Winter Snowstorm

We are snowed in! It started snowing here early Saturday morning, and didn't quit until around 4pm Saturday evening. By 12:30pm we already had almost 10 inches of snow in our yard! As the afternoon progressed, some sleet started mixing with the snow, packing it down and making accumulation totals closer to 7-8 inches. Temperatures are still freezing here and aren't expected to rise above the freezing point until sometime tomorrow afternoon. Even then, it's not supposed to get very much above freezing, so this snow isn't going anywhere for a while! Our neighbors were out shoveling the driveway behind my car this morning so that I can get out if I need to. They'll be getting some treats soon! Trenton and I went out in the snow for a little while yesterday, but didn't venture out there today. There is another chance of snow on Tuesday and then a small chance next weekend, so we may be getting our fill of snow before this season is over!

Looking out from our front porch around 10am (5 inches of snow at this point)

Our screened porch ended up with 2 inches of snow!

Looking out from the back deck

I got to play in the snow while Trenton was napping!

He woke up!!! ....but he isn't sure what to think!

Update on Jarrod & The Mommy Diaries

Jarrod has been moved down to Kandahar Airfield for the remainder of his Afghanistan deployment. He made it safely down there yesterday morning. I was able to talk to him for a little while today, and he said that so far, he likes this base better than the one he was previously at in Kabul. Because Kandahar Airfield is such a large base with so many people, he said that internet and phone time are hard to come by. He will try to get some pictures of the area and get them posted up here as soon as he can.

Trenton and I have been doing good. Boy does that kid keep me on my toes! Last week I had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, so I decided to do my grocery shopping there as well. We were finishing up our shopping in the produce department. I picked up some apples and a bag to put them in. The next thing I know, I look back at Trenton and the kid has grabbed an apple off the rack and is trying to take a bite out of it!!! I tried my best not to laugh while I took it away from him and put it back on the rack. Just kidding....it went in the bag with the rest of my apples.

*****Warning - Don't read the following if you have a weak stomach*****

This week has been an eventful week too. Since I have to keep a hawk-eye on Trenton, I can't even let him run about while I go to the bathroom. I figured that if I was going to be taking Trenton into the bathroom with me every time I needed to go (which is a lot for a pregnant woman with a baby sitting right on her bladder), I went ahead and got him a potty chair to sit on instead of opening cabinet doors and playing with toilet paper. I didn't know what to expect with the potty chair, but Trenton likes it.....or at least he likes not being in a diaper! He would rather sit on the potty for 30 minutes than to have me put a diaper on him. Since he hates his diaper so much I've started letting him go diaperless around the house for 20-30 minutes if he goes pee-pee in the potty. Well, yesterday he did #1 and #2 in the potty, so he got to have "naked time". We were about ten minutes into naked time, and Trenton was sitting on his push car in the kitchen when I heard him grunting. My first thought was, "Wow, he has to poop again? He just went, and he went yesterday too." {Side note - Trenton has had a problem with constipation for a while, and is doing good to go every other day.} I went over to Trenton, and picked him up to take him back to the bathroom. As soon as I picked him up, he started going....everywhere. Obviously the higher dosage of prune juice that the doctor put him on worked! He had it all over him, I had it on me, it was on his car, and it was on the floor (thankfully he was on the wood floor and not on the carpet). Through all of this, Trenton is laughing hysterically which is not his normal reaction to having BMs. I whisk him off to the bathroom sink to do a quick rinse down so that I can then get the kitchen cleaned up. We come out of the bathroom only to find that Bailey has already started the clean-up process for us! What's that they say about dogs having cleaner mouths than humans??? I was beyond mortified, but I managed to get Bailey outside and Trenton in the exersaucer to contain him so that I could clean the rest of the mess up. It was then upstairs to give Trenton a real bath. Needless to say, there is never a dull moment in this house!!! Oh, and for those of you wondering - no, Bailey did not get sick.

Trenton's One Year Update

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since we welcomed our little man into the world! I call him a little man because he is no longer a "baby" anymore. Trenton had his 12-month check up this afternoon. He weighed in at 22 lbs, 12 oz, which puts him exactly in the 50th percentile for weight. He is 30 inches tall, which puts him in the 58th percentile for height. Everything else looked great! Trenton has not had a bottle in over three weeks. He is off of soy formula and is now drinking whole milk out of sippy cups and straw cups with no problem. Mama, Dada, juice, duck, Ba (Bailey), nigh-nigh (night night), num (yum), and nanananana (no no no no no) are just a few of the words that Trenton's been saying. He has five teeth and another that will be popping through the gums any day now. I'm pretty sure that the kid is part mountain goat. He uses his push car as a movable stool to get into things. I keep a gate up at the bottom of the stairs, but Trenton has repeatedly tried to climb up the SIDE of the stairs and fit his head through the railing! I have stopped counting the number of steps that Trenton is taking at a time because he has progressed so quickly that he is now walking across the room with ease! And Mommy just thought that she already had her hands full!!!

Then.....

Now.....

Trenton's First Birthday Party

Even though Trenton's actual birthday isn't until Monday, we had his birthday party today. He had a great time. Mimi and Pops were able to fly in to spend the weekend with us. There is no way I could have gotten everything done without their help. Since it's been so cold outside, we went with a winter theme of igloos and penguins. Everything turned out great!

Here are three video clips from the party, and below them is a web album of pictures. Enjoy!

Trenton's First Birthday Party

By the way, Trenton has made it up to taking three steps at a time!!! He's on the go!!! I'll try to get a video clip of him as soon as I can!

Baby Updates

I had my 28-week appointment at the OBGYN's office today.  This included drinking Glucola for my gestational diabetes test.  For those of you who have never had to drink this stuff, it's like Minute Maid Orange (or Fruit Punch) with 5 times the amount of sugar!  Everything is looking good so far, and the baby has settled into the head-down position.  The ultrasound tech was able to squeeze me in for a quick look to see if we could tell any better whether the baby is a boy or girl.  Today the baby had both hands between the legs, but the tech told me from what she CAN see, it looks like a girl.  I have another appointment in two weeks, so the tech said she would try to fit me in again then to get one last look.  She would like to get an actual look between the legs just to make sure nothing's hiding in there!  For those of you wanting to know about baby names, if this is indeed a girl, she will be Charlotte Delaney.  If there are little boy parts hiding that we can't see, he will be Keaton (no middle name picked out yet).

...On to the other baby.  Trenton has graduated from taking one step on his own to taking two steps!  It won't be long before he's running around the house with Mommy chasing after him!  He turns one on Monday.  We are having his birthday party this weekend, so look for another post soon!

Traveling to Afghanistan

I departed Kuwait early in the morning on 27 December and got to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan and had breakfast there at the dining facility. Wasn't as good as what we had in Kuwait. Then I spent the rest of the morning in-processing with the Navy center located at Bagram. My flight for Kabul Int'l Airport departed a bit before noon, and we were on the ground in Kabul about an hour later. We spent the entire afternoon on the 27th at Kabul Int'l, and got to hear an IED go off outside the gate. We departed for my new home at the New Kabul Compound early that evening, and I arrived there without incident. There is currently a lot of turnover going on within my command, and I will not know if I will be staying here at NKC or moving to another compound down south until closer to the middle of the month.  For now, here are some pictures of my current living arrangements. 

My personal space - Glad I got a bottom bunk!

These really aren't the best living arrangements.  If I end up staying here at NKC, I'll hopefully get to move to better berthing.

Sunset

My office that I share with two other people. 

View from Camp Eggers, another compound in Kabul.  I had to go there for some paperwork.

Waiting on the shuttle to take me back to NKC

More to follow soon...

Training in South Carolina and Kuwait

I left for Camp McCrady Training Center outside of Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday, November 28.  I spent about three weeks there for training - mostly on weapons handling and maneuvers.  Getting to shoot new weapons was cool, but being around large groups of military members who were unfamiliar with these weapons was a little scary at the same time.  Luckily my class had no incidents.  The area was beautiful and the people were great to us!

I arrived in Kuwait on December 18.  The weather was extremely nice, and I'm glad that I went through there at this time of year.  It will be intolerable on my return trip in July.  Thank goodness I'll be able to hang out between the chow hall and USO then!!!  Camp Virginia is actually quite nice for being in the middle of the desert and having no solid buildings.  All of the buildings are relocatable, and when the US picks up and moves out from there, it will just be desert again.  I missed family dearly during Christmas, but the Camp Virginia dining facility did a fantastic job for Christmas.  I was really impressed.

This is a web album of pictures from my time in South Carolina and Kuwait.  If you click on the picture below, it will take you to the album.

Training in South Carolina & Kuwait - Nov-Dec 2009

Baby Shower

Trenton and I drove across the bay to Norfolk this morning for our friend Gabby's baby shower. Her second child, a little girl named Anya, is due into the world in about a month. I have known Gabby since we lived in Guam. Her husband, Jaccob, was on one of the other submarines out there. Jarrod and Jaccob have known each other since they were both stationed in Charleston, South Carolina a while back. We had a great time at the shower and were happy to see our friends Beth and Jacob who drove in from D.C. along with their little girl Sarah Noelle. We also know Beth and Jacob from Guam. Jacob and Jarrod were officers together on the sub, and Beth and I would go out on hiking excursions while the guys were away.

Gabby measuring her baby belly!

Jacob took baby duty!  Thanks!  It was fun watching Sarah Noelle and Trenton together.  She is four days older than him.

Isabela is trying to feed Trenton his sippy cup!  She is going to be such a wonderful big sister to Anya!

Mommy & Trenton

The Galbreath Family

Me and Mary Beth with the kiddos

They all had so much fun at this door!

Fetch!

This is a video clip from the other night. Bailey and Trenton WERE playing fetch before I decided to get the camera out! Trenton would let the ball roll out of his hand, say "ch", and Bailey would go get the ball and bring it back to him. It was adorable, but it didn't go quite that way when I decided to try to get a clip of it! I did catch Trenton trying to snap though!

Virginia Living Museum

Trenton and I met up with a few other moms and little boys from MOMS Club this morning at the Virginia Living Museum. It was Trenton's first time at the museum (I had been once when we first moved to Virginia), and I was anxious to see how he liked it. Trenton liked it so much that we wound up buying a three year family pass! Our family pass also allows us to bring up to three guests in free per visit, so if you want to check out the museum, let us know!

We started off at the touch tank where we learned about hermit crabs and horseshoe crabs. Trenton even got to pet them! We visited the coastal plains next, where we got to see sharks, a huge loggerhead turtle, and a bunch of other cool fish. Trenton loved the huge tank for the big fish! We didn't spend too much time in the piedmont and mountains because we heard over the loudspeaker that there was going to be fish feeding in the cypress swamp! Trenton liked watching the turtles in the swamp. Next we visited Virginia's World of Darkness. Since the gallery was pretty dark, I'm not sure if Trenton knew what I was pointing at when I showed him owls, squirrels, and tree frogs, but he was interested in the jellyfish. We did some cave exploring in Virginia's Underground Gallery, and then cruised through a Megaladon (a prehistoric shark) jaw on our way out. The museum also has quite a few outdoor exhibits with Virginia animals on display, but 34 degrees was a little too cold for this Texas gal to want to stroll around to see animals who probably aren't doing much of anything in the cold weather anyway!

I took a few pictures today, but my camera doesn't do too well with low lighting. I'm sure it would do better if I used a tripod. Maybe I'll remember that for our next trip to the museum!