5QF

1. Who mows your grass?  Normally I do.  Mark likes to, but he’s never around to do it, so I end up doing it.
2. Do you have a picture wall or picture gallery in your house (show us! <--- my addition to the question)?  We have one wall with some of our favorite photos that we’ve taken during our travels and another one with artwork we’ve bought at different cities around Europe.  I would love to take pictures of them, but we’re not home right now so I can’t.
3. What book has influenced your thinking the most? Or, what blog? (I want to read what gets people thinking!)  Jodi Picoult books all make me think quite a bit because they cover pretty controversial subjects.  I love them!
4. Do you have allergies? If so, how do you handle it this time of year?  I never had allergies until I got to Italy.  Spring time usually stuffs me up if I’m there.  I just take Claritin for a few weeks and then I’m good.
5. What's your go to meal to cook in an hurry?  Pounded chicken ( boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded so they’re thin then dredged in eggs and then in flour with a little seasoning salt and garlic powder), mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.    Or spaghetti.

My second baby quilt

I started this quilt back in August or September, for my friend Liz.  I had every intention of getting it done before I left the States, and then I got super busy saying goodbye to everyone so I didn’t get it done.  Then I had every intention of getting it done during Mark’s 2 weeks off after he got back from the deployment in October, but I was enjoying my time with him after not seeing him for 6.5 months and I didn’t work on the quilt at all.  Then I made it my goal to finish it before Ben was born (due mid-Dec), and that just didn’t happen either.  I did try to stipple quilt it while Mark was on his 10 day paternity leave.  I got the whole thing done and then turned it over and the back of the quilt had little “rats nests” all over it where the thread had come out too much.  It looked horrible, so I spent the rest of his paternity leave with my seam ripper taking all of that stitching out.  After his paternity leave was over, I didn’t work on it at all because I was learning to keep my head above water with 2 kids.

 

 

So when we decided that everyone was coming back to the States for Mark’s SOS course, I knew I had to get it done before we left.  Liz’s baby was almost 6 months old at that point…  So I buckled down and managed to finish it and get it mailed before we can back to the States.  I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.  It was a very easy pattern and the top came together really quickly.  It just took me forever to actually quilt it.  Again, it’s not perfect, but I’m still pretty new at quilting.  Finishing it up made me miss sewing.  Too bad I wasn’t able to bring my machine back to the States with me.  I would have had a lot of time to work on my quilting while we’re here.  Oh well.  I’ve taken up trying to run instead.

I love the owl fabric I used in this.  It’s bright and colorful – my favorite type of fabric.  I wasn’t positive Liz was having a girl when I started this, but I took my chances with the pink and it worked out in the end.  And luckily it’s a pretty good sized quilt for a baby quilt so she should still get lots of use out of it, even though she’s half a year old.

Thanks for all your advice and help and support during my bout with GD, Liz!  You were more helpful than anyone in Italy, even from across the ocean!  Hope you enjoy the quilt!

Ben at 4 months old

On Easter Sunday Ben turned 4 months old.  Unfortunately the little dude is sick, again.  He got sick 3 weeks ago on the plane to the States, got better for a little bit, but now he’s back to coughing and sneezing and has a runny nose.  Poor little guy.  I took him to the doctor yesterday just to make sure that it was just a cold like I suspected, and it was.  His lungs sounded good and the doctor said to just let it run it’s course.

Ben is wearing 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers.  He’s starting to drink 6 ounces during some feedings but usually drinks closer to 4.  He’s shown us the signs of being ready to start solids, so we’ve started giving him a little bit, but I’ll write more on that in a different post.

Ben is a pretty good natured little guy.  He’s happiest in someone’s arms (mostly mine), facing out.  He loves to stand up though and any time you put him on his feet, he locks his legs and stands there supporting himself.  He likes to look at himself in the mirror and he’s discovered his hands and feet this month.  He will actually grab his toys to bring them to his mouth to chew on now and he likes to grab his feet also.  He pretty much hates his car seat and gets fussy any time we put him in it.  I think he gets hot in it and he doesn’t like staring at the back of the seat in car rides.  Abbie was the same way.  He’s not a big fan of tummy time and has rolled over a few times, but nothing consistently, and he doesn’t roll from back to front yet.  He loves his baths and he usually likes to ride in the stroller as long as it’s moving.  He’s so good in the stroller sometimes I think he’s fallen asleep, but he normally doesn’t.  He just chills out and enjoys the ride.

When I had Ben at the doctors on Monday, he weighed 13lbs13oz with his diaper on and a onesie on, and he was 25” long, so he’s still gaining weight.  Three weeks ago he weighed 12lb8oz, so he’s up around another pound.  He’s a very observant baby.  He will study things and he loves to watch people and will watch people walk by.  We’ve had quite a few strangers comment about how they’re amazed by how he watches things so closely.  Abbie was similar when she was younger.  She was always studying things, but Abbie was very serious most of the time and Ben gives smiles much more freely than Abbie did.

As usual, our biggest issue is sleep.  Lately Ben has been waking up at LEAST 4 times a night, sometimes as much as 10.  It is exhausting and I just don’t know what to do to get him to sleep for longer stretches at night.  He’s not hungry because he’ll drink an ounce and be out again, but then wakes up an hour later.  We try to get him to bed around 9:30pm and he’ll usually fuss a time or two between then and 1am.  He’s up screaming usually at 1am, 2am and then around 4am.  When he wakes up at 5am, I usually will feed him 4 ounces if I haven’t done it previously and then he usually gets 4 more ounces around 8am.  But last night he was up more than every hour and it’s just exhausting and frustrating, especially since he wants to take these marathon naps during the day.  I wake him up after he’s slept for 2 hours during a nap and he gets SO mad and cries and cries until I put him down to sleep again.  It wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t sharing a room with him right now, but we are and will be for the next month and a half.  Every noise he makes wakes me up and I can tell when he’s waking up and getting ready to cry, so then I just lay there and wait for it.  It will be nice for him to be in his own room and actually be sleeping through the night.  I’m sure I’ll get him sleeping through the night while we’re here and then we’ll go home and go back 7 time zones and have to start all over again.  Oh well.  His cuteness ALMOST makes up for it.  =)  It’s hard to stay mad at this face for too long, no matter how sleep deprived I am.

Easter 2012

We had a good Easter here in Alabama.  We went to a contemporary service at St. James Methodist and then went to a brunch at Maxwell’s Officers Club.  The brunch was decent, but for $25 per person, I was expecting there to be more variety and better food.  They had a singer playing the guitar and singing and he didn’t stop the entire time we were eating and had a really good variety of songs that he played.  That was probably the best part of the brunch!

The Easter Bunny was handing out candy and he kink of caught Abbie off guard.  She didn’t see him until he was at the table next to us and she went and ran to Mark as soon as she saw him.  She was interested in him, but was pretty nervous when he got up close.  She was hanging on to Mark for dear life (and he loved every minute of it).  She liked the bunny a lot better when he was across the room and went on and on about how nice he was after he left.

We hope you all had a very happy Easter!!

MFF and 5QF

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed?  I was at the Social Security office applying for Ben’s SS# and Abbie decided to have an epic meltdown while I was at the window.  She was screaming and crying and making a huge scene in a very quiet place.  I was in the middle of the application with the social security guy so I couldn’t leave easily and the more I tried to get her to shut up, the more noise she made, until the security guard came over and told her she needed to be quiet.  And with all of her screaming, Ben got upset and decided to make it a duet.  It was great…  One of my finest parenting moments for sure.  And if I could just erase that from my memory (and everyone else’s) that would be great.
2. What was your favorite thing that happened in March? Coming back to the States!!  I didn’t realize how much I missed the USA until we got back here.
3. Check your phone… who was the last person you called and what is your favorite thing about them?  The last person I called was my husband and I have many, many favorite things about him.  Way too many things to list.
4. If you were a crayon, what color would you be and why?  Some sort of teal, because it’s my favorite and it can be paired with brighter and darker colors and still fit in.
5. What are you looking forward to in April?  My parents meeting my son for the first time.  (He’s 4 months old.)  And starting him on solids.  And spending the whole month in the States!!

1. Would you prefer having people over for dinner or going to their house?  I prefer having people over because I love to cook and I don’t have to worry about my kids getting in to other people’s stuff or spilling things or making messes.
2. Favorite Bible verse and why?  “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  I like it because I think it’s true.
3. What was the first concert you ever attended, and the most recent one?  My first concert was a Newsboys concert and my most recent one was a Lady Antebellum last summer.
4. The year is 2025. What are you doing, and what have you done?  I honestly have no clue what I’ll be doing at that time.  I’ll have 2 teenagers by that time and maybe another child???  Not sure.  We’ll probably have moved at least 2-3 more times, but who knows to where.  I don’t know if I’ll be working or what I’ll be doing.  The joys of being a military spouse! 
5. What's your favorite Easter treat?  Anything chocolate!  The same as my favorite “any other holiday” treat!  =)

March 2012 Abbie-isms

*We were driving by a farm on our way to base.  Abbie pointed it out and said, “I bet the name of that farm is E-I-E-I-O.”

*Also on our way to base, Abbie noticed a contrail (the white lines) of a jet in the sky that was a perfect circle.  She said, “Look, it’s a circle!”.  A while later she looked up again and half of the contrail had blown away and she said, “Look, now it’s a semi-circle!”  (She’s 2 years 10 months old….)

*We were stopped behind a car at a stoplight and the light turned green and the car in front of us didn’t move.  Abbie, ever the back seat driver, said “You can go now car!”.

*Abbie was telling us a story (don’t remember the story now), but during it she said, “And I was totally freaking out!!”

*One morning Abbie got up and came into the kitchen with us, looked at the floor and said, “This floor is just filthy!”.  (Thank God we didn’t have guests over at the time…)

*Abbie refers to her shadow as her “shade-o”.

*This month Abbie has really gotten in to pretending.  She has an imaginary friend, Ian, who she’s always talking about.  She holds his hand a lot and never forgets about him.  When she gets out of the car, she has to climb back in every. single. time. to get “Ian”, and then she holds her hand in a fist to show that she’s holding his hand.  She always likes to bring along her “baby tarantula” (thanks to the episode of Max and Ruby).

*Abbie was touching Mark’s face after he hadn’t shaved in a day or two.  She asked him, “Do all daddy’s have this?”

*When we got to our apartment in Alabama Mark took Abbie for a little walk.  On the way back he asked Abbie if she knew which place was ours.  (They all look alike.)  She pointed to the one we lived in and he told her she has a good sense of direction.  She said, “Yeah, that means I know where we live.”

*We passed a Jeep and it caught Abbie’s eye.  She said, “I just love that big, beautiful, yellow car.”  LOL!!

*We went to Target here in Montgomery and as SOON as we walked in the door, Abbie said, “I want some popcorn!!!”.  One, we’d never set foot in that Target.  Two, I couldn’t smell it and I doubt she could either because she’s all congested.  Three, it’s been over 6 months since she’s been in a Target.

*Mark said something about something being stupid while we were riding in the car.  Abbie, who’s always monitoring the air waves, said “We don’t say stupid guy.”  We agreed with her and then she added, “We don’t say stupid lady either.”  We agreed with her again.  She was quiet for a few seconds and then said, “We only say stupid dogs.  The stupid dogs always bark.”    Oh boy.

*Abbie was asking Mark if he was going to go to the park with us.  He told her that he had to go to work so he couldn’t go to the park.  She thought about it for a second and then said, “Are you sure your work’s not at the park?”

*We were stopped at a stoplight and there was a VW Bug waiting to turn in front of us.  Abbie saw it from the back seat and said, “Look!!!  That one looks like it’s just my size!!”

PS:  Abbie is completely day-time potty trained now!!  And she’s also waking up dry during most of her naps and sometimes even at night!

Callaway Gardens in GA

Today we drove over to GA to visit Callaway Gardens.  Mark had been there when he was younger and he wanted to go spend the day there, so off we went.  It started out kind of rainy and a little chilly (70 degrees), but eventually it got much nicer out.

We forgot that GA is an hour ahead of AL, so we almost missed the Birds of Prey show looking for a place to eat lunch, but it all worked out in the end and we got some good pictures on our drive around the resort.

We took the stroller and once again, I’m so glad we brought that thing back with us.  Ben generally really enjoys riding in the stroller and he’s usually pretty content in there.  Abbie goes between running around on her own and then when she gets tired she’ll camp out in the stroller for a bit before she’s off running again.  It’s great!

(I just love baby feet!!)

The Birds of Prey show was pretty neat, although I didn’t get very many good pictures.  It’s hard to take pictures with a 2 year old bouncing all around and a baby in your lap, but I got a few decent ones.

After the bird show we decided to walk to the Butterfly House.  It was a beautiful walk and I would love to go back when our kids are older and we can rent bikes to ride around.  We passed about 70 people riding bikes and it looked like a lot of fun!  But it was also fun wandering along, listening to Abbie tell us about the baby tarantula she was carrying around.  (She has QUITE the imagination these days.)

(Abbie and Mark checking out a lizard.)

Ben enjoyed the Butterfly House.  He was being a snuggly little guy and really checking things out.  We got a few comments today about how alert he is and how he’ll turn his head to follow things he’s watching.  He’s just like Abbie was at his age (God help us), he doesn’t want to miss much.  And I like how he and Mark are dressed in very similar outfits.

We got Abbie a balloon at the Butterfly House and she had a great time dragging that thing all over the place.  I’m surprised she didn’t want to sleep with it tonight.

It took me a while to get this picture of this spider and web, but I finally figured it out!

Not a perfect picture, but the only family picture we got while we were there.  Next time we’ll get Ben out of the stroller.

Lastly we fed the turtles.  I couldn’t believe how many turtles there were!!  Abbie loved feeding them!  She was trying her hardest to get more food to come out of that dispenser.

One more picture by the dog statue.  Abbie did great at Callaway Gardens.  I think she talked the entire time we were there.  =)

However, she was quiet for at least a few minutes on the way home.