Halloween 2007

Heidi went trick-or-treating dressed as Snow White tonight. She had a lot of fun. I don't think she was afraid of anyone that she saw. There were some things that she had to stop and stare at for a while though. I got a lot of cute pictures of her in her costume to send to Brian, so he can see his little princess all dressed up.

Before we went, though, Heidi did NOT want to put on her costume. When we bought it, she was just dying to wear it, but I told her we had to save it for Halloween. Today was finally Halloween, so I got it out for her to wear... but she just kept telling me NO, and that she was not going to wear it. Instead, she went back to the dirty clothes closet in the bathroom and pulled out a dirty dress and started dancing around the living room with it. She said that she wanted to wear this dirty dress instead. Of course, she did not really understand what Halloween was all about... so I had to call Grandma Holly up to tell her to put on her costume and bribe her with a piece of chocolate to let me get it on her.

When we went outside (after I got her dressed in her Snow White costume and red sparkly shoes), and she ran over next door to play with Amy (our neighbor). Then, we started our trick-or-treating for the night. Heidi definitely had a fun night. We handed back out some of her candy when we were finished... along with some that we had bought. I did leave some in her pumpkin basket for her though.

Ten!

Yesterday, Heidi even made it counting to TEN!

When I tell Heidi that she is smart, she says "Heidi's smart" and does the sign for smart. :)

Last night, we were in the car driving to Wal-Mart and Heidi put her fingers in her ears and was asking me if I could hear her. She is so silly! I guess she must have seen someone plug their ears... and maybe someone asked them if they could hear them? She must have seen that from somewhere.

Heidi Counts to NINE!...sort of... and she isn't even two yet!

Heidi has been counting to two for a long while now. I have been trying to get her to count to three. A few days ago, I thought I heard her counting in the car to six, but thought she may not be able to do it again... and she didn't want to do it for me when I asked her to. Well, today on the phone when we were talking to Grandpa Bob, I asked Heidi to count to two for Grandpa... and she said "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ... 9." She had counted to 9!!! She missed #8, but I think she did Really well for not even being two-years-old yet!

She is still asking for milk in the mornings when she wakes up too. I guess I still have some milk, but I am not going to feed her. She really had a hard time with not getting any breastmilk this morning. She was not happy with me for a while after she woke up. Oh well, I fed her until she was 23-months-old... I have been trying to wean her since she was 12-months-old. She was lucky she got breastmilk as long as she did. :) Most people don't breastfeed their kids until they can count to nine.

Heidi's Pretend Play Today: The Pig wants to eat BACON?

We were just in the living room playing with Heidi's barn. I was the pig and she was the sheep. First, I put the sheep to bed (hugs, kisses, night nights, etc). Then, the sheep tucked the pig into bed (same thing). Then, the sheep said "wake up pig." I guess it was morning, and it was also time to eat because the sheep was saying "eating time.. cup please." So I, the pig, got the sheep a plastic toy cup to drink from. Then, the sheep said "eating time again." So, I, the pig, asked the sheep "What will you cook for me to eat?" The sheep said back to me, the PIG, "BACON!" haha. I just thought it was funny that the sheep would cook bacon for the pig to eat. Heidi doesn't know that bacon comes from pigs yet. Actually, I don't think she has even ever eaten bacon before. I don't usually buy it. Anyway, just something that I thought was funny from today's pretend play. :)

sick

Days 7 and 8 of the weaning (Sat and Sun) were still sore days. I was sick all night Sunday night (up all night throwing up and spent the night on the bathroom floor in between throwing-ups). Then, Monday morning I was still a little nautious and kind of dizzy... so I just rested most of the day. I even had to cancel something that I was supposed to go do with my FRG yesterday morning. We were going to get together and put together cookie mixes in jars to sell as a fundraiser, but I had to cancel it (because I am the one who has everything except for the jars and I just could not go). Now is it Tuesday morning, and I think I finally do not have anymore milk! ... and so I am NOT sore anymore! YAY! Maybe being so sick and constantly throwing up helped it go away, finally.

Day Six: Heidi wanted milk at naptime...

I am really tired tonight, so I'm not going to write much in my blog. Just wanted to do a quick update on our weaning process. Overall, I think Heidi is doing pretty well now with the weaning. She was pretty tired when she finally went down for a nap, though, (we had two things going on this morning back-to-back, so she was pretty worn out). I think she was just overly tired, so she wanted milk. I didn't give her any. We just rocked and I gave her a sippy cup with water and after a couple of minutes, she was ready for bed. Tonight, she didn't ask me for milk when she went to bed.

Another quick note: We went to a Parents as Teachers playgroup meeting today and made bread (that ended up being too salty... maybe because Heidi was helping pour and stir). She enjoyed the stirring part. She just did not like getting her hands dirty. In that way, she is a lot like me. I remember I didn't like getting dirty when I was younger. Whenver she put her hands into the dough, she would pull them out and see flour and sticky dough on her hands and it just really upset her that her fingers were dirty. I guess she won't be wanting to help me make bread again anytime soon.

Day Five: She did not ask today! ... She also went back to the bathroom and went potty by herself for the first time tonight too!!! YAY!

Today, our fifth day of weaning, is the first day Heidi has not asked for breastmilk. YAY! I am actually still kind of sore too (not as bad as yesterday though... yesterday was the worst!). I hope I stop producing milk soon. How long does it usually take to go away?

Also, tonight when we got home from a church activity, she took her diaper off because it was wet. I was going to put a new one on her, but she didn't want one on and we were watching something on tv for a little while (wind-down time to get her calmed down before bed). So after a couple minutes of trying to get her to let me put a diaper on her and her telling me "No, don't want it," I finally said "Fine, but you need to go to the back to your potty chair if you need to go pee since you won't let me put your diaper on!" After that, I totally forgot that I had not put a diaper on her! She was just sitting there on the couch in a long dress without a diaper on. When I said what I had said, I just thought I would just try again in a couple of minutes, but I just totally forgot about it!

Well, about an hour later I told her it was time to get ready for bed. She ran down the hallway and I thought she was going to her bedroom because she said "book time!" We usually have book time and read a couple of stories before I put her to bed. I got back there maybe a minute or two later to see her walking back out of the DARK bathroom (no lights on/night time) and she said "Mommy, dress wet... off, take it off... wet." There was a small spot on the side that was wet. She seemed a little distressed that her dress was wet. I immediately remembered that I had NOT put a diaper back on her!!!!! My first thought was she must have peed on the floor in the bathroom or something, so I turned on the light and walked in. There was no pee on the floor. Then, I lifted the lid on her potty chair and she had gone back to the bathroom ALL BY HERSELF in the DARK (with a little light in the hallway that was coming from the living room)... and she went pee all by herself!!! I was surprised to find no mess on the floor! This is the first time she has gone to use the potty all by herself! Actually, she has not even gone on it in at least a week. I guess she took me seriously when I told her that if she didn't want to wear a diaper, she had to go use her potty chair. I guess when she sat down on her potty chair in the dark bathroom, she did not get her long dress lifted all the way and must have gotten some pee on it. Of course I let her know how proud I was of her for going back there all by herself when she had to go. She seemed to be really happy when she saw how excited I was that she went back there and used the potty all by herself.

Another Day Without... Poor Heidi

Still no breastmilk for Heidi. This morning was really hard for her. I wouldn't give her breastmilk and she had a tough time accepting it this morning. She was pretty grumpy most of the morning afterwards too. Tonight, though, she didn't ask me for milk... She also didn't want to go to bed in her own bed tonight either. Instead, she asked to go to sleep in "Mommy's bed." I felt kind of bad telling her no, and that she had to go to bed in her own bed. I guess she thought she would see if she could sleep in my room since I wasn't feeding her anymore... If one thing changes, why can't her place of sleep change too? Maybe she just wanted to be close to me, since we aren't having that bonding time that we used to have with breastfeeding. I did rock her for about half a minute and brushed her teeth... and she went to bed in her crib. I would have rocked her a little longer, but she didn't want to. She just wanted to go to bed. I wonder if tomorrow morning will be as tough as this morning was on her. So far, the morning feeding seems to be the hardest for her to give up.

Tonight, we went to a reunion briefing for our brigade. There were maybe 60 spouses or so there. They talked about things like what to expect when our husbands come home (and having unrealistic expectations), the signs of PTSD, how people change over a year, the need for open communication, how and when we will be notified about when/where we will reunite with our soldiers, etc. When Brian gets home, he will not be allowed to drive within 24-hours of his landing back in the states. Also, he will have a three-day pass, but he will not be allowed to leave the 150 mile radius in that time. Then, he will also have different classes/reintegration training that he will need to go to.

Someone asked if it would be okay for them to bring their dog to the meeting place when a flight of soldiers comes in. Then, someone else mentioned how their child was afraid of big dogs. I don't know why someone would feel the need to bring the family dog to pick up their husband/dad who has been gone for 15 months. Also, the dog may poop on the field where we will be reunited and someone may step in it... and then someone will have to smell dog poop on their shoe for the whole ride home. There are going to be probably at least a hundred people/family members at each of the reunions whenever flights get in. Why would someone want to bring their dog into all of that chaos? People are going to be scrambling across a field to find their soldier/family in a mass heard. That's just my opinion though. I guess to some people, their dogs are their kids. I just think the dogs could wait at home for 20 minutes or so.

I had Heidi put into the free day care in the room next door from where the briefing was tonight. It was a LONG meeting... I think we were there for about three hours. They had several speakers (soldiers, a social worker, a family advocacy representative, a dietician, the rear detachment people who will be letting people know their husbands are on their way home, etc). When we walked out of the building, Heidi pointed up to the dark sky and said "Daddy fly-high-in-a-sky in helicoter." She must think he is always up there somewhere flying around, since he isn't here. Poor Heidi.... Mommy is cutting her off (from breastfeeding) and Daddy isn't ever here... Another day without...

Day Three: Still No More Milk...

I am still on sterroids and have 4 days left on them... so still no milk for Heidi. She is also 23-months-old today. This morning and this afternoon, she got a little fussy when I wouldn't feed her breast milk (when she woke up and before nap time). Tonight when I put her to bed, she did not even ask if she could have any. I think I had distracted her from it. We read a couple of books, as we usually do. One of the books we read was an old Golden Book called Baby Dear from 1962. It is a cute little story about a little girl who gets a new baby sister and a new little baby doll. In the story, she and her mother both wash, feed, rock, sing to, walk, change, write about, and talk to their babies. We both held baby dolls and acted out most of these things with the babies. We must have sang Rock-a-bye Baby 5 times before we could move on. Then, I told Heidi that it was time to brush her teeth, which she does not like to do... and she told me "No (pointed to her crib), bed!" I brushed her teeth anyway really quick and then she was ready to get into bed just to get away from the toothbrush. She DID give me a kiss tonight before she went to bed... and I think she gave me a hug too. She also told me "I lub oo." Then, she said "Daddy's bear" (meaning the bear she was holding... the one that Brian gave her when he got off of the airplane when he came home on R&R from Iraq last May... the one that she sleeps with every night cuddled up next to her chest with her arms around it). Then, she said "I lub Daddy... high-in-a-sky ...in helicoter." We saw some more helicopters today in the sky and they reminded her of Daddy today, so I guess she was thinking about him in helicopters again. When we were coloring today, she wanted me to draw a picture of Daddy in a "helicoter high-in-a-sky," so I did. I also told her that Daddy will be coming home soon and will be able to open Christmas presents with us. She doesn't know how far off that is though... and we probably will have to wait to celebrate Christmas after it has already happened.

Day Two: No More Milk...

Heidi actually is doing really well with weaning. No tantrums so far. She asked this morning when she woke up and tonight before she went to bed for milk, but I just said both times "No more milk... Don't you remember, I told you that I wasn't going to be able to feed you anymore?" She kind of made a little noise of complaint this morning, but more like a groan/pout for a few seconds.... and she was fine. Tonight when I put her to bed she sat down on my lap in her rocker and said "Some milk?" I could tell by the way she asked that she wasn't sure, but she thought she would give it a try. I just said "No milk, remember?" Then, she immediately said "BED!" ... and pointed to her crib. She didn't want to rock with me, hug me, or kiss me goodnight. Oh well. At least still no major tantrums.

Finally cuting Heidi off from breastfeeding one month before she turns two!!

Well, Friday morning, I woke up with a really bad rash/hives all over my body and had been itchy most of the day. Saturday morning it was worse! It was so bad that my eyes/eye lids were Very Swollen and it was kind of weird opening my eyes when I woke up. The swelling kind of overlaped my eyes when they were open. My throat had even started swelling and closing up a little. So, I called a friend from church up and asked her if she could watch Heidi while I went into the Family Care Clinic at the hospital here on post to have it checked out. They said that I had come in contact with something that am allergic to. I have not eaten anything out of the ordinary in the last few days and have not used any new soaps/detergents, but the doctor told me that people can develop allergies to things they have never had a problem with before. Who knows, maybe it was even the cinnamon that was in my flavored oatmeal that I had eaten the last couple of mornings for breakfast. The doctor said that, to treat me, he would have to give me a sterroid... and that I would not be able to breastfeed. I said okay, and that I needed a reason to finally cut Heidi off from breastfeeding anyway. She will be 23-months-old in a few days, so it is time.

After a long wait in the hospital pharmacy, I picked up all of my medicine. They gave me some sterroids, some pills to make me stop itching (but i am not going to take them because they will make me sleepy), some medicated cream for the itching, and 2 epipens in case my throat closes up and I can't breath (for emergencies only). I am terrified of needles, so would only use one if my life depended on it.

I did not take anything all day yesterday. I was debating on whether or not to finally do it and just cut Heidi off just to take some sterroids, so I had decided I would wait another day and see if I could get better on my own.

Well, I woke up today even worse. So I fed Heidi her morning feeding and told her that this would be the last time EVER that I would be able to feed her ever because Mommy needs to take some medicine and my milk is going to be bad. And I told her that my milk is going to go away for ever. She looked upset and said "No, mine... My Milk!" .... and she kind of pouted a little. That was her last feeding though. She fed for a long time this morning.... and wanted to feed a little more after I told her that that was going to be her last feeding from me. I told her that she was a big girl now, so she would be okay.

I started taking the sterroids today and they are amazing. My rash/hives are going away! AND... my skin feels soooooooooooooooooooooo SOFT! I think by tomorrow, I should look pretty good (and not be so totally covered in red, itchy hives all over my body).

Heidi did pretty well going to bed tonight without milk. She asked if she could have some and I told her that I couldn't give her any... and she pouted for about two seconds, but was okay. We rocked for a min and sang a couple of songs (Baa Baa Black Sheep & Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)... and then she went to bed. I guess it won't be so bad. I guess we will have to see how she does tomorrow.

Cwackers Mommy!

I think it is so cute the way Heidi says things like:

- Cwackers ...(crackers)
- Sweep ........(sleep)
- I don like it, dis ....(I don't like it, this)
- bwue.... (blue)
- oranses... (oranges)

She's actually doing really well with her speech. It is just really cute to hear her say things in her own little way. She also does say several things very clearly and correctly.

Recently, I bought The Jungle Book at Wal-Mart, as it was just released again by Disney, and it came with a music cd of some of the songs from the movie. I thought she might enjoy having it to listen to in the car. I was excited about opening it up and playing it for our ride home from the store. She, however, did not share my excitement. Instead, for every song that came on (I had kept skipping through the songs) she told me she did not like the song that was on. She would say "Mommy, no like it this... no like it... off Mommy... no like it this." Then, I would skip to the next song, and she would tell me again that she did not like that song either. We usually listen to Signing Time songs in the car or sometimes the radio. I guess we will just keep listening to Signing Time songs and sometimes the radio because she was not very impressed with the Jungle Book cd. Oh well.

I think she also thought she saw Peter Pan in the sky the other day. She was pointing up in the sky when we were outside and said "ere he go, Momma?" ... meaning where did he go, while pointing up at the sky in our front yard. I asked who, and she replied "Peter Pan, ere he go?" She also has tried to fly a couple more times recently.

Trying to Fly Like Peter Pan

Heidi has been asking to watch Peter Pan a lot lately. Yesterday, she told me she wanted to fly in the sky after she had been watching Peter Pan. Today, she climbed up into a chair, raised both arms up in the air, and said "fly-in-a-sky" and then made a grunt noise like she was trying to take off flying, as she also lifted up on her feet trying to take off.... but it didn't work. She kept trying though. When she found that the chair wasn't working, she also tried the couch (but it didn't work either). I told her that she needed pixie dust, so she would have to wait for Tinkerbell to sprinkle her with pixie dust that would help her to fly (just like in Peter Pan). It was funny watching her really try to fly. I think she really thought she might be able to do it if she tried hard enough.