The barking baby

Today, I picked up an extra shift at work so I ended up leaving before Wesley woke up this morning. I was really excited when I got the chance to run home during lunch to sneak a quick hug from my bug. I walked in the house and Webster started barking. I didn't see Wes downstairs but I heard something coming from his room. Tony told me that he just put him down for a nap and I could go get him if I wanted. As I walked up the stairs the noise got louder and louder... Is that barking? Sure enough, when I opened the door Wes was standing up in his crib, laughing and barking. Can he get any cuter?

What a day!

My favorite part of my job is asking patients to verify their children's or spouse's date of birth. Seriously! I get all kinds of answers. To the point where I'm giving people credit if they get the month correct! So today when I was laughing about this with another one of our date challenged patients I said, "hey just do what I do... have everything happen on the same day." Today is one of those fabulous days for me. 3 wonderful things, one date to remember.

1. June 25th is Shara's (my mother in law) BIRTHDAY! We gave her a ring this morning to find out that the old man is treating her to lunch and dinner today! Wesley yelled in the phone a lot and Shara is convinced he now knows how to say Nana. I heard a combination of Dog and Tea, his two favorite things :) Nice try Nana! For those of you that don't know her, Shara is my very own Paula Deen. She makes a mean fried chicken and you can't help but love her to pieces. We are all very lucky to have her in our family.

2. June 25th is also my parents 27th (eek!) wedding anniversary. I'm learning, slowly, as the years pass, how great an achievement this really is. Their strength as a couple and love for each other is amazing.

3. June 25th is Tony's last day as a working sailor. Yep, terminal leave began today at 9:30 am. Tony says it doesn't feel real for him yet, maybe it will on his official retirement date... but that still didn't stop him from going through all his uniforms and Navy gear as soon as he walked in the door. Surprisingly, I had a harder time with the thought of him donating all of his uniforms this soon. Is this really happening? Anyway, as his 7 1/2 year Naval career came to an end we can't help but be thrilled with the possibilities for our future.

All three events began with excitement for what the future held. I hope to teach Wes to hold even the most trivial days with the same excitement and hope.

Quest for a Babysitter

Tony and I have been talking (keyword: talking) about going on a date now for many, many months. In fact, the last time we've been anywhere together without our little bug was February! Baconopolis was delish but not worth going this long without mommy and daddy time :) This weekend we decided to get serious about making this happen. Task 1 to realizing our goal: Find a babysitter. Now I know what most of in Seattle are going to say... Christy, why didn't you just call me? Well, Tony and I want to save our friend babysitting credits for emergencies... that is why we didn't call. No Emergency.... yet! Finding a babysitter is a lot harder task than one might think. We really wanted a teenager to watch Wesley because something about an older stranger watching my child really creeps me out. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?!? Next issue, has anyone seen some of these teenagers around Seattle?!? Frightening, to say the least.

Monday I checked the classifieds at my work and someone in another office had posted a nice little advertisement for their 13 year old daughter's babysitting services. Score! I looked up the mom on our company directory... She looks normal. Kid should be too. I contacted the mom and asked how much she charged, if she was CPR certified, experience level, etc... All sounds good so far. Next task: Arrange a meeting/interview.

We scheduled an appointment for M (babysitter) to come over and meet Wes, the pups and answer a few questions. Next task: What questions do you ask a 13 year old babysitter? Hmmm. I probably should have thought of this task before she was walking through the door. Before I knew it this is what was coming out of my mouth.. "Do you know how to change a diaper?" I couldn't think of any BETTER question to ask? Probably not my brightest moment as a mother. The rest of the meet and greet went well and we asked her to come over on Saturday. Fingers crossed, we'll be going to the movies!

T's Job Search- Part A

Yesterday, Tony got his first offer for an interview from a large recruiter in downtown Seattle. This company specializes in corporate jobs in the salary range that he is looking for, so keep your fingers crossed for him! Tony getting out of the Navy has been a different experience than most of our friends that have discharged. He isn't able to work in most nuclear plants jobs because of his physical limitations; therefore, the most likely progression has been taken away. He also doesn't have much experience in the civilian sector, so knowing exactly what kind of job he wants is like finding a needle in a haystack. Being that he is getting medically retired from the Navy, Tony has the great opportunity to take a little more time to find a job that most. He has done a lot of research into finding the perfect job to meet his "ideal" criteria and has spent hours formulating a new resume' for each application. Tony's hard work during this process is amazing and I hope he finds exactly what he is looking for! Please keep him in your thoughts during this huge life transition :)

Wesley's Summer Vacation

For the next two weeks Vilma, our nanny, is on vacation. Wesley is spending his mornings with mom, as usual, but he now has the pleasure of spending the afternoons with daddy! This morning Wesley tried to sleep in because he was tired from our dinner play date last night with the Chavez family. Javier and Letty have 3 beautiful daughters that showered Wesley with all the attention he could ever want. He soaked it up! I don't think we made it out of their drive way before he crashed (9:30) and I had to wake him up at 8:30 this morning. Next, Wesley spent some time playing in the bath tub, terrorizing the dogs and eating his morning waffle (which means he ate half and gave the other half to Webster)

This weekend we started giving Wesley half servings of whole milk in between his regular formula routine. He doesn't seem to like milk yet, but I'm hoping by his first birthday we can make a smooth transition. Wes is also learning how to give up his bottle. It has been a pretty easy swap except for when we let him get too sleepy.

I'm hoping Wesley gets a good nap in this afternoon and lets Tony get some job applications done, but we'll see how that goes. Tony has one week left until he goes on terminal leave. For all of you that don't know what that is, terminal leave is when you use all the vacation that you've saved up during your time in the Navy before they officially retire you. Tony's official retirement date is July 31st & we can't wait!

Have a great day everyone!