Hey everyone. I'm Sarah and this is my blog. I'm not really sure what it's going to end up as, but this is the start of my journey. I've blogged before but never with any rhyme or reason. I used it more as a diary, and that's not what I want for this blog. I want to share our daily silliness, crafts, trips, and ideas.
A little about us:
We are a military family that started as high school sweethearts. D joined the Army in 2006 after we had been married for a year. We were 20 years old and had no idea what to expect or where we would go. Since he joined the Army, we have lived in Georgia, Germany, and now North Carolina. While this life is unpredictable, we love the opportunities it grants us. We've travelled the world and hope for more opportunities to do so.
We have a little girl who was born in the summer of 2012. We will call her "Baby P" for blogging purposes. She's a spit-fire and smarter than I can believe. She's full of opinions, energy, silly faces, and most recently, hugs and kisses.
Since we've had Baby P, it's been a wild ride. We moved just five weeks after she was born to North Carolina. The night before we left, one of our dogs got sprayed in the face by a skunk. I've never been so happy to have two vehicles as I was that day. Poor D had to ride with the dogs and cat and I rode with the baby. Although, in hind sight, Baby P did get sick in the mountains of West Virginia, so maybe the skunk smell wouldn't have been so bad? No, I still think I'd prefer the vomit smell for a few minutes over the skunk smell for 12+ hours.
Now that we are in North Carolina, living in the Sand Hills, I remember why going to the beach is a love/hate relationship for me. I love the water. I love the smell. I love the wind on my face. I hate the sand. It goes everywhere. I saw a pin on Pinterest before our first trip to the beach that showed that baby powder removes sand from your skin. We don't use baby powder on Baby P, but I had some that I had received for her baby shower. We packed it in the diaper bag, and to the beach we went. I must say, I'm sold on the baby powder trick. It worked! There was only a minuscule amount of sand in our car and that was mostly from our clothes.
We've since been to the beach several times and have only forgotten the baby powder once. We like to go to the Fort Fisher Aquarium when we go to the beach. It's small, but oh so beautiful. Baby P learned the signs for "fish" and "water" on our last trip and waved to the fish in the two-story tank. She also loved the playground. Don't all children love playgrounds? They're amazing. Well, mostly. I don't understand playgrounds that have sand (again, with the sand). It seems like a large cat box to me. Please tell me that I'm not alone in thinking that.
One of the things we love to do on the weekends in the spring, summer, and fall, is to go to our town's farmer's market. Seeing the local fruits and vegetables makes me smile every time. There's something magical about having the farmers who grow the food sell it to you. We've also started to buy locally raised meat, cheese, and eggs. Grass-fed beef is beyond compare. If you haven't had the chance to try it, please do. You won't regret it. We find that buying it in bulk not only saves us money, but it assures that we very rarely run out.
During the week, Baby P and I like to see what mischief we can get into around the house. For Christmas, she got an IKEA table and chair set. She loves to sit at that table and talk to her baby dolls and stuffed animals. She shares her snacks with them and sometimes even her formula. She's so generous like that. She even tried to give away one of her beloved Blankies to a lady in the checkout line. I assured the lady that she must be one lucky lady because Baby P doesn't share her Blankies with anyone.
In case you caught the formula reference, I'll explain. Baby P was breastfed until she was 10 months old. From there, we went to formula and then to whole milk at one year. When we transitioned from breast milk to formula, her appetite disappeared slowly. We didn't realize it for a while, but she was eating less and less. She got to the point where at two check-ups three months apart, she gained .2 pounds. We pushed her doctor to send her to a nutritionist and an occupational therapist. She was eating, at most, three bites per meal at her worst point. She just wouldn't eat. We tried spacing out her milk so there was more time between milk and meals, but nothing was working. Baby P wouldn't eat anything warm, overly cold, meat, cheese, cooked, or steamed. She loves fruits, raw vegetables, bread, goldfish, sometimes yogurt, juice, and her formula. This is a balanced diet, but given her lack of weight gain, they were concerned. We worked with an OT and started doing a "bite for a sticker" system. We resorted to going back to pureed baby food (she won't eat homemade purees anymore; that started after we switched to formula, too) to get her to eat meat, cheese, pasta. They are leaning toward her having texture and temperature issues. We are now hoping to stop giving her the Stage 2 and 3 foods in hopes that her appetite will make her want to eat new things as she's hungry. My husband got her to finally try nitrate-free hot dogs (she will only eat them from the microwave, not the stove-top). It's a work in progress, but her last check-up showed that she's put on two pounds in four months. She is finally in the right size clothing for her age. It's the small victories!
Now that Baby P is no longer spending her days needing my complete attention from sun up to sun down, I have finally signed up for my first college course. Well, I tried to, but the GI Bill paperwork hadn't been finalized with my school. They pushed back my start date for another month. It's not so bad since I was really nervous to start as it was. It's an online school, but I feel like it's easier to be criticized in a discussion board post than in a lecture hall. I haven't studied for something since I graduated cosmetology school and passed my state tests. I'm both excited and nervous to start classes. I'm not completely set on my major yet, but I'm leaning toward Psychology. The human brain is a fascinating thing and seeking out people's thought patterns intrigues me.
That leads us to today. Here we are. Day One of my blog. I hope it's a good read and I hope that my sense of humor can come through. Sometimes, it's hard to pick up. Anyway, stay tuned...
