Proud of my little girl!

Today is the 2nd day that Kaylee has only had her night time bottle! She is on some anti-biotics right now for her awful ear infection that we found out about on Thursday. We're putting her night time anti-biotics in her bottle because she isn't very good at taking them (it's a lot and she spits it all out in the midst of her fit she throws when we give it to her!). Ideally, I wanted Kaylee to be completely off her bottle by her 1st b-day (just 6 days away!). Then, however, she got the H1N1 and an ear infection so i backed off the schedule to get rid of the bottle. Friday, however, while frantically interviewing childcare providers and visiting their homes I realized that most CDC providers will not give a bottle to a child over the age of 1. I would rather Kaylee be fussy with us than be put in the situation where another person is taking care of her and not providing her with the comfort of the bottle...it just seems too cruel (to both Kaylee and the provider). So, Friday night I told Clay that on Saturday she would only recieve her night time bottle. Kaylee did amazing! She has been fussy these past 2 days, but she's been surprising great at this (after all..fussiness is to be expected. Try having someone take away your favorite thing and see how fussy you are). She wouldn't drink her milk out of a sippy before yesterday, but now..when she wants her milk...she knows she's only getting it in the sippy cup! I am so proud of her. She even drank out of a sippy cup with a straw today! She is such a big girl. I don't know how long we'll keep giving her the night time bottle, but my new goal is to have Kaylee completely bottle free for when I possibly go home in the middle of December! I don't want to take any bottles/formula with me. Kaylee is such a big girl! I am so lucky to have such an amazing and beautiful little girl!

A new job??!!

Sooo...I have a possible new job. It happened REALLY fast! I saw it online this morning on a website that requires you to come in and show them your resume to get a referral to get the job. So today at 2:00, I went and brought my resume to this company who said "yes, you are qualified. here is the information for the company. Fax your resume to them." So, I faxed my resume to them and about an hour later received a phone call asking me to come in for an hour interview at 5:00! By 5:15 they asked me to come in and work half a day on Tuesday and a full day Wednesday to get a feel for it. Crazy!!!!!! It's part-time (25-30 hours a week). The pay will increase after I have been there 90 days! AWESOME! I am thrilled. It's a really small, family owned company. They bring their dog to work everyday. They're extremely flexible...which is great! They said the last bookkeeper even brought her kids and dog into work with her sometimes! It just seems like a great fit and I am so excited! Also...I get to wear jeans (with a nice shirt...but jeans!!!!). Yay. Hopefully, it'll work out and they'll love me and I'll love them! HOPEFULLY!

Kaylee is better!

After a fever, tons of tylenol and motrin, Tamiflu, and lots of love and cuddling....Kaylee is finally getting better! She hasn't had a fever since Friday. The doctors say once the fever has been gone for 24 hours she is no longer contagious...but, I wanted to make sure and not take her in public still. She has been fever free now though for 4 days and Kaylee and I went and enjoyed some time out for the first time since she got sick. We went to Walmart (fun I know...but I needed wipes desperately and I also had to get my oil changed). Kaylee is getting happier and happier as each days passes and she is sleeping/eating better too! Today is the last day for Tamiflu, so I am glad that the medicine will all be over with soon (she hates getting it given to her!). It scared me to death when the doctor said that she had H1N1, but the doctor said she would be fine. He said there was more hype in the media about it than there really needed to be because unless you had an underlying condition, you would be just fine. At the ER here in Whidbey, they're not allowing anyone with flu like symptoms to visit the hospital. They're even sending people home that come in with flu like symptoms (except small children and/or people with underlying condistions). The doctor said that 95% of all flu cases right now are H1N1 cases. Thankfully, Clay and I are fine and we did not get sick (though I would have rather gotten sick than my baby!). Anyways, Kaylee is better and I am glad to have my little happy girl back! :-)

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.