Happy Nine Month Birthday!

Mommy took me off of the silly drugs the doctor put me on. They were hurting me and giving  me charlie horses and making me eat all day and cry all night from ansomnia...and I was still coughing really bad. So, mommy said, "enough" and didn't give me any last night or this morning. I had a pretty good day. I am still sorta constipated, but Mommy says that will pass. Then she gave me apples and plums for dinner. I don't get it?
I did have a really good birthday and Mommy says she will post pictures soon. Oh, oh, oh, I almost forgot to tell you! My newest trick is turning on and off light switches. I am so proud that I can make it work! I have been doing so well with phonics, Mommy started introducing me to individual letters! Of course, she had to start me with the vowels! I love my E-I-E-I-O...and A for Annmarie! There's another one that I don't know yet. But, I had such a good day!

Thank You Aunt Lisa

Today we received a package for Annmarie's

first birthday! This is one of the outfits that was in it. Yes, it is a little too big for her, but something tells me she will fit it perfectly in a couple of weeks. Yesterday we started some steroids the doctor gave her. Man, they speed her up even faster than she already is. I didn't realize how fast they would make her move and gave it to her before bed. Hmmm. She was up at 2am sticking her fingers up my nose and trying to open my eyes. She was so happy and excited. She stayed up until I put her in the car to go to day care. Poor day care.
I got on them yesterday after they let her sleep for almost 4 hours in the middle of the day. OI told them not more than an hour and a half. Typically, she sleeps an hour before lunch and an hour after lunch. Those silly fools let her sleep all morning and then when I picked her up said, "she is ready for her afternoon nap". So, she was up all morning and then they let her sleep 90 minutes...to the minute -twice.  Thank god. So, hopefully tonight she will sleep all night.

Starting to Feel Better

Finally...finally...the girl is feeling better. Don't get me wrong, her nose is still running like a faucet -all raw and irritated. But, Annmarie still played today. She laughed and played and went outside for a walk. Today was so much better than any day this week. And, she slept for several hours last night...meaning damn near 6! Yeah!

Almost There

Annmarie really enjoys pushing her walker around. It makes me nervous because I always worry about her pushing it too hard and it flying out from under her. But, she seems to have reasonable control over it. I still stick close. Well the runny nose is slowing down. She still coughs a lot in the morning and when I lay her down. I have been caking her with Vic's every night. I know it probably hasn't been that long, but it feels like she's been sick forever.

Feeling Better, But Man Still So Snotty!

I fell asleep eating my lunch!

Baby Girl doesn't quite understand how glass works, but it's amazing!

Look how tall I am!

For some reason, the girl did not want to take her nap today. We were up at 6am -as little girl tossed her cookies all over her bed. So, mom stripped her bed and put her where she belongs...in the mom's bed. Then of course, she lost her 6:30 breakfast all over mom's bed. So, we stripped that bed too and decided to start the day. I figured I had until at least 9am before she went back to sleep. Hm, she didn't want to sleep at all. So, at 1pm, she finally fell asleep in her chair eating lunch. But, then odd enough, she only slept for about 45 minutes. I guess I will take it. She was up all day until bedtime. She didn't eat a whole lot today, but she also didn't throw anything else up. And, she hasn't had a fever all day. She just has a whole lot of snot -running all over everywhere -mostly on my sleeve and shoulder. On top of all the Vic's Vapor Rub, I added so eucalyptus oil to the vaporizer. I am pretty sure she threw up this morning because she was gagging on her own snot.

Season is Over!

Yesterday was the completion of Season 2011 and we both had a night of much needed sleep with no appointments first thing in the morning. Baby girl does not like having to get up at 4am...and I don't like having to get her up that early. We had two more trips to the pediatrician this week. And, baby girl is still sick. I don't think I have ever seen so much snot before. I just want some cough syrup for her. They refuse and you can't buy it for a baby. So, short of getting the children's and cutting the dose down, my option is vapor rub and steam. So, vapor rub and steam it is. In the mean time, she coughs all night long and has a hella time drinking a bottle. It sucks. I have been loading her up with high vitamin C foods and giving her pedialite and lemon juice in her sippy cup. It seems to help. It just sucks feeling so helpless. Tonight she helped me bake chocolate chip cookies. My sister Marci would be proud.
Speaking of siblings, Jarod had another house fire. Luckily, his three kids all got out safe. Payton just got out of the hospital for pneumonia so this is the last thing he needed.
I got a firm date out of Janyl today! October 23rd! I hope she likes it out here.

9/11

Today is the Ten Year Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on my country.

Ten years ago today, I was just finishing up a pretty grueling training cycle. Two straight weeks of 18-22 hour days separated only by 3 or 4 hours of sleep at a time. Everything on the ship (USS HEWITT DD 966) was placed in simulation mode. Back then (and still sometimes now) the ship had no radio or television -we were just getting email -and those were intermittent and unreliable. Only the top people had Internet access, but even that was intermittent. It was normal to not know what day it was (or even if it was day or night outside -everything works on Zulu time (Greenwich Mean Time). On the last day of this mission, we were getting excited and ready to pull in when the CO came across the 1MC announcing system and told us about what had happened. We really thought it was another drill. So, we followed through and set our PPR's (preplanned responses) and assumed duties on the mission called Western Picket. We were out for another 3 weeks before we saw land again. Those that had family in the area were allowed to send message via Naval Message Traffic and Bat phones. I have no idea how the bat phones worked because we didn't have satellites for them. Even then, it took hours just to get a message off ship. I felt really bad for them. Some of them had to wait for days just to get a status. And, even longer to get them to their families.
That is when it really hit me the importance of what we do.

Up All Rounds

Yesterday was Annmarie's 9 month well baby check up. She did pretty well. This was our third trip to the pediatrician in two weeks. She has been teething, yes -but, she also caught a 'bug' at her new child care center. The way I understand it, teething weakened her immune system. That coupled with the new facility, made for a rough couple of days. Wednesday and yesterday were the first two days with no fever. She still has green snot and a cough, but we can make it through that. When we went in for her well baby she didn't have a fever, but did have a red/puffy inner ear. So, this may be her first ear infection. On the good side, she is still at 20 pounds, but is now 29.5 inches tall. The pediatrician says she looks like she has all four front teeth lining up to drop. I don't know if I believe her. It's been two weeks worth of "teething" with no freaking teeth.
I decided to leave work a little early yesterday. No reason, just was ready to go. Which ended up being a good thing. As I got off of the 805 I noticed that all of the red lights were out. The ride from Point Loma to the house normally takes about 30 minutes. This time it took 1.5 hours. The ride was really slow, but (surprisingly) everyone was making 4 way stops at each intersection. So, it was pretty safe -even though we were bumper to bumper. I arrived home with baby to find we had no electricity at home. Later, I found out there was a mishap in Yuma, Arizona that took out Orange County, San Diego County, Yuma and Tijuana. (Side note: I didn't realize we were supplying Mexico with electricity.)
Here's where something NOTW happens. Just by the grace of God:
1) we two brand new cases of water
2) I had just filled up the gas in my car
3) baby water was on sale so I had 3 gallons of it
4) when Annmarie was a newborn, I bought a plug in flash light -which I had just charged up
5) Dad bought me a manual phone charger/flashlight that I always keep in my car. (Which can be used to power up anything that has a USB adapter.)
6) We have a gas stove
7) I have a car lighter/wall plug converter
8) My jacked up phone may not have been able to call out, but I was able to keep in touch with everyone via Internet and Facebook.
9) Lori sucks at mowing the grass.
So, even though it was too hot to sleep upstairs, we were able to camp out downstairs. So, we set it up and had a slumber party. I didn't even have to break into my disaster kit. Baby girl had her first candle light dinner. Which, I really thought I did good with until this morning when I saw all the mess. She slept pretty well in the travel crib...even though it's barely longer than her. Our power came back on in the middle of the night. Baby girl woke up after the power came on, so I moved her upstairs and turned on the air conditioner. Parts of San Diego were still not on at 2pm today. This morning we started the process of undoing everything...resetting the house alarm, restarting modems, scrubbing the floor around the not-so-high chair, and trying to get TV service back. TV was the last thing to come back.
The only thing I wish I would have had with me that we didn't have is a gun. I understand that looting happens when people have no power...alarms...phones...I know the danger is higher living so close to Tijuana. I also know that this threat is lessened by the fact that the guy to our left just had AstroTurf installed and the guy to our right has a several thousand dollar grill set up -unguarded. Logic prevails, who do you rob/loot? The guy with 2 foot high weed like grass....or the guy that has money to waste on things like Astro Turf and nice grills? So, I felt safer!
Up All Rounds is a Navy term meaning all guns are firing with "no apparent damage, no apparent causalities". We are Up All Rounds -again!

Baby Frazzled Like Mommy!

Getting Better!

Today was better! Not totally 100%, but better! Annmarie took a ride around the neighborhood in her super posh one seater...stroller that is. She loved it. She heard dogs bark and watched kids swing at the playground. After another nap, Annmarie got to go to Walmart and pick out some new toys and a couple of new outfits! Yay. Mommy's mission was to create Janyl's diaper bag. Now, when she gets here, she will have everything she needs to take the girl on any outing -anywhere -anytime. Lori is going to use it until Auntie Janyl gets here!
It seems Cousin Payton and Grandma Judy have changed places. Payton was released from the hospital and Grandma J was taken in for heart issues.
After several hours, Grandma Judy was released with a follow up appointment with Cardiology.
I have been working to move Annmarie's bedtime to a later time in hopes of getting her to sleep throughout the night. She is in the habit of getting up at 3am for a drink of water. Tonight Annmarie stayed up until 9pm. Anything after 5am is acceptable because I have to get her up at 5:30 during the week.

My First Fever

What we thought was teething yesterday, seems to be more like a bug. There is no sign of teeth and Annmarie still has a re-occurring fever and a nice little cough. She did however stay awake a whole lot more than she did yesterday. So, there it progress. Today she rubbed her eyes so much the one is raw and red. I think she must have as much of a headache as her mommy. We are definitely getting use out of the very nice rocking chair. So, all events were cancelled today. We did not go to Mommy n' Me, a baby shower, groceries or the benefit car wash -or fixing my phone. I knew even on a good day we wouldn't make all of the events, but one or two would have been nice. Tomorrow, we will get through the essentials -if the girl is up for it. If not, we can do things on Monday.

And, it seems we spoke too soon on Payton. He is back in All Children's Hospital with pneumonia. He is on a ventilator. Poor kid. I am very lucky with Annmarie.

Teething Blues

Baby Girl is learning to self feed.
She is frustrated because she can't find the food
she was trying to put into her mouth!

Between technical issues and teething, mommy has had her hands full. Baby girl has had a rough couple of days. Annmarie had her first real fever. The day before yesterday (Wednesday) she was tired and clingy and had a 99 degree temperature. We pushed through this and I thought we were getting better. But, yesterday she spiked up. So, Mommy took off work and we went to the pediatrician with a 101.1 degree fever. She was miserable and had a nice little cough to go with it, too.  Her poor cheeks were swollen and flushed. She looked like a chipmunk. So, we have been dosing with Tylenol every four hours. Between the Tylenol and Orajel (and a whole lot of rocking and walking) we made it through yesterday. This morning she woke up much happier -with no fever. So, we went from 10pm to 9am with no Tylenol. But, then she started to get a fever again. So, I am attacking it again. She just fell back to sleep. Normally she sleeps for about an hour in the morning. I am not pushing her or waking her for any reason. I prefer she sleeps through the pain. I am OK with being awake at night if she sleeps too much during the day. Poor baby.
She is back to 20 pounds and eating finger food pretty well. She prefers it to jar food, but I am having trouble figuring out how much she is eating and how much she is wearing. She is also pretty good with a sippy cup. I look to get rid of the bottle in a couple of months. And, she loves sitting on her potty, but has no clue why she is sitting on it. This week for phonics we went back to animals, but we did take yesterday off -that is a first.
Payton hit 7 pounds! So, far no residual health issues! He should be ready to circumcise soon!
Aunt Janyl is putting in her notice and we are making plans to get her out here in October!
And, last but not least, Robbie's 5th birthday party will be held next Saturday at my mother's house...all are invited!
I was supposed to get my cell phone fixed today, but I am totally basing the schedule on what she feels like. I can talk on it, just can't download pictures. I will add them in later.