So, this past week has been CRAZY busy! We've been trying to get everything done that needs to be finished before we move, and we finally got our flights booked! It's SO nice having an actual date instead of an estimation to work with now--despite the fact that now we have very little time to get everything done in.
Sunday we drove to Mississippi to take Quigley to the breeder. . .update about Quigley: we have now decided, after working with him and observing him, that we ARE going to take him to Hawaii with Penny and us. Now we just have to wait until his 120 days are up before we can have him shipped to us (hence the reason we took him back to the breeder). We did hear that there may actually be an exception to the 120 rule for military families, so when we get a chance sometime in the near future we will call the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and check into that.
Okay, back to the drive to Mississippi. . . . It took us about 4 hours to get to the designated meeting place and then we ended up being there for a couple of hours before turning around and driving home. It was sad watching the breeder drive away with Quigley! I e-mailed her this morning to check on him and she wrote back a nice long e-mail update to let us know how he's handled the past two days. It seems like he is doing okay, we can't wait to have him back with us though!
Moving on. . .the packers came yesterday and packed up all of our stuff. And this morning the movers arrived to pick it all up, which is what they are currently doing. I'm just hoping that I didn't forget to keep out anything major from the stuff that got packed. . .it's hard trying to predict what you are going to need for the next 1 1/2 - 2 months that it is going to take for our household goods to arrive in Hawaii, so hopefully we didn't miss anything--and hopefully everything that we kept out will fit in our suitcases, carry-ons, and the two plastic tubs we are planning to ship the stuff in that we need more quickly. We shall see here in the next week or so I guess.
Tonight we are driving up to Kentucky (overnight) to take Titan to his new home for the time being--as long as he cooperates that is. He has some trailering issues that I haven't had much time to work on. When we tried to load him Saturday to take him to the vet, he absolutely refused--no matter what we tried--so tonight could be rather interesting. I really hope and pray that he will just cooperate because we HAVE to get him to Kentucky in the next couple of days.
After we drop Titan off, we have to turn around that night and drive back down here so that we can finish getting everything done around here that we need to.
So, this next week is shaping up to be just as crazy as the last week has been. It will all be over soon though--YAY!! We can't wait to get out of this place and get to Hawaii, though we already know we are going to get island fever at some point and wish we were in a place where we could drive for 12 hours straight like we are going to tonight, ha ha. We're just so ready to be done here. . .have been for a long time now! The fact that it's already been three weeks since my husband graduated and we are still here has made us even more ready to leave as soon as we can!
Well, I guess I'd better go for now, hopefully I will have a chance to update here again before we leave, but in case I don't I will write again after we reach Hawaii!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
And So Begins A New Phase. . .In Many Ways
Peanut Butter Cup cut his first tooth last Thursday! Finally. Ha ha! It's his lower right incisor. I first noticed it when he was chewing on my finger and something felt a bit 'sharp', then I looked and could just barely see the top of the tooth breaking through the top of his gums. It's strange to think he's going to have a visible tooth here soon . . . I'm so used to him being toothless, ha ha.
And because I haven't been doing very well with updating here lately, I have another HUGE milestone to announce: last Saturday afternoon (May 29th), my sweet, little, Peanut Butter Cup started to tentatively (and rather unsteadily at that point) crawl. It all started when I had him in the playpen for a little while so that I could eat, then after that he was practicing on the bed (with supervision of course). While it has been exciting to see him getting more and more confident with it, I'll admit that I almost shed some tears initially at the thought of how 'big' my baby has gotten and how much more independent he is now (and how he is just going to continue getting more and more independent). *Sigh* Peanut Butter Cup is certainly excited about his newfound skills, and the past week and a half or so he has been pretty determined to learn how to sit up on his own (I think that may take a little while longer yet before he gets that down, *phew*).
On another note, my husband graduated the week before last! Hurray!! He is officially a pilot in the U.S. Army now! The past year and a half hasn't been an easy road and he worked so hard to earn his wings, I'm so proud of him for all he has accomplished and learned. The graduation was pretty exciting; I was given the opportunity to pin his wings which was pretty neat!
After the graduation there was a mandatory banquet for all of the newly pinned pilots and their spouses. It actually turned out to be a kind of 'spouse-appreciation' mini ceremony where all of the new pilots pinned their spouses with miniature copies of their own wings and gave us honorary diplomas for all we've done to support them throughout Flight School. That was pretty cool.
And because I haven't been doing very well with updating here lately, I have another HUGE milestone to announce: last Saturday afternoon (May 29th), my sweet, little, Peanut Butter Cup started to tentatively (and rather unsteadily at that point) crawl. It all started when I had him in the playpen for a little while so that I could eat, then after that he was practicing on the bed (with supervision of course). While it has been exciting to see him getting more and more confident with it, I'll admit that I almost shed some tears initially at the thought of how 'big' my baby has gotten and how much more independent he is now (and how he is just going to continue getting more and more independent). *Sigh* Peanut Butter Cup is certainly excited about his newfound skills, and the past week and a half or so he has been pretty determined to learn how to sit up on his own (I think that may take a little while longer yet before he gets that down, *phew*).
On another note, my husband graduated the week before last! Hurray!! He is officially a pilot in the U.S. Army now! The past year and a half hasn't been an easy road and he worked so hard to earn his wings, I'm so proud of him for all he has accomplished and learned. The graduation was pretty exciting; I was given the opportunity to pin his wings which was pretty neat!
After the graduation there was a mandatory banquet for all of the newly pinned pilots and their spouses. It actually turned out to be a kind of 'spouse-appreciation' mini ceremony where all of the new pilots pinned their spouses with miniature copies of their own wings and gave us honorary diplomas for all we've done to support them throughout Flight School. That was pretty cool.
Friday, May 21, 2010
A Good Night
That's what last night was; Peanut Butter Cup only woke up twice and was relatively easy to put back to sleep after feeding him. Needless to say, we all got a LOT more sleep than we have been used to lately. I kept waking up expecting him to want to be fed and he would still be asleep, ha ha. So, the fussiness from the past few nights before last night is still unexplained. . .of course, it is possible that last night was a fluke--though I certainly hope not!
My mom and sister are on their way here currently--they are driving about 12 1/2 hours today, so if anyone reads this today, please pray for travel mercies! They are coming down to see us one last time before we cross over the Pacific Ocean to our new home.
My husband's graduation is almost here! He finished his classes a couple of weeks ago, so aside from having to go in for accountability and trying to 'clear' (which has been taking up a LOT of time) so we will be allowed to move (oh the fun of being in the military! Ha ha), we have been working on getting the house ready to sell or lease.
We sold one of our vehicles yesterday (praise God!). The army will only pay to ship one vehicle so we opted to keep our truck and will be looking for something cheap once we get to the island. That is one less thing for us to worry about now.
We have decided to give Quigley back to the breeder after talking to one of our neighbors who used to own two Australian Cattle Dogs. He said that the same thing happened to both of them (kids sticking sticks through the fence at them and basically just tormenting them -- why do children have to be so cruel?) and after each dog had bitten 3 times each he'd had to have them put down. :-( It hardly seems fair considering it wasn't originally the dogs' fault. After our neighbor told us that though, my husband and I talked and we decided that we'd rather Quigley go to a new home where he'd have more of a chance to live, versus us taking him and him being in close contact with kids and then maybe have to have him put down eventually. Another factor is the size of the yards in Hawaii -- they are so small, it really wouldn't be fair to him as he needs room to run. :-( It just makes me so sad (even though I don't really get along with him) that we can't keep him and that the kid next door has been so awful and made Quigley the way he is now.
On a somewhat happier note, we've 'tentatively' decided to keep Penny (one of our cats). Now that our other cat has been re-homed, Penny has been a very well behaved kitty (ha ha). That makes me feel somewhat better as I was dreading being pet-less in Hawaii. Not that there aren't PLENTY of animals over there in need of good homes, it's just that my mom is 'keeping' a cat for us back at her house already, and there are mostly only pitbulls, terriers, and little ankle-biter breeds (please don't be offended by that if you like those breeds!). . .none of which we really like. So, the chances of us getting another dog or cat over there are slim. It could happen, but it doesn't seem likely. So my not-so-little-anymore Penny will likely be crossing over the Pacific in a few months to join us after her blood tests come back negative (it takes 120 days to clear her so she won't have to spend that time in quarantine).
My mom and sister are on their way here currently--they are driving about 12 1/2 hours today, so if anyone reads this today, please pray for travel mercies! They are coming down to see us one last time before we cross over the Pacific Ocean to our new home.
My husband's graduation is almost here! He finished his classes a couple of weeks ago, so aside from having to go in for accountability and trying to 'clear' (which has been taking up a LOT of time) so we will be allowed to move (oh the fun of being in the military! Ha ha), we have been working on getting the house ready to sell or lease.
We sold one of our vehicles yesterday (praise God!). The army will only pay to ship one vehicle so we opted to keep our truck and will be looking for something cheap once we get to the island. That is one less thing for us to worry about now.
We have decided to give Quigley back to the breeder after talking to one of our neighbors who used to own two Australian Cattle Dogs. He said that the same thing happened to both of them (kids sticking sticks through the fence at them and basically just tormenting them -- why do children have to be so cruel?) and after each dog had bitten 3 times each he'd had to have them put down. :-( It hardly seems fair considering it wasn't originally the dogs' fault. After our neighbor told us that though, my husband and I talked and we decided that we'd rather Quigley go to a new home where he'd have more of a chance to live, versus us taking him and him being in close contact with kids and then maybe have to have him put down eventually. Another factor is the size of the yards in Hawaii -- they are so small, it really wouldn't be fair to him as he needs room to run. :-( It just makes me so sad (even though I don't really get along with him) that we can't keep him and that the kid next door has been so awful and made Quigley the way he is now.
On a somewhat happier note, we've 'tentatively' decided to keep Penny (one of our cats). Now that our other cat has been re-homed, Penny has been a very well behaved kitty (ha ha). That makes me feel somewhat better as I was dreading being pet-less in Hawaii. Not that there aren't PLENTY of animals over there in need of good homes, it's just that my mom is 'keeping' a cat for us back at her house already, and there are mostly only pitbulls, terriers, and little ankle-biter breeds (please don't be offended by that if you like those breeds!). . .none of which we really like. So, the chances of us getting another dog or cat over there are slim. It could happen, but it doesn't seem likely. So my not-so-little-anymore Penny will likely be crossing over the Pacific in a few months to join us after her blood tests come back negative (it takes 120 days to clear her so she won't have to spend that time in quarantine).
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Rough Night. . . .
Last night was a rather rough night for all of us sleep-wise. It all started when Peanut Butter Cup would fall asleep in my arms, but then would wake up and start crying every time I'd put him down in his crib. I tried rubbing his back, singing to him, turning on one of the baby toys attached to his crib. . .nothing that usually works was working last night. He would just cry and cry and hold up his arms for me to pick him up. After the first three failed attempts I started to wonder if maybe he is either going through a growth spurt or is begin to seriously teethe (I'm still not any more enlightened as to the cause for his fussiness as of this morning). In the hopes that something would work I decided to give him a couple of homeopathic teething tablets to see if they would help. . .interestingly enough, it was after that when he fell asleep and stayed asleep when I put him down again.
Except for one nearly three hour stretch, he did the same thing as the night before and woke up once each hour, which made for very little sleep for all of us. Because he's been waking up so frequently the past couple of nights we are really wondering if he is going through a growth spurt. Though he seems to be on the verge of separation anxiety currently -- does that manifest itself at night as well, or is that usually just something that occurs during the day when he is with new people? I'm not sure, so if anyone has any thoughts, please feel free to share. :-)
With the upcoming move I keep wondering how we are going to swing not having his crib for an unknown amount of time. Co-sleeping is out of the question for us (though nights like last night definitely make it tempting!). We were thinking of him possibly sleeping in his playpen because I know a lot of other couples have done that, but the problem is that he doesn't associate his playpen with sleep at all, and doesn't usually want to stay in it for very long. :-/ So, I'm a bit concerned about how that would work. Any ideas?
Except for one nearly three hour stretch, he did the same thing as the night before and woke up once each hour, which made for very little sleep for all of us. Because he's been waking up so frequently the past couple of nights we are really wondering if he is going through a growth spurt. Though he seems to be on the verge of separation anxiety currently -- does that manifest itself at night as well, or is that usually just something that occurs during the day when he is with new people? I'm not sure, so if anyone has any thoughts, please feel free to share. :-)
With the upcoming move I keep wondering how we are going to swing not having his crib for an unknown amount of time. Co-sleeping is out of the question for us (though nights like last night definitely make it tempting!). We were thinking of him possibly sleeping in his playpen because I know a lot of other couples have done that, but the problem is that he doesn't associate his playpen with sleep at all, and doesn't usually want to stay in it for very long. :-/ So, I'm a bit concerned about how that would work. Any ideas?
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Peanut Butter Cup is 6 Months Old Now!
As of the 11th of this month (I know I'm a little behind), my little Peanut Butter Cup turned six months old. It's so hard to believe that half a year has passed since he was born. I know I say that every time we reach (and pass) a milestone of some sort, but it's as true now as it has been in the past. My husband and I were going through some pictures of Peanut Butter Cup from when he two weeks old on up, and it's simply amazing to see how much he has changed in such a short period of time. It's been an amazing past six months -- that is for sure!
Peanut Butter Cup tried Sweet Potatoes for the first time this past week. He doesn't really like them so far, but I think one of the biggest reasons for that is the difference in texture and thickness from the banana. He's eaten a little bit more each day. . .he reacted almost the same way to the banana at first, and now he really seems to like them (the bananas), so I have hope that he will get used to them and learn to like them in the near future.
Remember last month when I posted about Peanut Butter Cup not wanting to sleep unswaddled? Well, for past week and a half or so, he's been showing signs of being ready to sleep unswaddled, so Friday night we decided to give it another try and see how it went. This is the third night and so far so good. . . . He wakes up a lot more frequently currently (last night he woke up five times), but he hasn't been anywhere near as difficult to put back to sleep as he was the first time we tried. Last time I would nurse him and put him back in his crib which would then cause him to wake up, roll over, and immediately start to cry; then it would be a battle to get him back to sleep for close to an hour at times. This time after I nurse him and put him down he usually wakes up, rolls over, and starts to cry, but I just rub his back and sing or hum our special lullaby and he is usually back to sleep within five minutes. There have been a few times when I put him down that he doesn't even wake up, so I think waiting for him to be ready to be unswaddled helped immensely. Hopefully he will continue to do well without the swaddler and will eventually get used to it and sleep for longer stretches at a time. Last time we tried it was on night three that we gave up and started swaddling him again (he'd just gotten more and more unhappy with each passing night), so I'm VERY excited that he is doing so well!
Karissa and Courtney left on Friday. . .it was so good to have them here -- and so sad when they left! I hope they enjoyed their visit here as much as we enjoyed having them. Too bad they have lives and responsibilities they had to go back to, we could have quite happily kept them for forever. :-)
Peanut Butter Cup tried Sweet Potatoes for the first time this past week. He doesn't really like them so far, but I think one of the biggest reasons for that is the difference in texture and thickness from the banana. He's eaten a little bit more each day. . .he reacted almost the same way to the banana at first, and now he really seems to like them (the bananas), so I have hope that he will get used to them and learn to like them in the near future.
Remember last month when I posted about Peanut Butter Cup not wanting to sleep unswaddled? Well, for past week and a half or so, he's been showing signs of being ready to sleep unswaddled, so Friday night we decided to give it another try and see how it went. This is the third night and so far so good. . . . He wakes up a lot more frequently currently (last night he woke up five times), but he hasn't been anywhere near as difficult to put back to sleep as he was the first time we tried. Last time I would nurse him and put him back in his crib which would then cause him to wake up, roll over, and immediately start to cry; then it would be a battle to get him back to sleep for close to an hour at times. This time after I nurse him and put him down he usually wakes up, rolls over, and starts to cry, but I just rub his back and sing or hum our special lullaby and he is usually back to sleep within five minutes. There have been a few times when I put him down that he doesn't even wake up, so I think waiting for him to be ready to be unswaddled helped immensely. Hopefully he will continue to do well without the swaddler and will eventually get used to it and sleep for longer stretches at a time. Last time we tried it was on night three that we gave up and started swaddling him again (he'd just gotten more and more unhappy with each passing night), so I'm VERY excited that he is doing so well!
Karissa and Courtney left on Friday. . .it was so good to have them here -- and so sad when they left! I hope they enjoyed their visit here as much as we enjoyed having them. Too bad they have lives and responsibilities they had to go back to, we could have quite happily kept them for forever. :-)
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