It's that time again..

This month went by way too quick.  I loved that hubby got to be home for a while, but it couldn't last forever.  The military is calling his name again.  He will only be gone for a few weeks but they always feel like a lifetime.  I don't know how I'll be able to manage his deployment soon after this underway.  He was even told that his boat has one of the most craziest schedules they've ever seen.  Hah.  Why am I not surprised..

Any of you a wife of a submariner?  I think being married to a submariner is much harder.  It isn't the same as a carrier or surface ship.  Theses men don't have as much freedom and communication is VERY minimal.  Just ask the other submarine wives.  Given my husband and I email each other daily, but it is up to a certain department when they want to send it out, which makes it very frustrating.  I have been on his boat and the space is small and limited.  I just can't imagine having him live there for even more than a week.

I'm trying to be strong that the has to go out to sea again and serve his country, but it is so tough.  I've gotten so spoiled having him home almost every single day.  Our daughter adores him.  Every day when he walks through the door from work, her face lights up like a Christmas tree and would keep saying "dada."  It really makes my heart melt.  I hope having him gone doesn't affect her too much.  We've recorded videos of them two together so I will play those for her every night.  It's just sad to see them apart.

Bleh, I just had to vent.  This is my life.  I cannot wait for him to get out.  Military life isn't all its cut out to be.  You get financial stability but you can never get back those days/months/years he missed out with his family...

Baby Fever?!

I have no idea what is up with me, but lately I have been thinking a lot about babies.  The other night I had a dream that I gave birth to a baby girl.  After she was born I kept freaking out that I didn't buy my breast pump yet and woke up.  LOL.  It was very weird...  Maybe I'm just over thinking the baby stuff.  I'm pretty sure (I think) that I am not pregnant.  I guess it's just because a lot of my girl friend's are already having their second child.  And girl's who were pregnant around the same time with me are already trying again.  We don't plan to have another baby until we move to NH and are settled down.

Our move isn't too far away so I need to start saving up.  Babe told me I could buy my Chanel flap if I save enough money while he's gone.  However, I am starting to rethink it.  I want to wait but at the same time what if Chanel has a price increase?!  Well see what happens to the bag.  But as far as baby #2 goes, I will definitely start saving for him/her.  Hubby and I even got our baby names set.  <3  I especially love future baby girl's name.  I have my heart set on having a boy but if we have another girl I wouldn't mind.  Any child is a blessing.

I already have a game plan though.  The next time I get pregnant, I will have a better meal plan.  I won't drink/eat too much junk food.  Continue exercising at least 20-30 minutes a day.  Only buy items baby will need/use.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all had a good holiday.  My family and I did not really do anything yesterday except for some winter cleaning and watching movies.  We finally watched "Love & Other Drugs" and watched some of our favorites movies, "Serendipity" and "When Harry Met Sally."  Unfortunately we did not have any gifts to open because we opened them all back in HI before we had to fly back to SD due to limited amount of space in our luggage.  But that is okay.  I really do not need a lot of gifts.  Having my family together is all I need.  My daughter did give me the best gift though.  After days of fighting with her to drink from a sippy cup, she finally did it!  I was so ecstatic.  You probably think that is lame, but trust me, it was not.  I was so proud of her.  She is growing up so fast in front of my eyes.  I wish I could slow time down.  *sigh*  But anyways, I just wanted to wish you all Happy Holidays!

Family Rant/Vent Session

Back in SD, whenever my daughter is sleepy, my husband and I would just put her in her crib and leave her there so she could teach herself how to go to sleep on her own.  Now that we're in HI, my parents don't approve/agreed of the way we put Alyssa to sleep.  But yet they can't seem to handle her and don't know how to make her go to bed on their own.  They always resort to calling me to do it.  Why are they so stubborn to change their ways?!  I get so frustrated with my parents.

I'm also supposed to start working on Thursday and since it is the holiday season chances are I will be working late nights.  So who will they call then to put Alyssa to sleep?  I'm thinking of just turning the job down.  I hate this.  I wish there was a way for me to just work from home so I could be a stay at home mother, housewife, and working woman.

Aside from this sleeping issue, I also hate the fact that my mom is trying to teach my own daughter to call me by my nickname, which my family always uses, instead of mommy.  Seriously?!  You're gonna do that to my child?  If so, it just makes me not want to come back to this stupid rock.

I really hate this place sometimes.

Weaning Breastfeeding

So I have been exclusively breastfeeding my daughter for almost 10 months, but just recently decided to stop. It was not because I could no longer produce milk, it is because I was stupid and lost my pump's charger.  There is no place that I could buy another locally.  Even if I were to order a new one, who knows when it would come in.  I am not about to go out and buy another $400 pump, which I probably will use for just a few months.

Breastfeeding has been great for me because I was able to shed off my pregnancy weight and then some!  But it is a bit of an inconvenience.  I love how easy it is to make formula.  No hassle whatsoever.  I am glad to have breastfed as long as I have, but now that I am done I just have a question.  For any of you who breastfed, once you stopped did you gain weight quick?  That is something I am afraid of.  I know I have to eat healthy anyways, but I just want to know your experience.

Thanks for reading

To go or not to go..

From what my husband is telling me via emails, there are rumors he will be gone again for a month around october/november-ish.  Originally, in october, he was just supposed to be gone for two weeks, home in time for his daughter's first birthday, then out again for a week.  I really liked that schedule just because he would be able to celebrate her birthday especially since he missed her birth last year.

Anyways, hearing that he might be gone for a month (I know it is not that long), my husband offered to send me back home to Hawaii.  With it just for a month I would not even think about going back, just to save money, but seeing that it is around the time of her birthday it would be nice to celebrate it with family and friends..  I am not sure what to do.  So I'll do a pro and con list.

Going to Hawaii
Pros:
Celebrating her first bday together
Get gifts/money to put in my daughter's college fund from the party
Spending time with family and friends
Will not be alone for a month
Parents will get to spend more time with my daughter

Cons:
Alyssa will be more fussy/difficult traveling since she is more active
Stressing out about planning her bday party (invitations, entertainment, guests)
Drama with family and friends
Spending $500+ on a plane ticket
Spending A LOT money hanging out with friends


Staying in SD
Cons:
I will be in my own home without parents telling me what to do
Be able to save more money
Hanging out with friends

Pros:
LONELY


I don't know what to do...  I just had to vent/let this out.

Thanks for reading,

Update

Hey everyone.  Sorry for slacking with my personal blog.  I have been mainly focusing on my beauty blog and spending as much time as I could with my hubby while he was on land.  Today he left to go underway for about a month.  The first few days are always the hardest, but it will get better.  Today I had to drop him off at work around 7am.  Then once I got home he called me saying to come back and pick him up because he did not have to go in until 10am.  It was nice getting a few more hours with him even though saying goodbye again sucked.  Plus, today our babygirl turned 9 months so I am happy Alyssa was awake and got to play with her daddy for a bit this morning.

For this month that he is gone I already got a few things planned (many thanks to my fellow navy wives).  We have a lot of get togethers to pass the time by quickly.  Also, my family will be coming up to the mainland in two weeks.  I am excited for them because it will be my parents first time EVER to the mainland.  First they will be flying to Vegas with our other relatives to visit my cousin then road trip it up to me.  From SD, we will all drive to Bakersfield for a family reunion.  Once the reunion is done we will all split up. Dad will go back to Vegas with his siblings, Mom will come back with me to my place in SD then we will fly to Kansas to visit her siblings, and my brother will go to Florida with my cousins to go to DisneyWorld.

Thank goodness for family and friends!  <3

New baby bag!

Lately, when I go out with my daughter I will just put all of her things into my purse.  And it is A LOT of things (diapers, baby wipes, extra clothes, socks, bib, blanket, washcloth, etc).  Even though my purse is huge to carry everything, whenever I try to search for things it takes me forevers to locate it.  My purse feels like a black hole.  So today I decided to buy her a backpack just for her own stuff.  Of course, I wanted something pink so I went straight for the Hello Kitty items at NEX.  Thankfully I found this backpack that also matches her bottle cooler!  (Yay!  I'm so OCD that I need things to match).

Originally it was $24, but with the NEX 24% off of Hello Kitty items, it came out to $18.  Score!  I love shopping with sale items.  

How did you organize your baby/kid's stuff?  Do you use a backpack also?

Here's a random picture of my babygirl.  I always things it's so cute when I see her nose sweat.  It reminds me of my husband.  Like father like daughter.  

Crybaby...

My daughter is almost 8 months and now she's getting to the phase where if she doesn't see me anywhere near her, even if it's just for a minute, she'll start to cry.  *sigh*  It makes it much more harder to do anything since she wants me by her side 24/7.  Thankfully though if she's with my parents or brother she'll be fine.  So at night I get a little break and some alone time.  She's also at the stage if someone she doesn't know carries her she will cry...  she may not cry right away but eventually she will.  First she'll start to pout then the tears will start rolling down her face.  The joys of motherhood.  Lol.

Brainy Baby Haul

So yesterday I got a visit from the UPS guy.  When I heard him say he had a package for me I started freaking out wondering what I had bought because I just couldn't remember.  I could hear it now, my husband laughing/scolding me for buying a useless item, but it was educational items I bought for my daughter!  I was very relieved.  

Anyways, a few weeks ago Hautelook listed a sale for Brainy Baby items, which I really wanted to get for my daughter.  I've never heard of the brand, but apparently it's similar (or maybe even better) than Baby Einstein.  So I ordered one of their package deals, which was two books (shapes & colors and animals), two flashcards (123s and ABCs) and four DVDs (all each topic stated).  I know my daughter is still young to understand all of this, but I wanted to give it a try.  =D  Here's a few pictures from my haul.

Have you mamas ever tried these educational items for your child?  Do you think they work?  

Thanks for reading,

Dinah

Target and Mail Drop

Tonight my friend and I headed to Target so I could get a few pictures developed.  To kill some time we walked around and I and I found these cute sandals for my daughter.  They were also having a BOGO sale!  I got a size 2 and 3 since my daughter will most likely get bigger pretty quick.  They're so cute and I love that they're pink!  

Anywho, the pictures I got developed at Target took less than an hour.  Now that I got the pictures I'm all set to get my husband's envelope ready.  Sometimes when they are underway us wives/girlfriends have a "mail drop."  That's basically getting to send our husband's an 8x11" envelope filled with letters, pictures, etc.  My husband requested a fitness and money magazine along with new pictures of his daughter and I.  Since Father's day is coming up and he'll still be gone I decided to throw in his first Father's day card.  I'll also include a letter.  I'm so excited to get this done and send it to our Ombudsman back in SD so she can sent it off to the boat.  I'm glad that he'll get to see pictures of his daughter standing, eating new foods, etc.  He misses out on so many things being in the Navy.  But I'm gonna do my best to keep him up to date on everything going on in our life.  

Keeping Daddy Close

For some reason my hubby was nicknamed Eeyore by his family.  So before Alyssa was born we started to collect the Winnie The Pooh character dolls from the Disney stores.  So far she only has Tigger and Piglet.  We figured we'd buy the rest when she's older and knows who they are.  But since daddy is far away now I decided to buy her a mini Eeyore blanket to symbolize keeping daddy close and knowing that he loves and misses her vey much. <333

Happy 7 months!

Baby girl spent almost the entire day with Uncle.  =)  

She's still learning how to hold her bottle and drink from it properly.

Such a happy girl eating green beans.

Yeah...Uncle did her hair..  LOL.

Stunnah Shades!

My baby girl modeling aunty Cristine's stunnah shades.  I think we have a future model in the making.  ;)

My little baby standing!

This past week she has been trying to use the couch to stand but never could until today!  I'm so happy I caught it on video especially since her daddy is underway right now working so hard.  

Mommy and Baby being camera whores

Happy 6 Months!

My baby girl turns 6 months today.  Mommy and Daddy loves you!

Alyssa's First Vegetable!

My little girl is growing up so fast!  Next week she'll turn 6 months.  She's been eating rice cereal for about a month now so I think it's time to add more solids to her diet.  Hopefully she'll like the sweet potatoes.

Boon Squirt Baby Food Dispensing Spoon

Yay, babygirl's spoon finally came in today.  I can't wait to use it.  It'll make feeding her very convenient when we're on the good during feeding time or if I just have one hand free to feed her.  I bought it on Amazon for $8.37 plus tax.

The two things I can't live without

Whoever created Apple is a genius!  I love my macbook pro and iphone4.  They are both amaze!  I'm practially glued to them 24/7.  Btw, can you tell that I love the color pink?  =P