49 days..

49 days since my last entry! I guess I haven't stopped moving since then. My Mom was here for three weeks. We celebrated two birthday's, Christmas, New Years, moved to a new house and sent Jon off on a deployment all in 49 days!! Maybe I'll write once again since I may fianlly have the time...

My 3 month old says NO to naps!

I probably have the only 3 month old in the world that just will not take a nap without lots of coaxing. Earlier this week since I was sick I just put Jacob down in his swing and let the swing do the magic. He'd actually probably still be asleep in that thing if it wasn't for me getting him out of it every day. I think he has actually become reliant on it now to get him to sleep. He needs the constant moving motion at nap time but not at night. I tried three times today to lay him down for a nap in his crib with me ending up going to get him. Finally, after a lot of rocking he went to sleep when I laid him down.

Why do I have the baby that doesn't like to sleep during the day?? He has been like this since he was born. I can't figure out if it is because he absolutely will not take a pacifier or if he just doesn't need sleep. We have tried the eat-play-sleep routine and any other great idea someone has suggested but nap time is always a battle! I, myself, can sleep anytime without a problem and I get grumpy when I'm tired. Yes, Jon I admit it, I get GRUMPY! Jon on the other hand can push himself to the limit with no sleep and then he crashes or else he finally gets a day to sleep in and he just wants to sleep. I think Jacob's sleep patterns come from his Dad which may or may not be a good thing. I'm just happy that my baby is asleep in his crib right now pending the loud jet noise over our house doesn't wake him from his nap!

December 1st...

December 1st was our 'church' wedding anniversary. We have two anniversiaries each year in hopes that each year we will actually be able to celebrate one of the two together. This year we were lucky. We were able to celebrate our Okinawa wedding anniverary 6 days prior to Jacob's arrival and we were able to celebrate our church wedding anniversary two days after Jon's arrival back to the rock a.k.a. Okinawa.

For our August anniversary we went and tried out a restraunt called Pizza House. It took a lot of convincing on Jon's part to get me dressed and out of the hosue beucase the though of having to sit anywhere for more than a few minuets was very unappealing to me at that time. We ended up having a lovely dinner at Pizza House which turns out to have a whole other menu besides just pizza. I was very happy about dinner because I finally had found a restraunt on Okinawa that serves a baked potato with a meal! The host predicted that we would be having a baby boy very soon but asked that I hold off till after I finished eating. Jon bought me a wonderful electic can opener. His reasoning was so that I could provide canned food for myself and our unborn child while he was deployed. I was having a war with our manual can opener at that point so I loved the gift and now every time I use it whether he is here or not I love it and think of him.

For our December anniversary we ended up back at Pizza House but instead for lunch. It was just as delicious and Jacob didn't make a peep throughout the whole meal!! We ended up driving further south after lunch and went to a Japanese mall, BabiesRus and the duty free shops mall. We got Jacob a new stroller and just window shopped rest of the day. When we got home I got Jacob ready for bed and Jon grilled dinner. During dinner I got a beautiful leather bond book with empty pages in it. I was told that the book was to serve the purpose of helping us to remember our anniversaries together and that each year we are to write how we celebrate our anniversary because when we have been married 46 years we might not remember how we spent our early anniversaries. Then I got ready for bed only to find several anniversary cards hidden around our room as I got ready for bed. It was so very sweet!

Night Flights

This week we are lucky enough to have two night flights. Normally, I would not think that night flights are lucky but I've come to like them. It means we get Jon home for the morning and I usually get woken up with a McFlurry and a cheeseburger. We usually go out to eat breakfast if Jon does not have to do any flight planning but this week we are staying at home because Jon is flight planning. I do prefer going out to eat for breakfast and having a low key morning but making dinner for lunch is just as good. Today I made Hamburger Pie for lunch. It's a casserole of sorts that one of my friends made for us after Jacob was born. It's super easy and anytime I can use my KitchenAid mixer to make mashed potatoes from scratch I'm happy. (Yes, Christina I still agree with Tim that you need one!!)

Here is the Hamburger Pie Recipe:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 10 oz can of tomato soup
• 1 soup can full of water
• 1 15 oz can of green beans
• 1 tbs. dried onion flakes
• 3 potatoes
• Milk and butter to mash potatoes
• Shredded Cheese
  

Cook potatoes until tender. Drain. Season with salt and pepper. Add butter and milk. Mash potatoes and set aside. Brown ground beef in skillet. Add onion flakes, tomato soup, and water. Cook until well blended. Add green beans and warm all together. Place mixture in a 1 1/2 qt. casserole pan. Add potatoes on top of meat mixture. Place shredded cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or microwave for 2 minutes.

I added real onions to it instead of the onion flakes. Next time I have decided that I will only add half a can of water. I actually have a picture of the finished product because Jon came over and took a picture of it after taking a picture of Jacob swinging in his swing.

Daddy is REALLY home!

We are certainly glad to have Jon home. It has just been over a week and our week has been action packed. Jacob's routine has completely changed to accommodate some Daddy time each night. My routine has totally changed because now I am getting up before Jacob to make breakfast and lunch for Jon and I'm also cooking again. It is so nice to have my extra set of hands back to help with Jacob not to mention having my best friend by my side once again!

Thanksgiving a little late...

We are having our Thanksgiving this year a little late. We are very thankful now that Jon is home with us now for a few months hopefully! The 'tuna can' was within range this morning and so the guys were able to fly off to the MCAS here. I arrived on time but missed the fly in since they were earlier than I thought they would be but still we got to see Jon walking towards us from the helicopter. After some quick paperwork we were on our way home! Jacob was passed out asleep for the whole ordeal after Daddy started holding him!

We have since had lunch and now I am sitting in the office while Jon is attempting to give Jacob a bottle. Unfortunately Jacob isn't being suckered into the bottle yet! So, I think we have regressed to no bottle again!

The BIG bottle battle!

Before Jon left for his deployment we started to give Jacob a bottle. He would take it from Jon or myself without a problem. A few weeks after Jon left Jacob started to refuse his bottle. I believe Jacob got smart and realized that what he wanted I had and that if he didn't take the bottle he got what he wanted! After about 5 weeks of trying every bottle at the store here including the Avent ones that we had, the original playtex nurser, a cheap Gerber bottle, the playtex insulator, the playtex venti-air, the nuk bottle I finally stumbled upon a review for the Breastflow bottle on amazon one day. I read review after review on the bottle. This bottle is awesome. It makes Jacob work like he does when I am nursing him and there is little to no gagging on his part which makes me happy. The best part is this bottle doesn't leak any milk into his mouth until he is latched on and ready. This bottle has put him to sleep both times we have used it. I'm holding off on trying it a third time today because right now I think he is in the middle of his 3 month growth spurt and feel it's better if I feed him. I can't wait to see if this bottle really does pass the with someone else giving it to him, if he takes it from me he should take it from anyone!