Let the tot decorate

Now, If you want a professional looking cake disregard the title. However, I promise you that letting your "helpful" toddler decorate a cake is a lot more fun. It may not turn out exactly beautiful but it sure will be more fun in the process.

The Giants mom is coming to stay with us this week. She'll be flying in tonight. Today also happens to be her 60th birthday. So Cheyanne and I thought we make it extra special and make her a homemade cake. And of course by homemade I mean Betty Crocker. After I got done writing happy birthday grandma on the cake I let Cheyanne help with the sprinkles. Note to self- write the words after sprinkles. Double note to self- be prepared for the next 20 minutes after done decorating to hear Cheyanne plead "Want cake!" Want cake mom!" Good thing I bagged the shavings of the cake instead of throwing it away just for this occasion.

So, Whether she can read it or not, I hope Grandma likes her cake. I know Cheyanne is going to!

Happy birthday grandma! We'll see you soon.

29 Weeks

I'll be 29 weeks tomorrow. I guess its time I give a real update again on this kiddo in the oven.

This picture is for you Whitney. And the beautifully planned scenery is for everyone else that would like to see my very untouched half bath. We'll get to redoing it eventually.

Woah, check out that bump. Cheyanne sure looks bothered, doesn't she?

How far along?: 29 weeks
How big is baby?: He is supposedly just under 15 inches all curled up, except at night when he decides to stretch himself out. Then he feels like he's more like 6 feet tall. He weighs roughly 2.5 pounds.
Weight Gain?: I dread this question so much. Why is this always one of the first questions people ask when discussing pregnancy?! Ok, truth time. I've gained 9-10 pounds so far. I think it has evenly split between my belly and backside. Next.
Stretch Marks?: Thank heavens, no.
Maternity Clothes?: Oh yeah. All pants are maternity at this point. Tops are still fitting just fine minus the shorter ones. I pretty much live in my long Gap tshirts.
Sleep?: Right now sleep is pretty good, once I can get to sleep. That has nothing to do with pregnancy but more to do with I don't sleep well when Giant is away.
Best moment this week?: During our nighttime prayers and our normal "God bless" lists, we prayed for baby brother. I paused and asked Cheyanne (which I do every now and then recently) where is her Baby Brother. "Belly!" and proceeded to point to her belly then to mine. I laughed and so she pulled up my shirt to "see." I love how much she is growing, mentally and physically, this girl is amazing.
Food Cravings?: Most anything that doesn't require me to cook it for long. Sure wish I had a chocolate chip cookie right now.
Gender?: "He" better still be a boy.
Movement?: At all points of the day, I can see my belly jumping and jiving. Its my favorite part of pregnancy.
What I miss?: Wine. Still wine. 
Belly Button?: Still in there with my pretty bling. Its closing in every day though. Push that sucker in.
Labor Signs?: No. Braxton hicks- is it too early for that?
What I'm looking forward to?: Finally picking a name for this sweet boy. I am not a "baby boy" kind of person. I want him to have a name sooner than later, although I think we've agreed not to share it until he's here. Sorry for busting anyone's bubble about that. Oh, also, I'm really really looking forward to my physical therapy starting next week. Apparently pregnancy with me means hip and sciatic nerve pain for the last few months of pregness. I'm hoping therapy works this time. 
Milestone?: Definitely the highlight of my week was seeing him at the ultrasound. I guess that is the last time I'll see him until he's here unless we do a 3D-4D sess like we did Cheyanne. I don't think they do ultrasounds  later on.

So that's that. 29 weeks down. 11 more to go until the big due date. I finally went back and compared myself to my previous pregnancy. Check this out. I thought I had preggo squirrel checks now. Look at me then! Ah. I didn't do a 29 week survey update apparently then but I did a 28 and a 30. Interesting to compare where I was and where I'm at now. I'm so glad that I have kept this blog up for the last two years. I love having a comparison. If you're pregnant, do it. Its worth it!

Bye bye Baba

Night 3 without Cheyanne's baba and I think its safe to say we have complete success!!

If you've been keeping up with our blog, you probably know about Cheyanne and her love affair with her pacifiers she named baba and my constant turmoil with them.

Now that it's gone, which is something I've been looking forward to for months/years, I can't even lie. i miss it. She doesn't even seem to miss it but I do. Not miss it as in I want her to have it back, but I miss it because it means that she is really completely a little girl now and not a pacifier toting baby anymore.

Cue waterworks.

Isn't that crazy? Even the Giant said he was sad that it was gone because she's growing up.

For two years, I have been dreading how I would get rid of the baba. The Giant has "traumatic memories" of getting rid of his pacifier. I didn't want that for Cheyanne. I knew I wanted to get rid of it before she would create any memories but when would the be the right time? It may sound silly to you, but for me and for a toddler so attached, it could be horrific. She's never really had a "lovey," her baba was her lovey. Her baba and her blankie that is.

Well the opportunity finally arose without me even trying to plan it to move on from baba. For a year now, minus on special occasions, baba had become only a sleeping lovey. She knew to leave it in her room every morning or after nap, and she always knew it was there before bed. It was our little ritual before bed, "Chey let's go get baba and get ready for bed." Immediately, run run run to get baba. It was cute. The other day it came time for nap time and we went through the norm to get baba and blankie, but baba was gone. We both genuinely looked for it. We looked in her bed, under her pillows, under the bed, in the bathroom, everywhere. It was no where. After a slight mental Momma panic, I decided right then that is was time for bye bye to baba. I talked to Cheyanne and told her how baba was gone. We lost it. I think she took it well because she knew we had both looked everywhere for it and was just gone. She marched herself to her bed, picked up blankie and laid down on her pillow. No crying or fussing. No asking repeatedly for baba. Just simply, took it like a champ, and knew it was nap time. It took her a few minutes to settle herself but with a little cuddling, she drifted off.

So, one nap time down, but I knew that didn't mean we were in the clear. We still had night night time to battle.  Fast forward a few hours to bed time. I was still sweating the realities of no baba to signal calm down time. As I put her in bed, I reminded her that baba was lost and she didn't ask for it even once. Granted, it did take her an hour to finally fall to sleep on her own, never a cry or peep came out of her room.

Night two, she did ask for it before bed. "Where baba?" She whined for a few minutes when I reminded her it was gone but nothing too traumatic. And she hasn't asked for it since. Bed time does take a lot longer now, though. Instead of the usual ten minutes and she is out, now it takes her roughly an hour to toss and turn and settle down before finally drifting off to sleep.

I took video of this on my phone last night for you to see.



I think this one was about 25-30 minutes into bed time. I took 3 all together over 45 minutes. Finally she settled down completely and fell fast asleep for the night. No crying. No fussing. Just toddler jabber and play pretend in bed. Eventually I assume the process will be much faster but I'm so proud of her and how she's handled the no baba life.

Sometimes a girl needs ice cream

Yesterday I went to my 28 week appointment (with Cheyanne in tow of course). Yeah, I'm just still a little shocked that I'm already 28 weeks. Time is flying by.

28 weeks is the standard glucose test. Yay. If you are unfamiliar, I'll explain. You drink this nasty tart orange drink (or fruit punch if you prefer- which I DONT) and wait around for an hour to then get blood drawn to see if you're system is going crazy from all that dang sugar crap in the drink. Maybe that's not the scientific way of explaining it, but that's pretty much what happens. It takes a few days for results but I had no side effects so I assume that's a good thing. 

My day at the dr didn't stop there. I was lucky to get my Rhogam shot after they drew my final blood. Major sarcasm here with the lucky comment! That dang thing hurts. Now I'm not saying its comparable to anything like childbirth, but for a needle, that sucker is painful. I am so glad that Cheyanne didn't get my negative blood. But, poor Cheyanne. For whatever reason, she wanted to hold my hand at the moment as the nurse prepped the needle. No idea why, but it was not good timing when the nurse was sticking a big thick needle in my butt. I may or may not have shrieked and startled the nurse enough that she had to jab my butt twice because she didn't get it the first time. Awesome. Again I say, poor Cheyanne and her little hand. Good thing I tend to laugh when I'm nervous so I didn't freak my baby girl out. My butt is still sore the next day. Ridic. I can hear you laughing now, T. 

The highlight of the day… and yes there is a highlight… I got to see this little guy.

Look at that profile. I can already tell he is a cutie. Everything in the ultrasound looked great. He is right on size and healthy as a champ, weighing 2 1/2 pounds. And for those of you that are keeping track, I have gained about 9-10 pounds thus far. Most importantly, he's healthy and I'm so grateful for healthy babies. 

While he moves all day and throughout the night, he slept during the entire ultrasound. He moved his arms a few times to his face but besides that, zzzz. How that is possible after the glucose drink, I have no idea. Cheyanne sat through all of this like an angel, and that is rare that I use that term with my sweet girl. I love her to death but angelic behavior is rare with my wild toddler. At the doctor's office- angel! Aw thank the Lord. She couldn't have cared less this time about seeing baby boy. She was busy playing on Mommy's phone. Perfect.

Because she was so good all day (and because Mommy's poor bum cheek was achey and I wasn't about to stand over the stove to prep dinner), we got a special treat for dinner. We had dinner out at a Japanese restaurant down the street that is conveniently located right next to an ice cream/custard shop. 

After she got done picking all the sprinkles off of our cone, she wanted me to get rid of all the frozen custard so she could eat the cone. Seriously. The girl hates frozen custard apparently but loved everything else about our special treat. 

She quickly took matters into her own hands.

She wanted to show off all the yumminess in her mouth. 

Early stages of "see food"

It pays to be good with this Momma. It usually pays off. I'm quite a push over on days when I don't feel 100%. 

After our sticky treat night, someone needed a bath! My little Kate Middleton showing off her bowl hat. Such the bath fashionista.

Baby see

That's what Cheyanne says whenever she wants to play on my phone or computer.

"Baby see" means "I want to see the baby" aka watch video of her. She's vain. What can I say? She loves it. She cracks herself up watching videos of baby Cheyanne. How do I get video of her watching video? I need proof of the preciousness.

Precious, until its all I hear all day, "Baby see! Mom, baby see!" Ok, even then its precious. Its just all day.

She gets so excited! You'd think the girl hadn't seen the same movies a bajillion times already.

I love her face in these pictures. I mean, who would have ever known she was watching herself? I could just eat her up sometimes.

Encouragement

I had dinner with a group of ladies the other night from our squadron. Most of them I knew while one of them in particular I hadn't had the chance to get to know yet. Meant as a play date/dinner get together for the kids, It actually turned out to be a really nice time between moms.

Like many of the other women, when my husbands away I don't get to socialize very often. Since we don't have a constant babysitter Always in place it is hard sometimes to find relatable adult interaction. I found myself struggling in that department. That is why recently I have tried to really get involved in the squadron. I have become a key spouse which is turning out to be a great thing for me as well as the giant. I'm getting to know other women and make some pretty good friends here. And Cheyanne seems to like it too because we meet more kids for her to play.

Back to the dinner party. After a frazzled day of running errands all around town I was actually hesitant to go. We hadn't sat down in our house since the morning. And we had just returned from Our week at the beach with family the night before. I could've stayed home and unpacked and cleaned the house but I decided that Cheyanne and I needed some extra socialization time. As the small group of us mom sat around and talked, I realized what a special group of women I'm getting to know. In conversation I realized that all of our husbands were away somewhere around the world. Some for just a few months while others for The better part of a year. I try very hard not to complain when the giant is gone. Mostly because complaining gets me nowhere. It's the life we chose and it's the life that I'm proud to lead. However I'd be lying to say that sometimes I secretly envy all those other married women that complain on Facebook of how their husband has to work late one night Or something as simple as describing a family outing. And usually I just don't say much because frankly most people don't understand. But with these women anything goes. The room is open to complain and sympathize and comfort each other. it is open to celebrate and tell stories and encourage each other. I've had people ask me before "isn't it hard without him there?" Im not Sure the response people expect or want from that. Depending on the day I've had, it takes a lot just not to shake them and respond with "duh." Of course it's hard. How could it not be? you never truly get used to being alone and the constant worrying that goes along with it. But my staple good military wife answer is typically "that's our life and were used to it." I just have to say, It is so nice to have women to talk to that understand The true hardships of our life. Women that don't just say "oh she'll get over it" or "im sure its a phase" when I talk about Cheyannes revolving attitude issues and distance that she gives to her daddy when he's away. It's comforting to know that my toddler is not the only child that is angry when daddy is away and refuses to communicate or Skype with him. It is actually a blessing to know that other people have been there and that their children react in similar ways of confusion when daddy comes and goes so much. That in particular is something that has been so heavy on my heart recently. I constantly worry about what shed be like if she had a "normal" family life. how would she be different if she had 9-5 parents? am i doing a good enough job as a "single parent" most of the time. now, i know I'm not a single parent, im blessed with a very loving husband that puts everything else in life before himself. I'm not discrediting his role at all. We both have our very important roles in our family. That's a different conversation. But because of this, it doesn't get discussed much. Few people understand because few people have been there. But at the dinner, as we all sat around sharing our stories of our children and our husbands and how our life is affected by military, It occurred to me how very blessed I am. Not just blessed by my husband and my family but by the people that God has put in my life because of my husband and my family. There have been more than a few days here where I get sad and feel alone and wonder if other people understood what I go through. Everyone is allowed those humdrum days once in a while. But thankfully I have times like the other night which remind me that the sad days are few because the days in between are so worth it. Life isn't easy and it's never going to be. Sure most days would probably be easier if the giant was around but by no means with those days be a breeze. There are days I wish I had six arms, 50 more pounds of muscle, and eight more hours to get things done before bedtime. and sure a lot of that would be easier if I had my partner here to help. But I think one of the greatest lessons that these women have taught me is that life isn't easy and my job is to continue to make it the best I possibly can because it's the only life Cheyanne knows. My house may not always be clean. Much to my chagrin my projects will probably never completely get done. Laundry May go unfolded and the grass may be 2 feet high. Our nursery hasn't even began to look like a nursery and our upstairs bonus room looks more like a construction zone Than a bonus anything because we ran out of time before he left. But, At the end of the day if Cheyanne is happy and safe and semi-clean I feel that I'm doing a pretty good job. As I learned the other night I'm not on my own down here. In one room sat five women in the exact same position that I'm in. With a husband doing his job somewhere else in the world and a crazy child running around as if she hadn't been let out of the house in weeks. I'm not alone, I'm far from it. I love our life and am so thankful for the people God has placed in it.

This isn't the post I intended to write tonight, But it felt like one I needed to write. I appreciate all of you for keeping up with me my family and my blog. I haven't been good recently to keep you updated. And honestly until the giant gets back I'm not sure that I will. I do what I can and I appreciate all the support you give me.

Newest on-goings

I feel like I should really have more to show for what's been going on here and why I feel like I've been losing my sanity.

The List of excuses of things going on here…

1. First, Cheyanne woke up with a cold two days before her birthday. I thought I had escaped the germs with as much Lysol as I had spraying around this house. Wrong. Three days after her birthday, guess who woke up sick too. I'm still battling this cold a week later.

2. The day before Chey's birthday, her Daddy left for a few months so, you know, things got pretty crazy at that point.

Here she is opening presents with Daddy right before he had to get on the road.

3. The night before her second birthday, I started her on night time prayers. Its not something I've ever been good at doing on a regular basis, but at age 2, I think she's old enough to work it into our nightly routine. She is so cute during prayers. We fold our hands to say a quick prayer first then we go through the list of "God bless"es. "God bless Daddy. God bless Mommy. God bless Nana and Skipper." Etc. The list is long, especially when I think we're done and we say amen, then she folds her hands again and says "More Mom." Who can say no to that? So, we keep going. She doesn't really add names yet, but she repeats everyone that I say and gives a little giggle after each. Baby prayers are so precious, especially when we say "Thank you Jesus" at the end.

4. Before Giant left, we installed chair rails in the front living room. I've been slowly finishing those the last week, filling nail holes, sanding, caulking, and up next priming and painting. Chair railing makes such a difference in a room.

Before: I believe in real before pictures, so you get to see all the junk that was really there during prep.

 After: So far. By the end of this week, the rails will be painted white to match and look fantastic.

5. Potty training has begun. My little girl is a potty going machine… most days… if naked. If not naked, its fair game. I have even introduced her to big girl panties hoping that will help with the idea of clothes on still means we need to pee on the potty. Not much luck yet with any clothes on, but we're working on it. Ah, the dream of no more diapers!

This is how we spent a lot of time on day one. Movies, juice, and pottying.

 Sometimes things got silly and she found other uses for her potty.

6. I finally got around to doing something I've been wanting to do for a while. I painted the inside of our front door. The Giant doesn't even know exactly what I did yet. I love it. It makes the front room look really good! I can't wait until that part of the house is finished. At some point I'll get around to putting up drapes and pictures. One day.

Before: I didn't think to take a complete before picture, so I this is a minute into the project.

After: Love. Soon that blue wall will be repainted to something other than blue- anything other than blue. I loathe that blue.

7. The dog decided to quit listening to me whatsoever the minute that the Giant left the house. She normally is a pretty good pup. The last few weeks have been less than stellar. I'm not sure whats going on besides the fact that she is missing her Pa, but there have been days that between cleaning up from a toddler and chasing around a dog, I thought I might actually lose it. We'll be starting Obedience 101 classes at the end of the month- or someone/something might lose their sanity or life.

She seems to be spending more time in her bed than normal. Here she is not too happy with me, but you know what, that's what you get when you chew on my rug!

AND

8. Cheyanne's picked up a few new winning words that I hear all day. I'll share the most winning ones.
Nope!
Nope Mom!
Uh uh!
Nah!
Uhhhhhh nope!
More M&Ms peeez!
What are you doing Mom?
Oopsy!
and my personal favorites…
No way!
or even better…
No way Mom!

At least its not "No way Molly" this week. Where did she learn this stuff? I cringe every time I hear no way come out of my sweet little angel's mouth. So, yes, things are still on going here.

I've got projects going all the time, but I wish I had more to show you than I do. On the list this week is to start decorating for fall. It may still be in the 80s each day but Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte is a weekly treat of mine which means it must be fall. I look forward to this time of year all year. I've been pinterest'ing all the pumpkin recipes I can find these last few weeks to start prepping for fall. Up this week, I'm thinking some pumpkin banana bread. How good does that sound?

I've got more to update you on, but for now that give you an idea of where we've been lately.