Its been a while

We've been busy! TJ has about two weeks of school left and its getting pretty intense for him. I know he's going to do great in the last two weeks of school and he'll be glad its over with. As for Jaeden she's just growing like crazy. We had Christmas at Thanksgiving with my mom and Jaeden has had a blast with her new toys. She's gotten a barbie four wheeler and a v-tech book, an Elmo blanket, slippers, lots of clothes and her favorite is her Elmo Restaurant. She's climbing on it as I write this.

18 month well baby visit

Jaeden had her 18 month check up today. She's perfect of course ;) She's happy and healthy. She weighs 22.8 lbs... shes growing, slowly, but she's growing and that is what is important. Her pediatrician says she's a little behind on her words, but I am not worried about it at all. She's been learning new words lately and if she continues with this, then I see nothing to worry about. Her new words in the last few weeks are milk, more (they sound the same though), bye (instead of buh bye), quack, good girl (sounds like goo gur), no... that's all I can think of right now, but I am sure she's learned more than this. She's really learning a lot.

We got our flu shots.... bring on the winter :P

good cause

I became a partner in hope for St Judes hospital. I encourage anyone who reads this to do the same. Its only 20 dollars a month and its for a great cause. I am willing to give up one meal out a month to send money to St Judes. They are great! One lady told her story on the radio the other day that her son was diagnosed with cancer and they didn't have much money, so St Judes fly her and her son to the hospital for treatment... and its all paid for. They cannot do this without our donations.

scary stuff

Jaeden has become terrified of any loud noise. It all started when we had several helicopters fly over the house. She freaked out, ran to me crying and wouldn't let me put her down for several minutes. She does this now any time she hears anything loud. Thunder, cars, even someone playing a tuba on tv freaked her out. I hope its just a phase... but we shall see.

On another note, I am getting ready for my trip to South Carolina to see my brother. I'm very excited about this because my dad and his wife will also be visiting at the same time. I hope we get to go do some fun things while we are there. I hear there is an aquarium near by.... my favorite!

I am also going to my first Mary Kay party tomorrow... I may have went to one when I was younger. I remember my mom doing some kind of make up party at her house. It should be fun though because I may meet more people down here at the party. I hope I don't spend too much money ;)

we've had fun

The weather has been wonderful the last few days. Jaeden and the dogs have been playing in the yard a lot. I love it! She runs around chasing the dogs and picking up mulch to feed Bo. We've also gone on many walks the past few days. Jaeden is such an outside kid. She loves to be outside as much as possible.

Shes taking a nap right now. She's had a rough day. She was very restless all night and coughed up some stomach acid this morning. I think her reflux still bother her some days. I tried to call the dr about it, but of course all they would say was they have no appointments for the next 28 days! Someone is suppose to call me back.

Not much else is new. TJ is doing well in school as always and we are just waiting for our move. I feel like we are just waiting on moving for things to start happening again. I am enjoying being home with Jaeden during this time. I'm so blessed to spend this time with her.

busy buys

Well I've been telling TJ for a while now that I'd love to find a job part time in the evenings and weekends when he's home to bring in a little extra cash but still stay home with Jaeden. The other day we got the base paper and it had a job listed to work in the commissary on base stocking food. So I called and asked about the hours and all. Its only evening because we wait until the store is closed. He asked me to start the same day. So I did.

Its an ok job. I mean its not great, but it fits my criteria. I get to stay home with Jaeden still, I dont pay daycare and I am still making a little bit of money. Its very hard though, I've only been doing it for two nights and my fingers, knees, and thighs are killing me. I think I will get use to it though. I'll love the results I'll see in my thighs if this keeps up ;) I got some gloves today to wear also, hopefully that will help my fingers.

My main goal is to save everything I make for my trip to see my brother (Charleston SC in Sept) and the rest is going to be saved for our Christmas trip to Florida.... lots of gas money and presents to buy. TJ even wants to do it a few nights a week when I'm not. Its very flexible, I pick the days I want to work and the hours I want.

Nothing is really new with Jaeden. She's adorable and busy as ever. We did have to switch her diapers back to Huggies, the Luvs gave her a rash constantly. After less than 24 hours off of the Luvs her little bottom is almost healed!

She spotted an Elmo balloon at Wal-Mart the other day. The thing had to be 50 feet away and she's pointing at it saying "Elmo." She can say Elmo and baby and Chara (dogs name) very clearly now.

nothing

Well nothing much is going on with us. TJ is doing well in school and looking forward to finishing up. We have about 5 months left and then we move. We are both looking forward to moving to IL and everything that we have planned once we get there.

Jaeden is doing well. She's learned a few new words in the last few days. She now says belly, but it sounds like beay, she says no no, but doesn't know when to say it. She just walks around the house saying no no. We found out about a week ago she is indeed allergic to cheese. We are keeping her on the lactose free milk. Her milk allergy test came back negative but that test has a high false negative rate, and when she does get regular milk it upsets her stomach. So we suspect she's also allergic to the milk.

Not much else is going on though. Congrats to a couple friends of ours who got good news recently!!!

what to do

I've known for a while now that I have changed a lot in the last 6 years. When I was in training for the Air Force, I was so confident, strong willed (this hasn't changed) and sure all about what I was doing. I was sure I wanted to go active duty and be a military woman. I was in love with the military and all it had to offer. I didn't care about what challenges it entailed, I wanted to do the most hard core job they'd let me do. Then the recruiters wouldn't let me come in active duty because the Air Force was down sizing.

Then I got married. This still didn't change much, I tried and tried and tried to come in. When I finally got that call saying I could finally come in, I was about 9 weeks pregnant. They wouldn't let me come in until the baby was born. Then they said I had to wait until my TJ got out because of Jaeden. I've since then found out that I can get a waiver for this rule and still come in.

Now I don't want to. My priorities have changed. I still love the military, I'm proud of everyone in it. I just cannot live with the thought of being separated from my family. TJ and I have been through two deployments, so I know what its like to be apart from him. The thought of being away from Jaeden breaks my heart. TJ's now sure he's going to be staying in for the long haul, so why take the chance of us not being stationed together (yes, it does happen) or me having to leave Jaeden? So now I've decided to finish school and start a career.

I've been tossing around what I want to do. I'm waiting until we get to IL to start school and I've found two schools that interest me. I was looking at Dental Hygiene or Radiology Technician. Several people have asked me why I don't be a nurse? I always thought that I wouldn't be able to handle it. I'm not big on guts, blood doesn't bother me, but if I had to see someones insides hanging out, not sure I could do it.

Today we came upon an accident. On the side of the road in a parking lot we could see one EMT doing CPR, one getting an IV ready and others helping out. I instantly got teary eyed and wanted to help. I said a quick prayer for the person and we drove away. I kept thinking how I wish I could just jump in and try to save the person. I know I have no medical training except CPR it was just and urge to help. So now I've thought, well what about nursing?...

rough day yesterday

Well the soy milk has reallyhelped Jaeden out a lot. She loves it too; I got her the vanilla Silk kind. Its sooo expensive; one of the little half gallon cartons is 3.00! I think they give soy milk at WIC... I'll find out when I go pick up our next food package.



We tried to give her a little bit of cheese just to see how sensitive she's become. She had 6 little bite size chunks of cheese and it really upset her stomach... poor thing. She LOVES cheese too.



Oh we had quite a day yesterday with her and her bed. Lately she's been acting like she's trying to get out of her bed but it looked like she still couldn't because she's just not tall enough. The top of the crib when she stands is at her arm pits. Well I put her down for her afternoon nap yesterday and she wasn't very happy about that. No biggie, I just let her go as we normally do. Well after an hour of her talking, not crying, I went to make sure she didn't use the bathroom, she cant sleep if she does. All was well, so I left her in there to go to sleep. Next thing I know, I hear this lout THUD and her screaming. I ran up to her room and opened the door- she's standing in the middle of her room crying. I picked her up and she was fine. She didn't hurt anything, fortunately.


So after trying the toddler bed thing out and having the same result as above (fun fun twice in one day) we put he crib back together. We took out the bumper so she couldn't stand on it and turned the crib backwards. The back of her crib is taller than the front, so now she cant get out, we hope. We are truly happy she's ok after falling twice like that.

OH yeah, found an Elmo dvd... she liked it, but her attention span is so short, she forgets shes watching ELMO...haha.

Iron, Soy and Elmo

Good news today, no iron suppliments for now. They will recheck her again at 18 months since it took 6 months to get the levels up. I guess normally if an infant has low iron, they only usually have to take the iron for 3 months... At least its up now.

Switched her to soy milk for a few days. The crazy dirty diapers didnt stop when I took the juice out of her diet. Hopefully the soy milk will help and she can feel better. If it doesnt help, I dont know what else it could be and we'll have to go back to the doctor. So far so good though.

Jaeden's becoming a little interested in TV. She likes to watch Sesame Street- but only when elmo is on. When he comes on the screen she screetches "MEMO" -too cute. I tried to find her a couple of Elmos World dvds, but they don't have any at our Walmart of the BX. I guess I'll have to get the ones online and pay the shipping.

15 month well baby

Jaeden had her 15 month well baby visit the other day. The appointment over all went pretty well. She weighed 21lbs, she's 28 inches long. She's had diarrhea off and on for about two weeks. I told the doctor this, but they didn't seem concerned. I have decided to take in on myself to figure out if a certain food is causing it. I started off with eliminating grape juice. The nurse at her WIC appointment originally said it would help her absorb her iron supplement if she took it with grape juice. That worked for a day, then it returned. So we are eliminating all juice to see if that works.

She had to get another DTaP vaccine, and she of course hated that. To make matters worse, they wanted to take blood to check her hemoglobin to see if she still needs to take the iron supplement, it was horrible. Usually they just do a CBC and for that they just prick her finger. Well they wanted to take a tube of blood from the crease of her elbow for a more accurate test... it was a nightmare trying to hold her down so they could take the blood. In the end, they got the blood; we are still waiting on them to call and let me know if she needs to continue the iron. The base is closed until Tuesday for the holiday, so I should hear something then.

They told me a few things I need to work on with her. Apparently she should be able to point to some body parts when I say the name- she can't. I have not been working on this with her either. I started doing it this weekend, she'll get it. She will point to a body part on herself when I point to it on my and say the name; its a start. I am also working on following directions with her. She understands "No" but we are telling her things like "clean up your toys" and we pick them up while saying it. She's still young, but I believe you have to start out young. I cant not tell her to do things until she's older and then expect her to do it.

That's about all for her appointment... she's healthy over all.

this blog thing

With TJ in the military, we are not able to live near family like we would like. So I've decided to try this blog thing, to keep people updated...

So lets try this out: Right now, Jaeden's in her crib, laying down for a nap. She's not sleeping yet, but she always has to lay, and talk and do what ever else it is she does up there. Times like this make me wish we got a video monitor, just so I could see what she does LOL.

TJ is fishing, I'm glad. Not that I want him gone while I am at home, but we are adjusting to this new life style. When I was working we had a lot more extra money. If we felt like getting out of the house we would just go to the mall and buy a few things, nothing major, or go out to eat...etc. Now that I am a stay at home mom, we don't get to do those things. It bothers TJ a little more than it does me. He gets a little stir crazy. Since this is a four day weekend, I am glad he wanted to get out of the house and do something he enjoys, but is also pretty much free.

As for me, I'm relaxing. I've done a lot of things around the house in the last two days. I scrubbed the tile portions of the house with the scrub brush... it was a lot of work, but needed to be done. The mop wasn't cutting it. We also re-arranged the living room furniture. We moved things around to provide more space and a better lay out to watch Jaeden while she plays.

The dogs, they are in the back yard... not much else to say about that.

We are looking forward to the future, TJ being done with his school, our move to IL, me finishing school. As for school, not sure what to do about that whole situation. Basically I can't do anything until we get there. If I try to do any classes at the schools I'm looking at, I'll be charged for out of state fees. I can't find a school down here that the classes will transfer without loosing any credits. Sooo.... I wait. Its not a bid deal since we will be there for about 4 years, that's plenty of time.

Well I hope this blog thing works out, I'd love for our friends and family to be able to keep up with whats going on.