her fingers and sometimes whole fist are always in her mouth causing a drooly mess, but keeping her happy. The other day I found her affectionately examining her hands like they were the most amazing tools she had ever seen. We discovered that she loves all her toys that have twinkling lights – she will watch them and talk to them for extended periods of time – sometimes even five whole minutes J By far, her favorite activity is watching big sister Hailey, and she will stop whatever she is doing to see what Hailey is up to. She cracks up when Hailey talks to her, and if she is having a bottle and Hailey is in the room she is too distracted to eat. Jon and I are amazed at what a happy girl she is – she smiles if you simply look at her, laughs easily at just about anything, she sticks her little tongue out when she is super happy. However, she hates riding in the car more than any baby I have ever known. I dread having to put her in her car seat – to the point that I bought a $30 Baby Einstein Mirror that sings and lights up to try and distract her. It works…sometimes.

Regardless of the fact that we call her Lil Chubbo so much that she thinks its her name (she responds to that and not to “Aubrey”) she is NOT a big baby. She is getting the cute baby rolls on her legs but still fits in almost all of the 3 month clothes. She is 16 weeks old but we won’t have her 4 month well-baby appointment till November 22nd so I don’t have any new stats to report.

Rolling - Rolling - Rolling

Miss Hailey just keeps getting smarter and smarter and smarter. She was having trouble counting the numbers between 14 and 20, but once we started saying FIVE-teen instead of fifteen she caught on and can now count to at least 30 and makes up numbers after that…like two thousand forty hundred and seben! She can count down from 10 to 1 and knows colors, shapes, the seasons, the days of the week – especially Monday because it is garbage day, Tuesday because it’s our busy day, and Friday because it’s the weekend when mommy gets done working. She loves preschool and swimming and gymnastics, and Tuesdays are her favorite day of the week because she gets to go to before- care at preschool, then preschool, then I go get her and take her to Mrs Jen’s and then I go back and get them after work and we go to gymnastics and then she gets to eat dinner from one of the drive thru’s we pass on the way home. (Tuesdays are NOT my favorite day of the week as it takes a very organized mama to make sure we have all the appropriate bags and clothing changes for Tuesday’s activities.) She can spell her name and write the letter “H” – which she does on everything she can find. Thank goodness for washable markers. She talks constantly and when she runs out of things to say she strings together sequences of numbers and letters and asks me what that spells, then proceeds to get mad when I tell her that it doesn’t spell anything.

I think she loves Aubrey almost as much as Aubrey loves her, but she is showing a little bit of jealousy lately. When we get excited about something Aubrey has done she will show us how she can do it too – but unfortunately Hailey rolling over just isn’t as exciting as when Aubrey does it. Hailey is by nature a gentle and caring little girl, but she gets so excited around the baby that we have to constantly remind her to be gentler and careful. I swear she is going to smoosh her or make her deaf by yelling so close to her face. We moved the door lock from Hailey’s door to the baby’s door so that we don’t have to worry about Hailey crawling in the crib while we sleep.

Our Little Artist

In the doll crib - which makes her look really big!

Daddy-Daughter Days

At this point in my day, I cannot even remember why Jon had two days off earlier this month, but he did, and he decided that they would be Daddy - Daughter days. Here are some cute pictures from their adventures...

Smooching her sister...
Everyone smooching the baby. Excuse Hailey's random ensemble here...
I was getting ready for work and walked around the corner to see this, which cracked me up.

Busy Busy October

Between Jon’s squadron events, preschool events, and Halloween events, we are going to be busy busy this month.

This past weekend the church that Hailey’s preschool is part of had a fall festival complete with a petting zoo and pony rides. I won the clothing fight again and got both girls dressed in cute Halloween outfits, and got myself into the one pair of jeans I can squeeze into. Yay for the baby Bjorn that hides my torso!

This was Aubrey’s first time in the Bjorn forward facing, and she thought it was great. She talked to everyone and sucked on the fabric until she wore her little self out and went to sleep. Hailey was not in a mood to have her picture taken, she just wanted her cup of popcorn back. (We took it away because the animals really wanted it) I don’t know what this animal is, but he was just laying there so I thought we should get a picture.
She also got to go on a hay ride…
And then there was the pony ride disaster. Hailey isn’t really afraid of anything – as long as she is in control. She wasn’t fond of the pony rides last year, but she wanted to try again, so we let her and everything was fine….until the pony got an itch or a chill or something and shook its whole body ( think of a dog shaking off after a bath). It startled her and she tried so hard to hold herself together, but as they made the turn and she saw me waiting for her she just lost it. She says she is never riding a horse again because that horse was mean and shaked her.
Getting her face painted made everything better. She gets her face painted a lot because there is a really talented face painter at the Chik fil-a we go to for kid’s night. Every time she gets a butterfly and every time Jon and I are amazed at how still and calm she can be when she wants to.

A Special Sense of Style

Buying Hailey’s clothes is probably my #1 favorite activity and I spend a lot of time doing it. I take it very seriously – especially since her clothes get handed down to my niece Rowan, then back for Aubrey, and I have a feeling that my sisters new baby is going to be a girl who will get to wear some of them too. (I don’t think she will wear all, because being 4th in line, she just may need to get some new stuff. Toddler girls can be tough on clothes too.)

However, Hailey could care less about her clothes. She only wants to wear dresses, her gymnastics/dance clothes, or nothing at all. Most mornings are a war over what she is going to wear, and she is in complete disarray by the time I pick her up. Last week I picked her up from Mrs. Jen’s to go to gymnastics and she had on her pastel pink velvet leotard, bright pink yoga pants, red socks, black and white polka dot shoes, and he blue Cinderella fleece jacket. Not to mention she took her ponytail out, so her hair was everywhere and looked as if it hadn’t been combed in a week. To make matters worse, I had to take her to Target dressed like that because we needed to get formula.

This weekend one of our neighbors gave Hailey a bunch of Hawaiian print muu-muu’s to wear. She wants to wear them everywhere. She put this get up together while we were cleaning the house.

Notice the Hawaiian dress on backwards under all the bag lady gear. Shortly after I took this picture she got her shopping cart out and loaded it up with some stuffed animals to take for a walk. Later that night she insisted on wearing one of the baby’s blanket sleepers (size 3 months) to bed. She managed to get her arms and feet in but couldn’t move. She wanted Jon to carry her up to her bed like that so she could go to sleep. We took a picture but it is borderline –not – appropriate- for the internet, but good blackmail for the teenage years.

Every once in awhile I win the fight. Here are my girls looking cute and happy and Hailey’s hair is even under control! I got her to wear jeans (she HATES jeans) by telling her she could wear her tap shoes to school. They aren't tap shoes, but she doesn't need to know that.

grass

Why?

That is all that kept going through my head…why why why why why?

When we bought our house 2 ½ years ago we knew that the trim on the outside needed to be painted. We even bought the paint to do it, but it has never been done. For some reason that is beyond my comprehension, Jon decided that the PERFECT time for this project was the weekend before I started back to work. (Beacause I wasn't stressed at all that weekend)

He convinced me that renting this machine was going to save him a bunch of time. This way he wouldn’t have to climb up and down the ladder and move it all the time. I even justified the $200 rental fee - It seemed to make sense, until it took him 2 hours to pick it up from the rental place and an additional 2 hours to get ready to use it. He was so excited to use it – which is great because he spent all weekend outside and still didn’t even manage to get the whole project finished.

We are now paying some friend of our neighbor’s to finish painting our house.

But, the house painting project wasn’t enough torture for one week. Jon had a bunch of Use-or –Lose Leave to use in September, so he was off the first two days of the week I went back to work. It was nice to have him home just in case one of the girls didn’t adjust to going to Mrs. Jen’s, or if we needed him for some other unforeseen emergency.

He decided to use his time off to work on his never ending lawn project. I think he is obsessed with the grass, and I have a list of issues directly related to his obsession with grass. I think if he could get away with it, he would sit outside and watch it grow. Because he can’t do that, he decided to plant some in this play-doh container and watch that instead. He was taking a picture of it everyday, but I threatened him, so he stopped. Now he just reads about growing grass, waters the grass, measures how much he is watering the grass, observes how all our neighbors are growing their grass, and talks to me about grass constantly. Oh, and moves his Play-doh container from window to window in our house trying to keep it from Hailey inqusitive little fingers.

We have one particular neighbor who has beautiful grass and he desperately wants to know what this guy does. As we were driving into our subdivision last night we drove by their house and he said, “I KNOW what it is now! He has a WOMAN who is helping him!” The wife was outside watering. I told him that maybe he should go try and find himself a woman to help him.


His projects and his obsession with his projects makes me crazy, but then there are moments like this that remind me how great he is. Not just any daddy knows the names of all the Disney Princesses and all of Strawberry Shortcake’s friends.

Back To Work

Monday was my first day back at work- and I dreaded it. All who know me know that working is an essential part of me – I haven’t ever not worked, with the exception of the seven months during our move from Idaho to Florida to Virginia. I enjoy working, I like my job and like being good at my job. I also truly believe that I am a better mother when I spend some time away from Hailey. When I had Hailey I was ready to go back to work around 10 weeks, and didn’t think twice about the decision.

That has not been the case this time, and I struggled with the decision to return. Jon and I are definitely in a position financially that would make it possible for me to stay home and for the first time that thought appeals to me. However, I have an excellent job and am not sure that I am ready to give it up. We don’t know when we will move again or where we will move to; therefore I don’t know if it will be possible for me to work when we move. Not knowing what the future holds makes me think twice about giving up the really great position I have right now. On the other hand, I really enjoy being home with our girls, and don’t want to miss any moment of this time. I will never get it back, and there will most likely be other jobs.

I know myself well enough that I know I needed to go back to work and experience our new reality before making a decision. Our babysitter, Mrs Jen is fabulous and loves Hailey and Aubrey. I know they are well cared for and happy, and that has made this transition bearable. My wonderfully understanding boss has agreed to letting me work a 36 hour work week which enables me to be done working at 4PM on Monday thru Thursday and still work my half day on Friday. That extra hour with the girls gives me time to spend playing with them, rather than rushing home with just enough time to feed them, bathe them, and get them in bed. This is only the third day, and yesterday was really tough, so I don’t think I can say how I feel about it yet.

Yes, Your Baby's Head is Shaped Funny

At Aubrey's 2 month check up, the doctor pointed out that she favors one side of her head and told us to start encouraging her to look to the other side. So we did, and she is getting much better about turning both ways. As I spent more and more time worrying about if my baby was turning her head both ways, I noticed that her head was kind of lopsided, but didn't really think too much about it.

Then I took this picture, which is quite alarming.

For a couple days I told myself that it was just the way she was laying. Then I mentioned it to Jon and he agreed that from certain angles her head is shaped kind of funny. Of course, I researched it on the internet - which I know can be dangerous - but after some reading I decided I wanted to go back to the doctor to get their opinion.

So today I was that crazy mom who takes her baby to the doctor for random reasons. It was, of course, a different pediatrician than the one we saw at her 2 month check -up. Fortunately the doctor didn't look at me like I was crazy and automatically disregard my concerns. I really liked her and she spent a lot of time with the baby and talking to me. Basically what she said is exactly what I titled this entry - Yes, your baby's head is shaped funny. She did say that her neck movement is good, but that the side she favors is the side that is not as flat - and it should be that the side she favors is the flatter side. If the flat side was the side she tends to lay on it would explain it, but its the exact opposite. She checked all the points in her head where the skull fuses together and she said that they all appear to be open ( this is good they should still be open). She wants to wait and see what happens between now and her 4 month check-up, which is in about 5-6 weeks. Her head will grow between now and then and it will either be more noticeable or start to correct itself. Depending on what happens, she will decide from there.

If there is a problem it will be fixable, but it will be a lengthy process. The first steps will be xrays and cat scans of Aubrey's head to check the points in her skull. Obviously we don't want to put her through that, so lets all hope it turns out to be nothing!

Updates and Pictures

For once, I really don't have any major events to write about, so here are some cute pictures and updates.

Aubrey and Hailey trying out the crib

After my dad and Judy left I decided that Haileys days of sleeping wherever she wanted to were over. We bought this weird lock that makes it so she can't open her door but it isn't closed all the way either. My sleep book said that it is what we would need because we can't physically keep her in her room. The book also said that children who were previously sleep trained and just going through a rough patch would generally only need one night with the lock and then they would stay in their beds so that the lock wouldn't need to be used. I sincerely doubted it would only be one night - Hailey is a very persistent child.

But, once again I was wrong and that book was right. She screamed her head off for about 10 minutes and then I calmed her down and she went to sleep. She got up one more time and yelled again, but I calmed her down and she went to sleep. Since then she has gone to bed every night and stayed there for the most part - we found her in the chair in the loft several times and just last night I found her on the couch, but she doesn't remember it in the morning and goes back to bed without a fight. She is getting more creative though - last night she got up when Jon got home from work ( it was late ) and told him there was a fly in her room and he needed to get it. For some reason she is terrified of flies, but thinks bees, snakes, ghosts, monsters etc are all fascinating.

The same night that we locked Hailey in her room was Aubrey's first night in her crib. She does pretty well in her crib - she generally goes to sleep between 7 -9 every night and will get up around 2 and then at 5 am. The 5 am wake-up is annoying because she isn't hungry - she is just done sleeping on her own and wants someone to hold her. It won't be so bad next week when I go back to work because I have to get up at that time anyway :(

This is a Flamingo Stand - she learned this at gymnastics

Hailey loves football. She will sit and watch a whole game and actually asks to watch "Penn Stake" when we ask her what show she wants to watch. Grandpa got her the jammies she is wearing in the pictures above and she wants to wear them every night now.

Aubrey doing tummy time

Aubrey is not a fan of tummy time, but the doctor said we have to do it to help her start turning her head the way that she doesn't like to. We have another doctor appointment tomorrow about that - so more on that later.

Aubrey is having a fit and trying to smother herself and Hailey is pretending that her feelings are hurt because I took a picture of Aubrey without her in it. Her face is so cute though, I had to share it!