"Maybe it's a bunch..."

"I know what makes the wind. Maybe it's a bunch of helicopters coming at us."- Jordan Staheli age 4

Disneyland starts with "D"

Disneyland!!! Jordan and I actually got to go to Disneyland twice last week. She and I went with one of my girlfriends and two of her kids (it was spring break). She had called me about a week before and asked what we were doing for spring break. When I told her we were going to Disneyland on Friday to meet up with Ty's sister, she asked if we would also like to go with her Wednesday. The problem was finding a sitter for Liam. In the end my friend's hubby ended up watching him until one of my family members could go get him. We had a blast that day though! It started later than we wanted, but I still think we got quite a bit accomplished. I think it's funny that Jordan didn't want to ride rides with me, and "N" didn't want to ride the rides with her mom. "A" was indifferent as to who she rode with. One really cool thing we got to see was the army men from Toy Story did a little program thing. We didn't stay for all of it, but it was really cool watching what we did.

The second time we went, we went as a family. It was the longest car ride Liam has been on yet. He travelled pretty well, except for a little bit on the way home when he was hungry, then mad that his food was cold. He never ate a good meal while at Disneyland, but that's just because there was way too much to see. The first thing we did, was watch Mary Poppins perfom for a few minutes. That was fun because they did all the songs and Jordan could sing along. Jordan was so excited to ride rides with Aunt Riki. That's all she talked about for days leading up to it. A couple times we forced her to ride with us, and she wasn't happy, but oh well. Again, her favorite part of California adventures was the water park area. If you look through the slide show below, you'll see a picture of Liam on Ty's lap. That is Liam desperately trying to get to Ty's drink he sees. It was funny watching him try to get it.

All in all, it was an exhausting few days, but way fun. It was good to see Riki and her family. I hope they enjoyed seeing us as much as we enjoyed seeing them.

"I just so like her."

"I need to color this picture for Nana Staheli because I just so like her."-Jordan Staheli, age 4.

So Nana Staheli, expect the picture soon.

C= Cereal & China Lake

Well, Liam started cereal today. We actually were told to start it about two weeks ago to help with his reflux, but I just hadn't done it yet. I think I'm just realizing that my baby is growing up waaaaaaaay to fast this time, so that's why I put it off. Anyway, back to the cereal. I'm not sure if he was fond of it. He really didn't like the spoon in his mouth, but once I got the cereal in his mouth far enough, he would eat it. I can't exepct too much the first time though.

China Lake-That is the reason this town exists. There is a huge Naval Air Base here. I mean, huge. Area wise, it's bigger than the state of Delaware. The no fly restriction is even larger than that. Sometimes it's fun because you see all kinds of new airplanes and helicopters as they test them. You learn to ignore the sound of a jet flying over head, and when they break the sound barrier, the sonic boom shakes your house similar to an earthquake. One rather random piece of information... there are these sewer ponds on base. The EPA has been getting after the base for years saying that they need to clean up the sewer ponds. If the base could, they would. However, there is some fish that lives in them that has mutated over the years to survive. It is now the only place in the world that these stupid mutant fish live, the Fish and Game won't let the base clean up the ponds. Stupid fish!
Not much has been going on around here lately, if you haven't figured that out already. Liam is just getting bigger and laughing more. He jumps in his jumperoo for... what seems like forever. Ty calls him our metranome. I'm so glad we've found something that can entertain him though. Here are some pictures of Joey pushing him around out front on one of our nice days (it's already in the 80's here).

Nice

Big B little b, what begins with B?

Bottles and Binky's-acutally around our house, it's called a pooty, not a binky, but ya'll know what I'm talking about_

Bottles-We have permanently switched to them this weekend. It was kind of sudden, but had to be done. My thyroid has been really messed up since the beginning of the year and it's gotten worse lately, which has destroyed my milk supply. Liam was wanting to eat every hour and a half, and not sleeping well or anything like that, so it had to be done. I am not sure what my feelings are about it yet. Anyone who really knows me, knows I have talked a lot about switching to just bottles, but never did it. Now that I have, I am not sure how I feel. On one hand, I'm going to miss the special time with him and his cute smiles he'd give me, but on the other hand, it can free me up so someone else can take over and give me a break. Oh, and we have the pickiest boy on the planet when it comes to bottles. There is only one bottle type and only one nipple type he will take. We have tried tons. Formula's are kinda touch and go too.

Binky aka Pooty-Again, PICKY, PICKY, PICKY!!!!! He will only take the Nuk Latex pooty. Well, I take that back. Sometimes, in a pinch, he'll take the silicone Nuk, but he doesn't prefer it. He also prefers his thumb or finger to the pooty, but we take them out of his mouth if we catch him. It's so bad though, that we have these Playtex brand pooty's that are very similar to the Nuk's, and he will suck on them and start gagging. Ugh. I just hope he's not that picky throughout his life!

P.S. Sorry there haven't been pictures of the kids lately. I haven't taken any, but I will start again soon.

A is for asthma, arsenic and allergies

Asthma- As a child, I was diagnosed with stress induced asthma. Basically, I only ever had a problem when exercising. I have not had a problem worth dealing with it for YEARS. I mean, several members of my family regularly take inhalers to breath normally, but not me. Just when I was exercising. However, with picking up running more often, I started noticing that after just over a quarter mile, I started having trouble breathing. Ugh, it seems that I had not outgrown my asthma as I had hoped. It just laid dormant waiting for me to run again. So now, I have an inhaler to take before running. Let me tell you... it makes a huge difference. It makes it so that my running has to end because of my legs not being in shape instead of my lungs. And I can run farther now. How nice. So, I guess I'll just have to keep the inhaler.
Arsenic- This is just some random fact about Ridgecrest. We breath arsenic. Yup, it's in the air out here. Obviously not in levels high enough to kill you, but it's still there. It actually was only more recently put in the air when the LA aquaduct drained Owen's Lake. LA now has to pay to put water back in the lake to lower the arsenic levels. And, if you ever tried to poison me with it, there is a likelyhood that it wouldn't work. Just to let you know that. :)
Allergies- These are the bane of my existance. I hate them. I've had to deal with them my entire life! My father and two brothers had to be on allergy shots for years because there's were so bad. Now, not only to I have to deal with them, but my poor defensless kids have been hit by them. :( I'm almost completely positive that is the source of Liam's constantly stuffy nose. The doctor said he's too young to have them, but honestly, I don't believe her. My kid doesn't have a cold, but hasn't been able to breath normally for about a month now. I guess we'll deal with them when he's finally old enough to take something for it. Jordan was diagnosed at a young age with them too, but I never really did anything for it. It didn't seem to be a problem, so I just ignored it. Then comes yesterday. She told me she had an earache, so I took her into her pediatrician's urgent care hours. Thankfully she has no ear infections. However, Dr. Kitty asked me how long her nose has been stuffy. Honestly, I've lost track of how long it's been. She says it's allergies. And it's allergies causing lots of pressure in her ear, which, combined with the storm that came through, is making her ears hurt. (And she also said that Jordan can't hear very well... so I'm hoping that when her ears clear up she'll start listening better. :D) Apparently, Jordan looks like an allergy kid. It causes the dark circles under her eyes (here I was blaming it on her not sleeping much) and the creases under her eyes (I had no excuse for them). So now, Jordan is on Claritin. If that doesn't clear her up in a week, we have to switch to Zyrtec... and so on until we find something for her allergies. Bummer for her. This is not something I would not have liked pass on.