One year ago today!

One year and 6 hours ago I had just given birth to a little baby boy! I don't even know where the last year has gone or how all of a sudden in the last few weeks Jacob has turned from looking like a baby to looking like a little boy. He is the apple of my eye and my sunshine on a cloudy day! I can't imagine my life without him and I know I am a better wife, daughter, sister and friend because of him. I love you baby boy!! You will always be my baby.

Happy First Birthday!!

A little TIGER he will be..

Last year Jacob was a little dinosaur for Halloween and I think he was super cute!!

This year Jacob is going to be a tiger. I am keeping the animal theme alive at least until Jacob can tell me what he wants to be for Halloween.

Jacob will be 1 in 2 more days!!

We took Jacob to Araha Park this past weekend to attempt to take pictures of our little man to send to family. He hates grass and sand unless he is eating it so he wasn't in the mood. Plus, we were all dripping with sweat in less than 5 minutes. Here are some of the pictures!

See how much he loves the GRASS!?!

We are trying to teach him to hold up 1 finger when we ask him how old he is..sometimes he does it and sometimes he doesn't.

Tango and Roller Skating

I've been silent for a few days. Jacob is doing much better at least I hope he is doing better. We will get his ears rechecked on Thursday. Jon has been home since Thursday on a 96 so that has been nice even though I can't really remember what we did. Probably because we didn't do anything and it was nice!!

Friday was our Okinawa wedding anniversary. We left Jacob with a babysitter for only the second time ever and off we went. We were gone for about 3 hours and thirty minutes. I was not the one timing the whole event. Jon timed it since we were on a tight schedule according to him. We ate at this delicious restaurant in American Village next to Tony Roma's but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the cute little Italian place. But, I know we will visit it again soon. We had a two person 'set' which included two drinks, a salad and spaghetti. Jon ordered me lasagna but I think we more so shared everything. After that Jon took me to a place called Round 1. I had heard of it but never did any research on it because well it didn't sound like a place to take my bouncing baby boy anytime in the near future. We went roller skating which was fun. I can't even remember the last time I went roller skating! We will definitely head back to Round 1 soon!! Then after roller skating it was off to Leon Eri Dance Studio. We had a private dance lesson of the Tango for 30 minutes. We can now Tango. We still have four more dance lessons to go to now so Jacob will for sure be left with a babysitter again.

Our date night 2009 was SUPER. I had a blast but the best part was I only got the babysitter. I didn't know about anything else. I love my husband and I am very thankful that I married someone who fits me so perfectly!!

Another reaction rash!?!?

Jacob started his low dose of Zithromax this morning and woke up from his afternoon nap with a crazy red pin point looking rash all over his trunk, feet and normally diaper covered areas. Of course, it was about twenty minutes till 4 and for some reason the peds office closes at NOON on Thursday's here!! So, no last minute appointment for us today. We will have to go in the morning most likely if it is still there plus he still had a 100 degree temperature all day today and I was told to bring him back if he still had a fever in two days. I'm hoping the reaction is to the Motrin he had on Wednesday and not the Zithromax since that will make it drug #2 he cannot have and he isn't even a year old yet!!!

We are on our way to the magical #5

We are on our way to the magical #5 ear infection that we need here in a year to be referred to an ENT at the naval hospital here. Jacob now has his third ear infection since April! The drug of choice he cannot have due to a reaction to it so we are on our favorite pal Zithromax! I love the Zithromax because it's once a day and doesn't have to be refrigerator. I'm sure it tastes yummy too!!

I was wondering why last night he was shoving food into his right ear. I thought he was just being a crazy almost one year old but his right ear must have been bothering him. He woke up last night screaming and I thought it was just because of the loud crazy mopeds that were driving by (yes, there are Japanese moped gangs here that reeve their engines all night up and down the roads) or just gas. I didn't realize he didn't feel good until this morning when I took his temperature! 100.8 in his ear and 101.3 in his cute little tushie! Yes, i'm a nurse so I take it both ways if his ear one is elevated before giving Tylenol! It all makes sense now.

After a trip to the hospital I found out he has double ear infections. He isn't moving fluid in his right ear and his left isn't as bad as his right thank goodness! Poor thing. I feel so helpless since I don't know how to help him. But, I am loving all this extra cuddling time though!! Hopefully, he will be feeling better by friday if not it's back to the doctor for plan B which is IM antibiotics which I don't even want to think about that!!

On a happier note I actually had a pleasant experience at the hospital today which is a welcome surprise since that is usually not the case. I'm referring to his doctor's appointment not the pharmacy and how it took me 45 minutes to get his prescription and how 8 people came and had new prescriptions filled after me and left within five minutes of their numbers being called!!!

The Trials of Sippy Cups

"And you have about thirty" said Daddy as he pointed to a picture of a sippy cup in 100 First Words by Bright Baby...

We have been trying since we went home to AMERICA at the end of Feburary to get Jacob to take a sippy cup. Trying to get a baby who has never taken a bottle to take a sippy cup can really make you want to EBF till there is no more milk. It has really been a fight with him or more of just frustration for me. We tired the cheapest ones we could find to the most expensive ones we could find. We were hoping to figure out which one was best while we were home because we knew that the chance of the exchange here actually carrying the sippy cup Jacob loved would probably be very small. We left AMERICA with no real resolve. I was very disappointed.

We tried the Munchkin cup but the plastic spout on it just made him want to teethe on it and the same thing for Gerber's sip and smile cup. He hated the Playtex trainer cup and mostly just wanted to chew on the handles. He never liked the Nuby cup because he couldn't overcome figure out the suction on it. He got the hand of a the Nuby straw cup and I thought we had made a break through when he drank 1/4 of a sippy cup of water one night. I was rejoicing but that was short lived because soon he found out that if he got water to the tip of the straw and then pulled the straw out with his teeth clamped on it then water would spray everywhere. That was short lived and the cup just ended up on the floor everytime instead. I went ahead and tried some more advanced in age Playtex sippy cups with cool cars on the side thinking a character/cartoon might intereset him but how do you teach a child to hold a sippy cup that has never held a bottle let along teach him he has to tilt his head to get anything out or lift the cup up when he has never done either before with a bottle so that turned into a crawling toy to chase on the floor. My mom sent a few more straw cups but only for him to bite on the straw. Must frustrating because I knew soon that he would need to be weaned and if he couldn't drink from a sippy cup how was that possible!?! We learned he would drink from a straight up cup just fine without a problem and seemed to enjoy it but how do you sit down to do this countless number of times a day if you want to get anything done. (He was EBF every 1 1/2 to 2 hours for his first 8 months and now is every 3 so it's not that I'm saying I don't want to spend time with my child because I obviously spend time with him and love him very much) But, I am saying I would like a little break and be able to let Jon get up with him so I can sleep 30 minutes longer for once!! Okay, I got off the topic of sippy cups.

One day out of the blue I decided to try this Playtex cup again and he drank and drank and drank. We have still not finished a whole sippy cup all day but he drinks about 3/4 of it which makes me happy and gives him more than enough of flavored water and practice each day. I could kiss the person that designed this cup but Jon probably wouldn't be happy about that! But, it does make sense why he loves this cup. He knows how to nurse and latch on. He has been great at that since about two or three days old but all the other cups had too soft of spouts on them which only lead to chewing or biting them. This cup is has a spout on it that isn't soft and easy to chew even though at times I see his 8 little teeth knawling on it it but when watching him from the side I see that he essentially latches on to the cup as he does me. (sorry for the graphic image if you find that graphic) Point is, is that this cup works which makes me H-A-P-P-Y!!!

If Toucan, You can..

Before Jon's last deployment he spent an afternoon at Zukeran Elementary school here, which is a DOD school, teaching but more so talking about what he does on a daily basis as a helicopter pilot. He went and spoke at another school for career day last year and wanted to do it again this year. He has to fly the day it was scheduled so they scheduled a day for him to come instead. He took Jacob's coast guard tonka replica of the CH-46 phrog that he flies along with a female pilot. If you know my husband, you know he can talk. He had a blast! The schools motto is "If Toucan, you can" so when I found this cute onesie on Gap.com (yes, i'm a little obsessed with shopping online for cool clothes that not every other American baby boy on Okinawa is wearing) that said the school's motto I immediately bought it. Little did I know that the day of Jon's NSI check flight would be the day I would decide to finally dress Jacob in it. Jon loved the shirt (or so I hope) and I hope it reminded of him throughout the rest of the day while he was getting ready for his very important flight.

Here's my little peanut in his shirt reminding Daddy that if Toucan you can!

The shirt must of helped. Actually I know it's God that helped because Jon is one of the newest NSI's in the Marine Corps now. I have to brag on him a little because I am so proud of him and I love him!!! =)

My Favorite Photos of the week

Jacob did a lot of climbing and exploring this week

Jacob also did a lot of walking with this fabulous toy!!
Jacob also let me dress him in some corny ridiculous plaid shorts with a matching plaid helicopter onesie!

Why I blog or more so about me..

Casey, at the Ever Changing Life of a Military Wife, has posed a question. Why do you blog? I started this blog when we first announced to everyone that we were having Baby Spencer #1 and I thought I would write each week about my pregnancy. I was wrong. I guess I figured I was to busy but now I wonder what I was to busy with considering now I have JW and still find time to blog. So, my first attempt was a failure. My second attempt at blogging was a blog that is solely dedicated to JW. (If you want to know the address let me know) I started that blog so that all the grandparents at home could keep up with him and what he was doing as well as link them to my facebook with the mulitple picture albuums I have of him on there. That blog took some time and some times takes time away from this one. But, my, more so Jon's newest discover about JW's blog is that he can view it from the "tuna can" and watch videos of Jacob. It's one site that isn't blocked!! Now, we both wish we would have known that 11 months ago! This blog is more so to keep me honest with myself sometimes but more importantly serve as a memoir of sorts of our time here in Okinawa. I wish I wrote more about Okinawa but I'm frankly not that adventurous when my husband is away and have been literally tied down to JW for the last 11 months since he is EBF so besides the beach and shopping out in town I don't sight see by myself! Plus, I think it would be cool in twenty, thirty, four years if blogspot is still around back then to read what I thought/saw/felt when I was in my twenties.

And another about me ina nut shell...I have a bachelor's degree in nursing bla bla bla. I survived my time and did 4 strict years of college. Yes, strict. I went to college here. I'm not a crazy skirt wearing lover anymore. I don't think I have actually worn a dress to church in about 11 months because it just isn't practical. But besides making me dislike pantyhose the college taught me how to be the best nurse I can possibly be. Literally. I am thankful for that. It prepared me to work at the best hospital in Pensacola. And when I say BEST it is the BEST especially now that I have experienced military health care at it's finest since it is my only option here. I have a heart for the sick and worked with oncology patients for three years before I up and quit my job and moved half way around the world. (Yes, Jon you can say thank you again but you know you don't have too) I one day want to be a nurse again. That really sounds funny. It's not that I don't think being a stay-at-home Mom is something because I really don't ever stop moving. I just miss having a separate identity outside of the home. I hope to work part time at least when we go home but most likely not in oncology. I have a wonderful husband who flies helicopters and literally never slows down. He is high speed so flying helicopters fits him well. He is the reason I am in Okinawa. Did I ever think I'd be here when I was in my twenties not a chance but I enjoy the ride for the most part. I have an exclusively breast feed 11 month old little chunk. He is the love of my life besides my other two loves...God and Jon. JW amazes me every day and wears me out every single day and that is the fact that I don't take the time to blog as much as I would like too. But, I'm always blogging something in my head! Now if I just could figure out how to blog on my iPhone while I am nursing and then I would be golden!

Show us your LIFE - Wedding Reception and Honeymoon

We had our reception at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. It was my second choice but most likely my husband's number one choice for a wedding reception venue. My first was already booked. Our reception was catered by the Mustin Beach Officer's club catering department. I wish I had wonderful things to say about the food but since I barely ate any of it I have no review to write. The catering manager left the week before our wedding so I'm thankful we at least had a dinner meal for our guests!

I wish I had wonderful pictures from our reception but we don't have any wedding pictures out here really and the ones we do have are in frames. We used my bouquet and my bridesmaid's bouquets on the head table. On our guest tables we had red roses, white alstras and white daisies in vases. Our table settings were simple but my black, red and white color theme was carried out.

Our cakes came from a wonderful bakery in Pensacola. I still have the top of our cake frozen at my in-law's house. Hopefully, one day we will actually get to eat it!

Our wedding cake was butter cream with butter cream frosting. It has a black ribbon on the bottom of each layer along with edible accent silver balls. Our cake topper wasn't the one I wanted but it was our initials which worked just fine which will some day be somewhere in a house of ours once the military stops moving us! I wanted a Marine groom and a bride for a cake topper but I couldn't find one in an officer's dress uniform!

For Jon's groom cake I went with an NC state theme. Jon graduated from NC State in 2003 and was actually Mr.Wuf for three years! I'm sure he expected a CH-46 helicopter themed groom's cake but instead I surprised him with this one. I think it was chocolate. I can't even remember. I didn't get a piece of this cake! =(

Our getaway car was my husband's first wife "Roxy" We have no cool pictures of any decorating of Roxy because I'm pretty sure Jon would have had a heart ache if anyone would have touched her (yes, I refer to the car as a her) and I'm also pretty sure that Roxy was taken to a secret location after we arrived at the reception. Roxy is my husband '96 Pontiac trans am that is his first love. I say that with all honesty. He loves his car and has spent countless hours working on her, modifying her and putting money into her so it was only fitting that we used Roxy in our wedding! Too bad poor ole Roxy is sitting in a storage unit in North Carolina until we return!

We went to St. Lucia for our honeymoon. Jon had researched and planned out our honeymoon. He picked out a Sandals resort to stay at per recommendations from people he knew who had stayed at the resort. Unfortunately, Sandals left an unpleasant sandy taste in our mouth! IT was not what was pictured in the photos. Our ocean view room had no ocean view to it! We found roaches, dust and other "things" on the floor in our first room. We were finally moved to another room the next day after having to track down the hotel manager all day. We ended up checking out two days earlier and finishing our honeymoon at another Sandal's resort on the island once a room became available. Of course changing hotels was at our expense but we both agreed it was well worth it! We did however get a wonderful honeymoon souvenir 9 months later so of course we wouldn't change anything about our honeymoon!!

Typhoon Morakot

Typhoon Morakot is heading our way. Or at least as of late this afternoon it is forecasted to be coming our way late on Friday. This is not our first and I'm sure this will not be our last typhoon while here on Okinawa. The last typhoon we spent out on our balcony about 200 yards from the beach during parts of the storm. Of course that was when it was just us with no baby to worry about. Last summer we had a few brushes with typhoons but nothing major. I believe the last major typhoon hit in 2007 so maybe we are due for one.

Our preparations are complete which really only includes going to the commissary to buy water, baby food and a spray can of cheese. Oh, and Pop Tarts. I have to indulge in junk food if I am going to be ordered to stay inside my off-base housing until the storm passes! The crazy thing about the storm here is that I have never really seen a panic or "boarding up" from the locals here. We will get a call from our housing agency in a few days reminding us to take all items off our 4 porches but other than that no real preparation for our apartment or all 9 windows or 5 sliding glass doors we have! It's much different here than a hurricane back at home in Florida! And I'm thankful for that and the fact that I am not having to hoover under a bed sheet doing some sterile procedure on some poor patient with all the other patients nearby in the hallway!!

Some baby toys we are loving!

As Jacob learns to play more independently I have noticed that he has favorite toys! Each of these toys can entertain him endlessly and we love them!

This is Jacob's beloved apple. Jon brought it back to us from the ToysRus in Hong Kong along with many other cool tools we had never seen before. This apple cracks me up because it sings/ talks with a British accent. The worm pops up like a Jack-in-the-box would but unfortunately Jacob hasn't figured out how to push the button in the center to make the worm pop up. The button is harder to push than the other two on there which both play music that at times like any toy can get annoying. Jacob will chase his apple all over the house and get frustrated if it rolls away too quickly!

This is one of Jacob's 1st birthday gifts. It came in a box that my Mom sent over to us and since it wasn't wrapped Jacob saw me pull it out of the box and fell in love with it. So, I couldn't break my baby's heart by taking it away. (Yes, i realize he would forget abou t it in about 5 minutes) He has been playing with this toy for the last month. He loves to bang the hammer on the toy and on our floors as well as chew on the hammer. He is good at pushing the buttons, the pegs on top and the blue dog on the front. He pushes this toy all around on the floor and sometimes can't figure out how it rolls away so fast! I love V-tech because some of their toys come with strings attached for pulling but Jacob loves to chew on the strings so they have a nice compartment next to the batteries that you can tuck the string into. How smart is that!?!

We bought this Leap Frog learning table for Jacob for Christmas even though he was only a little over 3 months old when we opened it for him on Christmas Day. We bought it for the fact that it could grow with him. It has truly been the best $34.99 we have spent on a toy! Back in Decemeber, we would give him tummy time on the floor with it on the floor (minus the legs) and he would reach and stretch to touch the different buttons to make it sing, talk or play music! He loved it. We went back to AMERICA for a few months and so Jacob didn't play with it for a long time. When we came back Jacob was about 8 months old. We added the legs and it was one of the first things (besides the bathtub and Daddy) that he would pull up on. I wish the legs were weighted but who really lets there baby pull up on something if they aren't close by especially if they are just learning how and are unsteady. He still gets the biggest kick out of this toy and cruises along it's sides. He loves the green flap that opens and closes. Maybe one day I'll start hiding snacks in there for him to find!

I found this one day at the exchange here in Okinawa. Living here has taught me one thing...if you see it buy it, attach the reciept to it, and decide later if you want it or not. Items here come in stock and you can go back within hours and they can be gone. Jacob liked this toy in the store but then could care less for it once we brought it home. The "moo" sound that it is suppose to make when you tip it over doesn't sound like a "moo" at all. It sounds like an alien or something. Maybe it's just because it's Fisher Price. I love our Fisher Price toys but it's bad when Jon asks me or vice versa if we dropped a toy to see if that would fix it and make it work again! But that aside the last few days Jacob has loved this toy! He use to just sit and chew on the cookies. Why not they are plastic and textured so what isn't to love about them! Now he is actually putting the cookies in the milk jug from the slat at the top and then patiently waiting for someone to open it to get it out. Fisher price did one thing write with this toy and made it too hard for a baby to open it so they can't rip the top off if they get frustrated with it! Unlike his block sorter!! I wish we still had all five plastic cookies but one accidently made it's way into the dishwasher and fell onto the heating element in the dishwasher! (I still love you Jon!)

I bought this Fisher-Price walker while we were at home visiting but mostly only because ToysRus was having a buy one get one free sale on Fisher-Price toys and I had gone to buy this toy and another one but ended up coming away with this one and the one above. (That's a long run-on sentence) Jacob loves the bright lights and I no longer care for the music it plays. He loved sitting in front of it when we first bought it and manipulating all the different parts of it. He also learned to pull up on this pretty early too. This week however he has learned or more so decided he is going to walk and push this. He does it pretty quickly down the hallway of our apartment here. He loves it and smiles most of the time unless he is concentrating on someone taking pictures of him! We or should I say Jon took some good pictures of him pushing it down the hall the first time this week!

I believe this toy should really say for 3 months and up! Jacob received this for Christmas and even at 3 1/2 months loved to knock the tower we will build over! And even now at 11 months he still loves it. He loves banging two blocks together and of course throwing them down and watching them slide across the floor. The other day he actually put all the blocks back inside one another with a little coaching as to which block was next. We took this home with us to AMERICA so he has never missed a beat playing with it. LOVE LOVE LOVE these stacking cubes!!

Last but not least we have a toy similar to this but I couldn't find a picture of the actual Playskool ball popper that we have. This is another toy I regretted buying a few months ago. Jacob loved it in the store and dind't even want to touch it at home. Now he lifts it up and down and presses the button up on top to make the balls spin. He also is really good at banging this toy on the floor. I guess he likes loud noises! Who knows.

Favorite Photos

One of my favorite Homecoming pictures! Jacob just hung onto his Daddy with a smile on his face!

Having fun with Daddy!!

Saying 'bye' to Daddy before he heads off to fly.