A much needed update!

Hello again readers, I apologize for the long break without any type of update on our family. Believe me when I say we've been busy getting ready for this move while we still have a little bit of time on our hands. It feels like we've been on the go nonstop lately, yet there is still an incredible amount of work to do before we head out in 18 days. Due to the ridiculous amount of stuff I could post about that's happened lately I'm going to do a simple laundry list of major points and begin regular blog updates tomorrow hopefully.

• Leah has been walking more but with more walking attempts comes more falling. She's bumped her head a few times, nothing major thankfully, and is becoming more of a walker every day.
• We are officially car-less...legally, but not literally. We gave Betsy to my aunt today who will definitely get some use out of it, title and all. We still have my grandpa's SUV thankfully, and he'll be driving us to the airport after all. So that's two big items off our plate!
• We've gotten rid of some of the furniture we're not taking with us to Japan, and already our house looks different. It was only one couch, a computer desk, and a headboard but without them in their usual spot things seem off. It's going to be fun adjusting to a new house in a new country!
• I am now 17 weeks pregnant and it is definitely obvious. I went from being kind-of-sort-of pregnant looking to "When are you due?" pregnant. I've only gained 3 lbs so far, and that all popped up out of nowhere about 2 days ago. My midwife said baby is growing great, and we heard the heartbeat right away on Monday at my appointment.
• I was also given the go ahead to have our anatomy scan appointment a week early (19 weeks) so we can do it before flying to Japan! It's scheduled for July 15th at 2:30pm. After family hears from us we'll post on here whether we're Team Blue or Team Pink! Guesses are welcome at our ExpectNet! pool - no registration is required.
• We found out that the hotel on base is completely booked during the 10 days we'll be homeless (that's right, the Air Force is packing us up 10 days early) so we get to search for a pet friendly hotel we can afford for that long. We have to pay out of pocket then request reimbursement in Japan. Our savings will never be the same. *cry cry*
• Christian's last day at work is July 8th - he has to continue to outprocess, but that will make this whole move so much easier for us.
• Leah is more vocal lately - I have 2 videos I'll have to post of her just babbling away. She's going to be a chatterbox. :)

That's all for now; I'll do an update tomorrow on our day and any new news.

Fearless Leah and a shopping trip

We had a pretty good Thursday in the Z household. Leah slept through last night beautifully, and woke up the first time around 8am. She was in good spirits, smiling and rolling around my bed, when she began to babble to herself. I listened and would throw out a "Oh really?" every once in a while to which she'd laugh and act shy, then she'd go off into her own little world again. She was only up about an hour but she started rubbing her eyes, yawned, and fell asleep. She ended up sleeping until noon, and then she was up for the day. It's days like this that make me so darn lazy when she gets up at 9 or 10am...I know we could be sleeping until noon! Haha.

Leah and I did our normal wake-up routine, then while I ate lunch and checked our e-mail and bank accounts she was playing in her pack & play with her rubber blocks. She was content for about 30 minutes, then got very bored and frustrated so I took her out and she sat on the floor with a toy on her foam squares just babbling away. She decided she was going to stand, took a few steps, and I clapped for her. She stopped, balanced, then took a sudden right turn as if she saw something she wanted and fell face first into our entertainment center. I, of course, panicked and soothed her as best as I could. She cried for all of maybe 20 seconds but I was frantically rocking her and walking around the living room as if I had just seen her chop her own thumb off. She just kind of laid back and relaxed, and after I realized my child was not going to die some tragic death I sat her down with me on the couch and checked out the damage. She has a small bruise, maybe 1 inch in length, that's a little purple. No black eye, no cuts or bleeding, no permanent damage. Leah went right back to playing, and acted fine all afternoon.

I did some housework while Leah enjoyed her favorite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode, and I managed to get a beginning picture of my baby bump as pregnant bellies are often referred to as. I am 16w and 2d so far, and with Leah I didn't begin to get a hint of baby until 19w+ so I am excited to see how this pregnancy goes. Will I gain as much weight as I did with Leah? Will I get as big as I did with Leah? Am I having a boy or a girl? I have some similar cravings this time around as I did with Leah but overall this feels very different to me. At this point I don't know what to think. So far I've lost weight - I currently weight 134lbs and I was 140lbs when I found out about the pregnancy. With Leah I gained 55lbs, but I lost 47lbs before getting pregnant again - I did this solely by breastfeeding and returning to normal portion sizes when eating, no dieting or exercise involved at all so I have full confidence in myself that I'll lose any new weight I gain. I'm not super freaked out by gaining weight - obviously, not everyone would be okay with gaining 55lbs in 9 months - I just wonder why I'm able to eat all of the same things I did with Leah but haven't gained a single pound. I'm guessing it has something to do with chasing an 11.5 month old around all day, but I'll just pretend I am eating better than I actually am. ;) I'll post the picture later on even though most of the people who stop by here regularly have seen it on my Facebook page already.

When Christian got home we went to Roseville to check out some portable "superyard's" as the companies call them...basically think old school Rugrats cartoons - what the babies would be put in - something similar to that. Now that Leah can stand & cruise her pack & play just isn't as fun for her anymore since there's not much space to move around and such. We don't have carpet anywhere in the house so I can't just put her in an area and sit there while she plays...we have to buy foam letters & numbers to cover the floor then get something to "cage" her in so she doesn't escape magically. We don't just leave her on the floor playing but it would be nice to know she has a "safe space" where she can play, have her toys, and chill every once in a while when I need a drink, Kairi is in the living room, or she is watching her Mickey Mouse cartoon. She's becoming more independent as far as her playtime goes so I think she'd really enjoy it, too. Well, we ended up leaving without one because the box was HUGE and we want a metal one because I've read stories of the plastic ones getting knocked over, easily pushed around, etc. and we don't know if our house in Kadena will have carpeting or not. Leah did get some more of her favorite fruit snacks (freeze dried apples, bananas, and strawberries...she loves the texture) and a new toy. We went by the mall and stopped in Pottery Barn Kids and found an adorable tote on sale that is big enough to hold toys and stuffed animals for $20 so we picked that up. Finally, all of her toys have a place and aren't scattered all over my house! While walking out of the mall we went by the Apple store and holy crap there had to be 200 people lined up waiting to be allowed in the store to pick up their reserved iPhone4. That is absolutely ridiculous and crazy to me, but I guess some people just really have to be on top of the latest technology. :/ On the way back from Roseville we stopped by Target to see if they had any "superyard" options and came out with $30 in odds and ends instead....which is a typical Target trip, really.

Currently Christian is playing Call of Duty while Leah talks to him and rolls around the bed in preparation for bedtime. Kairi is laying on my right foot (which is now numb), and I just finished a cupcake with a nice cup of lactose-free milk. Here's to hoping we get a great night of sleep again and that tomorrow is the start of a lovely weekend.

Housework and an (almost) expensive mistake

Today is ending on a fairly positive note and I think all four of us are looking forward to getting plenty of rest tonight. I'll fill in the gaps as to what has happened since I updated ~9 hours ago.

Earlier Leah decided that naps are lame and woke up a little over 30 minutes after finally falling asleep. She wasn't in a great mood but she was fairly giggly for getting in such a short nap. I fed and changed her, then Christian called to say they ended the exercise early so he'd be home at 5:00 - only an hour early but I'll take it! After last night we were both feeling really tired and run down so we opted to order pizza for delivery instead of me trying to come up with something to make for dinner. Truthfully neither of us want to do dishes tonight, so we went with our default you-can't-go-wrong-with-pizza option. It ended up being exactly what we needed, especially the garlic bread sticks and marina sauce. I don't know what it is about me, pregnancy, and marinara sauce but I could literally eat it all day and night right now. Spaghetti, bread sticks, pizza, anything marinara would be tasty on I will gladly eat. We also had root beer with dinner (imagine that, right?), then we all mellowed out a bit. I talked with my Mom about the new happenings with the move, and Leah was with Christian in our room playing.

While she was distracted I decided I'd fold laundry that's been calling my name all day but I've been avoiding. I was watching TLC's "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant", and was on auto pilot for the most part. In the middle of pairing socks up I felt something heavy and round in one of my socks...so I decided to turn it inside out and see what it was. As I'm doing so I hear something hit the floor...and it ends up being a shiny, silver ring. I figured it might be one of my cheap fake rings I have on hand in case my hands swell and my normal rings don't fit (which will happen while pregnant my not-yet-pregnant friends!) so I grab it expecting to see some tarnished piece of cheap plastic. Well, it was actually 2 rings that we had soldered when we got married - my engagement ring and my wedding band. Color me confused when I made this realization. I called Christian over and asked him when he last remembers seeing this particular ring set. He just kind of looked at me and said "Uh, I don't know, when did you last wear it?" So apparently these rings could have been missing for days or even a week...or two...being I found this sock under our bed just yesterday. I admit I have more rings than I need really, so I often rotate which ring I wear since I only wear 1 ring at a time. I'm still surprised I didn't notice it was missing, though, as this set will always be my favorite since it was my first. Pregnancy brain is a powerful thing because I honestly have NO idea when I last saw it. I can't even come up with a general idea. Then again I wouldn't remember half of what happened today if I didn't blog about it so I guess I shouldn't be surprised....

We have two more appointments set up - the date we move out of our house and Christian's last day at work - but we have three more to make. I'm hoping they'll let Christian take a few hours tomorrow to do all of that before it gets to the end of the month...which is next Wednesday! I can't believe a week from tomorrow will be July...and only 9 days from my baby's first birthday. She's not allowed to turn one...I am going to be a wreck.

Teething bites and Kairi is Okinawa bound

Can this be right? Is it really already 3:15? I swear it feels like Leah and I just woke up, but then again, when I consider all that's been accomplished today it should probably be closer to 7:00. We got some more good news today (it keeps rolling in) so today has been a success nevertheless.

Last night Leah had a really rough time staying asleep. She passed out in bed with Christian and I as we watched Alice in Wonderland (very interesting movie by the way, not entirely sure I'd pay $20 for it though) around 11pm. She was asleep pretty deeply so we figured she was down for the night. When the film ended around midnight we decided to just let her sleep with us, and we went to bed, too. Well, around 1am I felt her start moving around so I woke up. I watched her squirm for a minute or so then she started bawling. That woke Christian up pretty quickly and we tried calming her back down so she could fall back asleep. Sometimes if the house is too quiet she'll wake up (we use to sleep with the TV on in the hospital and for the first few months she had to have the TV on to sleep well) so I tried putting an episode of Rugrats on really low. Well, she ended up falling asleep then waking up in 15 minute intervals for almost an hour. Then I thought she could be a little warm since Christian is like a human heater and we put her in her pack & play. She fell asleep, then woke back up not even 10 minutes later. This continued until 3:30am. We tried everything: diaper change, offering food, checked her temperature (slightly elevated, nothing major), gave her teething tablets and 1/2 dose of tylenol, rocked her, sang to her, rubbed her back...she was 100% unhappy and uncomfortable. Christian had to wake up for work at 4:30 so we got desperate and put her in her swing. That did the trick for whatever reason and she slept there until 5:15 when Christian left and he put her in the pack & play. I think it was probably teething pains due to the slight temperature and the fact that NOTHING was helping because she is typically a very easy baby to comfort. She's already got 8 teeth (4 on both top and bottom), so I was hoping they would slow down on showing up...but apparently that's not in the cards right now. She was woken up alongside me at 8:00am with a phone call, and she was in a BAD mood...you could just tell she was still exhausted. She hadn't napped until now - 3:00pm - so I have a feeling she'll be out for an hour, probably two.

The phone call this morning was about our upcoming move, thankfully. If it had been anyone else I might have bitten their head off. The travel office was calling to let us know that our dog has been confirmed on our flights to Okinawa which is a big relief for us because she was marked as tentative due to the fact that most airlines won't take pets during the summer because of the high temperatures. They worked something out so she'll be able to join us and we got a small discount on her because we got her ticket through the government agency (though she's still expensive...$500!). Thankfully our DLA (dislocation allowance) will be paying for her ticket. They also received a confirmation today that the packers have been booked to come by on July 7th to begin the packing process. The first day they come by they will be picking up our "small" shipment, which will be full of items we want sent over immediately because they are our more "vital" living items. Things like Leah's extra pack&play (the one that has all of her toys in it), kitchen items in case we get our house early, small bedding items, the TV from our bedroom, whatever extra food of Kairi's we have that we can't pack in our bags (as well as her toys, treats, and her personal bedding stuff), Leah's walker, etc. They'll also probably get an estimate of how much we have total to pack so they can bring an appropriately sized truck. We're actually leaving a LOT of stuff behind because it's well loved and we have been planning on buying our own first hand items we just don't want to buy it brand new then trust the military to move it right away (haha!). The only big ticket items we're taking are our DVD collection, our TV, a love seat, and 2 mattress sets. We can't take our washer & dryer (the houses come with them built in and they don't have storage units on base), one of the couches is broken, the dining room table is WAY old and used, our computer desks are on their last leg of life, and our dressers are all old and battered. We've lived with less in the past (we slept on a single twin mattress for the first 6 months of our marriage with no dressers or computer desks, and a TV on the floor) so I know that's not going to be difficult for us to manage. It'll be fun to slowly pick up new furniture items for the house, anyways. We're both looking forward to things actually matching one another!

Leah's awake. It's 3:35. She is going to be soooo tired tonight....

Another thing we sorted out despite some difficulties is the car situation. We're giving the car to one of my aunts who will actually get some use out of it so we're driving it down to her next week before the insurance expires, and we're using my Grandpa's truck until we leave. He's very blessed and has two cars currently so he told us last month we could use the SUV he has if necessary. We gave him a call and gave him an update on the situation, so now we are just trying to find someone to drive us down to San Francisco on the 19th. If need be we'll be paying a shuttle to drive us but that's a 4 hour drive so we're avoiding that if at all possible. The only reason we agreed to fly out of San Francisco is because I have a ton of family who live not even 2 hours away who said they'd help us if we needed it, but that suddenly changed this week after some drama popped up out of nowhere. (Yes, I know you guys are reading this, I have a location tracker on the left side of the blog.) All because before I even had the chance to tell my parents about our travel updates I had people telling me who I could or couldn't ask for help. So we're looking into our options and weighing them very carefully for the time being.

I should probably go and get the little one out of her pack and play before she realizes I'm here and fully aware she's awake. Haha.

Leah is tired, more travel updates, and I am 16 weeks pregnant

It is barely going on 4pm here in California but today has felt like the longest day ever. It has a lot to do with last night, so I'll start there.

Leah woke up yesterday at her normal time and took her first nap as usual. Typically she takes a second nap sometime between 4 and 5pm, shortly after Christian has gotten home and she spends time with him. Well, I guess she depends on him being home more than we realized because she fought sleep like it was do or die. Christian is stuck working 6am-6pm all of this week so he didn't get home until almost 6:30. By the time he walked through the door Leah was near hysterics she was so tired. I had already fed her, tried rocking her, tried putting her in her swing, even just lay in bed with her...nothing worked. She turned into Little Miss Sunshine once she saw Daddy, and was in a much better mood. The problem is by 7pm she was no longer showing signs of being tired and we couldn't get her to take a nap. So she ended up staying away until she passed out around 9:30pm. She is usually up until midnight so that was ridiculously early to us. Most people would say get some alone time in, enjoy some time without the baby awake...we got some alone time in the form of brushing our teeth and taking our dishes to the sink. There is no way I would willingly stay up after Leah's gone to sleep if I don't have to, and Christian was falling asleep before finishing dinner. So our entirely house was asleep by 10pm last night. Leah woke up a few times...she'd cry for about 10 seconds then get comfortable and fall back asleep. I think she woke up around 5 times.

Christian got called this morning at FOUR A.M. because of the exercise going on. It's basically them going through the recall roster, and I was not pleased with waking up to my phone ringing just so a guy could tell him "Exercise, exercise, exercise. Please notify the next person on the roster." Ugh, displeased. Call him yourself! :|

Anyways. So because we went to bed at a ridiculously early hour Leah was up like a sunny side egg by 8am. I had gotten plenty of sleep in, sure, but I am not a morning person under any circumstance. She was in a good mood and acting cute though so I dragged myself out of bed to feed and change her. Then we watched some Rugrats episodes on Netflix. By then it was already 9am and she was showing signs of getting tired. Most days she'll nap within 2ish hours of waking up so I knew by 10 I'd need to get her comfy so she could start settling down. Around 10:30 I lay her down in bed with me and before I could even turn on the TV she was asleep. She napped until 1pm (score) and I made sure to nap with her because I was getting a headache. Thankfully we both got a good nap in and felt much better after.

I did a bunch of cleaning mostly in our living room and kitchen. The table in the living room had become overrun with Leah toys and snacks (containers, that is), and badly needed to be polished. The kitchen was still a disaster from dinner last night because we were so tired neither of us remembered I had left the food containers out on the counter, so everything had to be tossed (boo). I ended up making Italian breadcrumb chicken tenderloins with Mexican rice last night (a favorite around here), and tonight we'll be having spaghetti, rolls, and a side salad. I have to think of something to make tomorrow which will prove to be more difficult. I can either do teriyaki chicken with white rice and veggies, homemade bread pizza, or I can do something with red meat for a change of pace...but I have no red meat, no pizza sauce, and no white rice. Go figure! So I guess we'll see what I end up scrounging up...

As far as moving goes we got a new itinerary in the mail today that's showing July 19th as our departure date. Thankfully it's another direct flight out of SFO and we're still arriving at night (8:45pm on July 20th). Christian is going to try to make some of the appointments today but with the exercise going on I'm not sure how successful he'll be. All I really care about at this point is booking the movers because if they tell us "Oh we're busy" or "Nobody is available, reschedule" one more time I am going to slap someone into next week. The only trouble we're running into is that our car insurance won't be renewed after June 30th (we already sold it and were planning on being with my family by then because of the July 5th moving date). So that's one major detail we have to work out now.

It's now 4:12 and I need to get some more dishes washed and put away. I've been doing them in shifts (mostly bottles) because I had how dry and prune-y my hands end up feeling. Then it'll be just about time to get dinner started so Christian doesn't have to wait to eat when he's already basically gone without food all day (they rarely, if ever, actually give him a lunch break). Leah is content with Mickey Mouse, Kairi is napping, and I need a snack but nothing sounds good. Well, pizza does, but I think Christian might get upset if I order a large pizza and breadsticks just because it sounds like a good snack. :) Baby Z is 16 weeks along today which means only 22ish weeks until I'll deliver...and only 3-4 weeks until we can find out the gender. I'm hoping my midwife will let me find out before we go. That would make this whole trip so much more relaxing for me. I thought about calling and asking today but my appointment is next Monday so I think I can wait until then. Think, of course, being the operative word. I'm still not showing super obviously so no pictures of the belly yet...when I do begin showing more and I take pictures weekly everyone will be so tired of them they'll miss these simple text updates!

Every day is Father's Day

Today is Father's Day.

Last year around this time all we could do was talk about how quickly my due date was approaching, how soon we'd be parents. Parents!! Even though I was nearly 50lbs heavier and had a round stomach you could easily mistake for a watermelon I don't think we really understood how much our lives would be changing in a few short weeks. We chose to celebrate Mother's and Father's Day in 2009 despite the fact that I was still pregnant - we wanted to have fun and to go out celebrate. We bought little gifts and ate at a "fancy" restaurant (aka we broke our usual $20 budget). Back then I think that's what we expected Mother's/Father's Day to be. Presents, going out to dinner, little pat on the back to and from one another.

This year, my husband is a father no matter your opinion or view on pregnancy and when a "baby is considered a baby" - he has a living, breathing, high-maintenance 11-month-old daughter who loves her daddy to death. Next year he'll get to celebrate with two little ones (plus our furbaby Kairi of course!).

Today wasn't anything special like last year was. Christian actually let me sleep in (go figure!) and when I did wake up (at noon, mind you) he was sitting in the living room with Leah watching the Brazil vs. Ivory Coast soccer match. Both of them were content, just watching the ball get kicked back and forth, a frenzy of color as the teams swapped possession. He had changed her diaper, fed her, and kept her entertained while I unintentionally slept the morning away. We ordered pizza for lunch, and ate together as the game came to a close. I asked a few times if he'd thought of a gift he'd like or somewhere he'd like to go...and the only thing he came up with is he'd liked a new soccer ball, and his iPod replaced, though he doesn't want either in the immediate future.

So instead of fight the crowds to go out to dinner, or spending money on unnecessary "because it's the right thing to do" gifts, we spent our day at home, together, at my husbands request. Because really, that's all he wanted for Father's Day - to spend time with his girls without distraction or interruption. Without Leah, he wouldn't have a reason to celebrate Father's Day. I find it fitting that he spent 'his' day focusing on her instead of himself.

When you think about it, you don't need to go out or buy presents to make it Father's Day anymore than you need to buy cards and gifts to make it Valentine's Day, Christmas, or your birthday - you just need the people that make that day important around you.

Change of plans, shopping adventures, and a baby Z update

Remember that whole "we have an official date!" announcement I made? Let's just pretend that didn't happen (even though the entry is still down there). We found out the next morning that something is going on with the moving company the base has contracted to do it's overseas PCS appointments and they don't have anyone available to do any moves for almost 2 weeks in July. So, we're back to square one, waiting for someone to tell us what's going on and to give us a date so we can try to make all of our appointments again. Right now the earliest date we'll be able to leave is looking like the 19th of July, which means Leah will be celebrating her first birthday in California after all. The original flight info sounded pretty awesome, especially since we'd be arriving at night which would have hopefully helped us adjust to the time difference a little quicker. We can only hope the new flight is direct like our original one was - I'd prefer to only get on two planes with a baby and dog between here and Okinawa, not three or four!

Besides this big change of plans not much has been going on around our house. Leah is still dead set on walking whenever possible and absolutely hates her pack & play now. Put her on the ground with some toys and she'll love you, but that girl moves so fast I can't take my eyes off of her for a second without running the risk she'll get hurt somehow. She hasn't been able to use the walker as much as before for a while because she learned if she leans far enough to the side she can pop her legs out and she tries to push herself out......onto her head. My child has no sense of danger, and that's a terrifying thought. So, the walker is only for "emergency situations", such as I just have to do dishes and Christian is still at work. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

We went out to Ross, Target, and Mimi's Cafe tonight for an impromptu family-night-out. We got some kitchen odds and ends at Ross, some new foods for Leah to try to Target along with some much needed shorts for Christian and some Hello Kitty accessories for my iPod, and we had a decent dinner at Mimi's though it wasn't nearly as good as it usually is there. Leah tried pancakes for the first time and she loved them!  She probably would have eaten my whole meal if I let her. She's very weird about what foods she will and won't eat, and right now she's still mostly on purees. I think she might be texture picky, much like her mother, and I am hoping we can slowly break her of some of that in the next 3 weeks.

That's right, my baby will be one year old in 20 days. Not even 3 whole weeks. I catch myself crying over her being so close to that first year mark nearly everyday now and I'm having a hard time letting go of the helpless baby image I still imagine as her. She can feed herself. She can stand and is beginning to walk. She can say a handful of words. She can  show you if she does or doesn't like what you're doing. She will let you know when she is hungry, sleepy, happy. She can do so much on her own that I couldn't imagine her doing before that it's kind of overwhelming. It's a lot for me to process and accept right now.

Baby Z has a check-up on June 28th which was supposed to be our final appointment with the midwife office if we were still leaving July 5th. Since we aren't going until the 19th-ish I am going to ask if I could possibly schedule my anatomy scan appointment for July 16th when I'll be 19 weeks and 3 days. I'm not sure if they'll be okay with that or not, I just know I won't be seen at the hospital in Okinawa for at least 2 weeks otherwise and part of me is kind of afraid my first appointment there will me rushed and uncomfortable, something I don't want my anatomy scan to be. I want to enjoy seeing the baby, I want to be relaxed laying down as they check to make sure everything looks great still, I want the happy tech to ask if I want to know the sex and see them smile when they tell me (if they can). I am so paranoid about the hospital in Japan it's beginning to make me dread moving there in a way. But I know there's nothing I can do to avoid it now. So far no major movement with the little one, though I can feel their little body when I put my hands on my abdomen. That's always a nice little reminder they are hanging out in there.

Tomorrow is Father's Day and Christian has yet to tell me what he wants or what he wants to do. So I guess he'll be watching the Brazil soccer match then if he comes up with any ideas we'll wing it. Leah is passed out with him in bed so I will hopefully be joining them shortly. I definitely have not missed the uncomfortable nights of being pregnant, but that's just the way it goes sometimes I suppose. :)