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Friday, October 21, 2011

The End Of The World

So, I posted a while back about it being the end of the world, as I know it.
I know that seems like a dramatic statement to make, but the truth is that our world is about to change dramatically.

Next year, My Husband will be retiring from the military.  And our world will never be the same.
I'm sad for him in some ways.  I know he wanted to stay in.  I know there are still things he would like to do, and he loves his job.  You can't ask for more than that with any career.
However, as much as I am sad for him, in some ways, I am very, very happy.

The last eleven plus years of my life have revolved around his career.  Every decision made has been affected by what he does.  Even my wedding date was changed, and our honeymoon scrapped when a catastrophe struck, and his school schedule suddenly changed.  He left me 3 months pregnant with The Big One to deploy to the middle east in support of the operation in Iraq.  He came home just before she was born, but we didn't get to live together again because of schools and things until she was 15 months old.
We have moved more times than I have fingers to count on.
My body has been corrupted by the military medical system, and I will live with that for the rest of my life.
I could go on, but suffice to say, everything in our lives has been controlled in one way or another by his occupation.
No more.
There will be no more deployments after this one.  I thank God for that.  I don't know if I could do this again.
I'm not just glad to be done with all that for me.  I'm very thankful that my children will have their father back.  No words can express how happy I am about that.
They have missed him.   We have missed him.
I don't know what he will be doing yet, or where we will be going.
Our future, for the first time, is wide open.
He can choose a new career that he hopefully will love as well.
We can live anywhere we want.
Most importantly, we can be together.
I know the next year or so will be tumultuous.  I know it will be scary and exciting.  I know it will also go by  very fast, but I look forward to it, and all the changes it will bring for us.
Wish us luck in our new lives, trying to learn to be a civilian family like the rest of the world finally.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

No More Soup Poop

This post is going to be really crappy.  By that, I mean it will be a post all about crap, poop, or what ever you want to call it.
As your children grow up, you tend to forget, or really block out, many of the things you endure when they are babies.  In my case, I think I blocked out the soup poop.  Soup poop what I like to call a totally liquid bowel movement that babies can have in the beginning stages.
Having a baby that is only fed breast milk, they can only poop liquid.  Its awesome.
The Littlest One inherited her father's digestive track, and I can assure you she won't thank him later.  That kid can poop like no other baby I have ever seen.  She actually managed to squirt poop on my shirt one day during a change.  It was amazing, totally freaky, and gross all together.
Her poops are also massive.  She eats a lot, but only poops once a day.  So, you get a massive, totally liquid poop.  Again, awesome.  It almost always comes out of the diaper.  It can't help but do that.  We seriously deal with a blow out practically every day.
So, when the Dr told me that as I started her on food, she may get a little constipated, I laughed and told her I would welcome it.  I think the Dr was shocked, and she ask me if she still had loose stools.  When I described what i dealt with, she told me I might like what I get then.
I have to tell you, after just the first day of food, I already do.  The smell is terrible, far worse than before, but we managed to get a non liquid poop, that was much more manageable!  I was so thankful, and I look forward to the poops getting less and less soupy as we go on.
I realize that few people will read through this post.  After all, not many people will really want to read about poop in general, but seriously, people, I've never been so happy to share such crappy news in my life as to tell you that my daughter now poops like a normal person.  It really is awesome.

Monday, October 10, 2011

The Breast Kind of Meal

Yesterday, I finally gave The Littlest One food.  I was going to hold off until 6 months, but she just kept reaching for my food, and so I gave in.
Truth be told, I've had the food and stuff for weeks, along with the go ahead from her Dr some time ago.  I just couldn't do it.  Part of me just doesn't want her to grow up so fast, especially knowing that she is my last.
However, let this be a joyous post in celebration of her major milestone: Eating.
I opted for baby oatmeal cereal.  You know, that noxious smelling pasty stuff that we give our babies in lieu of real food at first.  I always make mine with breast milk.  Generally, I will pump enough milk for the cereal, the pour it into a bowl and mix it.  With the first feeding, though, you give them so little, that I felt the pump wasn't warranted.  I could just quickly, and privately, express enough to make that little bit of cereal I needed.  I've done it this way in the past, too.  However, in the past, I've never had a child old enough to really question it.  Let me just say that adding an older child into the mix really changes things up.
As I was prepping The Littlest One's food, the big one comes in and looks at what I am doing: mixing a little cereal into the breast milk I had in one of the baby bowls.  She stopped, stared at the bowl for just a second, then looked at me with huge eyes.

"Did you squirt milk into the bowl?"
Yes.  I just expressed some milk to make the cereal with.
"Oh that is so gross, mom!"
What?  She gets breast milk all the time.
"No, mom!  That is just gross.  Into the bowl mom?!?"
Well, what do you want me to do?  I have to give her milk.

At that point, she started doing that laugh, head shake thing you do when you have just witnessed someone do something that you think was ridiculously gross but still kind of funny, like the kid who licked paste in school,  and just walked away.
It wasn't the fact that I gave the baby milk in her cereal, but the fact that I expressed it directly into the bowl that bothered her.
I guess I could have used the pump, but for only a couple of ounces the first feeding, why bother?  I did it privately, I just used a funny receptacle.  Same difference to me, but apparently not to The Biggest One.
The Littlest One liked it no matter where it came from, and I don't think she will care in the future, either.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

OOD 10/9

Today's fabulous outfit includes a very gurly skull shirt, multicolored heart short, Dollywood hat and about 15 bracelets.  Enjoy.