Halloween

Most people have already seen the costumes, but I decided to post a blog anyway. Last year Mike demanded that we make our own costumes. He wanted to be a family of Super Heroes.

Mike did a great job designing and putting together the costumes. As you can see we dress up as a family. Even if it's just for one night.

This year was no exception and Mike would not let me buy Finn a dinosaur costume. And of course since Finn was going to be a dinosaur, Mike had to be one too...Maggie wanted it too, but after she saw her dress to be Pebbles, she was good. Not only was this my first attempt at making something creative, it was also my first real attempt at using my sewing machine. So after looking online and talking to my insanely creative sister-in-law, I pushed through my fears, got the supplies and broke out the sewing machine; which I broke a few times. After a few nights of actual work, the costumes were completed.

Mike had just as much fun as the kids, even after running the Marine Corps Marathon that morning. Oh and if you're wondering where my costume was...yeah pregnant women get a free pass. Now that I actually faced my fears of making our own costumes...the next trick is to figure out how to make it cheaper than BUYING.

a nice perk

So about a month ago a friend of mine posted something pretty similar to her blog, so I am kind of copying, but after last night I couldn't resist any longer.

I've decided being stuck in training status at the Oakwood has a very nice perk, not just free food, but also CLOTHES and TOYS. People go to pack out and leave some toys behind to play with but decide not to keep them and hand them off. We have been the recipients of about a dozen loads now that we've been here 9 months. Not just from friends either, I've actually been stopped walking back from the playground, asked which building I lived in and given random stuff.

Although we are not packing out, we will be moving and I have tons of boys clothes that I just can't use on Maggie because she has more than enough clothes. Since I've been so blessed in receiving 2 huge bags/boxes of winter clothes for Finn, and a huge duffel bag for Maggie I felt it was time to let go of his stuff too. In a small way that was also my way of saying, I'm not going to be having anymore babies. Letting go a little bit at a time. That door's not completely closed yet, just ajar.

So Mike totally didn't understand this, but I know all my mommy friends will. Last night he went to the laundry room and there was a bag with a sign that said FREE baby clothes, I told him to take it. It was mostly boy stuff, but I am not opposed to putting my girls in boy stuff. I think I spent the first 3 months of Maggie's life telling people she was actually a girl :) Anyway, I've been feeling this total need to wash, fold and prepare baby clothes and now that I've been able to do it I feel "ready". So yeah we don't have a car seat, crib, bouncy seat and my essential balance ball...we do have tiny baby clothes :)

Catching up

Ah! I'm so bad about keeping up on this, really, it's been a while and lots has happened, kinda.

First off in mid August we found out that we will be adding another girl to the family, yippee...

We Shall call her #3 until we can agree on a name.

After that we rushed off to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to spend 2 weeks with Mike's family. Me crazy? Not really, I like his family a lot, although there were dramatic points, most of the time was spent playing. Part of the trip there were 7 children under 7 in the house, two of which were pretty well contained in bouncy seats, but the rest were on a rampage. Learning boundaries testing the limits and driving two moms crazy! If anything the trip taught me that I need to loosen up a little on my patience level. It's very low and I've been cringing, waiting for the day that Finn turned into more than my baby, which he has been doing for years, but has recently learned how to "just joke" in his words, argue well, and test my patience over and over. The trip taught me that I really need to take it all in and figure out how to stay strict on my rules but also let Finn be a kid, these are natural things a kid has to learn to be a productive adult...right? Either way, I hover less at the playground, interfere less when other kids do things I'd consider rude or mean, and let Finn fend for himself, until situations just get too out of hand. Oh and the 4 cousins spent most of their non beach time in the basement of the house playing tigers.




I was so hoping that the time with lots of people all the time would get Maggie saying more, but nope, it just taught her to be more creative in the way she communicates. Although this happy mama is proud to say that Maggie will now say Mom! Yes, she knew mama, but would never say it directly to me, and now she does :)




We were very happy to make it back home just before school started for our friends and got to do some good playing and spent the first week of school trying to figure out what to do, but luckily we're not at a loss now that Finn started Preschool!! Now, I've been at war with myself wondering if I should bother, he'd learn everything he needed at home with me right? Well, yes, but he was just so sad that ALL his friends were in school. For a while he was against going and not wanting to make new friends, but once he went to his classroom and met his teacher, he was more than ready to let me be by myself. Plus side, Monday, Wednesday, Friday this pregnant tired mama gets a short nap in! Maggie on the other hand is not so thrilled to have her big brother gone.

Mike's Lao training is going well and he's even coaxed me into learning some of the language. After reading another FS blog today I found it funny that it seems all the languages, whether it's Lao, Arabic, French, Spanish....the people don't start simple. I can tell you how to say My husband works at the American Embassy, but I can't tell you the word for spoon or shirt...although we do know how to say crab, pinch, got ya, elephant and tiger.

life with state

So for those of you who haven't heard, our departure has moved again. By only a few weeks, but in doing the math a few crucial weeks in my mind. Mike's training schedule has changed again to get his classes finished with in February instead of March. Like the first week of February, so we can leave mid February, if everything comes together, but this would mean #3 won't be 2 months, but just 6 weeks. Yes that's only 2 weeks difference, but that means no 2month well baby stateside and no shots. AH! Freaking out just a little, but I'm staying positive. Mommies do this all the time, come stateside to have a baby and leave right at 6 weeks. No big deal. Our departure will be mighty stressful though. #3 and I will need to both be cleared to go, we will have to drive somewhere in VA to get the birth certificate before the standard month time, get 2 passports for the baby and a visa....and the list goes on.

18-months

So Maggie is really almost 19-months, but she had her 18-month check up yesterday and I find myself amazed with her growth, although according the Pediatricians records her head has shrunk. She has grown 3 inches since we've moved to Falls Church. Her weight has stayed pretty steady at 24 lbs which is good for preggo mama who's stuck having to carry the baboo.

So the typical questions asked at the 18-month is if she can climb stairs, or crawl, everyone who knows Maggie, knows she attacks the stairs, now she jumps down them, even if I try to keep her from doing so. The number 1 question is words, how many words does your child speak. I looked at the doctor with a quizzical look like I don't know. I know some people actually count their children’s words and even write them down in a memory book, most people who know me, know I'd start something like that with good intentions, but fail, so honestly I have no clue. I asked the doctor if OW counted as a word and she said no, even if it's her go to for everything for example STOP and HELP. Nope not a word just a sound. She has however mastered the words NO and MINE. Yippie!

She then asked me if I felt Maggie was developmentally challenged, I had to stifle a laugh. If anything, Maggie is ahead of the curve other than talking.

So this is my proud post on our little daughter who is now not so little.

Our 4th

Everyone is well aware that this past weekend was the 4th of July! Yippie! It's a good time to celebrate our Nation's birthday. Which makes it what 234 years? Pretty nice.

A great Army friend came to stay with us for the weekend and Finn was just so excited about this. Uncle Bailey made his weekend by just listening to him :) The best thing about the Army was that, although all of our family is spread out across the country, we made our own family out of the good friends we made. On Saturday we made our way to the Walter Reed Army Medical and Health Museum, creepy stuff in jars! Who could ask for more? Then straight to the Nats game, which was sold out, but we were able to get standing room only tickets and wandered around the stadium buying junk food, and beer for the boys. We left early because it was HOT and didn't want to face traffic, but oh too soon since the Nats ended up coming back in the 9th inning and beating the METS! Crazy.

The 4th was just awesome. We spent a total of 10hours sitting out by Roosevelt Island, directly across the Potomac from the Lincoln Memorial, a perfect spot for FIREWORKS! Mike has made a somewhat family tradition to write out the beginning of the Declaration of Independence on something, last year we had an awesome chalk drawing on our drive way, this year it was on shirts, we'll see what we get next year in Laos.

July 4, 2009.

July 4, 2010.

Here are a few shots of the awesome fireworks, taken by Mike of course.

Finn watching the fireworks, first year he wasn't scared of them, but we're pretty sure last year he just wanted the attention from a pretty girl by acting scared.

A life lost

I had planned to spend most of Father's day telling my husband just how thankful I am to have him as the father of my children. They truly are lucky, but as we awoke in the morning we got the news that a friend and past co-worker was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Friday. The rest of the day we attempted to go on with our plans, but it was really spent in a daze.

Most people through out the country have been touched by one of the wars we are currently fighting. Serving in the military we met so many men and women who touched our lives and inspired us to be more than we were. Staff Sgt. James Hunter was not an exception. He pushed me to write better, take better photos, and push myself hard during physical training. On the long after hours road marches I was forced to do to better myself, he would empty my rucksack and burden my load. He worked hard and laughed even harder. It was a true honor to have served with him.

Staff Sgt. James P. Hunter January 22, 1985 - June 18, 2010
Never Forgotten, Always Remembered

NC weekend

Mike was invited about a month or two ago to go camping at Jordan Lake, NC. We've been planning and buying for over a month to prepare to go, but not enough planning in the world could keep a pregnant lady satisfied in 95 degrees of heat.

We started the trip rushing from FSI to Fort Bragg to hopefully meet our good friend off the plane from Afghanistan! Which, by some unknown luck, we were able to do! We constantly called a friend for an update on the flight and from the Cumberland County line the flight had already landed. That's about 45minutes away from Green Ramp. We made it to All American FWY with another update, Paratroopers have not deboarded. Good! That gives us at least 20 minutes! For those of you who have not experienced a redeployment 82nd style, it takes a very long time. After attending about 100 redployments, literally, I still get choked up and teary eyed. My first redeployment ever,(march 2005) I met my future husband, he just didn't know it yet :) For me I can feel all the emotion and excitement in the air and when the National Anthem plays, I always shed a tear, even when I know not one person coming home. The best part about my job was when I did know the people coming home. I got to see most of my friends coming off the plane, which no one else gets. I was supposed to be professional, but usually I couldn't contain myself. I always love a good reunion. I've been witness to many great reunions: engagements, fathers meeting their children for the first time, fathers rushing off the plane to the hospital because baby was about to be born. And a few not so good reunions. In the end, I am just glad to have 1 more good friend home, for a while.

After the redeployment we cooked out and stayed up till 2 a.m. catching up with old friends. It was a fantastic trip!

Early Saturday morning we packed up and left for the lake. Saturday was great, till a thunderstorm hit. Luckily Mike bought the outrageous tent from REI that kept every drop of rain out, but I wouldn't recommend getting into the tent until the sun goes down. The kids spent all day splashing and swimming in the lake till it started raining, so they slept like little rocks. Sunday the heat hit immediately and we had to hit the road, which Mike had to pull over on a few times to let me out. I wouldn't give camping a thumbs down, but first trimester and heat do not mix well.

All in all the entire trip was worth it and I'd do it again. Oh and although we had the camera we managed to leave it in the van and not take a single picture.

where do babies come from?

How do we answer this question for a 3 1/2 year old? I didn't have to, Finn came up with it on his own.

The other day at the playground I was talking to a fellow pregnant mom when Finn started talking about where babies come from, he mumbled something about ordering the baby and getting it from the doctor. So I ask him, Finn do you think I went online ordered the baby and the doctor put it in my belly then will take it out when it's done? He answers yes then runs off.

I couldn't stop laughing. I don't exactly want to lie to Finn about stuff, but at this age I am so not ready to talk birds and bees.

Cute picture of one ordered baby that Finn asked to be returned to the doctor last year when he was tired of her.

newest news on departure

Mike heard back that his plan to keep us here till after the baby sounds good to everyone else involved. YAY!

Mike has to take a couple of PD courses that conflict with his Lao Language course, so he will instead wait until January 2011 to start the PD course he needs to take. That pretty much puts us at leaving, hopefully sometime in March 2011. Yes, that puts us in training for well past a year. No, we will not be able to stay at Oakwood after January 2. So Yes, we will be moving out of our apartment with a days old baby. Stressful, yes; worth it, YES!

It makes me very happy that we will be able to stick together for the pregnancy and the birth, especially since I've been diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, an extreme case a pregnancy sickness. Nothing seems to work to keep me from vomiting violently most of the day, even the medicine I've been given, although the medicine keeps the nausea away. I have good and bad days, and the days seem to be getting better, so hopefully we'll find out I don't have Hyperemesis and the sickness will go away in 5 more weeks, or else I might face being sick for the rest of the pregnancy.

in response

So after yesterdays blog post I've gotten quite a few questions about the pregnancy. I won't be having the baby in Laos. For those of you who don't know, I have to have a c-section. Both Finn and Maggie were c-section babies and we'll find out soon if this pregnancy could possibly be high risk because of previous c-sections. So, although it'd be a lot of fun to tell a full drama story of going into labor in the middle of a Lao market and having a vendor deliver, that isn't an option. If we do in fact get to Laos before I am 36 weeks pregnant, which I would have to leave the states before I'm 28 weeks, I would be sent to Singapore to have the baby. Or I could leave around 34 weeks to a place of my choosing to have the baby. At this point, my favorite option is staying right where I am. In the end it'll all work out somehow and I just have to keep telling myself this. Although this pregnancy has turned into a logistical nightmare, we couldn't be more thrilled about it.

Finn has asked for another sister, he likes being the only boy and Maggie doesn't know the difference, but I'm sure in the next couple of months she'll realize something is up.

YES!

So yes, I know it's been a while, but it's been busy. First wanted to say YES to those who are wondering about all the odd comments on Facebook, we are having a third baby, sometime in late December. This was very exciting news, but also concerning seeing that we were supposed to move to Laos in December. We've been getting a lot of different information concerning this, so as of right now, we don't know what will happen, just waiting. For now we're just going to enjoy the fact that we are here in DC in the summer and take it day by day.

This weekend we took a trip to NYC it was pretty fun. We were joined by Mike's parents and his older brother. It was a lot of fun and if you ask Finn what his favorite part of New York was, he'd say "Seeing Nona." So there ya have it, no matter what we do as long as Finn gets to see his Nona he's happy.

Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Maggie in the Fountain in Central Park.

Finn in Central Park

Finn in New York City

Not quite real

Today our first friends from the A100-150th class departed for Manila. I told Finn his friend left and he asked, why did she have to go to Vanilla? That made me giggle, but at the same time made me sad. The FS world hasn't really hit me with the exception of friends leaving and new people coming in. It's all been a lot of fun as well as stressful. From the very start of the application process to Flag Day (finding out where we're headed) it has been exciting and new, but now, I feel like it isn't quite real, with eight, possibly more, months here I feel like it'll never be our turn. We'll see how it is in December and we're so close.

Weekend recap

So I promised to take a picture of before and after Mike running the marathon, but I was too lazy to get out of bed to take a picture at 5 a.m. on Saturday. His brothers girlfriend did capture a picture of him after the race though.

He finished in just over 4 hours. Pretty good for not training or ever running that far before. The rest of the weekend he was pretty much a lazy boy, but we did have our first grilling of the season. Yummy cheeseburgers and pasta salad. Sunday We had brunch with some fellow FS friends, the husband being the person who conned Mike into running 26.2 miles lol. Sunday night we tried our first bowls of Pho. Pretty good, but I don't think I'll be attempting to make it anytime soon.

Dinner time rush

This is for you Kevin. Ha kidding. So tonight I was ordered to make the blandest tasting food because tomorrow Mike decided he is going to run a FULL marathon. Really, I think people train for this for a reason. 26 miles (that's how far right?) is a really long way. I know Mike can do anything he wants, but really? I don't think he's ran more than 10 miles since we've been here. He thinks the allure of it is that he has just up and decided to run this marathon. He thinks it's pretty cool that he hasn't been training and that he will wake up in the morning and say huh I'm gonna go run a marathon today. I will be sure to take a picture of him before he leaves and a picture of him in his state after the marathon. I figure I'll be able to make a trip to BJ's come home and then go to the finish before he's even close to done...Maybe. I have this hope that he'll finish relatively quick and show me up on my negative thinking.



In other news the weather has been FANTASTIC here in Falls Church and D.C. so we've been outside a lot. We made a trip to the National Air and Space Museum where Finn promptly separated himself from me and gave me a slight freak out, but not wanting to show what a bad mom I am (in the eyes of D.C. parents) I didn't say a word, just wandered around till I found him. Not too big of a deal. Finn has known for a long time that all he has to do is find an adult and tell them he lost his mom. I have always felt like people are judging me for the way I mother my children. I'm not totally "free-range" but I would like to not have to keep an eye out every second of every day. Finn is at least smart enough to have a little lesson or talking to before we go somewhere then he knows what to do, but maybe not so much Maggie. The fact that Finn is like that I don't feel I have to actually watch him so I can watch Maggie and hopefully teach her so it will actually be easy to live our lives stress free. This makes me like the concept of living abroad more because most people in other countries are not hovering hens like we are.

Sick one

So we started the day off with Maggie throwing up in her bed. AH! She was actually such a little sweet girl, poor thing threw up three times so I decided it was best not to give her anything to eat, but she thought she knew best and climbed on the table and ate Finn's oatmeal. Again, threw up. The poor girl was so tired after all that. She woke up from a nap looking refreshed and holding down liquids, but to be on the safe side I called the Peds office to make sure she'd be okay since she had been diagnosed with c. diff 10 days ago and hasn't finished her antibiotics. They wanted me to come get a specimen cup to put poop in. She seemed fine one second and the next she threw up all over their toys :( Poor baby. I feel so awful because Finn never got sick like that, only once has he thrown up and that was while he was staying with Uncle Jimmy after Maggie was born. With no frame of reference I quickly turned to my support network and a fellow FS spouse came to my rescue with Pedialyte and 7up :) Maggie seems to be her terror self right now, but still a bit on the sick side. Not looking forward to what the night will bring.

lets get it started

So Mike swore that I wouldn't do this and here it is! I started the blog. After meeting lots of Foriegn Service spouses that have blogs, I thought it'd be a nice way to let people know what we're up to, with out having to call or write everyone :) Also, I hear phone and internet service isn't so great in Laos. Maybe this will motivate me to start taking more pictures too.