Tempting Toast

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been a while since I posted much! We've been to Colorado and Texas for a few week and are just now getting settled back home. It was wonderful to see our families, but it feels great to be home. We've had lots going on with us lately!

Jordan has been approved for retraining and is going to be an imagery analyst. (Family trivia: my aunt Lana was an imagery analyst in the Air Force too!) We'll be heading down to San Angelo, Texas for almost a year for Jordan's training and then who knows where we'll be off to after that! It was definitely a change in plans since we assumed he'd get a different job, but we can already see God's plans for us in this new adventure! Both of us are excited to move around a little bit and see more of the country, although San Angelo isn't the most beautiful place on Earth. I was there for about a month for training a few years ago and all I remember is that it was flat and HOT! I guess it won't feel so bad, though, after having traveled to the Middle East.

In other news, Jackson has started eating solid foods. I really wanted to wait until six months since that's what the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests, but then this awesome toast story happened:

One morning while we were in Texas I was holding Jack and carrying a plate of toast back to the table. During this walk Jackson was reaching and grunting trying to get to my plate. When I sat down and started eating he intently watched the food go from the plate to my mouth several times. All of the sudden, he started reaching for the toast again and bawling! I figured it was just a coincidence until he did it again the next day. Sooo we decided to give him a little cereal. He actually opened his mouth for it and got a little irritable if the time between bites stretched too long. So once again I'm going to have to throw the authorities' opinion out the window and start giving my boy some food! (We did talk to his Dr. yesterday who agreed he would be fine with foods. He tested as a 6-7 month old developmentally and can almost sit up on his own so he felt like if Jack was interested in it, go ahead). So far we've done some bananas, which I actually make for him in my food processor, and rice cereal. Last night was the first time we did a noticeable amount of cereal and he slept ALL NIGHT. Yay!

The only other report is that Jack is starting to scoot! He pulls his knees up under him and gets on his forearms and scoots around. He gets up on his hands sometimes, but never when he's trying to move. Once he figures that out I think he'll be off!

Love you all and just a fair warning I don't think I'm writing a Christmas letter this year. You all feel updated this way anyway, right? ;)

When other people love him

Whew, things have been busy lately! We're just settling in from a trip to Colorado and are about to leave for Texas for a few weeks! I don't really have any cute stories for this post...just thought I'd update everyone on how things are going here with us. I will say, though, that it was an amazing thing to see Jackson with everyone in my family. I knew they would love him, but to physically SEE them loving him really gave me great joy. I love Jackson, and delight in every new little thing he does. I watch him learn to make new silly faces and go crazy when he laughs. It was just plain wonderful to share that joy with the people I love! To see their faces light up when he laughed or noticing that the whole room went quiet to watch Jack grunt and struggle his way over from his back to his front on the floor was so great. It just reminded me of how lucky Jackson is to have such a big, loving family! He's already learning that our family hangs out in the kitchen, too! :)

Anyway, things are going well! Jackson is rolling over both ways now and smiles and even laughs if you can really entertain him. He loves to play in his jumper or lay on the floor on his tummy and play with toys. I also think he's starting to get over his car seat aversion!!! It's a struggle to keep him from grabbing EVERYTHING within his reach as well. I'm starting to learn that everything on the table or counter near me needs to be moved when I'm holding him!

That's about all I've got...enjoy Thanksgiving!

Task management

When I was in the Air Force I had a really good handle on task management. There were several times that provided great experience in this field. Today blew me and my task management skills out of the water.

Today had been a frustrating day. Jackson refused to take a nap any longer than 15 minutes and hadn't slept real great last night either. (Just to include you...Jackson just spit up on his crotch while studying his feet. Had to pause for clean up.) Well I decided to put Jack in his jumper for a few minutes so I could clean up some bottles and get sooomething started for dinner. (Emphasis added to demonstrate a total lack of ideas). Less than 5 minutes later I come around the corner into the living room to see (and I'll do my best to describe this accurately and in great detail) Jack jumping in a puddle (yes a puddle) of his own runny poo. The poo has run out of his diaper, out of the jumper seat, and down his leg. You would think after that long distance travel there wouldn't be much that made it to the floor. Think again. Also important to note is that we have put a couch pillow beneath said jumper to help Jackson reach the ground. It apparently got covered in poo, became slippery, and exited the scene stage right. I honestly had to say out loud to myself..."Ok. What do I do first? Pick one thing, focus on it until it's done, and then you can pick another one."

SO I picked Jackson up out of the jumper, smearing poo on every thing along the way, and carried him upstairs. Seconds before depositing him onto the changing table a little 1/4 cup of poo slid down his leg, splashed off my bare foot and hit the carpet in his room. Again at this time I had to say out loud, "Focus on one thing at a time. Clean the child off first." I would've taken him to the bath tub, but after doing that once I learned that poo is not easily cleaned out of the bathtub either. Long story short, the involved paraphernalia are in the washer and I've put away the carpet stain cleaner I never thought we'd use again after house training the dog. I'm quite confident there is still poo in a few cracks of both Jack and my's bodies...but we'll get it later.

Moments of Mayhem

Things have mostly settled down here in the Scarbrough household. Jackson has been doing really well...he's working on saying "Goo" right now. That may sound sarcastic, but I'm actually serious. Up until now he's just "Oooh"ed and "Ahh"ed, so a consonant thrown in IS actually a challenge for him. Isn't that the life? Even though things are going swimmingly and we're in a definite routine, we still encounter moments of mayhem. For example...

Jack usually wakes up twice in the night. Once between one and three and then another time somewhere between five and seven. He then proceeds to sleep for another hour or two before waking up for the day. (I know...please don't hate me. I'm so lucky to have a good sleeper!) Every once in a while he decides he doesn't have need for those last few hours, so I'm careful to keep him in the dark and not talk to him that last time he's up in hopes that he'll stay groggy and go back to sleep. To help in that process I always change his diaper first and then feed him so he can relax and start drifting off while he eats. Well, this morning I forgot. I toyed with just leaving him in his diaper, but it seemed like it might be leaking a little. So I bit the bullet and decided I'd stop feeding him and expect crazy screaming for the few seconds it'd take me to change his diaper. I raced him up to the changing table, started taking his diaper off with one hand while getting a new one out with the other and then I actually looked at his diaper. Full from front to back with poo. Old poo. He'd just been an angel and slept for 6 hours straight, so who knows when this poo occurred, but it was dried on to his bits already. These are the moments of mayhem. I'm standing in his room without a light on (to help him stay asleep) while he screams bloody murder because I cut him off from his breakfast (to help him stay asleep) and we're both covered in crusty bits of baby poo (that has nothing to do with him staying asleep). I turned the light on.

He's all clean now and currently practicing falling asleep on his own. The Dr. said to start trying to put him down when he's drowsy but not fully asleep so he can learn to sooth himself to sleep. I was pretty skeptical, but we did it last night and after about 15 minutes (without ANY crying! just goo ing to himself) he fell asleep. And so we begin our "work week". Happy Monday everyone!

Workin in the desert

I'll admit I was one of those wives who thought their husband had no idea how much work it takes to be a stay at home mom. Heck...I used to be one of those women who had no idea what it takes to be a stay at home mom. I sometimes wondered what I could say to Jordan to help him understand how hard I work, but I never came up with anything that didn't come across as "please feel sorry for me because my self-induced life is soooo hard. sniff sniff."

Well, Jordan proved that I am a lucky lucky woman tonight. I was coming up the stairs with Jackson in the moby wrap (wrapped up against my torso. Side note: Some friends of ours lent us a baby bjorn so Jordan could help me out and carry Jackson around sometimes because I kept complaining about how much it hurt my back. After a few times using HIS carrier Jordan definitely sympathizes.) Anyway...coming up the stairs with Jack as well as an armful of diapers and laundry that had just finished. I started to put it all away and said something to him along the lines of..."well, today was a productive day! I got my homework done, we went to the commissary, I made dinner and dessert, and did the laundry and got it put away." He may have been making an attempt to get in my pants, but my amazing husband replied "Dang. You never get a day off do you? This is like working in the desert for you." In those few (completely non romantic sentences) my husband won my heart all over again. You see, when he's deployed he works 14-20 hours a day. Every day. Every single day. Bleck! Since I was aircrew we worked on a 3 day cycle with every 3rd day completely off. He'd tell you it's because we were spoiled little aircrew brats. He's probably right. lol.

Point of the story is, being a mom is hard. (It's amazing and fulfilling and wonderful and exactly what I want to be doing right now...but it's still hard.) And my husband gets all that..and that makes me love him even more.

Women without babies don't count

The title may sound a little bit politically incorrect, but it's really not. Honest.

I had a revelation tonight when Jordan and I took a trip to the gym together. It was SO great to get a chance to unwind and work out. Don't get me wrong, I love a good massage, but I have more energy and I just feel better after I work out! So onto my revelation...

I'm ashamed to admit this, but before I had Jackson I compared myself to other women. Shocker, right? Oh and yea...I still do. BUT, now I feel relieved by the fact that I only feel the need to compare myself to other women who have children. Or at least babies. Sexy football cheerleader? Pft. Ok so she has a rockin' bod, but did she grow a baby and give birth to it? No? Well then noooo wonder she looks like that. Let's see her in a few years after that baby. Once I have this little internal dialogue I no longer feel threatened by her in any way. Nor do I feel the need to work out harder or eat healthier. Isn't that awesome?! I do realize that women without babies or children have to work on being fit and healthy (because goodness knows it wasn't easy for me before Jack) but now I can just throw them into a category I don't fit into and continue on. :)

I remember when I used to go to the gym on base in high school and think people were looking at me because I was so obviously cute. (Yea...sad, isn't it?) After being in the military I realize the guys were looking at me wondering why the school bus let me off there, and after having a baby I realize the women were trying to determine if I had a child...and upon realizing I didn't, ignoring me.

Fred and Drear

I feel like I have to come up with some cute little title for these posts just to make them fit in with the others. I apologize if it's getting old! ;) This title pays homage to my military background and its incessant need to shorten things. While I was deployed we lovingly termed one of our protein choices in the chow hall "murkey" because the little chow hall workers claimed it was turkey, but it looked like ham for all intents and purposes. This is another one of those....I couldn't chose between fred or drear...but it's a combination of fear and dread. Those are the feelings that come washing over both Jordan and I when Jackson lets out a little sequel of unhappiness these days.

You see, we are terrified of the screaming baby of unhappiness coming and taking our happy content little boy away again! (Ok so that may be a little dramatic). Aside from some screaming caused by a foray into the world of formula (we've got a Rx for a new one that should work wonders now), Jackson has been doing wonderfully since I eliminated milk and soy protein. Alhumdelallah! (I thought I'd throw in some random Arabic there. It means thank God. So far I've paid quite a bit of attention to the diapers portion of this blog and not much at all to the desert part. That was my weak attempt and balancing things out...) Even though he's been great overall, I can't help myself from throwing up a quick prayer when his crying starts to get a little frenzied that is something along the lines of, "please dear sweet Jesus do not let this be the beginning of the end! Send a little angel of intenstinal health into my baby's body and let him rip a huge fart right now if that's what needs to happen!" Yes. I talk to God about farting. I didn't used to, but I guess it's part of being a parent...

Sleepy babies

Parents who have sleepy babies irritate me a little. I admit...I'm jealous. Before Jack was born everyone was telling me I'd have plenty of time to get things done around the house because, early on, he'd mostly sleep. Ha! My baby finds crying and screaming way more fun!

All joking aside, I think we've determined that Jackson has a sensitivity to milk protein. It sounds like lactose intolerance, but it's actually a little different. Regardless, I've decided to cut out all sources of diary for a few weeks to see if he responds with less crying and general upset-ness. I had to laugh at our intern Dr. the other day when he told me it's typical for babies to cry 2 or so hours every day. I told him we've had days with over 8 hours of crying, broken only by intermittent eating and short-lived naps on his part. While I may be tempting fate by saying this, things seem to have improved already in the few short days since I gave up diary. Although it's a huge sacrifice for me (growing up my family probably should've invested in a cow with the amount of milk we consumed), it'll be worth it to get some peace and quiet. Without consulting Jordan I think I can safely say that today was one of the best days for both of us in the past several weeks.

I also have to give tribute where it's due here: to my husband/dad-extraordinaire. He's been so wonderfully helpful and involved and I feel blessed to have him. I knew he was great, but it really hit home when we went to church last Sunday for the first time. During the opening songs we both kept looking down at Jack (sitting in his car seat on the chair between us) to check and make sure he was doing alright. As soon as he starting looking perturbed, Jordan sad down and started talking to him and rubbing his tummy. When he escalated to a cry, Jordan picked up the car seat before I even said a word and took him outside the sanctuary to hold and soothe him while I enjoyed the service. He later came back in with Jack in his arms and sat down next to me. Like babies tend to do, he started making a ruckus as soon as it got quiet again, and Jordan exited once more. Over the course of this whole episode 3 of the 4 women surrounding me turned in their seats and said something along the lines of, "wow, what a good dad!" Like I said earlier, I already knew that, but it was a nice feeling to know I have one of those husbands other women notice and appreciate. :) Thanks to his family for raising such a great guy!

I'd buy him a Lexus

Jack is nestled up in his wrap right now taking a nap. I had to take my car in to get serviced today (it was WAY overdue) and realized that it's definitely a task to achieve something outside the house with Jackson. Of course the only appointment time the car place had open was during Jack's usual nap time...but I really needed my car to get serviced! So I took it and hoped for the best.

Jack screamed the whole car ride to the car place, most of the time we were at the car place, as well as the whole ride back. He was tired and hungry...a bad combination. Well he ate, but promptly started screaming bloody murder. It turns out babies do have different cries, but there is one that pretty much makes you want to jump off a bridge. Every parent knows it....the cry where the baby is about to make itself throw up it's crying so hard. I suppose I should just feel terribly for him when he's like that, and I do somewhere under the overwhelming feeling of helplessness and irritation. The irritation stems from the helplessness. Anyway. He started doing that...again.

Jordan and I took a trip off base last night around 11pm in search of Mylicon. It's supposedly some wonder treatment for gassy/colicky babies. We went to Walgreens first and when they were sold out (what?! are you kidding me?! You're sold out of the only medicine known to modern society to stop screaming infants? Are you nuts? A hair brained parent could kill you for that! lol) we decided that we'd just take turns running into stores until we found the stuff somewhere. Luckily, stop number two had it. When I got back to the car and mentioned the price of our purchase Jordan replied, "at this point I'd buy the kid a Lexus if it'd make him calm down."

After giving him a few drops so far today I suddenly realized...Jackson was awake and quiet!I hadn't really realized how MUCH he'd been crying until it finally stopped. We had a little tummy time followed by some snuggling and chit chatting. I again realized that we hadn't done those things in several days either. They say that if a baby is going to have colic, it starts showing up around 3 weeks old. Ding! That's Jackson. We'll see how things go the next few days but I have to say that I'm pretty certain his troubles are stomach related since Jack is back to himself since we've given him some Mylicon! (Don't I sound like a commercial?)

Bottles is happiness

Alright, little bit of back story on the title of this one. When I was deployed I saw my two favorite road signs of all time. Number two was "seatbelts is safety". Hence, Bottles is happiness! My number one favorite road sign of all time read "watch out for road surprises". You've got to wonder who those Arabs have as English translators over there. What a strange job that would be, now that I mention it. "Arabic to English road sign translator". Maybe that's what I need to get into...I digress.

Jackson has started taking bottles!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY! Trust me when I say there are angels singing in the background right now. It's not that I don't love feeding my son or enjoy the bond, but it starts to sort of bother a person when they realize they can't go ANYWHERE alone. You can't go to the gym and swim, or go get a massage, or go alone to the store, just in case he wakes up and decides he's hungry. I was starting to get really squirmy about that. A lactation consultant came to our home last week and observed Jackson eating as well as helped me with pumping, and she assured me that Jack is a champion eater and should have no problems or "confusion" with bottles. So this weekend, we tried it out. After finding him a little annoyed with a too cold bottle, we got all the variables right and he went to town! YES! Jordan also gave Jack his first middle of the night feeding so I could sleep for more than four hours. Double YES!

Now I'm enjoying a little glass of wine safe in the knowledge that if Jack uncharacteristically becomes hungry at this hour, there's a bottle in the fridge. :) Ahhh. Bottles is happiness.

Tieing up my child

I'm hoping everyone who reads this little blog is fluent in English and can understand sarcasm, otherwise I may be having a visit with child protective services soon after posting this. I'll just go ahead and state up front: I do not really tie my child up. Thank you, come again soon. :)

Jackson is taking a little nap in our sling right now so I have a chance to post something up. I really love the sling...I'm very careful to make sure he's not smooshed in there, but it's so nice to have him snugly up against my torso while I go about my stay at home mom chores. Speaking of chores I recently decided that being in the Air Force was easier than being a stay at home mom. Haha. It probably depends on the day in both cases...anyway. I'll get back on topic.

I am breast feeding Jackson and really enjoy it for the most part. Before I had him all the lactation consultants, Dr.'s and nurses go on and on about what a wonderful bonding experience it is. It IS a really wonderful thing, but they forgot to mention how it'll make you want to rip your hair out when your little child is squirming all over, pushing at his wonderful God given milk source while also trying to eat from it (which causes cuts like razors on mom thanks to those cute little fingernails), and intermittently screaming bloody murder at 2 a.m. Enter my blog title. The hospital gave us what is called a "sleep sack" when we left. I had thought they sounded neat while I was pregnant, but didn't end up buying one, so I was glad to have a free one! We didn't try it right away but good Lord hallelujah I fell in love with it when we finally did! It's a blanket-type jumpsuit with a piece that velcro's over baby's torso to stick their arms to their sides. I don't think I've ever pulled fabric so tight! I'm not a terrible mother, I just happen to have a future football player for a son that has WAY too much strength for his age. I put that little sack on around sun set, and he's lucky if its off for his first day time feeding session. I love the little booger, but I think arms should grow in at a later age or something. lol.

(For anyone wondering about pictures of Jackson, check out my Facebook. I feel more comfortable posting pictures there since I limit picture access to my friends. Here anyone can see em!)

A small breeze

Ok I apologize in advance for writing another entry about bathroom functions, but this just cracked me up. Every once in a while I'm upstairs changing our little guys diaper and Jordan will here my laughing downstairs. This was one of those moments.

I noticed about a day ago that Jackson's little behind is getting a tiny red...I assume its from all the vigorous wiping I do! ;) Well I took pity on the guy and thought I'd led the area get some fresh air for a while. So AFTER covering his little man parts with one of those red plastic cups typically reserved for 20-something house parties (Jordan's solution), we goo-ed and gaa-ed at each other for a few minutes while he was diaperless. I really didn't feel like I wanted to sit up there all day like this, however, so I thought I'd speed the process by blowing a little bit on the sore area. I had just gotten my face good and close, given a little blow when Jackson let out a little blow of his own! My child farted in my face. Oooooh man did I laugh. I think Jordan and he discuss these plans in advance...

Jack is still doing well and actually slept a LOT last night! Thank you God!

Boys are different

I've been waiting to write this little entry for a while now but somehow there's never enough time. Lucky for me, Jackson decided he'd like to stay up late tonight so I've got a few minutes.

I have so much to share about how things went with Jackson's birth and our first days home (pretty much none of it was how I'd imagined), but for now I just want to say that boys are different in so many ways! I grew up in a family dominated by women and have had very little exposure to little boys. Especially infants. Jordan's family, on the other hand, is full of em! They kept warning me about a special talent of little boys in diapers...peeing all over the place as soon as you remove their diaper. It's not that I didn't believe them, I just didn't quite grasp the idea. The first time Jack's fountain performance debuted, I happened to have my hand in a lucky spot, and was able to shield the stream. Even though I'd been warned, I caught myself thinking, "what?! what is going on?! Where is all of this liquid coming from?! Oh yea...it's pee." The second time Jack was a little more crafty and waited until I thought I was in the clear to begin spraying everywhere. And I mean everywhere. He got pee several feet behind him, off the changing table, onto the wall and carpet. Not to mention all over his own face! It still took me several seconds to process what was happening. I mean...you just don't expect urine to fill the air at any given moment.

So yea...boys are different.

Stories of death and destruction

Ok, maybe not death and destruction, but at least pain and agony. Let me explain.

Women love to talk. We all know that. Well it turns out women especially love to talk about the birth of their children and experiences while pregnant. Hey, bring it on I say. BUT could we keep it to happy, smiling stories? I don't even care if we have to make them up at this point but please can we just end the sharing of stories centering around pain and agony?! Nearly every person I meet asks me when I'm due, which is totally fine. I tell them, and at least half of the people insist on following that up with a story about their third cousin on their husbands side who was not only 2 weeks late, but also was in labor for 8 days or some ridiculous amount of time. Why? Why do you feel the need to share this particularly grisly story with me? I'm a happy first timer here, purposely ignoring negative possibilities.

Starting yesterday I started to feel sort of like I had the flu. Just nauseous and sort of weak and tired and overall yucky. Since I routinely get asked by strangers how I'm feeling (presumably since I look like a swallowed a basketball....or maybe a beach ball is more accurate), I've decided I may as well be honest. So yesterday everyone that asked got the answer, pretty nauseous and sick. ...Ugh. You guessed it. "Oh that's nothing. My ex sister in law threw up everything she ate two weeks before her due date until she collapsed in the middle of a Walmart one day and her baby almost died. You should just go to the hospital now." Really? Why? Why do you say these things to me?

So if anyone has a happy story about how their late great aunt was sick for a couple days and then BAM!, went into labor, I'd love to hear it. Either way I think I'll just pretend it's a sign that labor will be starting soon and remain in my happy little bubble. :)

Patience

I've never been the most patient person in the world. Ok, scratch that. I've probably always been one of the least patient people in the world! I was so nervous after I went to the hospital a few weeks ago that I honestly stayed in bed until Jordan got home. Some voice in my head was sure that if I even walked Baxter around the block I'd SURELY go into labor minutes later. That voice clearly was overly emotional and hormonal, because here I am several weeks later having walked around many blocks, through many stores and even having worked out and NOTHING! I've gone from feeling quite sure Jackson would be arriving early to wondering if he'll ever come out. (Yes, yes, I realize it's inevitable.)

Overall I think pregnancy has been a really fun time. Admittedly I was sick for quite a bit of my first trimester, and Jordan was gone for quite a bit of my second, but otherwise I've enjoyed it. Before I got pregnant and heard all the moaning and complaining from pregnant women I always sort of thought, "oh pish posh. It can't be all that bad. Suck it up, woman!" Humph. Turns out I was just a little bit hasty in my judgment. Morning (scratch that, all day) sickness, extreme fatigue, inability to get out of a lying position any way other than rolling out and landing on my hands and knees as well as feeling like this child inside me must be around 15 pounds at this point are significant enough points in favor of whiny pregnant women.

I've also got to say that I've realized Jordan and I had very little idea of what we were getting ourselves into! Don't get me wrong, I'm still very content with our decision to start a family, but it's going to be one wild ride I think! And probably somewhat similar to those rides that make you want to giggle in glee sometimes because you feel like you're flying but that also make you want to throw up or pass out at others.

I started this happy little blog with the intent of posting about my new experiences in motherhood, under the assumption that they would begin pretty soon after my last post....obviously not so much. I'm still incubating.

Interesting Evening

Hey all I just wanted to write a quick note about last night to keep everyone I love in the loop. I called my mom early last night because I noticed a little bleeding and asked her to (please!) help me be calm! I've had an irrational fear the past several weeks that Jackson would try to make his entrance before Jordan got home, and this seemed a little too questionable! I talked with my Dr. as well as my wonderful mother-in-law and decided to go in to the hospital with my friend Carly about an hour later. They set me up on fetal monitoring and determined after a little less than an hour that I was having contractions that appeared to be getting stronger and more regular, and was dilated 1cm. They also checked me to see if the bladder infection I'd found out about earlier in the week was still going on since that can cause contractions. Carly said a prayer for me since I was getting pretty worried about all of these things, and afterwords I really felt much calmer. A few minutes after that the nurse (who was a wonderfully patient and kind woman) came in and gave me a shot in the arm to try to stop the contractions.

I have to add in here that contractions can be a normal thing before a woman's due date, especially in the third trimester. Both Jack and I were completely safe and fine, the only threat was Jack coming early...which I would've felt much better about had Jordan been here!

I really thank God because I didn't have another contraction after they gave me the shot! I also found out that I didn't show signs of infection in my bladder, which is definitely good news, but makes the contractions somewhat of a mystery. They could've been because of stress, or from the parade-walking I had done earlier in the day (oops) or any number of other things. I had a little hospital food (which wasn't too bad!) and they monitored me for the next couple of hours. Since Jack was doing well, I hadn't progressed past 1cm and the contractions stopped, they released me!

My plan is pretty much to stay in bed until Jordan gets here just to be on the safe side! He'll be here in about 24 hours now, though, so that's also a blessing! I'll keep you all updated on any changes, but for all we know this could be the end of the commotion until Jack's due date!

Me and the Four Star Generals

Growing up with lots of family in the military sort of made me oblivious to the whole rank structure. My dad was a chief when he retired and I figured that was no biggie. I mean hey, he was my dad! Not really that scary. As a teenager I even felt a little indignant towards those pushy military Dr.’s with lots of rank. Who did they think they were anyway?

It didn’t take me long to re-adjust my thinking once I got to basic training. I soon realized that EVERYONE, including lowly airman schmeperson over there who’s only been in the military for six months, had infinitely more power and authority than dingy little me. Now compare airman schmeperson to an officer. Most of my basic training flight would’ve wanted to run away and throw up in a corner if they saw one coming towards them. What about a four star general? This person has attained the highest rank possible in the military. May as well just die on the spot right? Luckily I never had to meet one of those personally or talk to them, or even make eye contact. Even after I got used to the military I think that would’ve been too much for me.

Now bear with a random change of subject for a few minutes. Most reserved parking in the civilian world isn’t anything significant. You’ve got handicapped parking…maybe some “10 minute or get towed” parking. That’s pretty much it. Other than that you’re on your own finding a spot in the back 40. Not in the military. Those four star generals? They’ve got at least one spot at darn near every building on every base in the world. It’s right next to the door and no one ever parks there other than them. (Well, their driver anyway). There’s also parking for Chiefs. Turns out they're a little more important than I thought….Ahem. Sorry dad.

Here’s where it gets good. You’ve got all these special parking spots for all the really scary people in the military who could smother you with a look, and guess who else gets a spot up front? Pregnant women! Pretty much since I’ve been old enough to think a Chief isn’t scary I’ve been hoping that one day I would get to park in one. Is that creepy? I didn’t want babies. I just wanted the cool spot. I even waited until I was quite visibly pregnant to start parking in them lest some passerby accuse of me of using the spot illegally! (I only feared this because I’d questioned many womens’ pregnancy status under my breath while driving by them to my far away parking location in years past).

So yea, all of that was to say…it’s me and the four star generals now, baby. Thanks, Jackson.

Deserts are ugly

I just spent way too much time looking through every background available to me on this little blog, and guess what? There were no pictures of the desert. Well, I take that back. There may have been one with some sort of sandy oasis. Palm trees and clear water surrounded by sand. But, that's not what I mean when I say "the desert". This is what I mean....

Nice, right? As many of you know, that's where I spent a good part of last year. That is where my husband is now. It's generally a pretty safe deployment location, and we're blessed for that. I wrote many many emails home during the time I spent in the desert and I've had a lot of people tell me I should write a book. Or even just write more emails. Well....a book sounds really overwhelming! Emails seem sort of presumptuous on my part. I don't want to assume anybody cares what I'm doing or thinking...especially since I don't have any exciting tales from the desert anymore.

Some of you are probably wondering where the diapers part of this blog comes in, and it comes in here. I just recently separated from the Air Force because I'm planning on becoming a stay at home mom with our new son, Jackson! Now, there's a good chance that this new path of mine won't include satanic supervisors or painful and awkward massages, but I figure it's bound to have some interesting parts that I could write something about. So here it is. My blog.

I have to tell you that by reading the tales of my attempt at becoming a domestic icon (....choke, sputter) you will also be exposed every once in a while to updates from mom and my's new shop on Etsy, "ItsAJoi".

Call me old fashioned (or crazy) but I decided early on in my pregnancy that I wanted to cloth diaper. Maybe it's because I came from a very "career" type of job, but I feel like being a stay at home mom should be just as much of a job as any other. The only difference here is that I am my own boss. I can define my job responsibilities as widely or narrowly as I want! While I probably sound somewhat like a soldier marching off to battle, I have to say that I'm determined to hold myself accountable, stay structured, and be disciplined in my new job. Part of that includes saving our little family some $$. Hence the cloth diapering. If all it costs me is extra time and effort, I'm for it. So after all that I'll include that I'm a little nervous. haha. What if I give up and start using disposables, serving previously-frozen mush for dinner, and watch soap operas all day?! (seriously...I'm afraid. lol). Wow I went off the path there for a second...cloth diapering.

Mom and I started coming up with ways to make cloth diapering even MORE affordable, and that resulted in sweatshop-like production rates on hand sewn diapers (yea! I did that! I couldn't even sew a year ago. Granted I was listening to terrorists at the time. But still.) and all things diaper. Long story short, we've got a shop on Etsy that has some intricate crochet work, baby blankets, sewn cloth diapers, knit diaper covers and some random cloth diaper accessories. We'll see how that goes! (http://www.etsy.com/shop/itsajoi).



The end for now