Oh yeah!

Well it's time for another one, as my mom keeps reminding me! Not a lot is happening here. Mike had another eye appointment this week and his vision is completely 20/20 now. He is trying to stay busy at work, and should know more about his future endeavors soon.

I am going on 19 wks, or just about 5 months, and feel HUGE! But other than that I am feeling pretty good. Already getting bad back pains, so I am thinking another back labor is in the works. We have the sonogram on March 13th, still forever away it seems. We are still pretty sure we are not finding out what we are having. I am a little worried because I haven't been to the dr since Jan 25th, and don't go back until March 17th, which is roughly 8 wks, since I am still not feeling the baby move, hearing the heartbeat is the only thing that lets you know everything is ok.

Charlie is doing really well, his new love is swimming! We went 2 weeks in a row and now everytime I get him dressed he wants to go swimming, so I got us all new suits and we are going to start going as a family, since it is so cheap! He is growing up so much, I can't hardly believe it. He weighs 29lbs and is only 37in tall, and we are still struggling with potty training, and eating. It's slow work.

Kinz's new room/the toy room!
Kinzie, where to start with Kinzie, our little dolly is still that, little! She weighs 20lbs and is 30in, little tiny petite thing, the WIC office is worried so we are taking her to the dr next week to get her pediatrician's opinion. Also, my sister thinks she may have some allergies so we are keeping a food journal to see if maybe we can help her little digestive system. Now if we could just get her a better immune system, we would be golden! Poor little thing is always getting every cough or cold and she gets viral infections that appear in her eyes. BUT she is speaking very well, and is quite demanding when it comes to things she wants! Her favorite sentence is I eat NOW, and she is always saying 'nack, nack', which is her snack. And MORE. Plus a handful of other wonderful words, after Charlie's slight speach delay, it is refreshing to hear her shouting all kinds of things at us! She has upgraded to a big girl bed and LOVES it, she for the most part will stay in her bed, until we open the door, but every now and then she will be standing at the door banging on it.

This and That!

Soooo, apparently Mike and I really stink at picture taking. I was all set to sit down tonight and upload ALL of our vacation pictures, and there were 14! 5 of those we took BEFORE we left Germany! Some of Charlie sleeping in the baby swing, the others of the 1st time Kinz climbed on the couch unassissted. I had walked out of the room and came back in to see her sitting on the couch WITH the remote flipping through channels!! Rotten lil girl, just like her papa!

Mike is officially no longer blind. He can see just great with no glasses. His vision is currently 20/40 and should be 20/20 in 6 months or less. He is back at work and doing great.

I am ALMOST 15 weeks pregnant (Sunday) and everything looks great. My blood pressure is normal this time around, so thus far I am not being labled high risk. I got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the 1st time today. It all sounded great. I get to have my sonogram in the next couple weeks, we are undecided if we are finding out the sex. Everyone here thinks it's a boy, including Mike. But everytime I talk about the baby I think girl, not sure if that's because I THINK it's a girl, or if it is because I had a girl last!

Charlie is still same old Charlie. We went bowling tonight and he did better than Louie and Jose! Of course they all used bumpers so you can't really say ANY of them did well alone! BUT they all had fun and that's all that matters.

The 1st game I was doing really well, then Mike beat me, 112 to 103, the 2nd game I STOMPED him! I had 149, he didn't break 1oo :( I felt really good after that! I was getting strikes and picking up my spares, Irene would have been sooo proud of me! Only 2 gutter balls (well not really gutters, just didn't p/u the last pin).

Kinzie is growing so much! Well, that may not be the right choice of words. She isn't GROWING, but she seems so much older! She is saying all kinds of words, some on her own, mostly just repeating others! But she seems like such a big girl now!

Not much else new is happening here. But wanted to send out the few pics and give a brief update!

Wow it's been awhile!

So I've decided to finally send out an update on us! Our trip to the states was much needed and tons of fun, we got to see just about ALL the family we had been missing. I personally got to eat at almost all the places I had missed!! It was a very yummy trip!

We are finallly getting all settled back into our routine. We have our other boys back and they are readjusting to life here.
Charlie and Kinzie are loving being back in their space and with their toys, and of course SOPHEE! They are finally getting back into a regular sleep schedule, I am thrilled!
Mike had laser eye surgery last week. HE CAN SEE with NO glasses!! Aside from the little pain and extreme dryness he couldn't be happier! Things were a little blurry for a few days, but the dr said that is to be expected. He goes back in on the 22 to have the contact bandages removed and then he should be clear to drive! He then returns back to work on the 24th! He has had a LOT of time off lately!

So other than that, not much going on around here. I don't have many pictures from KS, but will eventually get them posted!

Getting Closer

Not a lot to report today, and definitely no pictures. Less than a week before we board a plane to go back to KS for a month.
Mike is extremely excited, as he hasn't been home in 27 months. I mean he has seen MY family, but not his mom, dad, brothers, etc. He has a new nephew he has never seen, a neice he has only met once, she was 1 month then, and 2 now! Plus a neice on MY side. Scowly baby as I have heard her called!! (jk Jenn, she's soo darn cute!)
The kids really don't care either way, we are TRYING to teach Kinzer to say Papa, cause we ALL know she has a special place in his heart. But she will only say it on the phone to my mom, no other time. Course she does say MINE and I bet he will get a kick out of her callin him 'MINE'! Or anything else in the house she decides is hers.
Charlie is falling back on the potty training. We were doing SO well, and now, back to wanting pull-ups all the time. It's just so frustrating. He should be done by now, and he's barely getting started.
Mike has an official date for his lasik eye surgery. 15 Jan he will be officially glasses free. I am slightly jealous! Especially since it is FREE!! But they have soo many active duty over here that get it, they can't do dependants.
I had my 1st ob appt. It was just the nurse visit, she confirmed my due date, as 20 Jul, less than a week after Kinz's 2nd bday. Also got my labs done yesterday. They took 7 vials of blood! I had normal prenatal labs, plus a thyroid check AND a glucose check. Thanks to my overbearing Schley genes (aka love of all foods fatty and obvious weight problem) and my family history of diabetes, my drs over here think that I must have gestational diabetes. With Kinzie, they made me take 4 glucose lab tests, and already only 7 wks along, and taking one, looks like it will be a long pregnancy for me!
Guess thats all I have today. I should be packing, but not looking forward to it. Wish I could just snap my fingers and it be done!

Loooonngg NIGHT!

No pics today, mostly cause I don't have any new ones, but also because I don't think anyone would want to see pictures of what I will be discussing!

So yesterday Charlie had his 3 yr old well child check up. Everything looked great. He is 28.5 lbs, 36.25in, 50% in both, NOT the midget I thought he was! As we were leaving, I started noticing his left eye was getting some eye gunk in it. I didn't think much of it. As the day went on, it was getting worse and worse. At one point his eye was completely gunked over. On top of that it was turning a lovely shade of RED. That's right, I thought he had pink eye.

I had to pick up Jose and Louie at 5, so I asked the teacher at the B&A and she said YUP pink eye. Well with 4 kids at home and 2 who NEED to go to school (mostly for MY sanity) I decided it was gonna be an ER night for us, get it treated and over with.

After picking up the boys I ran over to the shop to see Mike and he called OUR VERY WONDERFUL FRIENDS Mary and Shane Quale and begged them to take Louie, Jose, and Kinz so I could run to the ER, since Mike couldn't get of work. I ran kids and burger king over to the Quales and headed off to the Emergency Room.

We got there at 6:30, and signed in, and went to the waiting room. Now here's where it gets fun. Charlie fell asleep in the car, so he didn't eat supper, and that was the only nap he had all day! Once you sign in, they request that the patient not eat or drink anything until after they see the dr. At 8:15 they take us back to the room to see the dr. We weren't seen until 9:45!! I was livid. They took us out of the waiting room that had a tv and tons of childrens movie and put us in a room for a hour and a half, with no tv, no toys, no nothing! Charlie was NOT a happy camper.

So the dr comes in, looks at his eye and decides he wants to flush it out. Now lets remember, it's almost 10, and we are dealing with a 3 yr old, that has had no food since noon, no real nap, and it's 2 hours passed his bedtime. It takes 2 people to hold him down to wipe the gunk out, 3 to hold him down to put the numbing drops in, and 3 to hold him down for the flushing. The whole time Charlie is screaming and saying it hurts and that he wants to go night night.

So we wait 10 more minutes to get some antibiotic because the dr has decided he has a serious bacterial infection, which he assures me is NOT pink eye, but much worse. Then he gives me the discharge papers, and it says right on it, conjunctivits, aka PINK EYE!

Well anyway, we get home around 11:15, and I haven't even gotten my coat off when the phone rings. The dr from the er calls and says one of the swabs from Charlie's eye came back and it is more serious than previously thought. He called the on call dr from opthalmology (which just happened to be Charlie's lazy eye dr) who said that he needed this much stronger antibiotic, he needed the 1st dose immediately and needed to be seen 1st thing in the morning by Dr. Hammond his opthalmologist.

So I leave the house at 11:30 PM and head back to LRMC to get his new eye drops get home around 12:30 and put the drop in his eye, Charlie gets to bed about 1, and we have to get up at 6 to get ready to go, since we have to take the boys to school 1st.

Once again this morning Charlie falls asleep in the car, doesn't eat his breakfast and has had little sleep, and is expected to sit there through yet another eye exam, on his little eye that he keeps saying hurts. THANKFULLY, Dr Hammond, took one look at it and said it is most likely just a viral infection, still contagious, but not as bad as they thought. The er doc had called him and freaked him out because he said it was pussing out all over and the coulture was read wrong, so whew, not so bad. He said this is not pus, just discharge which means its healing itself, but take the eye drops in BOTH eyes (he woke up this morning with gunk in the other eye too) if its worse tomorrow he needs to be seen immediately, if not, just a phone call Friday to let him know how its looking. But after just 3 doses it looks soo much better. And he is sleeping away right now. Which is what I should be doing. Hope everyone has a great day!

And just as a surprise:

Charlie

As I write this, it is after 12 midnight, so officially my baby boy's 3rd birthday!! Gosh they grow up so fast!! Charlie celebrated his birthday with a few select friends on Friday Nov 23. There were tons of presents to open. He enjoyed every minute of ripping the packages open to see what was inside. Most of the clothes he threw aside. But he was pretty happy with the lincoln logs, books, and most importantly the MACK truck his daddy got him. (It's the Mack from Cars, which most know by now is Charlie's favorite movie ever!) Anyway, the trailer opens up and you can have Lighting McQueen inside and it has a washing station and all that. Unfortunately the Lighting and Mater (Charlie LOVES Mater) that Mike bought didn't make it on time, but we were saved by Kellie and MJ who got him a little Lighting. He has been playing with his *Mackie* all night and took it to bed with him. He got a few other toys as well. A big plastic 'beach ball' which will be a perfect outside ball when the weather gets nicer. A Diego sit and spin, he still hasn't figured out how to make it go, and lots of COLORING books and Markers. A total hit over all!!!

On to the cake. Charlie requested a chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, and sprinkles. And that is exactly what he got. Everyone sang, and I mean everyone, Charlie sang to himself. Then he blew out his candles, with little to no prompting. I didn't even know he knew the birthday song, and what to do with the candles, he is bigger than even *I* knew! OF course Kinzie dug right into her cake and ice cream, she had it everywhere. But it went over well and was really yummy if I may say so myself! Can't take MUCH credit, it was a box mix!

After cake we played a little bit, then Sheila and her family asked if they could take the birthday boy to his 1st movie theater movie. I was a little hesitant as he had had NO NAP and the movie didn't start until 7. But they asked him and he wanted to go, so we let him. She said he didn't care for the movie, but sat pretty good through it, and afterwards they took him shopping and got him a box of crayons for all his upcoming coloring! He got home around 10:30 asking for 'Mackie', so I let him play for 30 minutes and off to bed him and Mack went to watch Dora!

It was a good and happy birthday all around! Wish we could have been around more family, but our military family really pitched in and made it a good day for him. Plus he got gifts from Nana and Papa, the Mumpowers, and Rene. So he really made out like a little bandit! There is a video and if I can figure out how to add it to the computer I will post it, or else bring it home and everyone can view it when we get there!

Now for those that haven't heard yet. Which I am sure by now is few if any! The day before Charlie's 1st birthday. We found out we were expecting and along came Kinzie. Just to keep with tradition of sort, last Saturday, the WEEK before Charlie's 3rd birthday, Mike and I found out we are expecting once again. The baby will be due sometime around Kinzie's 2nd birthday. In the military they call that a 'deployment baby' apparently, it happens quite a bit! We are all very excited and can't wait to go through this all again!

And now just for a treat, here are the pics of the kids in their Christmas outfits. Charlie hated his and cried the whole time. But Kinzie was swishing hers around and didn't want to get out of it! Don't they look so cute together??

Our day of fun

Since Mike has today off, and we are short 2 kids, we decided to take our kids out to the Kidzone today. Kidzone for those that don't know, is basically the military's equivelant to Chuck E Cheese. They have all the token games where you can win tickets and trade in for prizes, and then they also have a padded jugle gym in the back.

We got there right when they opened and had the place all to ourselves. After ordering our pizza, Mike took off Charlie's shoes and let him go. Today was the 1st time Charlie just ran around the jungle gym needing no assistance from Mike. In the past he has needed Mike to boost him up because he was too short, so he MUST be growing! Kinzie was getting into the playing too. They have a stationary truck that when working kind of rocks back and forth, she played in that thing for the longest time! Also another 1st for the day. As we were eating. Charlie wanted to go play so he left us and Kinzie was sitting there looking around and said Charlie, plain as day! I couldn't believe it, I looked at Mike and said 'did she just...' and he cut me off and said 'yeah you heard that too?' Of course we haven't gotten a repeat performance but she DOES know her brother is Charlie and it was soo cute!

I didn't take the camera because usually it's just Charlie following Mike around while he plays the games, if I had known the kids were going to be so into it, I would have gotten some pics, definitely next time! Tomorrow is another day of errands for us, we get our other kids back either Sunday night or Monday morning, Mike is off tomorrow and Friday so we have a few more days of family time left.

We got some snow today. Nothing stuck, but it was sure coming down pretty nice. Not looking forward to our winter this year. Glad we will be home for a month of it. Hopefully KS winter will be calmer than what is predicted for us!