Baby Bottle Dilemma

Brayden has been down to just one bottle a day, always early in the morning. If he gets up before sometime around 7am-ish, I generally head downstairs and get a bottle of milk for him, and after almost chugging it, he falls back asleep until 8:30-9am. It really is heaven. And as much as I've thought it'd be so nice to just get rid of the bottles all together (at least for a FEW months before this new one arrives!), I figured it would be so much easier to do it once school starts back up for Koda. For one, we HAVE to get up by 7am or so anyways, so I could just get Brayden and he could have normal food and wouldn't go back down to sleep. BUT....now that George is working nights the past week, he's been uber-bored, and has surfed the internet somewhere around 7-10 hours a night. For me, this equals many tidbits of information from him (it's about the only time he stays somewhat current on the news!), as well as "baby advice". Now that he's watched a clip from Good Morning America, he's convinced that we need to cut Brayden's bottle off! It's not that I don't agree with him....it's just that it's easier said than done, and really...what's another 3 weeks until school starts?! SO...I let George "feed" him the very first morning. By "let him" feed Brayden, I mean shake him somewhere around 3 or 4 times and have an almost full on conversation with him about "GET UP AND FEED BRAYDEN!" But, he finally did. He got Brayden's sippy cup/straw cup full of milk, went up to his room, and as soon as Brady saw the cup-and it wasn't a bottle-he screamed and threw himself back into his crib! Talk about attitude. He completely refused the cup! So, George took him downstairs and had an early breakfast of yogurt and banana before putting him back to sleep. It *seemed* to work ok (from what George said). So this morning, I get Brayden, bring him downstairs, and give him his sippy full of milk, and he starts screaming! He wanted nothing to do with it. He wouldn't even eat yogurt. After about 5 minutes of fighting him, he would reluctantly take bites of yogurt, but only if I let him hold the spoon. He certainly does have a well developed attitude! We shall see how this no-bottle thing goes....especially since I've already packed up every bottle and put them in storage!

Worse than horrible!

So I log into blogger virtually everyday and get updated on all my family and friends and what their families have been doing. It's not like I don't get on the computer, but seriously, I've been so lazy and procrastinating at updating the blog! So, quick update on us since the last entry:

Dakota finished kindergarten! They had a day of "stepping up", meaning they got to do everything that the 1st graders did so they got a taste of what it would be like next year. He LOVED it. Probably his favorite thing about 1st grade: NO "quiet" time! But, with the end of the year brought some disappointment as well, as he learned that his best buddy in kindergarten, Kaitlin, was moving to Texas :( He was pretty bummed out about that since I told him that for his birthday this fall he could invite his class, to which he replied "YAY, Kaitlin can come!" Then I had to burst his bubble.

We got an extra 2 weeks with Dakota after school was over until he had to head down to Kodiak. It was nice enjoying almost 4 weeks of no school with him (and some great weather!). This spring he participated in Little League T-ball, which he's in love with! He was a little disappointed that it was T-ball (he had no clue what that was!) instead of baseball, because George and him had been practicing for over a year at pitching and hitting the ball! But, he did great, and even though they don't exactly play T-ball by baseball "rules" (they don't necessarily count outs and home runs, etc), when he was on first base, he almost always got a few kids out each game! He's been gone now about 2 weeks, and I SO miss my little buddy, and so does Brayden! He comes back August 7th, which we're anxiously awaiting, about a week and a half before school starts back up again.

Brayden turned 1 on June 18th! We had his little family birthday party get together the week before so that Koda could be there for it, and made a dirt and worm cake and cupcakes. He was a bit unsure what to do with it at first, but he quickly got the hang of it, especially with the help of his Aunt Heather smooshing his face into it! While he wasn't quite "walking"-just a few steps here and there-he definately is now! He can cruise across the room and into the kitchen in no time, and it's becoming more of a mode of transportation rather than a novelty now! This I'm very thankful for since my belly is starting to grow bigger by the day it seems!

On that note, we had our ultrasound on June 24th, and found out we're having a baby GIRL!! We couldn't be more excited, especially since this will be the 10th grandkid on George's side, but only the 3rd girl (and his brother, Rick, has the only other 2 girls!), and only the 2nd girl out of 6 grandkids on my side. The reining joke is that Skinners only produce boys, to the extent that my sister-in-law Lizzie and I always joked that because we BOTH probably wouldn't be getting girls, whichever one of us had one, we'd have to share! The pregnancy has definately improved, and I don't get sick nearly as often anymore. Right now we're about 19 weeks along, and everything looked good on the ultrasound, so looks like we'll have a healthy baby girl sometime around Thanksgiving. While my original due date was November 19th, they moved it back to the 23rd because that's more the size she was measuring last week.

I have been staying at home with Brayden since summer started, and it's been pretty nice. I get bored often, so I started sewing a patchwork-type duvet cover for our bed. I'm quickly finding out that it's much cheaper just to buy them, but it'll be nice when it's done, and it's exactly what I want. Plus....it's keeping me from going nuts being at home all the time!

George is back working construction engineering this summer (as always!), but NOT at the airport, which is a huge bummer. So far, he's been working on the Jewel Lake construction job, which is supposed to be finished up the end of the week. So, starting next week, we have no idea where he'll be. We're really hoping he gets put out on the Trunk Rd. project, which is in Palmer, just about a half mile from my Grandparents place. It would be nice to be able to spend a little bit of the summer out there and spending time with both my grandparents and my cousins/aunts/uncles out there! We shall see.

Here's some pictures :)

George finishing up the tiling in the bathroom! We LOVE it!!

Memorial Day weekend at the cabin!

"Check it out, Mom, a ROCK!"

Brotherly Love!

Mom and Brady bug

Mom and Koda man

After a REALLY big fall! We got a new bike trailer, and George and Koda were playing around on/in it....they took a corner too fast and it rolled. And because it was just in the driveway, Koda wasn't strapped in!! Poor guy!

After things had settled down and he was bandaged on both elbows, both knees, his forehead, wrist, and a big road rash on his arm.....and after about a dozen popsicles!

Happy Birthday Brayden!!

I spoke too soon....

So in all my excitement about finally NOT being sick while pregnant, I *may* have jumped the gun a bit. With Dakota, it was horrible morning sickness from just a couple days into the 4th week until the 12th week. With Brayden, it was drastically different, not exactly having morning sickness, but more of a wretched, constant heartburn so bad it would make me throw up. And again, from about 4.5 weeks until 12 weeks (at least it stopped at 12 weeks on the dot!). So now? We confirmed this pregnancy around 5 weeks this time. If this is too much for some of you (especially the guys with no kids yet!), skip ahead a few sentences. We really weren't thinking pregnancy. Since Brayden, my...um...."friend" has been crazy irregular, and I'd already wasted 2 pregnancy tests between last July and March. I'm talking up to 10ish days late, etc. And, after about 4.5 weeks, I wasn't sick, so I kinda figured I was just late again. We agreed not to take a test until after the 10-day mark (since that's the latest I'd been yet), but of course, we are SO not the patient type of people. So, at 5 weeks, we took it. And to my surprise, I was pregnant, and wasn't sick! I spent the next, oh.....3ish weeks reveling in the idea of having a by-and-large sick-free pregnancy. Until the end of last week. And it's hit me with a vengance. It's a cross between morning sickness and heartburn. Not nearly as bad morning sickness as with Koda, and not nearly as bad heartburn as with Brayden, but putting them together makes up for it!

However.....as much as this DOES stink, I'm just thankful that I got about 3 weeks of this pregnancy, and that, if the pattern continues, I'll be done with this crap in a little less than 4 weeks. So, I suppose I'll take a month of being sick for a new cute little bundle of joy/crankiness. Plus, with the delayed sickness, along with the fact that so far, this pregnancy is still drastically different than the last two, gives us a *bit* of hope that it *may* be a girl! We shall see. And, in learning from these last two, I've discovered that (at least for my OB), the best time to go in for the 1st appt is around 10 weeks. Therefore, when you come back in 4 weeks, you can schedule the main ultrasound for the 4 weeks after that (at 18 weeks), and they won't give you any trouble about trying to sneak a peek before the "20 week" mark. With Brayden, we did it at 17.5 weeks, and they gave me all kinds of crap (the schedulers, not my OB, who said it was fine), telling me that they don't schedule them until 18 weeks along......and for some kind of scheduling reason, it was either 17.5 or more like 21 weeks, and I'm impatient, darnit! So, if my calculations are correct for the due date (November 20th), and the ultrasound is done at 18 weeks, we'll know if this little one is a boy or girl somewhere around the 3-ish week of June!! Can't wait!

Career Day

This week is spirit week at Dakota's school. Yesterday, it was "Crazy Hat" day. He decided to wear his Mickey Mouse ears he got at Disneyworld a year and a half ago. When we got home from school, he didn't want to take them off, so I just let him wear them for the evening. I really could care less. When I told him to go get ready for bed, he marches himself upstairs, brushes his teeth, and then comes back downstairs like this:

Sometimes, I wonder if he may have been switched at birth!

Today, however, was "Career" day, and they got to dress up as what they wanted to be when they grew up. For Dakota, it was either a pro snowboarder (we watched a lot of Olympics and now he's obsessed with Shawn White), or a pilot. We ended up going with the pilot because we actually had a lot of the outfit already, and he wouldn't be sweating indoors! Here's Captain Koda.......decked out in an Alaska Airlines Captain uniform:

 

Check it out, he even has that Ladie's Man smile....just like most Captains! :) And now he's well aware of the difference between a First Officer and a Captain....he made it clear that he wanted 4 stripes on his epilets!

Improvised bathtime

Going into this bathroom (or rather bathtub) remodel, there would be at least a few bathtimes for Brayden in the kitchen sink. We DO have another shower, but it's just that-a shower only-and although it works well for George, Koda, and I, Brayden's not a big fan of showers. So, demolition day started, I put Brayden down for a nap (which happens to be RIGHT next to the bathroom we're remodeling), and turn the radio up to try and drown out the sound of tile and sheetrock smashing so he can sleep. Amazingly enough, he DID get in a 2 hour nap (which is almost unheard of lately), but when he woke up, he had blown out his diaper, and there was poo everywhere!! Not generally a big deal, but now there was no bathtub, and the kitchen sink was full of dishes to be washed/put in the dishwasher. So he sat all poopy for a good 5 minutes so I could clean out the sink and scrub it clean. Once he got in, he was a bit aprehensive, but it quickly changed to curiousity when he figured out he could stand up in the sink and look out the window!

SO darned cute!

I'm soliciting advice......

So we have a dillema....that we need an answer to by Monday morning. Here it is: Right now, Dakota goes to school at Pacific Northern Academy, which is a private school here in Anchorage. It is all the way across town (literally, couldn't be much further away without NOT being in Anchorage). It takes around 20 minutes in the morning (and then again in the afternoon, although the traffic isn't as bad) to drop him off and pick him up. Literally, it doubles our gasoline bill, so we spend about $100 extra a month to drive back and forth to school. Also, probably the most important thing, is that the school is really expensive. I'm talking this year alone, cost about the same as about my bachelors degree (it is just about $2,000 short of the cost of my schooling all 4 years). FOR ONE YEAR. It seems crazy, but last fall, he was ready for kindergarten. Plus, being in kindergarten meant that he wouldn't have to be shuffled yet another year back and forth, to and from, Kodiak. So that's why we did it last year. Plus, PNA really is an AMAZING school. I love everything about it....except the location and the cost. The Anchorage School District wouldn't admit him last year because he was 18 days past the age cutoff. They wouldn't even TEST him to see if he was ready because he was 4 days past THAT cutoff.

So that leaves this year. We just went to his parent teacher conference, and he's doing great. He's the youngest one in his class, and by far the best reader. He's also up there in math. Pretty much everything else he's right on par with the other kids. So he's definately ready for 1st grade. We applied for the school's "scholarship" program, and asked for 1/2 tuition assistance (basically we'd only pay half). We were supposed to hear back from the school about this Friday, but didn't. I'll find out Monday morning. We both said if we got the scholarship, Koda would be there another year.

Here's the kicker: because we didn't know if we'd get the scholarship, we also applied to a few of the public charter/alternative schools. One, arguably the best public school in Anchorage-Polaris-is really close. I'm talking we could walk to it in the summer (about a 10-15 minute walk). I would still end up driving him, but literally, it's at the next major intersection North of us. SO close. We got the letter of acceptance to Polaris today. We have to respond by Monday. The problem? Again, Anchorage School District won't admit him into 1st grade because they not only have age limits for kindergarten, but 1st grade as well because K is not required in the state of AK. Soooo.....he'd be admitted as a kindergartener. Their classes are all set up as dual-grade, meaning that his class would be a K-1 blend. So, he would get the benefit of being able to work on 1st grade work if he was ready (he'll be ready for pretty much all of it).

The dilemma, then, is do we spend the $6,500 (plus the extra $100 in gas each month) to keep him at PNA in order to NOT have to repeat kindergarten (and all the driving), or do we go with the best public school (ie: free) that's close to us, but repeat kindergarten in a blended classroom? This is so frustrating! If only ASD would just let him into 1st grade, it would be a no-brainer!

So, weigh in on this if you want to. We're kinda torn as to what to do!!!

Demolition Day

Today, we started the demo on our upstairs bathroom! Actually, George is working, so my dad and Dan started the demo. And unfortunately, they started on it before I got back home this morning, so I didn't get any complete before pictures. Bummer. Just suffice it to say it was gross. The tub is almond colored (not that it's a big thing, I just really don't like almond), and the shower surround is one of those 3 piece, caulk together quick things. Not a huge deal either, except it's probably the original from when it was built in the late 70's or early 80's. AND....it was cracked in numerous places. The last time I attempted to clean it, I sprayed pure bleach on the caulking, let it set, and then scrubbed it with a toothbrush. It's still black. So nasty. So, I get home, and Dan already has half of the surround off. Although the sheetrock underneath (apparently they didn't know what durarock/backerboard was back then?!) didn't appear TOO disgusting, when they got the sheetrock off the wall, THIS is what we saw:

I almost feel like a bad mom for letting my kids bathe right next to this! (with a plastic, plus a sheetrock barrier). It made me want to puke.

Needless to say, I can't wait for our new tub and tile!