Sorry it's been a while since I posted anything, we've been in transition (to all those pregnant and/or had a baby ladies, doesn't sound very fun huh? lol) Anyway, Isaac started his new job and is in the pre-academy stage of his training. It's basically like hell-week in boot camp (0nly it will last an entire month for him!) until he starts the academy January 9th. Then the academy will be even worse, with long days and even longer nights studying. Thankfully, it's only temporary, lasting about 10 weeks. Isaac may even choose to stay at the academy during the week and only come home on weekends depending on the amount of studying he needs to get done in order to pass and do well. It'll be hard on the whole family but we can do anything with God's help for only 10 weeks! Isaac's days right now consist of waking up early, ironing his uniform and shining his boots (just like the military, I think all that stuff is coming in handy now!), driving in rush hour traffic for an hour, classroom time, PT time, more PT time, more classroom time, tests, and lots of other things he doesn't tell me about I'm sure! Then he sits in more rush hour traffic for an hour, comes home to a child who's CRAZY needy, eats dinner, puts the kid to bed, kisses his wife, and does more ironing, shining, and studying until he crashes in bed. Yikes! It's going to be a long first year but after that, not so bad. Please pray for our family as we're going through this time, we're excited and yet a little stressed because of how much extra work it is for the both of us. John doesn't understand why daddy isn't here much and it's already taking its toll on him.
OK, what else? We had the Kent Fire Dept. Christmas party last Saturday and it was lots of fun. We didn't really talk to anyone (or rather, no one talked to us) because everyone tries to stay separate from the new recruits until they're sure you'll pass the academy and actually be one of them. It was still fun bringing the kids there though. There was a 2 foot tall pony to pet, chalkboards to draw on, a train set to play with, a raffle for toys and goodies, lots of good food, and the highlight of the evening was a funny and very crazy show by a professional juggler and entertainer. He even did some extreme pogo-sticking and caught lemons on his spiky helmet! John thought it was all very cool and clapped almost the entire time!
Jeanine is growing up so fast and loves to grin and laugh at mommy. John just figured out how to make her smile in the car by making funny sounds and he has so much fun! We put up Christmas decorations on Sunday and are all loving the new house very much! I'll try to get some pictures of the house all decorated very soon.
Watching Wiggles this morning^
Hanging with daddy last night^
Cutie Pie, sitting in the high chair watching mommy make supper^
John and his friend Bennet at the mall food court after we played yesterday^
Goofy Spider Man jammies boy^
Such a happy girl, almost all the time!
Just relaxing!
On another note, Jeanine is now (so very sadly to me) entirely on formula and is doing much much better. She hasn't done the nasty projectile throwing up now for over 24 hours, and is only spitting up a tiny bit. Her eczema is also going away and her cute little cheeks are looking smoothe and rosy instead of scabby and red. I'm hoping she'll get the rest of my milk out of her system and stop the spitting up entirely. As happy as she was before, she's now much happier and a very different baby. She's sleeping well and doesn't seem to be in any pain any more. I'm so sad to have stopped breastfeeding as it was my plan to do so until she was at least 1, but I know this was best for our family. I was so stressed out trying to eliminate all dairy from my diet, and though she got better, she wasn't all the way better. I think there was something else in my diet that she was sensitive to as well, but I just couldn't devote as much time as it would have taken to do an elimination diet and keep track of everything, and also take care of my other responsibilities as wife, mommy, homemaker, and teacher to my children. So I'm becoming more and more okay, and sometimes even happy with the fact that she's a formula baby now. It's also not as inconvenient as everyone makes it out to be! There are perks, yes PERKS, to formula feeding, especially for us Type A moms, who really like to know EXACTLY how much their little ones are eating. I know, I'm crazy, lol! So that's where we're at. One BIG update to last quite a while!
