blah!

Jason, my dear Jason, why do you test me this way? Wednesday Jason woke up and had a very nasty diaper. I'll try not to give you too many details, but it wasn't pretty and involved blood, and was a fairly good sign that something was bothering him. Again. Was it the oatmeal cereal he ate the night before, was it the increase in soy I've been eating? I'll spare you the thousands of theories that I have had, but I'll just leave you with my conclusion. For the health and wellness for myself and Jason, I am going on a very strict all-natural health diet. Some people think I'm crazy (including myself at times) but I figure there are worse things in life than eating healthy. Absolutely no dairy/milk, nuts, soy, wheat, eggs, or fish. There may be something else too, but I can't remember. All I do know is that it essentially leaves me with plain meat, some veggies, fruit, and rice. Fun, huh? I'll gradually at in the other foods to tease out what is bothering him, but I've had enough of the bloody diapers, the fussiness, increased spit-up, etc. I KNOW that dairy bothers him, and I guess we'll find out what else.

Moving on..

Wednesday, speaking of moving, we found out that Al finally got his orders. He'll be leaving here the end of May for "jump school" (aka: learning to jump out of planes) in GA for 3-4 weeks. I'll likely stay here with the boys until Tyler finishes up school then I'm heading to my parents. After jump school Al will go to our new base in NC for 6 months of training. We've pretty much decided that, most likely, I will stay at my parents that whole time. We want to make sure he passes the training before we uproot our whole family. Not to mention that we want to be 100% sure of the neighborhood we want to live in. Plus it will be nice to save up a little cash being that we'll need a nice down payment for a house since we absolutely can't sell our house here (values went down WAY lower than what we paid). It will also give us time to hopefully get a renter in our place to show a rental history so we can qualify for a mortgage again. Fun stuff, huh? So it looks like my little guy will start Kindergarten in NJ. We're a bunch of emotions here. Al is anxious about this move (related to work) and he's upset about us leaving. I'm excited, really excited, about going back to NJ, but it's always an adjustment moving into someone's house. Plus, the boys will have to adjust to life without daddy, which isn't very fair.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. I should probably get to bed. I'm starting off this weekend with two sick kiddos (just fevers, that I know of, so far) and a sore throat myself. Could be fun!

5 months!

I can't believe it, but Jason is FIVE months old today. Already. I can't believe how fast the time is flying.




To prove just how big he's getting, he decided he'd be a sitter. He can now sit for about 10-20 seconds (sometimes). He's growing up way too fast!

Mardi Gras

Okay, so it was nothing like how I would have celebrated Fat Tuesday 10 years ago, but I told you, I'm a fan of holidays. Yes, Mardi Gras is a holiday!

half birthday

So yesterday was Tyler's four and a half year birthday. Al laughed at me that I'd even take note of it. Maybe I'm odd, but when I was growing up I kinda thought half birthday were cool. Whatever, he can continue to be a scrooge, but I'll choose to "celebrate" whatever makes me (oops, I mean Tyler) happy!

We ended the night with brownies. Laugh all you want....

future renegade?

Busch Gardens Day!

We decided to take advantage of our free admission day for 2009 and head to Busch Gardens. When we arrived it was quite crowded, so we decided we were only going to do kids stuff (normally we'll take turns on roller coasters, or at least Al will go). The weather was beautiful though and we were able to have a great day!

Tyler's first "mission" was the Land of the Dragons, complete with all the kids rides.

After quite a while in that section we wandered off to have some lunch. Jason spent some time bouncing away and attracting plenty of attention.

Jason spent a good portion of the day happily in his Moby Wrap, and I learned that "wearing" your child can attract some very strange looks. You'd have thought I had two heads. He was comfy though and I was fairly comfortable (as comfortable as you can be lugging around 17lbs). He'd poke his little head around at people and smile. He had a blast. And he took 2 short naps in there, which was good considering those were the ONLY naps he took while in the park.

After lunch we took a ride on the skyride, and ended up half-way around the park without a stroller. We looked at lots of animals as we made our way back to the stroller.
We saw lots of cute animals. Tyler is fascinated with Meerkats.

Eventually Tyler was just worn out and Jason needed to eat, so the boys and I head back to Land of the Dragons while Al ran ahead to get our stuff. After a quick meal for Jason and rest time in the rocking chair at the nursing station for Tyler, we did some MORE rides and then hit the water area. This time Tyler wore a bathing suit in the water, instead of getting his clothes soaking wet! He had a blast!

After water time, Tyler got in line to go on "the dragon water ride". While in line he met up with a little boy and they rode together. They became fast friends and rode lots of rides together after that. Tyler convinced him to go on the ferris wheel and this little boy convinced Tyler that the boat ride isn't as scary as he had imagined. Sometimes peer pressure is a wonderful thing.

After some final rides we decided to head on out of the park. I had made the mistake of letting Tyler have some of my soda at lunch. Despite the fact that it was caffeine-free, he was a wild child. I swear sugar is like a liquid crack for him. He's had soda once before in his lifetime and it will be a long time before he has it again. The sugar high, coupled with the lack of "rest time" determined that it was time to go. We did make a quick stop to see the primates (my favorite).

And then, 8.5 hours after arrival, we were off. Despite some "in need of sleep" issues, we had a great time. Even Jason wore himself right out and actually slept in his stroller for the first time since he was a newborn!

lazy days

Al has had off of work yesterday and today, which has been wonderful. He's taken Tyler to school, gotten the inside of the car clean, set up Jason's "new" (as in Tyler's "old") car seat, helped with the kids, etc. Tyler has enjoyed it a lot, especially considering that Al went out today while Tyler was "resting" (and I was napping with the babe) to finally score a copy of Wii Mario Kart. My mother-in-law had given us money for this at Christmas, but Al finally tracked down a copy today. Tyler had a blast!

As you can see, Jason wanted in on the action!

Oh, and I'm happy to report, after little success with rice cereal, Jason happily ate a few bites of oatmeal cereal mixed with breast milk today.

nothing much

What have we been up to? Nothing much. Just catching up basically. Al had work on Wednesday and that had off today. We did some grocery shopping, I've been working on some eBay stuff, and both of the boys have been getting plenty of daddy time.


Tyler decided he NEEDED to make this "craft" today, one that he read about in his "High Five" magazine. It was a paperweight, made from shredded paper glued to a large flat rock. Tyler picked out his own outfit before we head out on our scavenger hunt. His t-shirt was insanely large, but he insisted it must fit "because it says small, and I'm pretty small".

We couldn't find any large flat rocks, but that didn't stop him.

Hmm, can you guess which one is Tyler's?

I leave you with this, Jason jumping:

feeling very thankful

Lots of good stuff to report....

Yesterday Al made it back home! His supposed 1-2 week trip to Afghanistan, which turned into a 4 week trip to Afghanistan, finally came to an end. We were all very happy to have him home! Tyler literally ran full force into his arms, nearly knocking him over. Jason wasn't sure what to think, the little lip went down into a sad face, and then he changed tunes and has been nothing but smiles for him ever since. Daddy is busy catching up with his boys. Thankfully they let him have the day off today. Tyler and Al took advantage of this and had a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese after school, which of course was Tyler's request. Jason has been busy showing his daddy how he roles, bounces in his doorway bouncer, chews on fingers, and laughs.

Today my mom had her surgery. I am beyond happy to report that the initial tests indicate that they don't believe the cancer has spread at all. They did remove the tissue around the cancerous mole, which then required a skin graft. She is recovering in the hospital and we are all breathing a huge sigh of relief. They do still need to run some more tests of the lymph nodes to confirm that there has been no further spread, but for now we're thrilled!

As you can see, I have much to be thankful for. I didn't think today could get much better, but then I got my mail. My friend Andrea mailed me some outgrown stuff from her youngest...some cloth diapers, accessories, and Jason's very first piece of wool. Wahoo!

Oh happy day!

Valentine's Day

I woke up (way too early) to a happy boy who was elated to get a Valentine's Day present.


I then received a wonderful gift, Jason napping in his crib again!

And Tyler was as pleasant as can be today.

I got to spend plenty of time with my boys.

And then they willingly spent time together. This is how a 4-year-old and a 4-month-old "play". LOL.

So, even though I'm pathetic and sitting home by myself on Valentine's Day, at least I can't complain too much. And I did get an e-mail from Al and he's safe, so that makes me happy.

look out world

Today Jason surprised me by finally rolling back to belly. He then continued to do so, at least 5 times. Each time he would get really angry, flip over and then calm down.



Occasionally he'd get to his belly and not know what to do with his arms. Instead he'd hang out in his pseudo take-off pose.

He eventually figured it out!

I even managed to capture it on video later on.

yummmmm

Today, after much research and thought, I decided to give Jason some cereal. I realized I didn't have a highchair, so I thought I'd use the bouncy seat, which proved to be too reclined. Probably not the best setup, but I settled for the bumbo seat ON the kitchen table. I mixed up the cereal, set up the camera to take some video, and got Jason ready. He didn't seem overly thrilled at first, but didn't resist either. By the end (which the video doesn't show) he actually was definitely eating some cereal. He screamed bloody murder when I took him out of the seat, but I didn't want to overdo it with the food until I know he's not allergic to it. Overall, I'd say it was a success for the first time.

Two notes to self: Next time, don't feed distractible baby cereal for the first time with entertaining 4-year-old in the room. Also, use a bib.






Last, but not least, some video:

now I'm cool

My mom (yes, my mom) had to convince me to finally get a Facebook account. Aren't you proud?

Mickey fans

I saw this diaper and I couldn't resist...



Why not complete the Mickey look for the day?

sleepy boy

A conversation with Tyler this morning:

Tyler: Mommy, I'm pretty sleepy today.

Me: Why bud?

Tyler: I didn't get much sleep last night.

Me: Why not?

Tyler: Uhhhh, I was up nursing my stuffed animals all night long.

brothers

Yesterday I took the boys outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. I figured I'd put them in their adorable matching shirts that Melodie gave them and take some photos. As you can see, I really just got a bunch of goofballs.

Umm, I've tried repeatedly and these pics keep coming up in all different directions. Booooo