Christmas in Houston after all....

After spending all night in the airport in Seattle we didn't give up after all....we were able to get a flight out of Seattle in between snow storms so we did arrive in Houston in time to spend Christmas with my family! We're enjoying our time here catching up with family and friends. We will be back in Seattle next weekend so look forward to stories and pictures from our trip then.

Snowed In

I was so prepared for our trip to Houston. I've put my time as a stay-at-home mom to good use! I planned our meals down to the last breakfast so that we wouldn't have food go to waste in the fridge while we were out of town. I carefully packed suitcases for everyone. I had the ultimate supply of dollar store toys and craft projects for Olivia to play with on the airplane. The diaper bag was fully stocked and perfectly organized. We've had quite a bit of snow here lately so we wanted to leave plenty of time to get to the airport, get parked, and checked in. I checked the status of our flight constantly all the way to the airport. I'll save the details for another day but we were snowed in. Our flight was due to leave at 6pm and then got delayed and delayed again, then we got on the plane only to sit there for a few hours and get off again so that it could be canceled. We then tried to go standby this morning on a couple other flights out of Seattle but those flights were canceled as well. We spent the night on the airport. It was terrible! We won't be able to get home for Christmas. Thanks to all that careful packing we arrived back home to a completely empty fridge. But then to end on a positive note, thanks to the fantastic diaper bag and dollar store toys! You absolutely do need 3 changes of clothes for each child under 3, you never know when you'll be sleeping in an airport or running a mini-daycare for other stranded holiday travelers.

Home for the Holidays

We've spent enough time as an Army family to know not to ever take being home for the holidays for granted. Mike is due to deploy during the first half of 2009 so we're being sure to treasure every moment. My heart goes out to our friends who are not blessed to be together this year for the holidays. You are in our thoughts and prayers.

All the snow we've had here lately means that Mike has been getting home from work early! How could I get mad at my husband for tracking snow in and taking off his wet boots in the middle of the living room when I saw him having this adorable moment with Olivia.

Merry Christmas

Since we're leaving tomorrow we had a mini-Christmas celebration here. My favorite and most useful gift so far is our new gorillapod tripod for the camera. We used it to get some great pictures of the whole family!

So proud

I am determined not to even begin potty training until I am positive that Olivia is ready. She's been interested for a while but I have been hesitating for one reason or another.....I wanted to make sure she was able to get her pants on and off before we started, I wanted to make sure that she's able to tell me when she needs to go, etc. Well I am reminded again that parenting has absolutely nothing to do with what I want! While I was doing dishes in the kitchen Olivia went into the bathroom and took off her pants and her diaper, then I heard her ask for help. I went into the bathroom to help her and she said potty so I put her on the potty where she proceeded to do her business (number 2) then she said all done, wiped herself, asked for help down, asked for help flushing the toilet, and then told me she needed to wash her hands! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! I wasn't ready for her to begin potty training, but I guess she is. And just to prove that this entire episode wasn't a fluke, she did the entire routine again later in the evening with Mike.

Christmas Cookies

We're leaving to spend Christmas in Houston on Sunday so Santa is visiting our house here tonight. Mike, Olivia and I all decorated Christmas cookies tonight to leave out for Santa. Yummy!

Snow Day

We've had quite a bit of snow here in Washington over the last couple of days. I am so glad that I don't have to drive anywhere! Here are a few pictures of the fun we've had in the snow....

I just love those little footprints in the snow!

Gingerbread House

I am absolutely loving staying home with Olivia. for the last year she has been in day care while I've been at work so I feel like I'm getting to know her all over again. This past weekend we built a gingerbread house from a little kit I picked up at Costco. It was the best $9 I've spent in a long time! We had an absolute blast. I put the house together and Olivia snacked and decorated. Olivia also enjoyed picking the candy decorations off the house and licking them then putting them back on. Sure our house is far from perfect but we did it together and that's what counts

Tummy Time

Tummy time is a joint activity in our house now, it's not just for Peter and Olivia but for Olivia's doll too!

The Greatest Gift

I truly believe that the greatest gift that Mike and I could have possibly given Olivia this Christmas is her brother. Mike and I were prepared for how much we would love and adore the newest member of our family but we were not at all prepared to see how much Olivia would absolutely adore her little brother. She gets so excited when we let her hold him that she starts trembling. The smile on her face is absolutely priceless. I feel so blessed that she seems to have made the transition from being the only child to the older child so easily! I am sure that later on there will be plenty of occasions and situations in which she is not so happy to have a little brother and I can't wait to show her this picture, maybe it will remind her how much she loves her brother after all....

Good Morning

I love mornings with Olivia! She's always been a morning person. As someone who is not a morning person I admire the way she wakes up instantly and is ready to face the day! She doesn't lay around in bed trying wishing for an extra 5 minutes of sleep, she doesn't stumble groggily around as she tries to get dressed. Here's a brief run down of how my day started this morning.....

7:55 am--I hear Olivia shouting in her room (we still use the baby monitor so she's not actually shouting but since the baby monitor is on my nightstand it sounds like she is). It's absolutely the best alarm clock ever! Olivia is becoming more and more verbal and she's taken to using all the words she knows at once just because she can so I hear something like: "morning, thank you, baby, cheese, morning, mama, baby, hi, dadda, morning, bye, thank you". I treasure hearing these words all one right after another. She knows what each of them means, I think she's just practicing.

8:15 am--I've gotten dressed and gotten Peter dressed and I head in to see Olivia. She's sitting in her bed and as soon as I round the corner into her room she greats me with the biggest smile!

8:20 am--After the best good morning hugs and kisses I discover that Olivia has managed to unzip her pj's and take off half her diaper. Who knows when she did this because I realize that her diaper has leaked all over. We head for the bathtub.

8:25 am--During her impromptu bath Olivia jabbers away, telling me morning repeatedly. Peter starts to fuss as we finish her bath and Olivia announces that she's "all done" with her bath and "wants baby".

8:30 am--We get dressed and off we go to find the baby and start the day. Here's the picture I took of Olivia telling Peter good morning.

What a great quote!

I have always been a reader. I had plenty of favorite books when I was growing up and I realized the other day that these classics were so much better than the trash that I read now. I loved Little Women, the Anne of Green Gables series, Caddie Woodlawn, and the Little House on the Prairie books. I read this quote the other day from Caddie Woodlawn and I loved it so much I just had to share. Oh and by the way Caddie Woodlawn was written by a Gamma Phi Beta....


"It is the sisters and wives and mothers, you know, Caddie, who keep the world sweet and beautiful...A woman's task is to teach...gentleness and courtesy and love and kindness. It's a big task, too, Caddie-harder than cutting trees or building mills or damming rivers. It takes nerve and courage and patience, but good women have those things...A woman's work is something fine and noble to grow up to..."

Guilty Pleasures

So those of you who know me well know that I am completely obsessed with reality tv shows. I'm not at all selective, in fact, the trashier the better. Give me a reality show and I'm happy!

Since Mike has been in the field I've discovered my newest favorite guilty pleasure--reality tv online! Peter is a pretty good sleeper and at this point he is usually waking up once a night for me to nurse him. I feel slightly guilty that I'm not using this time to bond with my adorable son but really, how much bonding goes on at 4 am when I'm half asleep. Instead I've taken to bringing the laptop to bed and when Peter wakes up for his feeding I log on and catch up on my reality tv. So far this week I've watched the entire season of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge "The Island". I don't know what I'm going to do when Mike gets back from the field, something tells me that he won't enjoy being woken up in the middle of the night by the drama of reality tv, but then there are always headphones :)....

Family Date Night

We finished dinner a little early the other night and we decided to have a mini-Family Date Night and go for ice cream. We drove to the nearest Cold Stone and got some ice cream. It was the best way to end a weekend! The three of us shared some ice cream (Peter was there too but of course he couldn't share in the ice cream fun). Olivia helped me pick and we settled on chocolate ice cream with peanut butter and fudge in a waffle bowl. But the best part was that Olivia ate most of the ice cream by herself. It's amazing how much her spoon using skills improve when it's ice cream as opposed to soup or something less exciting.

Church Behavior-To use childcare or not

When Olivia was younger we we were careful to arrive at mass a little early each Sunday so that we could be sure and get "good seats". Seats appropriate for a young couple with a young child. We were sure to sit in at the end of a row, preferably close to the cry room so that we could easily get up and leave if Olivia started fussing. This past Sunday, I found myself kneeling after Communion, discreetly trying to pick up bright orange goldfish from all over the floor. We have become one of those obnoxious families. Our child brings a bag full of toys and snacks to church, she crawls all over the pew and kneelers, the list goes on. When it was just Mike, Olivia, and I it didn't seem to be such a big deal. Between the two of us we could keep her entertained and still pay attention and actively participate in mass. Somehow that's not the case anymore.

Each Sunday as we walk into church we see the sign advertising childcare down the hall and I'm torn. Part of me really appreciates that we go to church together as a family. How will Olivia learn to behave in mass if she doesn't ever attend mass. But then at the same time I am embarrassed that I have to pick up goldfish from all over the floor. Mike and I aren't able to devote all our attention to what is going on in mass because we're taking turns trying to keep Olivia occupied. There isn't a cry room in the church we attend now so that's not an option. So we struggle, to use child care or not to use child care........

What a Week!

TGIF!!!! So my first official week with both Olivia and Peter is over. When Mike came home from work today he said that he hadn't seen me look so joyful to see him in a while. I was joyful, I was relieved, I was ecstatic! I was prepared for being busy but it's not the endless list of things to do that is exhausting, it's the pressure of caring for two human beings that is exhausting. The little things.....the diapers, fixing meals, cleaning up, are becoming routine but knowing that I am the only adult around, the only one in charge of these two little beings that are depending on me completely is emotionally draining!



This has been a week of highs and lows but am so blessed to have this time to spend with Olivia and Peter. Here are just a few highlights (and some lowlights) from the week

• Olivia decided to help me make her dinner and she added dried cranberries to her bowl of spaghetti noodles. She LOVED it (see picture below)
• While I was feeding Peter the other day Olivia managed to climb into the washing machine and proceeded to get stuck. She then freaked out when she realized that she was stuck which made things worse. The only way I was able to calm her down enough so that I could help her out of the washing machine was by promising to let her hold Peter.
• The house is a mess. Around Wednesday I completely gave up, there are toys everywhere, crumbs all over the place and the kitchen is a disaster.
• Olivia decided to help me sweep the floor, as I was positively reinforcing her good behavior she then decided to stab me in the behind with a fork. I would have disciplined her for this inappropriate behavior but then I caught myself telling her that she was going to the corner because forks are for eating not stabbing people. As I realized what I was saying I started giggling and couldn't keep a straight face.
• Peter now officially weighs more than he did at birth. He lost almost a pound from his birthweight but he's now gained that back and then some!
  

So in love

Peter will be 4 weeks old on Tuesday and I can't believe how much has changed in just a few weeks. Every member of the Leiva family is completely in love! I have started to treasure the time that I spend alone with Peter in the middle of the night when I feed him. The first thing Olivia says every morning when she gets up is "baby" and then off she goes running to find him. She gets so excited when we let her hold, hug, and kiss him that she can barley stand it. Mike can't wait to snuggle with Peter when he gets home from work and I've never seen two people more relaxed with each other than when Peter and Mike fall asleep together on the couch.

Happy Thanksgiving

Olivia has perfect timing and she decided to add "thank you" to her vocabulary on Thanksgiving Day. She'd technically said thank you before but on Thanksgiving she started to say it spontaneously all on her own. She definately has saying thank you down after receiving something but she still gets a little confused about what to say when someone gives her something. It's so nice to hear her say thank you when I give her dinner or change her diaper! It's so unexpected, it's such a nice surprise!

We had some friends and their 3 year old son and newborn daughter over for Thanksgiving Dinner. We co-cooked this year which made the turkey day prep much easier. I cooked the turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberries, and a corn casserole while our friends brought over all the sides and dessert. We had a low key thanksgiving but it was nice and we're most thankful that we were all together (even though this is a horrible picture).

You can check out more pictures on Shutterfly: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1AcNWTRm5ZsWH9

Fun with the Family

My parents were able to come up for the weekend after Peter was born. We had a great weekend and it was their first time to Washington state. Mike arranged for my dad to ride in one of his Stryker vehicles on Friday then we all went to the Olympia Farmer's Market on Saturday. Sunday everyone went to Cabella's (ultimate sporting goods store) while I got to stay home and rest with Peter. We had a great time and here are a few pictures of Dad and the Stryker.

At the Farmer's Market Olivia didn't want to ride in her stroller but she loved pushing it around. I think it'll be a while before we let her push Peter in the stroller but she had a blast!

Mother of Two

So today was my first official day on my own with two kids. Mike is now back at work and all of our family visitors have returned home. It was a little hectic.....

5:15 am--Peter wakes up and I start feeding him


5:30 am--Mike leaves for work. This is it, I'm officially outnumbered


5:55 am--Peter finishes and goes back to sleep


6:15 am--I am finally able to fall back to sleep for a few more precious minutes of sleep


6:45 am--I hop into the shower. I know that by the time I get out of the shower I will hear both Peter and Olivia crying but I selfishly enjoy my nice hot shower.


6:55 am--Sure enough I get out of the shower and hear both Peter and Olivia are awake. Peter is hungry again and Olivia is singing at the top of her lungs.


7:00 am--Olivia seems happy enough so I focus on Peter, he gets a new diaper and a pacifier and I go to get Olivia.


7:15 am--Olivia is especially feisty this morning and refuses to sit still while I get her dressed. She insists on picking out her clothes which I let her do but she kicked me while I was changing her diaper which resulted in an immediate time out in the corner. Olivia was upset about being put in the corner and she stood up to test my resolve (her favorite activity lately). I told her to sit back down and she "responded" by squatting and peeing in the corner.

7:30 am--Clean up the accident in the corner. Get Olivia and Peter dressed and head downstairs.

7:50 am--Breakfast. Cereal for Olivia and I sit down at the kitchen table to nurse Peter. I experience a few moments of confidence. I'm totally doing this! Both kids are happy and eating. I am the ultimate multi-tasker!

8:05 am--Phone rings, Mike has a question about paperwork that he's left in his office here at home. I frantically search through the desk to find the paperwork all the while still trying to feed Peter.

8:15 am--Olivia announces that she's "all done" and before I can do anything she tries to simultaneously get down from her booster seat and carry her bowl to the sink. This results in her spilling her bowl of milk all over the floor.

8:30 am--Breakfast is over begin cleaning. Olivia's speech teacher is coming to the house for their weekly sessions now that she's not at school all the time and the house is a mess. I spend the next 45 minutes frantically cleaning. The speech teacher is due to arrive at 9:30.

9:15 am--The house is reasonably clean and I sit down to feed Peter again. Olivia takes this opportunity to take out all the toys that I have just finished putting away. She's being quiet and amusing herself so I don't really care.

9:20 am--I hear the garage door open and Mike walks in. It's the day before Thanksgiving and it turns out they've all been released early. My first day solo with 2 kids is over. It's not even 10 am and I'm exhausted and completely relieved that he's home early! He's just in time! I finish feeding Peter and happily pass him off to Mike so that I can spend the next hour and a half playing with Olivia and her speech teacher.

I learned a couple of very valuable lessons from my first day alone with two kids:

1. I know that I will be able to do this
2. I will happily take all the help I can get

Family of Four

We're still here, just enjoying each other as we are adjusting to being a family of four! Olivia is still loving the baby and being a big sister. I'm really surprised at how helpful she is! I wasn't expecting her to be so helpful but she loves to get Peter's blanket or his pacifier or bring me the boppy pillow.

Mike's parents were here when we were in the hospital and my parents are here through this weekend. It's been great to have all the help around the house. Olivia has loved the extra attention from her grandparents. We've just been busy spending time together and hanging out.

Pictures of Peter

I just posted some pictures of Peter on Shutterfly, click on the link below to check them out:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1AcNWTRm5ZsWHs

It's a BOY!

Mike and I are proud to introduce the newest member of our family......Peter Salvador Leiva. Peter was born via c-section on 11/11/08 (veterans day) at 8:57 am. He weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs, 3 oz and is 20 and 3/4 inches long. He does have a lot of hair but it's nothing compared to the mop of hair that Olivia was born with! The delivery was surprisingly smooth, the surgery went well. The doctors were all impressed to see that Peter's umbilical cord was tied in a knot. Apparently this is a sign of good luck or good fortune in many Asian cultures but I can't seem to find anything on google about it. Anyone know anything about this?

Peter and I are doing well and resting comfortably. Thank you so much for all the thoughts and well wishes. Here's the first of many pictures to come.....

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day! I can't wait! Mike and I have spent all day reminding each other that we'll finally get to meet baby leiva tomorrow. The car seat is installed in the car, the bags are packed and loaded, we're ready. Now all we have to do is get to the hospital by 6 am tomorrow. I know that I will miss Olivia but she seems to have adjusted to Mike's parents and she didn't even cry when Mike's mom tucked her into bed tonight. We'll be in touch......

Baby Update

So the update is that there isn't an update. Mike's parents got here this past Thursday and we've spent the weekend showing them around the area and watching them get to know Olivia. Unless something happens before then it is looking like Tuesday is the big day! We can't wait to finally meet the newest member of our family!

Elections-West Coast Style

So last night's election night was our first one spent on the west coast. Throughout the election season we've been able to experience the best that the politically active northwest has to offer so we were looking forward to settling in for a long night of watching all the election coverage. Last night we got Olivia into bed around 7:30 and ordered pizza so we could veg out in front of the tv, watching the coverage. We had just settled in with our pizza and drinks (virgin mojito for me), we were happily channel surfing between the major networks, starting to get excited about the hours of fun ahead only to discover that right around 8pm our time, it was over. That's it, no more fun, no more diagrams of red and blue states or television anchors excitedly debating split states. The polls had barely closed here and a winner was announced. It's not that we're not excited about having a new president but seriously, it was over already! We miss the east coast, the election parties, the sitting glued to the tv for hours watching television anchors with their fancy diagrams. It must be very disappointing to live in Hawaii, you're half way through the work day and the whole thing is over.....

I seriously cannot stop

This past weekend in addition to celebrating Halloween we continued our mission to organize the house. Mike is being such an understanding husband, I know that I am driving him absolutely crazy. He keeps trying to get me to rest and I keep finding random projects that I have to do. Over the weekend I ....

• Re-arranged the living room furniture again
• Took everything out of the kitchen cabinets and then put it back in the cabinets but this time it's much more organized
• Washed 5 loads of laundry (we actually did have this much laundry, I didn't just wash clothes that were already clean, that really would be crazy and laundry isn't my favorite chore)
• Took all the books off the bookshelves so that I could make sure the shelves were really clean before replacing all the books
• Took everything out of the linen closet in the master bathroom, refolded and reorganized, and replaced it

I think I even inspired Mike to do a little nesting himself. He went through all of his army gear that had been stored in the garage and moved it to the closet in the guest bedroom. Now both cars fit in the garage!

Halloween Fun

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween! Here are some pictures of the Halloween activities we've participated in over the last week....the Fall Festival at Olivia's school, decorating and carving pumpkins, decorating halloween cookies and trick or treating.

I've uploaded some of the other fun Halloween pictures to shutterfly so if you're interested in seeing more Halloween fun check out this link:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1AcNWTRm5ZsWHf

More Pictures

Just in case you can't get enough of Life with the Leivas here's a link to some pictures I just posted on Shutterfly....
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1AcNWTRm5ZsWHO

Just when you think you know what's going on....

everything changes! One of the most challenging things about being married to someone in the military is that the only thing that ever stays the same is that nothing ever stays the same. Change is the only constant.
In my current state of nesting/uberorganizing I really wish that I could control every aspect of everything going on in our lives. Today was just another reminder that I am absolutely not the one in control and I should just let go and let God. Why is this lesson so hard for me to remember!
I know I'm being way overdramatic here, Mike just found out he's staying with his current unit a bit longer than expected. He had been thinking he'd move to a different unit around the end of the year, now he found out it's more like the end of next year. In the grand scheme of things this really isn't a big deal (at least he's home) but when you'd been looking forward to something and it doesn't happen it's always a little disapointing. Now that I've complained about it I can get over it!

Pizza

We recently discovered that Olivia loves pizza. We don't eat pizza all that often, her first taste of pizza wasn't until her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese a few months ago. This past weekend we had dinner at a local pizza parlor and were reminded how much Olivia really does like pizza. She likes it so much she even says pizza, except she pronounces it "pizas", if only she liked broccoli as much!

Nesting

The countdown has officially begun. I have just 14 days until my due date and my nesting instincts have officially begun. I'm amazed that I can be so tired yet I'm completely unable to rest until I finish these projects. It's compulsive! I can't stop myself. I'm only working 3 and a half days a week at this point so that "rest" but really I'm spending that time doing all the things that MUST be done before the baby arrives.....like re-arrange the living room furniture. Here's a quick rundown of some of the projects that I completed over the last week:

• Rearrange the living room furniture
• Switch the coffee tables in the living room and the upstairs family room (fortunately Mike did this one as one of the coffee tables is really heavy)
• Rearrange all the family pictures hanging upstairs in the family room
• Take digital pictures of Olivia's artwork then photoshop them into posters to be hung in her room (see picture #1 below)
• Scan all the random family pictures that Mike and I have, edit them and frame them (see picture #2 below)
• Clean out and organize the pantry (look for more on that in another blog post later)
• Pack my bag for the hospital
• Make 50 hand-made baby announcements to be sent after Baby Leiva's arrival
• Get Baby Leiva's room ready to go: involved 3 loads of laundry, folding, hanging, major cleaning and re-organization
• Uploaded hundreds of photos that we've taken over the last several months (expect a separate blog posting about that later on as well)
• Took everything out of the linen closet, washed and re-folded it

This list may sound a little ridiculous to you and I am aware that it is ridiculous. The point is for the most part our house is pretty clean. We are only a family of 3 and since we both work and Olivia is at school the house is empty from 7am to 5pm Monday through Friday. We don't have any pets so it doesn't really have that much time to get dirty.

This is a terrible picture but at least you get the idea. I took digital pictures of all of Olivia's artwork then I uploaded them to Shutterfly. I created two 20 x 30 collage posters of some of my favorite pieces.

Again, another terrible picture. We have tons of random pictures of Mike and I growing up and of Mike's family in Guatemala. I scanned them all and did some photo editing so that they now all have similar color tones.

So Tired...

When I was pregnant with Olivia I remember being tired towards the end of my pregnancy. In some ways I was secretly happy that Mike was busy in Iraq and all I had to do when I got home from work was lay on the couch and fall asleep for a couple hours, then go up to bed and go back to sleep. I could have peanut butter and crackers for dinner and no one cared.

I thought that I was tired at the beginning of this pregnancy and there were times that I was exhausted but now I only have a few weeks to go......26 days to be exact my exhaustion has reached a new level. Last night after I got home from work, I played with Olivia for a bit and cooked dinner and unpacked my purchases from a lunch shopping trip to babies 'r us. After dinner I was done, I sat down on the couch and I was so exhausted I could barely move. Mike had to force me to go upstairs and lay down and I was too tired to even argue with him. The weird part is that while my body is exhausted I just can't sleep. I can't get comfortable, I have to go to the bathroom constantly and no matter what I do I just keep thinking of these lists of things that need to be done before Baby Leiva arrives or before Mike's parents arrive, or before Christmas, etc. I really wish I could just crawl under my desk and take a nap, I wonder if anyone would notice?

Pumpkins

This past weekend we made our second annual family visit to the pumpkin patch. This year we went right around nap time which was poor planning on our part but we still had a great time. We went to the same pumpkin patch this time last year and I can't believe how much has changed! For starters I wasn't pregnant last year, Olivia was much more content to ride in the wagon last year and this year she enjoyed running around in the pumpkin patch and trying to push the wagon. She also picked her very own pumpkin and carried it all the way to the wagon to take home.

Noodles

I knew that I hadn't posted in a while but I didn't realize that it had been over a week! We've had a busy week but what's new about that, we're always busy.

This past weekend I took Friday off of work and enjoyed getting a manicure and pedicure with a girlfriend. Mike and I had a date night that evening when we went to his battalion formal. As far as formal military functions go it wasn't the most exciting ball we've been to but we enjoyed spending time out without Olivia. The guest speaker, Dana Bowman, was actually a motivational speaker so that was an interesting change. He's retired US Army who was injured in a skydiving accident. We met him in the receiving line and he asked if we knew if Baby Leiva was a boy or a girl. I told him we didn't know and were looking forward to finding out. When he went to shake Mike's hand he pulled him aside and assured him that it was a boy. Hmmmm.......we'll soon find out!

Over the weekend we spent time decorating for Halloween and going to the Steilacoom Apple Squeeze. This year we didn't squeeze our own cider but we did enjoy a couple glasses!

Over the weekend Olivia also decided that she does like noodles after all. I realize that many parents complain that all their child will eat is noodles but we've been trying to get Olivia to give noodles a try for over a year now. They seem like they'd be the perfect toddler food, they're easy to pick up, they're relatively bland. I've tried many different kinds of noodles: elbow macaroni, shells, bowtie pasta, penne, zitti, corkscrews, egg noodles, etc. I've tried different colored noodles and noodles with sauce and without. But Olivia has wanted nothing to do with any of them. Until now, she's finally decided that she was ready to eat a noodle and she loved it. Of course it's just my luck that after trying every brand of noodle on the market Olivia went for plain ol' spaghetti.

A New Week

I'm so happy that it's the start of a brand new week. Last week was crazy but we got through it. I ended up putting in a lot of extra hours at work but Homecoming was a success. By far the best part of the week was that Mike arrived home early from the field so instead of spending Friday and Saturday with her babysitter, Olivia got to spend quality time with Mike. Here's a recap of what we've been up to since the last post....

• Olivia is officially finished with the pacifier! The first 3 nights were the worst but we've made it through them! I still occasionally catch Olivia looking for a pacifier in some of her secret hiding places but she's easily distracted and doesn't seem to miss it! She's such a big girl!
• I had another ultrasound last week. The doctors had been concerned since my pregnant belly was measuring a bit larger than it should be. Baby Leiva is a little weighs a little over 4 lbs which is exactly how much it should weigh but it seems that there is a little bit of extra room in my uterus--the result of this being a second pregnancy, the uterus stretching more/faster, etc. Nothing to be concerned about and we can't wait to meet the newest member of our family! While we still don't know if it's a boy or a girl we do know that this baby also has some hair!
• Homecoming is OVER! I worked late several nights last week but it was so much easier to do so knowing that Mike was home with Olivia. They spent most of Friday together and then on Saturday they took a special daddy-daughter trip to the big park (our neighborhood is full of tons of little parks but they went to the fancy park with the nice swings)
• Saturday evening we spent a couple of hours with some friends. To be honest I thought it was the absolute last place I wanted to be. After spending 10 hours at work all I wanted to do was curl up in bed but Mike had spent 2 weeks in the field and then returned to be on full time daddy duty so he needed to relax with friends. It turned out to be a great evening, Olivia was very well behaved, and we all got to enjoy socializing with friends. I'm so glad that I went!
• Monday evening Mike and I were both finished up with work early enough to go together to pick up Olivia. It's always fun when you get to see how happy she is to see not just one but two parents pick her up!
• This morning Mike and I had made plans to speak with the priest to schedule Baby Leiva's baptism. It turns out the priest had an unexpected conflict so we got to spend some extra time together this morning. My charming husband remembered me saying several weeks ago that my military id was due to expire in a few months so he suggested we go and get a new one. We spent the time in the waiting area remembering the day when I'd first gotten my military id. The picture was taken the day we'd gotten married (not the day of our wedding) but the day we got married before Mike deployed in 2003. I love the picture on that ID card and we realized it's the only picture we have from that day. They wouldn't let me keep the same picture but they did let me keep the ID card.

Night 3: No More Pacifier

So I think the worst part is over. Last night Olivia fell asleep after only 15 minutes of crying. I did have to run out of her room right after I tucked her in. She got out of bed and ran after me and I had to shut the door so she didn't run out of her room. This is a first for us! Olivia normally stays in her bed and waves goodbye as I tell her goodnight and turn out the light. I was expecting her to stand there howling at me from the other side of the door but she just turned around and ran back to her bed.

Today is her first day at school without the pacifier. She is usually only allowed to have her pacifier at nap time so today I sent her to school with one of her dolls instead of the pacifier to use during nap time. We'll see how that goes.....

Here are a few pictures. The fist picture is of the first night, she ended up waking up in our bed. It turns out that I took Olivia's pacifier away the day before she was diagnosed with an ear infection (I feel like the meanest mom ever)! She woke up at 6:30 on Saturday morning and I caved and let her in our bed. On the second night you can see the extra items that Olivia has started taking to bed. A book, her bla bla sock doll and her owl. You can certainly see Olivia's "mop" of hair in all it's glory. If anyone has any suggestions on how to tame her unruly mane I'm all ears :)

Night 2: No more pacifier

Last night went better than expected. It took Olivia about an hour to fall asleep. She woke up a couple of times throughout the night but put herself back to sleep. This morning Olivia woke up with a bit of a fever and kept tugging on her ear so off to the doctor we went. Olivia has an ear infection. I feel like the meanest mom ever, I decide to take away her pacifier during an ear infection! But there's no turning back now! We had to wait for almost 2 and a half hours today in the pharmacy waiting for her prescription and if I made it through that ordeal without a pacifier then there's nothing we can't do!

This afternoon at nap time she cried for about an hour before she finally fell asleep but then she slept her usual 2 hours. I put her down for bed tonight about 15 minutes ago and she's still fussing. Now that she's had 2 doses of her antibiotic I'm hoping that tonight is easier! Why didn't I take her pacifier away when we stopped using the bottle?

Night 1: No more pacifier

So just to keep myself extra busy while Mike is in the field I decided that this would be a great time to take Olivia's pacifier away. Olivia gave up the bottle promptly the week of her first birthday but the pacifier wasn't so easy. After her first birthday she was down to only using the pacifier for naps, bedtime, and trips in the car. There was one excuse after another to let her hang onto her pacifier a little longer--the 4 day drive/move here to Washington, my return to work and Olivia starting daycare, etc. Then I convenced myself it would happen right after her 2nd birthday but then we were flying to Hawaii. No more excuses! Sieze the moment! I ordered Olivia a replacement comfort item, a Nocturnimals Owl that lights up when you press it's foot. It arrived earlier in the week but I wanted the first pacifier-free night to be a weekend night so that Olivia wouldn't be too tired at school the following day. Tonight after her bath I let her open her package (Olivia loves getting packages and mail) then I explained that she could only have the new owl if she was a big girl and got rid of the pacifier. She wasn't happy about it but she really liked the new owl. At first she put up a little fight but then she continued to settle down into her bedtime routine. We snuggled on the bed with the owl and I read her a book. Then I went to tuck her into bed without the pacifier. She was still happy with her new owl and she gave me a goodnight kiss and said goodbye. That was exactly 40 minutes ago and she's still not asleep. She's not really crying but she's just sort of moaning. So far, so good. We'll see what time we all go to bed tonight....

Crusade Update: The Direct TV situation

My Sister has television! The Direct TV technician finally came today! She did have to spend over 3 hours on the phone with a customer service representative WHILE the technician was repairing the equipment. Lets hope that things are all settled because the customer service representative's last comment was "I think everything is correct now, but if by chance your next bill is for $249 give us a call right away". As if someone wouldn't call right away if they got a cable bill for almost $300 and they hadn't even had tv service for over a month!

My Sister's Crusade: War with Direct TV

My sister, Karen, has 2 adorable boys. My nephew Braden is almost 3 and Hunter is almost 2. She goes to school full time and her husband is away often for work. She's a great mom and I'm so glad that I have her to go to for advice about parenting! This morning on my way to work I had a long talk with my sister. She was venting about some of her frustrations with Direct TV. My sister hasn't had cable service since August 3rd!!!!! I would absolutely die, I love my tv time! Karen complained that she'd missed the entire olymipic games as well as coverage of two major hurricanes (this is particularly relevant to her as she lives in southeastern Louisiana) and the end of Project Runway. At this point she's resorted to calling the company as well as technical support (responsible for scheduling maintenance) on a daily basis. She's got both numbers memorized. I absolutely don't understand how companies are able to get away with providing such horrible service! I was watching The View earlier this week and apparently Whoopie Goldberg and Sherri Shepard are having the same issues. At least they can complain about it on national television and get thir issues resolved. Here's a link to a video clip where they vent about some of their frustrations. It couldn't come at a better time in light of my sister's situation.

Hot Topics 9/15: Mad Women Video

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YIKES, I hope we can make it!

Of course our lives are busy but this afternoon as I look at my calendar and prepare for the next couple of weeks all I can think is YIKES! We're in for a busy couple of weeks! Here's an overview:

• Mike is leaving on Wednesday and will be gone until early October
• Sometime this week I have to get to the DMV to get a copy of my driving record so that I can take care of a little speeding ticket that I got ages ago while visiting my parents in Texas
• Next week is Homecoming Week and thus the busiest week of the entire year for me at work--I have to work late on Thursday, Friday, and come in on Saturday which means finding a babysitter for Olivia
• Olivia's speech teacher is training a new speech teacher so Olivia will get speech therapy twice a week at school instead of just once a week, this is in addition to her private speech therapy appointments once a week
• This weekend Olivia and I are taking Mommy-Daughter-Baby Belly pictures (who knows how these will turn out!)
• This weekend we also have a picnic/playdate at the park
• Next week marks the point where I begin weekly doctor's appointments that will continue until my due date on 11/11/08!
• When Mike returns from his little adventure away his battalion is having a ball and I have to find a formal maternity dress that will fit my 8 month pregnant self and find a baby-sitter for Olivia again
• I have some major catch up to do for my Gamma Phi Beta volunteer activities as a Regional Coordinator (including sending out an electronic newsletter, completing my monthly report, attending various meetings on campus, preparing a short presentation for our monthly conference call)
• I am determined that Olivia will no longer need/want a pacifier by the time Mike gets home (stay tuned for more on how that works out :)
• On top of all these things going on the next couple of weeks are when all of the tv shows I love to watch have new seasons starting. Is it completely wrong that all I want to do is sit at home and watch TV!

The Fair

This weekend we made our second annual trip to the Puyallup Fair. It's crazy to think about how much has changed over the last year! During our last trip we had just arrived in Washington state, Olivia was still very much our little baby and was way too young to really enjoy the fair and I certainly wasn't pregnant! Mike hadn't even officially reported here at Ft. Lewis and we were still in vacation mode. Last year the highlight for us was the beer garden and the giant pumpkins, this year it was seeing Olivia enjoy the rides and fair food!

Olivia's first ride was the giant slide with Mike. They patiently waited in line to get their burlap sacks to slide on and then Mike and Olivia slowly walked up the 4 flights of stairs to the top of the slide (I took the most adorable pictures of this). Then when they got to the top I started filming the experience from the prime spot I'd staked out at the bottom of the line and down they came. It was adorable, Olivia had the biggest grin on her face and was waving the entire way down. I couldn't wait to show Mike the pictures and video and was so irritated to discover that the camera was broken and I didn't actually get any pictures or video. We considered letting them go again so I could get pictures but at $3/each it just wasn't practical (we do have a new baby on the way after all). Fortunately the cell phone has a good, working camera so we did get pictures of the other fair fun. Mike took Olivia on her first big girl ride. At first Olivia wasn't too sure what to think, she was very concerned with making sure the little gate was closed. But she loved it and kept trying to climb back into the ride area to go again. Olivia also went on her first ride solo and while I was worried she'd completely freak out she LOVED it! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

"Make sure that gate is locked Daddy, I dont' want to fall out!"

"More please" Olivia didn't want to leave the ride but we told her big girls don't have temper tantrums so we get the pout instead of a fit.

What's going on here? Why is that car honking at me?

I'm driving!

Update: Hurricane Ike

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! My parents and grandmother weathered the storm just fine at LexStone Ranch. Many of our friends and family in Houston don't have power and won't for several more days. Thus far it's been a busy hurricane season in the Gulf coast and we all hope the last 2 and a half months of the season are quieter!

Hurricane Ike

A couple weeks ago we were all waiting for news from Louisiana, this weekend it'll be Texas. Hurricane Ike is on it's way to Texas and is projected to hit Galveston and Houston pretty hard. My parents are settling in at LexStone Ranch and my Grandmother is going to "weather the storm" with them.