Stage 2 Complete

So, the second stage of our travel is complete. We had a great few weeks at my mom's house. Oscar's two bottom teeth are finally in and we seem to be over the teething-related behavioral change for now. He finished up his swim class feeling a little more comfortable floating on his back and actually having fun in the pool instead of silently tolerating it.

We enjoyed trips to farmers markets, Starbucks, Target, and the mall. He hijacked my mom's Starbucks cup in the photo below. We also met up with one of my college roommates and her daughter for storytime at the library- it was so much fun!

Oscar also had fun at Ikea and his first baseball game to see the Rays play! See the photos below.

All I want for my birthday is my son's two front teeth

Oscar's first tooth started to cut through just a few days ago. We are in full on teething irritability mode and it is tough. My usual content baby is fussing to sleep and fussing when he wakes up. It probably doesn't help that he has also started rolling over and getting up on hands and knees in his sleep and wakes himself up. Now, a few days later, his second bottom tooth is also cutting through! Hopefully, things will settle down soon, this mama is tired.

The good news is that we have quite the distraction to keep him from getting too upset. He is also in a swim class! Oscar is only 7 months old so it's not like we are teaching him the backstroke, but we are having fun getting him used to the water and learning to float. Each day is better than the day before and I think he is actually starting to enjoy it! Plus he looks super cute in his bathing suit and hat.

We had a super fun 4th of July at my aunt and uncle's house. They always have a great BBQ for the 4th! I bought Oscar's outfit a couple of moths ago and I was so grateful it just barely fit. My 29th birthday was a few days later and we had yummy cookie cake at my grandparents house! We have been having such a great time in Florida, especially taking afternoon naps on my mom's patio.

Meet the Mommy- Mary

Hello fellow military mommies! My name is Mary. My husband, Bryan, is active duty air force. I was on active duty as well until our son, Oscar, was born 7 months ago. Bryan and I met in ROTC at the University of Florida (Go Gators!) and were married in February 2010. Our life has been very hectic (and very blessed) ever since! Before we got married, we were stationed at different bases. Bryan was in graduate school at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio (with Julie's husband) and I was stationed at McGuire AFB in New Jersey. Bryan graduated a month after we got married and moved to Washington DC. Three weeks after our wedding I found out that I was being deployed to Iraq. I was there for nearly 6 months but was able to make it home for Christmas and moved to DC to live with Bryan. Three months later, I was pregnant! I transferred from active duty to the reserves through a program called Palace Chase right after Oscar was born. 

Now, I am a stay at home mama and a reservist. The last 7 months have been an absolute whirlwind and a bit of an identity crisis for me- active duty spouse to mom-reservist-dependent. I'm still figuring it all out. Of course, all the mommy stuff is new but i don't think I really prepared myself for how different the reserves would be from active duty. I put on my uniform two days a month- which feels nice sometimes to get some adult time but also helps me realize how fortunate I am to be with Oscar all the time.

I am so excited to be here to share my experience with you as my family enters yet another crazy season. Bryan was accepted to a very competitive training school and will be TDY for 6 months. We have moved out of our apartment in Washington DC and have decided that due to the intense academic requirements of the course, Oscar and I will not join Bryan at his school. We will spend the next 6 months jumping from my in-laws' house, to my mom's house, to my dad's house with a couple of trips back to DC for my reserve duty. Needless to say Oscar is one well-traveled baby!

In addition to the mommy experiences that I will be sharing, I also have 6 years of active duty time as a force support officer (it's also my job in the reserves). We work personnel, services, and protocol so if anyone has any questions or concerns I hope I can help with the answer, or at least the right place to go for the answer. Thanks for having me!

Harvest Time: A gardener’s favorite words

So many things going on this week but two things were the highlights.  First, being able to harvest the last of my Purple Dragon Carrots and second was harvesting my Red Chesnok garlic.

I sowed my seeds for the “Seeds of Change” organic Purple Dragon Carrots in the middle of March.  This was about a month before any summer crops were ready to plant where I live (Zone 8).  Our last frost date is April 15, even though we didn’t see much frost at all this spring or winter.  I harvested on June 20, 2012, about a week after the package said maturity would be.  This variety of carrot is a fun change from the standard orange carrots we all grew up on.  The outside color is purple and the inside has a ring of orange and a yellow center.  I find they are very crispy and have a very sweet flavor.  I actually used them to bake carrot bread.  The recipe I used was in the June issue of Yoga Journal magazine but the web has tons of similar recipes.  One thing I loved about growing carrots was THERE WERE NO PESTS, which is so rare in gardening.  

Me with my Purple Dragon Carrots

The other highlight was harvesting my 18 heads of Chesnok Red garlic. It’s a hardneck so I harvested its scapes a few weeks ago and harvested the bulbs this week.  I got these bulbs along with 3 varieties of softnecks from Seed Savers Exchange.  My softneck varieties include Broadleaf Czech, Lorz Italian and Inchelium Red.  I am still drying my softnecks and have added my hardnecks to the mix.  They are hanging in my dining room with a fan blowing on them.  I am enjoying the smell of garlic in my kitchen/dining area.  It smells yummy even when I am not cooking.  My bulbs are a little small but I think it’s because I had to transplant them in April to plant my summer veggies.  I now know how long these guys will take from planting to harvest so I have a designated spot for them this November where they won’t have to be transplanted mid-season.   

Chesnok Red garlic drying

If you have great recipes for garlic scapes, garlic, carrots or anything else that is currently in season, please share.  Also, let us know what is going on in your garden this week.

See ya in the garden!

Just another day in the garden

As I thought about my opening post this weekend, I found my topic wreaking havoc in my garden, the squash vine borer. If you are new to gardening or have never grown anything in the gourd family you may be thinking, “What is this?”  I had heard the name but hadn’t seen what it could do to an otherwise healthy plant until Saturday night.

The first sign of trouble was yellow sawdust looking matter around the base of my plant’s stem.  I pulled on my plant and realized that the stem had been almost sucked dry. It was a yellow color and almost seemed woody.    I called my neighbor (a fellow urban gardener and my gardening partner in crime) and we started dissecting the plant’s stem.  What we found surprised us.  Neither of us had ever seen this wormy looking creature (a larvae) that was clear and whitish and had a brown head.  We pulled out our trusty garden resource (you would know this as an iPhone) and we started researching, right there, in the dark and being eaten alive by mosquitoes. 

UGHH!  We tried to save the first plant by slicing gently into it’s stem and removing the first squash vine borer we found, but quickly realized this plant and all the plants were gone. There were about 7 bugs per plant. This was very disappointing and maybe preventable.  In researching we found a few great ways to protect the other gourd family plants (cucumbers, squash, zucchini and melons) in our garden.  You can wrap empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls around the base of your vine to the root.  In case your plant is too large cut the roll to fit properly. This prevents the borer from being able to reach your vine.  This is the route I went but I also found recommendations of duct tape around the stem that touches the soil.  I also saw that some plants may start to re-root if the lower vine is close to the dirt and not damaged.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for us.

I hope my fix works.  If anyone has any additional suggestions or is dealing with anything in their garden please comment back.  Chances are someone has suggestions or is having the same problem.

See ya’ in the garden!!

  

When life just pisses in you Rice Krispies

This is a post from Kendra about her Saturday - 

So Saturday morning....

Vince wakes early and leaves to go compete ina  "MUD RUN" with some buds.  I sleep in...until 620am when Rex starts to fuss.  I get him up and start moving downstairs so as not to wake Brock.  Girls are up shortly after 630am and ready for breakfast.  Brielle requesta an egg sandwich, I stare her down and say nothing, though what I wanted to say was "You are kidding, right?  When do I ever cook you breakfast when we don't have company?!"  She glares right back and demands "WHAT!?"  And so it began, my daily struggle of who is in charge of this family.  I think part of the problem is sometimes she is so good she almost convinces me she COULD do a better job then I do.  If only 7 year olds could drive?

I am trying to post a few things on craigslist to free up some space.  Those big bulky baby items can be so cumbersome in a townhouse! Shame on me for trying to tackle any of my "to-do" tasks while managing 4 kids.  Annaka is asking for markers, Brock is taking advantage of my distractions to use permenant marker on the dry erase board (why do we even have sharpies in this house? No good ever comes from them!). Brock is naked because I failed to dress him after he peed out of his diaper successfully wetting most of his crib. (I even had to bathe him before bringing him down!) He finds it too tempting to rip that diaper off if there are no shorts covering it. He pees on the rug.  Ugh, I soak it up with a towel and add it to the laundry pile of his mountain of stuffed animals and wet crib bedding fom this morning.

Annaka decides to go to her room and watch a movie and smartly locks Brock out. However she left the markers all over the kitchen table.  Brock finds them unattended, and while I am trying to catch up the laundry, he colors the table and his nekkid litle self.  "Yyeggs back! Yeggs back!"  (legs. black!) he exclaimes, very puroudly. I didn't notice until he stood up he had also taken the liberty to color his penis red. It was funny!  He had baboon penis instead of baboon butt! I pause from laundry to grab Fantastik and clean the table, which is white.  yay!  I leave him be as he continues to color his "yipps wed" (lips red!) althought the color marker he was actually eating was blue. 

Brielle pesters me for glue to make a fathers day card.  GLUE?! AS IF! I say no, thinking no good will come of turning her loose with elmers glue (sorry daddy!).  She persists and as usual wears me down and we compromise on a card that can be construsted using a glue stick instead.  SHe needs cheerios she says, I say OK and get them out.  All 4 kids are at the kitchen table and  all 4 are immediately hungry, though I am pretty certain Rex wasn't interested in the cheerios.  Brielle NEEDS a smoothie.  I say Ok, mostly because I really wanted one too! While I am trying to concoct a delectable treat for my offspring, Brielle abruptly decided cheerios are not the material of choice (or ease) for her Fathers day card and she needs to switch to ...pause...wait for it....RICE KRISPIES! I think this had to do in large part with fact that I denied use of glue ...and cheerios are sort of heavy for glue stick sticking.

Out come the rice krispies. 3 smoothies are on the table- complete with straws!  Go mom! Now I just need to feed the baby and get him down for a short nap and I might be able to finish craigslist task OR the laundry.  I was no fool, could see both were not gonna happen. 

Brock of course, tips his smoothie, just to see...it spills as he curiously watches it run off the table onto the floor. Then as he stands in his chair (why didn't I buckle him in his high chair?) he notices the open box of rice krispies and, quick as lightening, he dumps the entire full box across table and onto the floor.  It was a great dump!  There wasn't even any rice krispie dust left in that box! I am holding fussy Rex thinking that mess will have to wait, afterall, can't really get worse. As I am debating (a 4 second  ordeal) to feed Rex cereal or try a bottle, Brock, who is now sitting sweetly back in his chair, pees EVERYWHERE.  I mean that definitly was a loaded cannon.  How many cups of juice had that guy had? He hit the rice Krispies on the table, diluted his smoothie a little and left himself sitting in a puddle that he began "splashing" in immediatly.  That ought to offer some insight as to the volume of pee that there was.  Now this was a little more than I could handle! And that was all before 10am!  Life just PISSED IN MY RICE KRISPIES!

I still had not had my coffee that I had been looking forward to, and now the pot was turned off as it only stays warm for 120 minutes which probably is enough time for most of you to pour a cup and drink it, maybe 2 cups. Nope, not for me, not even enough time for a cold cup now.  Still gotta feed a baby and wash another and try to convince 7 year old (and myself) that I got this!

Does Tri-care CARE?

Just a quick post to whine and complain that I'm still pregnant.  Yes, I am aware that I'm "only 37 weeks" and that full-term is 40 weeks BUT this weather is H-O-T and I don't want to have another 10lb baby.  I was given a glimpse of hope about 8 weeks ago that IF my baby was large that I would be scheduled for induction.  At 36 weeks she weighed approx 7lbs and 8 oz...if carried to 40 weeks that would be approx 9lbs and 8 oz.  All of these measurements are +/- 1 lb. Which means baby girl could be a "tiny" 8.5 lbs or bigger than her big brother was at 10.5lbs.  All that said, I'm not really sure how "big" she would have had to measure to actually schedule an induction.  Either way, I'm not thrilled.  I guess I'm off to run steps, eat spicy food, and gallop around in hopes of inducing my labor on my own.  We'll see how it goes next week.  PS - the doctor assured me that they wouldn't let me go more than 41 weeks and 2 days overdue - what kind of assurance is that?!  I'm am convinced (though I have no real knowledge of this) that in the "real world" (as opposed to the world of military health care) someone would induce me before 40 weeks...just sayin.

I've included her "growth scan" ultrasound" in hopes of focusing on her sweet face not my whiney attitude.