Time to get rid of the bottle...

Well, Kaylee is almost a year old! Can you believe it? I sure can't! With that milestone also comes the dreaded chore of getting rid of the bottle. Kaylee is quite fond of her bottle so it's going to be a difficult process (but I refuse to let my child have the bottle until she is 2....my sister!!). So the plan is to start with a bottle feeding each week. Kaylee typically has 4-5 bottles within a 24 hour period. She usually has one when she wakes up, then around her first nap, then right before her second nap, right before bed, and then on most nights she has one during the night (like around 3-5 am...because she STILL does not sleep through the night). I have taken away the bottle before her first nap this week. Next week she won't have her 2nd nap bottle. The week after that I wil probably try to get rid of the bottle before she goes to sleep. Lastly will be the bottle right when she wakes up (eventually we will get rid of the bottle during the night as I will probably give her a sippy as this time instead of the bottle). It's going to be a long, grumpy 4 weeks, but I just don't know that I can cut the bottle cold turkey.

For those who haven't had children yet, I can lend this advice:
Don't ever lay your child down with a bottle. We have done this and it just makes the child more attached to the bottle.
Introduce the sippy early!! Put milk in there that way they'll learn that the sippy isn't just for water/juice...whatever they drink.
Don't (if at all possible) let the child hold the bottle. I say that I won't do this next time, but I think back and Kaylee wanted to hold the bottle so bad that sometimes she wouldn't take it unless she held it. Even with the sippy, she'll only drink it sometimes on "her" terms. I don't really know that I could have done this differently...but I will certainly try with the next child.

Anyway, so we will see if I can hold out and not give in to the cries for the bottle. Hopefully, I will hold strong!

Painting ... again!

Well, I have officially decided that the color I originally painted throughout the whole house was something that I just didn't love! So, after a few trial and errors, I THINK I have found something that I really really like. Before leaving for Key West, I tried 2 colors in the entryway. We are going with the second color. Tonight, I painted the entire entryway and one of the hallway walls. I plan to just take my time with it. There is A LOT to paint so my goal is to just have it finished before Kaylee's b-day party on November 22nd. I definitely think I can manage that! :-)

Key West

We got in last night from Key West about 1:30 am. It was a very long trip, but we had fun. Clay and I had to fly separately because we couldn't get him on the same flight as Kaylee and I, but wee managed to work it out. Though I had some issues coming back (we had to go around Houston because of the weather and therefore had to make a pitstop in San Antonio for some fuel....I almost missed my connection to Seattle and had no time at all for anything!), we made it safely. We all had fun. It was miserably hot while we were there but coming home last night almost made us miss that miserable heat! It was FREEZING in our house last night. We are happy to be home and we are happy that Jill and Reid took us in and allowed us to stay with them for 5 days. We enjoyed Key West and we enjoyed the wedding.

Thank you to our sailors and our soliders

So, I was watching Good Morning, America this morning and I heard the saddest story. A 30-something year old man was killed in the war. The man has left behind a wife who is pregnant with twin girls. This is so sad to me. I know so many people that have husbands who are deployed while they are pregnant. It is so sad to hear that a father never had the chance to meet his children and that mothers of these fallen heros are left to raise their children by themselves. It truly breaks my heart. It also brings home how precious and how brave our soliders and sailors are.

Happy 10 months, Kaylee!

Kaylee is getting big! She is getting the last one of her top 4 teeth in (giving her 6 teeth now). She has been fussy through this, but once this tooth breaks, I imagine it will be much better for her. She is the most adorable and precious little girl ever and I can't imagine our lives without her! She is so unpredictable, adventurous, and loving!

Well, it has officially been 3 weeks since Clay has been scheduled for anything other than watch! I know he is trying to enjoy his time off, but you can tell he is getting antsy. This is what Prowlerland is like! Growler guys are coming in with a force (at least hour days) and Prowler guys are just sitting on their butts doing nothing! It's just crazy to me. It is great to have Clay home though, so you get no complaints from me...only from Clay.

We haven't done much more with the house. Clay did change out the light fixture above the sink. We're looking for ceiling fans as we want to change out the fan in the living room. There is a fan in the office, but I think we're taking it down and putting up a regular light. This is stuff we are waiting on though...everything costs so much money. We have learned that things will come in time, but we have to give it time. This is something that I am not very good at!

I ran the half marathon last Sunday! It was an adventure. I truly did love it. I really hope to keep at it and run another one.

That's all that is going on here. I just wanted to post and say Happy 10 month birthday to my beautiful little girl!

Yay for today!

Today is the day I pick Kim and Siobhan up from the airport! I have already texted Kim and she is scheduled to depart Birmingham, AL in just half an hour! Siobhan will not leave Fresno, CA until after work....so we have a little while to wait for her, but the flight isn't nearly as long. I can not wait to see them!

Flooring

Well.....after a VERY long 3 days, Clay and I are FINALLY finished with the kitchen and dining room floors. We worked on the kitchen late into the night on Monday and then worked all day on the dining room on Tuesday. After completing the entire floor, we realized it was really squeaky and very bouncy. I called my step-dad at that point to figure out what the heck was up with the floor. When laying the dining room, we left the carpet underlay on the floor and then put the laminate ontop of that. My step-dad said that it actually needed to come up or the laminate would start to slide apart and break and come up. Sooooo...as much as it sucked, we pulled apart the laminate floor in the dining room and then pulled up the carpet underlay and the carpet tracks. This part REALLY SUCKED. At that point, we realized the kitchen flooring was about 1/2 inch higher than the dining room flooring, so Clay went and got plywood and cut it up into pieces to try to bring it even. Clay started laying the floor while I was on my run this morning and when I came back I realized that the floor still was uneven (even after he put in the plywood). So, he took it apart and then put leveler down to try to level the spot that transitioned into the kitchen and the dining room. That had to dry FOREVER, so we went to the park and let Kaylee parade in the grass and play on the swing. Once the leveler was dry, Clay started laying down the floor again. After all that, the floor is finally laid down. It looks so much better than the carpet/blue and white linoleum combination that was there before. For those looking to redo their flooring with laminate, it isn't easy but the results are beautiful. Clay and I redid both of our bathroom flooring and that was immensely easy....laminate flooring is definitely tougher.