Washington DC

On Thanksgiving J, C and I left for DC with the intent to come back home on Saturday but the trip turned into so much fun and just the break from routine and reality we needed. We decided to stay until Sunday! It is so unlike me to change plans especially on a trip but I am so glad I did and we quickly ajusted everything needed to stay the extra day and hade another day of site seeing. We saw all the war memorials and all but Jefferson of the presidential momuments. The Natural History and American History museums and Union Station. Oh and Jason's favorite Arlington Cemetery and the changing of the guard.  The weather was so cold and kind of rainy on Friday so we opted to take o of the hop on hop off tour buses. I have to take a moment to brag on Clayton. He was so well behaved! There was only one melt down and the main cause was pure exhaustion. Overall it was the best trip we have taken since our honeymoon and I'm glad we went. We were a little concerned that right before Christmas and a big move a big trip like this might not be the best idea but we stayed with in budget. I found an efficincy suite with a full kitchen and huge area for Clayton to run in Arlington for half the cost of a normal room inside of DC and the hotel was 2 blocks from the Metro which was great. Speaking of the metro I think it was Clayton's favorite part. He would scream CHOO CHOO when he saw it coming, so cute! There are so many picture I thought linking to the Facebook album would be easier.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075449&id=51100448&l=c8404def1b

Oreo Turkeys

As our activity on Monday I decided we should make turkeys out of Oreos. So easy! You need Oreos, candy corn, Whoppers, icing and creativity! That's it

Clayton did not help at all he only wanted to eat the supplies

Finished product

He was trying to put the turkey back together with the pieces he didn't eat!

Happy Turkey Day!

Sponge painted leaves

Since I decided to join the Babywise or Toddlerwise moms, Clayton and I have been even more structured than we already were...hard to imagine I know! I plan to write a whole post about how Toddlerwise is working after we have done it for a successful month. Anyway one portion of Toddlerwise is the emphasis on routine. As part of our routine I have incorporated table time. Some days we play with playdough or some other textured item some days we do art and some days we do a learning activity. Today was an art day and we did a project I found on a childrens activity blog.  

I drew the tree trunk and poured the paint but the rest was all him! He worked on control, colors, following directions, and we talked about the leaves outside and then looked at the leaves we could see off the porch.

This was my favorite picture of the day. He decided to use he hands as a tool and then got really excited about the paint on his hands! I love to watch him learn!

No HO HO

Clayton did not like Santa...can you tell?

Something about soldiers and their toys

So I guess it isn't good enough that the Army provides Jason with tanks to hang out with and big guns....yes I know it is more technical and blah blah...point is he has decided he also needs to learn to ride a Harley. I have no problems with motorcycles at all. As most of you know my dad is what is commonly referred to as a "biker" so I have been around them all my life but I never pictured Jason as the bike riding kind. This weekend he is taking the rider safety course at the Harley dealership to get a little taste of riding before actually buying one...good choice! So who knows in my next few post I might be saying that we are Harley owners! (by next few I mean sometime after the move to Cali, I get a new car and we pay off the truck!) 

What about the Turkeys?

Jason and I are slammed every weekend before we move (Decmber 18) and since he was deployed last year at this time he missed Santa and homemade gifts and all that fun stuff that comes with Christmas. After looking at the calendar we realized that this past weekend was the only time we would have do collect craft supplies for gifts and shop together for gifts that we buying and most importantly it was the only weekend we would have for a Santa picture. I was a little concerned when I saw our only free weekend. I thought it was so early in the season to get christmas stuff taken care of ...boy was I wrong. Christmas is under way and we completely skipped Thanksgiving! There were no signs of T Day at all! We will be in Washington DC for Thanksgiving so we don't need to decorate but what if I wanted to? I know a lot of people jump ahead to Christmas decor for their T day gatherings and that is perfectly fine with me also but we are yet again not going to have a home or will not be home for Christmas so we are not decorating for that either....but WE ARE ALL THREE TOGETHER!!! and that is super exciting! This will my 5th Christmas with J and as most military families can relate to...this is one the second one we will be spending together. Back to my point...I just felt like I needed to point out that we have somehow managed to push Thanksgiving aside....could it be I feel out of sorts this year because the weather is still saying early fall and the stores are putting Christmas decor on clearance!

Night Terrors

Lately Clayton has been waking up in the middle of the night, around 3 or 4, crying like he had a bad dream or is uncomfortable. Monday night he went to bed really late, his grandparents were in town so we cheated and let him stay up late. About 2 hours after he went to sleep he woke up SCREAMING! I thought something was really wrong so I went in his room to find him standing up in the middle of the crib with tears just pouring out of his eyes. I reached for him to comfort him and he acted like I was not even there. So i picked him up and started to rock him but then he pulled away from me and looked straight at me said something and thrashed backwards almost falling out of my arms. At this point I realized he wasn't awake so I cut the light on in his room and tried to talk to him but there was no response. I thought he was dreaming so I decided to rock him for a few minutes and lay him back down. But he kept thrashing and screaming out then I realized his eyes were rolling back in his head...my first thought was a seizure. I brought him into our room and woke Jason. He took C and started talking to him trying to make him aware of where he was. Clayton acted like he wanted down so Jason set him on the floor thinking maybe he was trying to tell us something...Clayton threw himself on the floor and rolled under our bed hitting his head.

Then it dawned on me...my psych degree kicked in and I realized he was having a night terror. I of course googled it and looked it up in What to Expect. Text book case! After we knew what was happening we also knew that the worse thing you can do is wake he...like a sleep walker. In the end he calmed down and went back into a real sleep.

I have since been researching this and learned that the best way to prevent it is enough sleep and a steady schedule...duh right up my ally!! More proof that I am not crazy for making C have a strict schedule.

I wanted to share this with my mom friends out there...it scared the crap out of me at first but now I know how to handle it ...don't wake him and just watch him to make sure he doesn't hurt himself and that he does go back into a deep sleep. I had read of this kind of thing but never seen it...pretty scary to see my baby boy so out of control! 

Halloween Festivites

He hated it!!

I had plans of Clayton being a cow for Halloween but my mom bought this duck costume when I was pregnant! and I thought it was a size 3 so I figured it would be great for him to wear next year. While I was home in October I decided to try it on and turns out it fit, but I had already made the cow so we did both!

Starting to like it a little better

Clayton and Kemper at Starbucks

The Starbucks kids crew

Sorry it is sideways...We changed costumes and went back to Starbucks later for their carnival

Friday night before Halloween we took Clayton to our church for the Harvest Fest and Trick or Trunk. This is him in the costume contest...we didn't win but had fun!

Jason guessed how many candy corn were in the jar and won...818! He put Clayton's name so now Clayton thinks they are his and runs to our closet (where they are hidden) and begs for candy everyday!

Clayton and Kemper hugging but then they fell : (

Halloween night we stayed home...the weather was horrible! I made mummy hot dogs for dinner and pumpkin pie bites for dessert.

Although Jason was home last year at Halloween for R&R this Halloween was my favorite so far!

Chester

Ok sorry my road trip blogs are coming so far apart...

We got to Chester late on Tuesday night (10/27/09). So we just grabbed some at the cute little Mexican restaurant up the street and headed to bed. The next day I took my mom and Aunt on a little tour of our town. First stop the Blanford Church and Cemetery. I know it is a little creep but Clayton loved climbing and running all over the little "up" as he called them.   

He was giving a speech?

Karen and Clayton exploring

I thought this was such a pretty fall scene

Since Jason and Clayton and I will be out of town for Jason's birthday everyone is celebrating his birthday when they come to visit. My mom found this little sea food place on the James River. The view was awesome but the food was not that great :(

We decided to scope the place out before dinner and while we were there we saw the James River plantations. Above is my aunt picking some cotton, which by the way made for great fall decor in my center piece.

Shirley Plantation

The family at Jason's birthday dinner ( a month early!)

Too close to home

The events of yesterday that took place at Ft Hood will forever bring chills to me. I assume it will be no different than thinking about September 11th or the VA Tech shootings but somehow this was a little different for me. About 6 months ago Ft. Hood was my home. I heard those same sirens my friends experienced, but for me they were a test. I had my baby at the same hospital that sorry example of a soldier worked at. My husband went in those same buildings and worked across the street after his return home from Iraq. I spent a year of my life waiting for my husband to come home from a war where ha was fighting with people like that man portrayed. Portrayed because that man is only a scared coward that wore the uniform Jason and millions of others wear everyday with pride and a purpose to protect. There is a strong connection between members of the Army family, a connection that binds us together while we wait for returns home and comfort while we say good bye and cry tears of joy when it is finally time to welcome a soldier home. Yesterday shook me up and I sat praying and checking and re checking on friends making sure all were accounted for...I should never have to be scared for my life, a friends, or my husband's life on American soil and I hope that we as an Army community never forget what happened at Hood and never have to experience it again. Thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved and especially with those directly affected.  

Day 3 of RT: Greenville NC to Chester VA

Day 3 of the family road trip starter with almost as yucky weather as the day before. We left Greenville, NC and the nasty room we stayed in and headed to apartment in Chester.

Along the way we saw so much cotton it was crazy! I mean acres and acres of the stuff. My aunt wanted to take pick some but we were afraid that might be illegal.

We stopped at the buffet called Captain Bob's in Hertford, NC and had the funniest waitress ever. This huge bus of high school soccer kids came in and she seriously asked him if they had reservation. Of course the said no so she proceeded to announce to the whole restaurant that a bus of Mexicans (one was Hispanic) was coming in if we wanted any food from the buffet to get it now because everything was going to be gone! 

My mom and Clayton

We made it to VA, Beach in the late afternoon and was welcomed by a ton of police and yellow tape. turns out a woman had jumped off of a 5th floor window and died. Isn't that awful!

Being an Army wife, anything that involves homecomings and soldiers reuniting with their families makes me sad/happy. I saw this statue in a little park that was dedicated to Sailors and Coast Guard. I thought it was beautiful and brought me to tears.

This is a statue of the Norwegian woman that stands over a protects all service members at sea. 

My mom and aunt and C on the beach

.

Clayton was freezing so we wrapped him up in a towel. Even though he was cold he was such a trooper in the wind.

C right before we entered the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

If you look in the back of the picture beyond the rail you can see where the bridge is in two parts. That is where the bridge becomes a tunnel for the second time. Pretty cool experience...not really worth $17 but cool none the less. 

Over scheduled

Ok if you know me even a little bit you know that I am a very scheduled and I love to plan out everything. I actually get very upset when something does not get planned way in advanced and when schedules are not followed. I know this is a personality flaw and I have tried to work on it but I am just this way! Side note I think this part of me is why I really love Babywise/toddlerwise.

So as part of my weekly scheduling I assign each day a room and then make a chore to do list in addition to the room of the day. I have found some major flaws in this routine. One: I am always cleaning. Instead of cleaning the whole house on one day (impossible with a toddler) and then having some cleaning free days, I am always cleaning something. Two: if there is a room I hate cleaning I being to hate that day. For example, I HATE cleaning bathrooms. HATE IT!!! Bathrooms always got done on Thursdays but now I go to Starbucks on Thursdays and didn't want to combine such a horrible task with such a great one so I moved bathrooms to Wednesday. Now, you guessed it, I hate Wednesdays. I especially hate this Wednesday because Jason's work schedule is off and as much as I liked him home this morning I like schedules....enough said

Day 2 of RT:Myrtle Beach to Greenville, NC

Day 2 of my road trip did not start of all that great;( The weather was horrible and rainy so we opted not to walk on the beach and just head on to our next destination which was scheduled to be Virginia Beach. The rain slowed us down so much but not as much as the Garmin who led us into a not so great part of town and then when we stopped to ask direction the woman was useless! So we trusted the Garmin and she led us back to the highway and on our way.

We decided to stop at the USS North Carolina. My grandfather always talked about wanting to visit the USS NC but sadly passed away before he was able to so of course we felt we had to stop. I wish Jason could have been there to explain all the info on the signs but after reading it all twice I think I get the gist of what purpose this ship served.

Clayton, my mom and I

Wrong branch of service for our family but it was too cute to pass on!

We did not make it to VA,Beach instead we stopped in Greenville NC and ate at Texas Road House. The party next to us was celebrating a birthday and the clapping and singing scared Clayton into screaming so the birthday boy shared his cake with us (this is the second time he has cried and got a free dessert from a nearby table). We did make it to VA, Beach the next afternoon...next post

Day 1 of Road trip: Myrtle Beach

My mom, aunt, Clayton and I started our road trip Sunday morning and had plans of getting to Myrtle Beach by that night. We were not rushing and decided that we would stop wherever we wanted and just have fun taking our time. We did make it to Myrtle Beach and we tried to find a hotel in the Choice Hotels group turns out this was harder than imagined. Eventually we settles on the one we passed like 50 times trying to find a better one and were able to use points for a free room! The room wasn't horrible but I was not thrilled with its clealiness. After checking in we went to Broadway on the Beach and ate at Margaritaville, ok food but great decor that kept Clayton entertained until the hurricane started pouring teguila in the giant blender and he started to freak out....I would share pictures but I left the camera in the hotel and could kick myself because there were some great shots.

Clayton with the ocean in the background. The weather was horrible so there are not any pictures of us actually on the beach

This is our city view otherwise known as a gutted hotel. But we were there on off season so I guess it is the renovation season so we understood