MiKe & tHe CoMManDaNt!

Mike got the opportunity to meet the Commandant of the Marine Corps-General Conway-while he was in Afghanistan. I told him to give a thumbs up-but he didn't do it!! I have no idea why! Ha!

11 MonThS oLD!!

1 more month and we hit a year. Craziness! My baby is becoming a big boy. He is such a joy to be around. Not a day goes by that I don't look at him and love him more and more.

This month he started taking steps-the most he has taken are about 7 at once-but he has done it multiple times. He doesn't willing go and try and walk-he pretty much doesn't willing try to do anything-why should he?? He has a bunch of people who do EVERYTHING for him. What 11 month old you know don't hold their own bottle??? Ridiculous!! SPOILED!

He says Ma-Ma (yells it actually.constantly.) he crawls like a mad man, he says da da, no no, a bunch of jiburish that he KNOWS we understand! ha! He saw his first Christmas tree this month-he isn't too sure why we have a tree in our house. He has fallen IN LOVE with his wagon and getting pulled in it. He loves to see daddy on Skype (and a side note-it makes me totally SAD that he even has to depend on Skype to see daddy), he is a total boob man. I think some people don't say it-but my baby loves some boobies. He loves to lay on them, I think they comfort him (I say he is definately his daddys son! HAHA!!) He loves to eat, he will try anything, but he is allergic to probably half of what he tries. We still don't know what it is exactly he is allergic to-cause he is too young to test, but he loves to eat-but he will break out in a heartbeat in a horrible rash on his face. I hate it and I really wish we could figure out what it is-but it seems to be a variety of things. Hopefully within the next year we'll be able to figure it out.

He is such a happy baby. Everyday he is able to make me laugh and find joy in the day.

I love my little Bang a Rang-and he loves my singing-which makes me love him more! ha! My mother in law said it is because he hears with the ears of angels-ha-real funny!! He loves my singing no matter how horrible I am!!

aLiX iS 9!!

WOW! My girl is 9 years old! She is growing to be such a wonderful little lady. She has her moments where she has the biggest attitude you will EVER see-but when she is happy-she is HAPPY!! She is so fun to be around. She always wants to make everyone happy and she doesn't like to hurt peoples feelings. We tell her if someone is mean to you then you need to be mean right back (ya we don't do the whole turn the other cheek crap) but she just won't do it! She doesn't want to hurt their feelings and she doesn't want to get in trouble. We keep telling her that she won't-but she's not buying it!!

She is in 4th grade and has made the honor roll so far this year. She tries really hard even though she struggles. She was in karate but since she broke her arm we took her out. She was very happy about that but we weren't so much! Now we need to find another sport that she can participate in-we are all about staying active!!

She is such a help to me with Bang-and with Aja. I don't know what I would do without her here while Mike is gone. She helps me in so many ways. When I need to get things done she is always (almost) willing to help me with Bang. She keeps him entertained and always looks out for him. She is such a sweet little girl.

We love her so much. It is hard to believe that it has been 9 years. I still remember when she was a little baby and NEVER slept through the night-let alone take naps. Now this is my child (who still wakes up at night) but will sleep until 11 am on the weekends if I let her. She is my little lady who will be a "preteen next year" as she says it! ha!!

We love you Alix!! We are so glad that you are our first born and we love all the joy you bring to our lives!

OuT oF thE MoUthS oF BaBeS!

Today Aja said out of the blue "Ya know it just isn't easy trusting people these days."

Well Said!! That is one smart cookie we got!

HaLLoWeeN

It rained. It poured. No candy was gotten. Well, actually they got about 10 pieces of candy each. Poor kids! The girls are bummed-Bang obviously doesn't care. While we were out it started POURING. He slept in the stroller the whole way back in the rain. The girls think it sucks-so do I cause I knew they were excited-and with Daddy leaving this month I was glad they had something to look forward to and now it is a bust!

Oh well, we have Alix's birthday coming up and Christmas and Bang's birthday-plenty of time for fun!

But they sure did look SUPER cute in their costumes!!

Alix was Dorothy, Aja was a cheerleader, and Bang was the Cowardly Lion.

Next year-the Ford Family are ALL going to dress up-now I just have to convince Mike of this! Ha!

BRokEN BoNeS

This was her temporary cast that she had for a day before they gave her the permanent one!

Well, Alix broke 2 bones in her elbow this week. Monday night right after we got home she went to the park with Aja and a few of their friends. 5 minutes later they were all back in the house and Alix was screaming! She wouldn't let me look at it, she wouldn't let me touch it NOTHING! My great neighbor Priscilla said she would keep Bang and Aja while I took Alix to the emergency room.

Well, 2 days and MANY hours at the hospital-they finally put her cast on. She is miserable-it itches-it restricts her-it causes her a lot of pain. Which in turn makes ME miserable!! Hopefully it will heal quickly and we will be able to get it off soon and not have it on too long!
They say that once daddy leaves everything bad that can happen will happen-well I think the park might be off limits for the next 7 months! HA!

And here is the final cast that is causing her so much drama now-OOHHH THE ITCHING!!!

10 mOnThS oLD

My baby is 10 months old today! WOW-2 more months and we have a 1 year old! Crazy!! He definately has his own personality and lets you know it. He is ONE.SPOILED.BOY!! It is hard when he is as cute as he is not to spoil him. He is spoiled by EVERYONE!! Even his daycare teachers spoil him ridiculously! That is probably why this month he has begun his fits! Yes-already he is throwing fits. If he has something and you take it away (cause it could be dangerous, or it could be the laptop cord that doesn't need to be chewed on) he will cry and scream and let you know that you have pissed.him.off!!

We were pushing him around the neighborhood one night in one of the neighbors toys-NO we don't buy him pink stuff! ha!

He is weighing 22 lbs this month-I know that because last week he had a doctors appt because he had an ear infection-his 2nd in his life. I don't know what the deal is-Alix has only had 1 her WHOLE life and Aja has never had one (I'm knocking on wood right now!)

This month he got A LOT more teeth in. Now he has 7 teeth. 4 on the top-3 on the bottom

He started saying bye bye and no no. He has already been saying dada and mama. His 1st word ever was dada though!

He still won't sleep through the night which is driving me nuts. He wakes up EVERY night at about 0230 and realizes that he is in his crib by himself and goes NUTS!! So I bring him to my bed and he will sleep. I know bad habit but right now I just want sleep-but I definately have to work on this before Mike gets back!:)

He LOOOOVES to play with his sisters!

He went trick-or-treating tonight. It was raining really hard so we only went to 3 houses-but he was THE CUTEST cowardly lion-EVER!!

He started shaking his booty when music is played this month-which we all find absolutely adorable of course!

I can't really think of anything new that he started this month. He basically is just getting really good at everything that he can already do. He can crawl, walk along furniture, babble, clap, pull himself up to a stand.

He is such a sweet baby! He is definately missing his daddy. When Mike calls on Skype he definately gets excited and loves to watch the computer.

We all love him more than we could ever say-I'll never know why we were so lucky to get him as our baby!!

aNoTHeR NiGhT

A conversation between Alix and Aja that happened tonight

Aja-Hey Alix lets play charades. What am I being?

(as she was flopping and flipping around)

Alix- (without even looking up from the computer that she was playing on)

ANNOYING!

HAHA-too funny. It didn't slow Aja down though-she was still all over the place trying to get Alix to play charades.

And just cause he is so cute I could eat him up everyday-here is BANG!!

AND it BeGiNS

(Here we are on the way to the airport!)

Mike left for Afghanistan this last week. He left on the 8th and I am so missing him. We took him to the airport in the morning and I just have been missing him so much since. It doesn't help that this weekend is a 4 day weekend-so I have 4 days here at the house with the kids and Mike isn't here. I gotta get use to that though cause we are going to go through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years before he gets back-so lots of holidays. Not to mention my 30th birthday and our 10 year wedding anniversary-plus so much more.

He should be back sometime in April and all of us absolutely can not wait!

We love you Mike-Stay Safe!!

SoMe ReLiEF

Bang has eczema VERY.BAD!! Poor baby hasn't been able to get relief since he was born. We have the Eucerin-which he is greased up at least 4 times a day, he has been taking Benadryl every day to try and help with the itching and the poor guy still hasn't been able to get relief. Well, it seems relief is here. When we went to his 9 month check up, I told his doctor that I am very concerned about it because nothing is helping all the stuff we have been trying is not helping.

Well-she changed it up. She put him on Zyrtec during the day and Benadryl at night. Stuck with the Eucerin and gave us a steroid cream-only for his elbows and knees. We can't use the steroid cream on his face because it will discolor his skin-which we definately don't want!!

After 2 days-his arms which have been an absolute nightmare for the past 3 months are CLEAR!! The itching all throughout the day-GONE!!!

I am OVER.THE.MOON!! I think with prayer and this wonderful new medicine regimen she put him on my baby is finally going to be able to get a little rest from the itching!!

9 mOnThS...

So I totally didn't do an 8 month post which really pisses me off because I was doing so good and getting it done every month so I remembered what month he has begun doing things-but with school starting and everything that has been going on lately it seems that I don't even have time to clean my house-let alone write a blog.

So even though it is a day late here is his 9 month post. But I wonder .... since he was born on the 31st of the month when there is no 31st when does he turn 1 month older?? I think I ' m reading too much into things!

Bang had his 9 month check up on the 30th and here are his stats.

Weight-21 lbs 8 oz 75th percentile

Height-27.5 inches 40th percentile

So he is still holding strong as our short chubby baby! Ha!

What is Bang up to this month??

-He started crawling at 7.5 months and now he is ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE!! There is no stopping him. He gets around-and he is fast!

-He says DaDa, MaMa and BaBa-we aren't sure if he really knows what he is saying though. Because he will call me MaMa or DaDa and vice versa.

-He began pulling himself up on things. He is ALWAYS pulling up-so we really have to watch him-and all of our things! Ha! He can walk along the couch when he is standing also.

-He has 3 teeth now. 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top. He isn't growing teeth like "normal" babies though. Usually babies will get the middle teeth first-he got the 2 middle teeth on the bottom and the canine teeth on top-not the middle ones-so it looks silly! One has already come in and you can see the other one swelling his gums about to pop through.

-He still is NOT sleeping through the night. It is driving me nuts. He was sleeping through the night but then when he got really sick when he was 6 months old-that went out the window and now he no longer does. He will go to bed in his bed, but EVERY morning at about 2:30 he wakes up and will only go to sleep again if I lay down with him so he can lay his head on my chest-so after 2:30 in the morning I am not getting much sleep because I can't even move him off my chest of he'll wake up screaming. We tried the whole crying to sleep thing-Ya-didn't work!!

-He eats more food now and loooves it. This little man loves to eat-and he'll eat anything!!

-Knows how to clap and loves to do it

-Learned how to do the whole baby thing where you hit your hand against your mouth and make an ahh sound and it makes that "neat" sound for babies. Big sister Alix taught him that and he has been doing it for a few weeks -- - and he gets LOUD doing it. It is funny to see. Oh-and at daycare he has been caught hitting other babies mouths to try and get them to do it too. Funny!

-He is still absolutely crazy about his sisters.

-He hates when you leave him in a room. He will go nuts as soon as you walk out and will hurry and crawl behind you!

He is such a fun little guy. He is happy almost all the time and just is fun to be around. He really has brightened up our family and we all are completely smitten with him.

1sT dAy oF sChOoL

Today was the 1st day of school and luckily I had the day off so I was able to walk them to school. So Alix, Aja, Bang and I got ready and left for school. Besides the fact that it was SOO ridiculously HOT and HUMID at 0700 in the morning-so by the time we made the 5 minute walk we were all sweaty-the morning went great. Mike called them on the cell phone right before we got there to wish them a happy 1st day (even had a little song to go along with it! ha!). We went and saw Alix's teacher from last year that she absolutely loves and the teacher loves her. Her name is Ms Howard-she wanted to see Bang so I had to take him by.

Then we went to Alix's class and waited for her teacher to open the door. Alix was not wanting me to take her picture at all once we got there-she got mad and embarressed so I had to stop! (I guess when you are in 4th grade that isn't cool anymore!)

Then when her teacher opened the door they all filed in and I gave her a kiss and would you believe it SHE WIPED IT OFF!! UGH-how rude! :) I guess she is just too old for mom to be there at the school with her. Don't worry I am so going to let her know how sad that made me when I see her this afternoon.

Then we went to Aja's class. I didn't get any pictures of her in her class because by that time Bang was hot and irritated so I was trying to hold him and deal with getting Aja in her class. She was all about the kisses and having me in her class! So that made me smile! She isn't too big yet! So Bang and I gave her about 20 kisses and we were off.

1st day down-can't wait to hear about their days and how everything is and how much they LOVE (or dislike) their teachers and classes.

1sT dAy oF ScHooL

Monday is the 1st day of school. Thank goodness! Alix is in 4th grade and Aja is in 2nd grade. It is hard for me to believe that I have a 4th grader and that Aja is a 2nd grader. Seems so crazy to me. I guess it just goes to show that I am getting old (I will turn 30 this year!) We met their teachers yesterday and Aja has Ms Cavanaugh-who seems really nice-but maybe a little looney-we are going to have to watch this one. She thought it would be a good idea to put the tables on the floor and have no chairs and sit "japaneese style" for the whole year. Ya-NO!! When she asked all the parents said No. Who does that?? Just cause we are in Japan does not make our kids Japaneese. Anyway-we'll keep an eye on her!
Alix has Mr. Hollaway. Yes-a man teacher. Nothing is wrong with that-we have just never had a man teacher before-so we'll see how this year goes. He seems really nice and understanding (I had to let the teachers know that their dad will be leaving for Iraq in a few weeks so we will be having some behavior problems at first I'm sure)
I'm ready for the year to start! The girls are nervous but excited. I can't wait and neither can they!!

We ArE MoBiLE

The days of being able to leave Bang anywhere are OVER!! He is now officially mobile. It is a crawl I guess...he can crawl, but not too fast-so what he does is he ROLLS!! EVERYWHERE. If he wants to get somewhere he just starts rolling. He gets all over the place this way too. And if he rolls into something that stops him-he will start pushing it to try and move it. The other day when I picked him up at daycare there was a toy bin looking thing (kind of big) sitting there crooked-the lady told me that he had rolled into it and couldn't move it so he started pushing it. They are all amazed at how strong he is! He really does take after his daddy in so many ways!

Well today he started more crawling then just rolling. I'm happy that he is crawling-it is so exciting, but then I wish he was still a little baby-cause this is it-he is my last baby so I am loving every minute of him being a baby. I am going to try and get some video of him moving around and put it on here so you can all see his little butt moving around. (If I can figure out the video part!)

7 YeArS OLD

My baby Aja turned 7 years old last week. Yes I know I am totally late on posting but Mike has been gone for the past week in the field-so I have been a single mother for the past week so I haven't had a lot of time to post on the blog.

Anyway, she turned 7 on Aug 22. I just can't believe my baby is 7. Sometimes she still feels like my baby. She was the baby of the family for 6 years-and up until Feb of last year I thought she would ALWAYS be the baby of the family (but God knew we needed Bang in our lives).

She had a sleepover for her party and had some friends over. They had a good time. They watched movies, jumped on the trampoline, painted nails, and did the normal girlie stuff. It was so fun to see her happy and being able to celebrate being 7 with her friends.

Aja is such a joy in our family. Don't get me wrong-she does have her rotten side. I'm not one of those mothers who just writes about "oh my children are so wonderful and perfect". No-she is a joy though. She is so fun to be around. But she can be a little rotten 7 year old too! :) She loves to talk-and talk-and talk. She loves to tell stories. She is a girlie girl to the bone. She would repaint her nails everyday if I would let her. She totally thinks that when you turn 6 that you should be able to wear make up! HA-Ya right! She has so much love to give. She loves her family so much and makes sure that we know it everyday. She even makes sure that Alix knows how much she loves her. She loves her little brother. There has never been a day of jealousy since he was born. I thought we might have a problem with that-but never has she even hinted of being jealous.

She is a very caring little girl. She always has a laugh and a smile for you. Even at the worst times. Even when she is in trouble and threatened with a spanking she can't stop smiling-she just has too much happiness inside her (that is what she tries to tell us! ha)

Aja is such a wonderful part of our family. She starts 2nd grade on Monday and is very excited. She keeps us on our toes and there is never a dull moment with her around. She teaches us something new almost everyday about parenting and how to parent with love and not anger (if you get my drift! :)) She has such a sweet little spirit though and people love her everywhere that we go.

Happy Birthday Aja! I hope this year is your best year yet!!