Be a Good Example

By the time I ever make it around to my blog I usually don't feel like posting. I wish I could verbally blog. I would be "writing" some long blogs in the mornings and especially on drives. A random note from this morning... Kaitlyn and I were on our way to MOPS when she yawned. After doing so she said, "my mouth is tired." LOL... I thought surely I heard her wrong so I asked if that is what she said. She told me no. Heaven forbid I know she's tired. Moments later she yawned again. I asked if her mouth was still tired and she laughed.

So here's some of my thoughts from this morning. I've actually been thinking about this for a while, but this morning I was writing a post in my head about it. What you ask? How much kids pick up and adults brush off. To be more specific, every time we have flown home for Christmas or other times of the year (when living in England) we always hear, multiple times, how Kaitlyn doing something we don't approve of won't effect her long term. Usually the excuses go on how she won't remember. Well guess what ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, family and friends... She DOES remember. I will supply you with one example, but know this isn't the only thing she has picked up quickly... On January 19, 2009 Kaitlyn had hip reconstruction surgery. She was stuck on her back in a hospital bed. The next day I tried giving her some tummy time, but just like when she was 3-4 months old she HATED it. You would have thought I was torturing her. Fed up and wanting her to be happier I said, "do you want me to hold you?" She quickly took me up on it. Off and on throughout the day I would lay her back down and go to the bathroom or get something. As soon as I would walk into the room or sit down, she would start crying, if she stopped from me putting her down that is. I again would ask, "do you want me to hold you?" By either the night of the 20th or the morning of the 21st she was saying "hold you!!!!" to be picked up. To this day, ten months later, she still says "hold you". We have told her multiple times it's "hold me", but she rarely gets it right and usually only when reminded. So rebellious adults who don't want to follow our wishes and use lame excuses, Kaitlyn is watching you. If she comes up with bad habits... we will give you the credit (aka blame). So PLEASE, be a good example.

Kaitlyn's Likes/Loves Continued

I can't believe I forgot two of her big likes. Maybe it's because they are so much apart of our everyday life??? Kaitlyn is a big Ice Age and Madagascar fan. We have the second Ice Age movie and the first Madagascar and they both have racked up mileage. Because she loves Madagascar so much I bought her the Christmas one and she watched it on the way to Nana and Papa's house Monday. Her favorite character is Marty, the zebra. Have any of you noticed they seem to push Gloria for girls? It makes sense, but she isn't Kaitlyn's fav. I wanted to buy her some Christmas PJs with Marty on it and had a hard time. I finally picked a pair that I believe are girls, but look like either gender could wear them.

Okay, I'm off to change and go to the store with mom.

Some of Kaitlyn's Likes/Loves

Many times when it comes to the things Kaitlyn likes they are actually pretty simple. I will go online to Fisher Price games and print off different alphabet pages for her. I bought a few random craft items that she uses to embellish the letter pages. She loves gluing stuff on. So all those little things down the "craft" isle at Walmart like puff balls, pipe cleaners, popcicle sticks, feathers, ect... she loves.

Kaitlyn is really into letters right now. Our world has really changed with this new discovery of hers. She looks around at all the signs and declairs, "Mommy I see a/an (insert letter)". While walking into Target last week she was rattling off all the letters on the sign. She got her love for letters while watching Super Why and Word World.

She has shown interest in things like Mr Potatoe Head, My Little Pony, Fisher Price Snap n' Style dolls. She loves Dora, but NEVER plays with any of her stuff while looking at toys. She rarely watches Elmo anymore, but is stuck on his microwave. She still enjoys her Little People castle, house, and farm. Especially with the castle and house, she seems to like setting up living environments.

On a totally different subject, Kaitlyn is growing like a weed right now. What's the deal? We have gone for a long time having a steady increase in height then suddenly she jumps 2". Okay it wasn't completely sudden; she did it over a three month span. When you put pants on her and they are looking a bit short... Because of this, very soon Kaitlyn is going to become one of the most stylish kids in her Moppets class. I'm going to turn all her great fitting jeans that are starting to look a bit short, into ribbon jeans. Meaning I will add length to them by adding loops of ribbon to the bottom. Another thing I might do is add ruffles. I guess it's a good thing we are in Texas. Soon I will be able to crop the bottoms off and she can wear them as capris. What do you do with a child who is just moving into 3t that is growing out of the length? I wonder how different 4t are??? BTW, it's not all 3t pants, just jeans. And they aren't crazy short yet, but starting to look a bit... like high waters. When I measured Kaitlyn this summer she was 36 1/4" I believe and she's now 38".

I'll have to come on here later and show you the comatose Sadie laying in her new dog bed. She's to funny. Last night Neal laid her in the dog bed and she didn't move for the rest of the night. She acts like it's not hers and she isn't supposed to be on it. I think it's because she is used to having a small bed she must teeter on. This time she is fully lounging on a huge pillow.

Air Show Pictures

ABU Drama

Neal has been bugging me about needing to update his ABU (camo) top. It had to be done by today. At some point he pulled it out and took the rank off. Because of his job he no longer wears rank. He bought the new name tape I needed to add and washed them both. We have found washing the top and tapes before sewing eliminates all the annoying puckering that most people have. Once he had it ready for me to sew he decided he better try the top with all his new gear. It was tight. Ugh. We should have expected this. He has to buy all his shirts that will go over his gear a size larger. He seemed fine having his shirt "stretching" across all his junk. I wasn't okay with it so I bought him a new top on Monday. He left his gear at work so he couldn't see if it was better. He tried it out on Tuesday or Wednesday. Wednesday he brings me the top and his ABU pants and showing me they are two different colors. When they first brought the ABUs out they had one that was more of a brown and one with more green. I'm not sure if they finally stopped buying fabric from two different places and maybe we have the bottoms from the fabric no longer used. Anyway, he shows me the color difference and waits on a response. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it went something like this.

N- "Look at this."

J- "Yeah". Said same as so what.

N- "They're different."

J- "It's fine."

N- "But it doesn't match."

J- "So what?!" Getting frustrated the color difference really matters given the regularity the garment is worn.

N- "You don't have to get upset I'm just showing you they are different."

J- sternly, "I'm not getting upset, I really don't care." snicker... I really didn't and still don't care.
Suddenly he really cared they didn't match and had to tell me so. My thoughts? He hasn't worn ABUs in over a year. Why should I care that for the one day in over a year he has to wear them they won't be a perfect match? It's not at all worth it to me to spend $30-40 on new ABU pants just so he can match once a year. Maybe he will start having to wear them once a month, but even then it's still not worth it. Originally he was worried you could still see where the rank was on his old ABU top. You couldn't. He also fretted on the tapes not being the exact same color. He bought all new tapes. *rolls eyes* I told him the color difference, ever so slight, wasn't enough to warrant the work of taking off the old and putting on new ones. If his superiors complain then I'll go buy him some pants.

Yesterday I sewed on all the new tapes and it looked great.

Oatmeal & Sugar

This morning I made Kaitlyn oatmeal for breakfast. We typically have cold cereal, but I need to go shopping because we have really wiped it out this week. When I told her we were having oatmeal she acted like it was a foreign substance. She got on a step stool and looked into the container to see just what this "oatmeal" was. Once satisfied she jumps off the step stool and went to the silverware drawer where she retrieved a fork. A fork? "Kaitlyn we don't eat oatmeal with a fork", I said. At this she insisted I get her a spoon (in dishwasher). By this point her oatmeal was done and cooling. She finally got out from underfoot so I set out to make her oatmeal tasty. After a bit of butter, a tad of sugar, and some applesauce, I served her breakfast. She took one look at it and said "raisins!" Ugh, I forgot. However that does mean she remembers eating oatmeal before. I remember too so instead of putting the raisins in the oatmeal I put them to the side of the bowl. She digs them out with her figures anyway. I know, yuck; I really do try to get her to be more civilised. Of course having her raisins beside the bowl wasn't acceptable. She added them all to her cereal. Of course she then ate them out of the bowl. Let's hope the spoon was more handy this time.

Okay, that was completely random. On another random note we have been giving Kaitlyn sugar for a year this month yet we still limit it. She only gets milk, water, and watered down juice to drink. She thinks she's really cleaver when she steals one of our sodas. Last night she found Neal's Chick-fil-A cup on the table. I heard her in the kitchen announce daddy left his cup. It was quickly followed by a sucking noise. *rolls eyes* I had to go save the cup. On the sugar note, she rarely gets cookies, candy, ice cream or cake. If we have pancakes she uses sugar free syrup. And she only knows the taste of sugar free jelly. I figure if it's something she has never had then she doesn't know the sweetness she is missing. In case you are wondering I only buy sugar free jelly now. Until recently we have only had sugar free syrup in the house. Neal and I decided to buy some of the real thing and try mixing it 50/50. Kaitlyn doesn't know it's supposed to taste better, but we do. =)

Debt ~ Yuck!

I hate debt. I really do. When I entered college the creditors were lined up ready to give all students who wanted a Discover, Visa, or MasterCard. I decided on Discover and there began my seven years of being in debt. My first card was both a blessing and a burden. A burden because it put me in financial bondage for seven years, but a blessing because it established my credit and taught me to hate the trap of debt. Shortly after getting married the last of my debt was paid off. Since then I've really worked to stay out of debt or get out as quickly as possible. Sure there are times when you must borrow, like when buying a car or house, but that doesn't mean you must follow the payment plan set before you. Those plans are to both make it easier for you to pay the debt back and to get the creditor as much as they can for your little (or big) purchase.

Just a little overview of all we have done in the last three years... We purchased a new Caliber, a used Jeep, done three rounds of IVF, and one FET. We also had more minor purchases like five round trip plane tickets from London to the US and paid for the dogs to fly back stateside. Not to mention the dogs being sick last summer costing us a pretty penny in emergency vet visits, medications, and one surgery. All of these things can really add up especially on a military members income. However, when we purchased our house in August it was the only debt to our name. With all of our expenses we were determined to pay them off as quickly as possible. Thankfully paying everything off has kept us from living paycheck to paycheck. When buying the house I was really worried about spending the next five years having to watch every penny we spend.

And a little thought for those about to buy a house. This is especially for those given money by their employer for housing. Just because you have X amount of dollars to spend doesn't mean you should use it all for housing; actually it's stupid to do so. I only agree with spending all your housing money on rent or a mortgage when the employer only pays the exact amount you owe. When we moved out of base housing in England the Air Force would only pay the exact amount of our rent. Here stateside we are given a set amount for our area. Our mortgage payments, including home owners insurance, make up 60% of what the military gives us. The rest of the money pays our electricity, water, telephone, ect... Not spending all the money on actually mortgage payments means we have a lot more to pocket. It also means we don't have to be a two income family. There would be no way around me having to work if we spent 100% of our allotment on the house. So don't be stupid and cause your family to be house poor. It's better to under buy, especially for your first house. Those who over buy can find themselves facing foreclosure or living hand to mouth.

One last note on our Caliber, our first payment was July 2007 and our last was February 2009.

Home Alarm

This morning after our usual crawl into bed snuggles Kaitlyn and I were ready to start our day. As we were heading out of the room she suddenly got on a "where's my flower blanket" kick. She's running all over up stairs trying to find her quilt. I told her that I washed it. She calmed at that point and said she was going downstairs. I said told her I was going to the bathroom. Thank God I didn't get farther then walking into the bathroom because a second later Kaitlyn had run downstairs and to our garage door. She was still looking for her quilt. Suddenly the house alarm was blaring. Of course I thought there was an intruder and grabbed the shotgun. No really, I knew it was Kaitlyn. I ran down the stairs and turned the alarm off before the alarm company called. Kaitlyn acted a bit frazzled, but settled down when I pulled her quilt out of a clothes basket.

Tonight I think I will put a twin sheet and quilt on Kaitlyn's bed. When I've done this before I took her mattress off and used the sheet and quilt like a taco shell. It keeps her covered and from un-tucking the quilt. For all scratching their heads, her crib turns into a daybed. Her mattress is still the short crib mattress.

The Best OOTD From Yesterday

I forgot to share the best "One Of Those Days" (OOTD) happenings from yesterday. Kaitlyn wasn't downstairs long when I heard her playing with water. Fearing the worst I asked what she was doing. I quickly moved to demanding she come upstairs. Perhaps at this point I should share that I was in the bathroom. Kaitlyn LOVES making her move while I'm in the bathroom. She knows there's little I can do about her shenanigans. So she's playing in water and surprise, surprise, surprise she actually takes my threats to heart and comes upstairs. The sleeves of her sweater were wet. She told me she was playing in Sadie's water bowl. We had a few words about how she knows she isn't supposed to play in Sadie's water. A few minutes later we both went downstairs. I walked into the kitchen and what do my eyes behold? My worst fear. The step stool is in front of the sink. The dog water bowl is in one sink and my thawing chicken is in a bowl on the other side. I asked if she played with the chicken water. I had to show her the bowl so she would understand. She said, in the sweetest voice she could muster, "yes". FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE THAT WAS OUR DINNER!!! I quickly stripped her sweater off seeing how it's chicken water on the sleeves. She flipped out. She acted like losing her sweater was another form of punishment. For all who were wondering... we did eat the chicken. Yuck I know. It actually tasted great. We cooked it well, killing all the doggy and Kaitlyn germs.

One more thing, today wasn't OOTD.

One of Those Days

With Kaitlyn Joy it can be "One of Those Days" (OOTD) everyday. It's rare Neal will come home and I tell him it's been a great day. Usually he can tell or should be able to tell what kind of day it has been when he walks in the door. If Kaitlyn is crying it's OOTD. If she's happy go lucky then thank God it's a good day. Yesterday I would have called it an ultimate OOTD accept I emotionally handled it well. It's when I'm ready to knock her head off before 5pm... well you get the picture.

I can't even tell you what happened when because it all ran together. I know the first thing was me catching her in the bathroom washing her foot in the sink. She was coating her leg in soap all the way up her calve. I got the soap off her leg and hands then talked with her about not wasting the soap. I noticed the container, despite her waste, was almost full from me recently filling it. I didn't know at the time this observation would be important. More on that later.

At some point in time while we were still downstairs I told Kaitlyn to go to the bathroom. Let me stop here and say Kaitlyn Joy is potty trained, but gets busy and doesn't make it to the potty on time. I HATE the not making it on time. Recently I cleaned my carpet after it smelt like a urinal. I kept waiting on Neal to say something, but his sniffer seems to be broken 99% of the time; the stats are pretty spot on in case you are wondering if I'm over exaggerating. It wasn't until I brought the Rug Doctor home did he say he could smell the pee. Anyway, an hour and a half after I returned the thing Kaitlyn forgot to go potty again. =( My newly cleaned carpet was dirty again. I was so fed up that when Sadie peed on the carpet a couple days later I went out and bought a carpet cleaner. So back to yesterday... I told her to go potty, but instead she went into the bathroom and started playing with the spring door stop. A few minutes later she came back into he living room with the door stop in her hand and wet pants. She did it again. She got busy playing and didn't go potty. This is actually very common in the bathroom.

If I ever tell Kaitlyn to go to the bathroom I have to either check on her a minute or two later or keep my ears pealed for what's really going on in there. Here's some tips for you... Going potty doesn't consist of running water first. Going potty shouldn't include the thumping of her hitting the toilet paper to get half the roll off. It shouldn't take longer then a couple minutes and if it does she might be pooping and will need attention anyway. Running water first means she isn't going potty, but flooding the bathroom. She will splash it so much her clothes and the floor looks like she just took a bath in the toilet and jumped out to drip on the floor. Beyond the flooding issue she typically will play long enough she remembers she MUST go potty, but will not get on the toilet in time. Of course. *sigh* Recently we stopped putting toilet paper in the holder in both our downstairs bathroom and Kaitlyn's bathroom upstairs. Neal will sometimes use these bathrooms, but they are primarily the ones Kaitlyn goes too. If the toilet paper is right there next to the toilet she will unroll it. And as of recent she will then put it in the toilet. We probably went through three rolls of toilet paper in 3-4 days before we stopped putting it back on the roll. I don't believe any of it touched her rear. She's just learning how to clog the toilet like her daddy. =)

At some point in time she went back into the bathroom and started playing with the soap and water again. When I found her HALF the soap was gone and I had a mess to clean up.

One time she came up to me say something. I was distracted by the smell of Frebreze. I asked her if she had been playing in it and she said yes. She then said it burned her eye. I pulled her close and noted the front of her hair wasn't wet from water, but Frebreze. Augh!!! I marched her into the wet and now stinky (Frebreze) bathroom, soaped up her hair and washed it out in the sink. I scrubbed the floor, toilet, and sink by hand last night, but the bathroom is still overpowering. It might be on the walls. Grrr...

So much more happened yesterday. These were just the messy happenings. Things like cleaning the kitchen out of apples and bananas. Eating some and leaving the rest around the house. Sadie didn't mind finding Kaitlyn's treats. There was also the hiding of the dog treats. Kaitlyn thinks it's so funny to steal Sadies chews and hide them in the compartments on her riding toys. I can't tell you how many times in the last two days I've collected Sadie's chew from a riding toy or had Kaitlyln do it. Now when Sadie gets it and especially when she sees Kaitlyn, she will run around the living room trying to keep it away from her.

Yesterday was one of the few days when I was tired and decided to nap while Kaitlyn did. I put her down and about 30 minutes later I headed for my bed. Just as I started to fall asleep I heard Kaitlyln. I put her back to bed then headed back to my own. This went on, back and forth, for her whole nap time. She never did sleep. In the midst of it all my head started banging which made me want to nap all the more so it would go away.

Let's hope today goes better.

Oh, I did score one for the home team. While at Walmart yesterday I found they had clearanced all their Carter brand PJs to $5 so I bought Kaitlyn five pairs. I wanted to make Kaitlyn some PJ pants, but I figure by the time I bought or made matching tops they would cost the same or more then store bought PJs.

OCC Part 2

Today Kaitlyn and I took our Operation Christmas Child package to MOPS with us. Kaitlyn was so happy to be going. She kept saying, "she'll be so excited!" When we arrived at the chapel she said, "Let me take it to her." I kept explaining we wouldn't be able to see the girl get the package because she doesn't live around here. During one conversation we talked about how neat it would be to see her open it. During MOPS Kaitlyn played while I helped the ladies pack shoe box totes for OCC.

Kaitlyn Joy... She's so funny. She keeps playing with he beads on my top today. Several times she would point at what I thought was my necklace and say, "You have a U." This Word World at work in our daily lives. I thought she was being a goofy kid about the whole "U" thing, but a little bit ago she said it again then traced my V neck with her finger. =) Smart kid. She sees words and letters everywhere and tries tell us what they are. She doesn't always get it right, but she's usually close.