pics of then and now

Birthday pics to come soon. Yesterday we had a mini celebration and tomorrow is her party.
For now...to look back at then and now...pictures from birth and pictures from this morning, 1 year and 1 day later.

What did he get?

What did Nick get out of this deployment? A new car. Pictured above. As much as I dont want a new car...he deserves to have something for himself. He has worked and is working as hard as ever. For goodness sakes...he was ambushed. (No, I will not post details on my blog)
He has been promoted to E-6 and he deserves this.
Our loan has been approved, I signed for the car. It's officially ours. We are now just waiting to get insurance (thanks Guam for the time difference, now I get to stay up way late) and waiting to somehow get a copy of Nick's driver's licence to the dealership before I can pick it up and let it sit in the driveway to wait for Nick's return. He is out on convoy and left his driver's license behind at his duty station.

We (HE) got the actual car in the picture above, the show room car.

Kayla likes it. Both times I have been at the dealership she would shout "Car!" and point at the car. Like somehow she knew this was going to be Dada's car.

First Birthday

Thursday Kayla will be ONE year old. Saturday she will have her first ever birthday party.

Am I ready for either of these?

No.

Not emotionally, nor mentally. I'm not ready for my baby girl to grow up so fast.

I cant even begin to believe it has been a whole year.

Nice

So, I went back to the doctor today. I have been off of the prednisone for a week now and the past few days I have been itchy. It got worse, caused me to loose sleep over it and then mornings ago the poison oak started to spread, once again. Over to my other ankle...all bubbly and gross. Onto my big toe, more on both my upper thighs...and this morning onto my left arm and both thumbs.

The doc said in 90% of cases 5 days of presidone works. I happen to be the lucky 10% of cases that has a severe allergy to posion of all kinds.

So back on the presidone I go...for 2 weeks...then a lower dosage for another week...then another lower dosage for another week. Now mind you...this is a steriod that makes me feel like crap. Lovely huh?

Prednisone is a hormone. It decreases the body's immune system's response to various diseases to reduce the symptoms, including allergic reactions. It it typically used to treat arthritis, blood disorders, breathing problems, certain cancers, eye problems and skin diseases.

YUCK. It scares me thinking about having to take it this long with caring for Kayla by myself.

But I am tired of this. I cant take it anymore. It is EXTREAMLY uncomfortable and ugly. I live on a tropical island that is smoking hot out everyday and I cant wear shorts. I cant go swimming. I have to wear pants at all times to stop it from spreading to other areas and most of all to prevent spreading it to others including Kayla.

Yuck. YUCK.

But, last night we went to the beach for some play and pictures. I wore pants. We went with my neighbor who is back here now. She was gone for 6 months spending time with her family while the guys are deployed. I am happy to have her back.

Here are some of my favorites. Each time I get better and better at taking the pictures. I may ask Nick for a camera upgrade. :) I took a lot. It was hard to pick which to put on the blog...but here are some.

Crap

So, Im done taking the medicine for my the poison oak. Took my last dose 2 nights ago. It didnt itch once while I was taking it, and now Im all itchy again. This is 3 weeks now of this stuff all over my legs. For God's sake, please take it away. I want to go to the beach and water park and play in Kayla's pool.

And to top it off....Guam gave me a sinus infection.

Giveaway!

I have a giveaway!
Totally random I know- but as I am cleaning, or de-junking my house for a yard sale next weekend I came across something that an old chat board friend sent to me when we were preparing to go into our IVF cycle.

It's a post ivf transfer meditation music cd. She mailed it to me no charge and I would love to pass it on to who ever would like it. It is 18 minutes of music to help you relax so your growing embryos can happily dance their way to your uterus and stay there for the long haul.

So if you are going through or about to go through IVF, please send me a comment and let me know so you can be entered into the drawing for this cd. If you know of someone going through or about to go through the IVF process, please tell them about my giveaway so they can drop me a comment and enter the contest.
In the comment, just introduce yourself and tell me a little about you. Thats all I ask. You have until July 21st to enter the drawing for the free giveaway.

Ok, its 4:11 AM and Kayla has been done crying for some time now, so I really should be in bed. This is a success though. She was only up once at 3 AM crying for about 20 minutes. We are getting there!!! Soon we will be back to normal.

Hello Friends

Hello Friends.
We are still working on getting back into our daily schedule here at home. It has not been easy, but we are only on day number 4. Its currently 6:19 AM and Kayla is still asleep. This is a FIRST. She went to bed 7 PM last night, as did I. I was awake at 5 AM because that is what I am used to. To my delighted surprise Kayla is still knocked out. This is the first I have had alone time in a long time. So I am enjoying every second of it. But don't get me wrong...when my sunshine wakes up I will be more than thrilled.

Kayla is growing and changing right before my very eyes in what seems like seconds. My baby is gone, and appearing now is my little girl. She will be 1 in almost 2 weeks and while Im so very proud of her, I know this is going to be hard to not be in denial.

My mother in law bought me a book. Last night I read a few pages and read a page that hit me hard with the feelings I have been having about Kayla turning one.

Here goes:

This season of your life is like no other.
It is short and sweet and will be gone
before you know it.

Life itself is short, but the days of baby are even shorter.
In the twinkling of a moment, your baby's gurgles and coos
will turn into words, and those tiny fingers will wrap
themselves around a sippy cup rather then the tip of your
finger. And all too soon, those precious toes you play
"this little piggy" with today will challenge you to
a chase.

Today is the day to savor the moments...
to slow down and enjoy
the gift you've given and the one who gave it.
Let all the other stuff wait it's turn
because today belongs to baby.

As of today Kayla has 33 words in her vocabulary. 33! And she's not even one yet.
Apple, Bye Bye, Mama, Dada, Dad, Ball, Papa, No, Car, More, Pooh Bear, Hello, Uh Oh, Kitty, Baby, Daisy, Mickey, Tweet Tweet, Kaw Kaw, TV, Doggie, Bubbles, Yay, Woah, Oh, Baba, Sheesh, Shake, Hola, Mmmm, Gavin and Vrooom!

So very sorry..

that I have not been able to blog. Adjusting to the time here at home on Guam is harder than it was adjusting to Pennsylvania time. Kayla was on a 1 month hiatus of sleeping in her own bed, so now Im trying to get her back into her own bed again. Gone are the days she was in bed asleep by 7 with no fuss and happily slept all night until 5 am. And to think that then I thought I was exhasted... I had no idea. Now, I truly can say I know what exhausting feels like.

Oh, and mixed with the allergic reaction to poison oak all over my legs, and back of both my thighs while on a medication that causes drowsiness.

As soon as life allows, I will be back to blogging again. Please stay with me my friends.

Add to the list....

OK, so as of just hours after my last post...
add Duckie and Go Car! to the list of Kayla's vocab.
A new word or 2 everyday. She amazes me.

We are headed to the airport to go home in just 8 hours. And I did find out those bites all over my legs are not mosquito bites.

Worse.

Its soem sort of poison.

And I will traveling with the constant itchies. Nice.

Current list of Kayla's vocab

Kayla can say Hola!
Her is now up to:
Hola
Papa
Dada
Mama
Kayla
Baby
Go
Kaw Kaw, like a bird sound
She can howl like a dog
Fishy
Car
Bye Bye
Doggie
Mickey
Bubbles
No
Mmmmm, when she is hungry or really likes something
Baba for bottle
Ba for Balloon
Tweet Tweet for Bird
Kitty for cat
Shake, I shake her and say shake shake shake.
I think she might have said Daisy a few days ago
She also can stick her tounge in and out when I ask her what lizards do!

And this is just off the top of my head.
There maybe more that I forgot about.
And this smartie pants is only 11 months, 1 week and 4 days old.

We leave around 3:15 AM to head to the airport. I am much m ore nervous this go round since Kayla is a totally different baby now then when we left to come here. Plus, I am expecting AF any second AND I got eaten alive by mosquitos. So much so that I got only a few hours of sleep last night and I swear it feels more like a poison then bug bites. Its quite gross. The Pennsylvania mosquitos got quite the feeding.

Yesterday was a day I will never forget....

Because Kayla met her Great Great Grandparents. And the happiness on their mature faces was as clear as crystal.

Hey Hey Hey All!

I know, I know. This is the very WORST I have slacked on the blog. I swear this blog will be back to its regular schedule as soon as Kayla and I get back home. We have 1 week from today until we are home, where I have more time on my hands.

We have family coming over today for July 4th, I see my Great Grandparents on Monday followed by a friend after that, and another friend early in the week and then the rest of the week, our last week here, I am taking time to relax and do nothing. Then Saturday morning bright and early Kayla and I head back home.

For now...please visit Ter's blog, With An Angel On My Shoulder.

I am proud to announce that I am her July Follower Of The Month.

Check it out!

To hold you over for the next week, here are a few videos from a week or so ago.
Kayla drinking from a straw at Wendy's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAzJi63_f58

Kayla walking and playing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPhTfjtKgik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2v0mps_u_Q