It's driving me crazy!

Another funny comment from our 2 yr old...

The other morning, Doug helped Mary to the bathroom. I was sitting in the living room with Adam when I hear him telling her that she needs to wash her hands after going potty. She says, "no." He calmly tells her that we always wash and she has no choice. After the stare down, she finally gives in but proceeds to say," it's driving me crazy." What is? "Daddy um um make me um wash hands after potty." Ha,ha,ha!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Ho, Ho, Ho! Santa visited our house this year and a very excited 2 yr old couldn't open her presents fast enough...and those for her baby brother. I thought it was funny how she would open a present and then instead of moving on, would want to open ALL the packaging so that she could immediately try it out. That little girl was certainly spoiled this year. A friend surprised us with a last minute gift of a toy kitchen since their daughter was getting an upgrade. Mary has been having a great time making and serving us coffee and snacks.

My Mom and Dad were able to fly all the way from North Carolina to help us welcome Adam to the family and to celebrate Christmas. It was been wonderful having extra help with Adam and Mary has been getting some much needed extra attention. We had a couple pretty days before the rain came, so Dad, Mary and I went to the beach to play in the sand. The water wasn't too cool and Mary had a great time getting her feet wet.

Christmas Eve was a beautiful day too. We went to the 5pm mass at church. Mary had a good time looking at the nativity set. She kept saying, "Happy birthday, Jesus." Too cute.

PRESENTS!!!! Here's a look at some photos from Christmas morning.

Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk Go KU! Thanks Grandma, now we're ready for March Madness.

And we finished the day by decorating cookies. Thankfully, for every one's sake, Mary only touched 2 and I did the rest.

Merry Christmas everyone! We love and miss you!

What day is today?

Tired, but thought I'd take a moment to post a few of the latest pics.


Mary 2 1/2 yrs old, Adam 8 days old. To quote Mary, "So tiny."

Quality father- daughter bonding time over the sidewalk chalk.

Life is good.

Say cheese!

Mary has a great portrait from when she was 1 day old at the hospital. We really wanted one of Adam too, but of course the hospital doesn't do photos like Leavenworth did. I tried my best last night after Mary went to sleep. Adam usually screams bloody murder when he's undressed, so I'm thankful this is what I was able to get. He is 6 days old in these photos.

Choo-choo

Mary gives a great impression of a choo-choo train. Chugga-chugga woo-hoo. Where does she get that southern accent? We just had to capture it on video before she stops saying it. This was taken the night I went into labor.

Sleep? What's that?

4 days old and our life has changed so much. Doug summed it up perfectly when he said, "We just got used to everything taking twice as long to get done and now it's 4 times." Of course he said this as we were trying to rush out the door to get to Adam's 4 day old appt with the pediatrician. (Ha! we arrived 10 min early!) Funny the things I have to think about now. I ran around the house trying to find Mary's old diaper changing pad to carry in my purse (didn't find it, so used a ziplock bag). Haven't had to think about diapers for so long, I almost forgot them. Mary has regressed a bit, but not too badly. She just had to have her blanket since Adam had one covering him in his car seat. She wants us to put her clothes on her while she's lying on the floor "like baby." She's also testing us (A LOT) by not listening. Poor thing's spending some serious "quality time" with Time Out, but she has to learn so we can all keep/maintain our sanity. I am so glad Doug gets paternity leave. It has been such a lifesaver having him home with me trying to figure out how to juggle the whiny toddler with the hungry (every 2 hrs) newborn. Now, Mary has a cold and I'm trying desperately to keep her away from Adam so he doesn't get it. She just doesn't understand and I know it confuses her. Last night was probably my best night's sleep and that was because Adam slept 2- 2 1/2 hour stretches at a time before wanting to eat. Yea! Wait, did I just cheer because I could sleep 2 hours at a time? Times have changed...and I wouldn't change them for the world.

Welcome Adam!

We would like to welcome Adam Douglas Putthoff to the family. Born Sunday Dec.6th at 12:32am weighing 7lb 1.8oz and 20.5 inches long. He was 12 days early. What an adventure!

I started having contractions on Thursday evening, but they were pretty irregular. This continued all the way through Saturday. By then, I was pretty tired and ready for him to come. So I took an extra long walk around the neighborhood, we ran errands around base and after nap, we went to the Air Force base for their Christmas festival. There was a LOT of walking involved. We even went to Chili's for dinner and I ate the spicy jalapeno cole slaw hoping to "spice" him out. I guess it worked. The contractions sped up and at 11:15pm, I couldn't take it anymore. We packed up Mary and dropped her off at our friend's house and rushed to the hospital. Good thing we don't live to far away. We jumped from every 4 min to 3min during that trip. I remember thinking that I'm such a wimp with pain that I had better be more than 4 cm dilated when we get there or Doug would be calling me a "drama queen" for the rest of my life. As we were walking into the hospital, I would stop whenever a contraction hit and then book it as fast as possible when it passed. I'll save you from the rest of the little details, but I will say that we checked in at 11:49pm and Adam was born at 12:32am. No time for an epidural (which I desperately wanted) and barely enough time for the doctor to arrive. The nurses kept telling me not to push since they had to call in a doctor, but that they would deliver the baby if necessary. I believe he arrived just in time to glove up and catch! Adam was ready to greet the world and it was so wonderful hearing that little cry. Welcome to the family!

Christmas Party time!

Friday was the holiday party for Doug's work. We decided to go this year to get Mary excited about Santa. For days we've been promoting, "Santa NOT scary, bring presents". I thought this would be a good time to try it out and maybe we could get a good picture with Santa this year. It was so incredibly loud and crowded when we arrived. The party was hosted in the bowling alley, and there was free pizza, cookies and drinks. Yum.

Mary did not like waiting in line for Santa. Too many people and too loud. I had my hands full with a drink, my purse and camera, but all she wanted was to be held. I finally gave in until a wonderful angel named Karen (Doug works with her husband) came over and took her off my hands.She wouldn't smile.

Ok, that wasn't a success.

We had to go outside to calm down, take in a bit of fresh air and to open the present. Surprise! It was a stuffed dinosaur. She LOVES dinosaurs and she doesn't have one. How perfect. I asked her what she wanted to name him...Frank? No. Dino? No. What? She said, "Dinosaur." Well, that's appropriate. So Dinosaur it is.

Time to eat some yummy pizza. Merry Christmas!

In case you were wondering, Doug stayed at work late and we would have missed him had Mary not noticed the newly remodeled playground and decided she wanted to play. He found us on the swings, of course.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

What a busy, but nice day. It all started with a holiday breakfast of sausage cheese balls (that I made and froze the night before- we now have plenty to make it through Christmas!) and mini cinnamon rolls. Yum! Then Mary and I started work on making the side dishes. She was a great helper with peeling potatoes. It was a fun mother/daughter moment and I made Doug get the camera. I just love how Mary will see me doing something in the kitchen and she'll run back to her room to get her step stool so she can see/help. Doug was a humongous help by cleaning both bathrooms, sweeping, vacuuming, setting up the table and getting the turkey from our neighbor's fridge (so glad Nicole gave us a key to their house when they went out of town- thanks!). We had our other friend, Nicole and her son Jaiden, over for dinner. Her husband recently deployed to Afghanistan. Prayers for him and the family. This is their first deployment and I know how hard it can be, esp during the holidays. We also had a nice couple and their 20 mo. old daughter join us. Paul, is also an industrial hygienist, but works on another base. His wife is an active duty Navy nurse and was deployed with Doug on the USNS Mercy many years ago when we were in Hawaii. Small world. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the adults. Sorry. Too busy eating, socializing and watching over the kiddos. It was a great day. I am so Thankful for my family and friends, but most especially for my wonderful husband who I couldn't live without, my funny, smart, amazing, and yes, sometimes frustrating 2 yr old daughter, and for the baby in my belly that kicks me constantly as his way of saying "get ready, I'm coming soon and your life will never be the same." Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

My sous chef peeling her first potato

Carving the bird

The spread. Did you spot the Metamucil in the picture? Ha,ha. Strange that no one put any on their plate.

The kids enjoying their apple pie and ice cream. Yum!!

It's cooking my eyes!!!!!

We have a strange design to our house. We have a tiny bathroom located right next to our larger bathroom. I have no idea why they didn't just build one BIG bathroom, but strangely, it's worked out well for us. The tiny one has been turned into "Mary's special bathroom." This way, we can have it all set up with her step stools and potty seat and not have to worry about moving them each time we need to go. The one down side to this design is that there is NO electrical outlet in there. How strange is that? It makes it hard to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, since we don't turn the light on for her (it's too bright). Yesterday, I bought a battery operated nightlight that you push to activate. I thought she'd have fun turning it on/off. I attached it to the wall at a height she could reach and placed it out of direct line of sight so it wouldn't blind her. We tried it for the first time today and she HATED it. She kept screaming, "It's cooking my eyes!!!!!" I told her not to look directly at it, but she wouldn't listen. She wouldn't calm down until I turned it off and flipped back on the overhead light. Oh well, I've wasted more than $8 in the past. Maybe she'll grow accustomed to it when she gets older.

The pimp mobile

So for the past few months, my car has been bouncing up and and down as I drive. It was more noticeable when going slow on base. I felt like I was in one of those souped up cars that bounce, but without paying extra for it. I told Doug I felt like a pimp. Ha, ha, the pimp in the station wagon. Doug looked under the car and didn't see anything wrong with the shocks, but I was getting worried that something might happen when I have Mary by myself (and I don't own a cell phone). It's been getting progressively worse, so we decided to try a local garage that was recommended by a co-worker. You'll never believe what was wrong. Apparently, the tires were overinflated for so long that they actually became un-round and that's why I bounced. All I needed were 4 new tires. I'm sure the Japanese men at the auto shop had a good laugh over the dumb Americans. Oh well, it was cheaper than we had expected (much better than new shocks) and now it's smooth driving for me.

Luau

November is the month of the military family. This year, our base held a Luau at the field house and had plenty of booths to see what activities are offered for the family. This was an entirely FREE event. Mary and I went this morning while Doug was mowing the lawn. We had a great time looking at the different booths, getting to bowl for a teddy bear, hula-ing for a special prize (Mary picked sunglasses), making a flower bracelet, jumping in the bouncy house and watching the clown make animal balloons. They even took our picture and

printed it for free. What a nice event. (Doug said I don't even look pregnant in this photo. Amazing.)

Unfortunately, I had committed Mary to the Hula before I knew that I would have to participate as well. Good grief, I looked like a whale! She's lucky I love her so much...and the sunglasses were so cute...and that we arrived early enough that there weren't many people around.

And here she is walking back to the car with all her loot. What a nice day!

Mary's new habit

Mary has suddenly started singing while she's going poo-poo. It is so funny listening to her. Sometimes she makes up songs and other times we can figure out what she's singing. I know it's not much to look at, but enjoy the song!

Another funny potty story: Her potty seat makes it impossible to wipe her properly after going number 2, so I always have her stand on her step stool and bend over. So now, I say to her," Ok, time to wipe" and she bends over, touches her toes (or grabs on to my legs) and replies, "take a bow!" I have no idea where that came from but I always get a chuckle. Yes, Ta-Da! You pooped!

The joys of childhood

Ahhh, remember your first fort? I remember draping blankets over chairs and tables and crawling underneath as a child. I loved to pretend I was in a castle and I was the princess, or it was a fort and I was camping in the woods. I even took books in there with me as a nice hideaway. Mary experienced it for the first time last night and had a blast. She loves to pull the cushion off the chair and jump on to it. Sometimes she likes to curl up in the base of the chair and pretend to take a nap. Last night, Mary wanted Doug to cover her with the blanket and he was a bit enthusiastic and dramatic with whipping the blanket in the air. It ended up draping across the chair like this and viola', a fort! How fun!

She was having such an adventure, that she decided she wanted to sleep on the floor last night. Umm, ok. How many times can you be a kid? So this is where she went to bed "camping". She always wakes up once to go to the bathroom, so she slept in her bed for the second half.

Surprise!

Today at playgroup we were having a surprise baby shower for our friend Kristen. To my utmost surprise it was actually a double shower! Nicole's going back to the States for her daughter's baptism soon and wanted to make sure I had my shower in case baby boy decides to arrive early. I have such a great group of girlfriends here and feel so very blessed. They definitely make being so far from family easier.


Nicole made this beautiful cake. It had a pink strawberry cake and blue colored white cake layer and enough homemade buttercream icing to send Doug into diabetic shock. Kristen's having a girl and I'm having a boy, so it was so creative how she made the cake.

Kristen's due Nov 21st and I'm due Dec 18th

Taking a break from eating cake

And last but not least, the diaper cakes. I made the one for Kristen and Nicole surprised me with one of my very own. Poor Jessica couldn't understand why she wasn't allowed to pull all the cute little bottles off the cake.

Thanks again ladies for all your hard work, generosity and most of all, friendship.