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!