Comment #10 belongs to Holly from A Baby Grows in Brooklyn! Congrats Holly! I’ve sent you an email with details on how to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone who entered, I appreciate you taking the time to comment and I enjoyed hearing about how you recycle! It inspired me to actually wash out my last peanut butter jar.

My next giveaway is all ready to go and I’m super excited – it’s something I own and love and I specifically begged requested the company work with me to offer. I’ll put it up on Monday July 26th!

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As a housekeeping note, I had some trouble yesterday with my posts disappearing/not showing up in readers, so if you didn’t read my story about E’s decision to re-enlist or see the gratuitous men-in-uniform pictures, please scroll down (or click through) and check it out. I think E’s a little sad no one said how handsome he looked.

Since I don’t bring up E’s career very often, a quick sum-up so this post makes sense to everyone: My husband is a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy and is mostly assigned to nuclear submarines although he’s currently on shore duty. In 2012 he has to go back to a sub.

It looks like E is going to re-enlist again in a few months really soon in October, meaning he is definitely in the Navy for the long haul. We knew he would be re-enlisting at least one more time the LAST time he did it (which seems like just yesterday but was apparently 2 years ago)(having a baby can really make time fly y’all)(I bet you’ve never heard THAT before) because it put him over 10 years, the halfway point. After 20 years of military service you get to keep certain benefits – a pension, base privileges, cheap health care – forever.

Since he enlisted when he was 19, my husband is going to retire at age 39.

To be fair, it’s only a retirement from his first job. He’ll probably find something nuclear power related to do in the civilian world and put in another 20 or 30 years before we get to sell the house, buy a yacht and abandon our children travel the world. But maybe, instead of getting a job where he has to carry a briefcase and wear a tie and commute every day, we’ll start a business. Or buy a bar. Or move to rural Tennessee and live on $1000 a month plus whatever I can make blogging working at Walmart. The thought of a life that boring and normal makes me giddy and lightheaded.

But before we can start making plans like that we have to make it through the next 10 years of Navy life. We will have to move – probably several times. E will be deployed – probably several times. We’ll have to sell this house – the house I love, the house my babies came home to – in a market that means we’ll be lucky if we get out without having to bring money to closing. Forget getting back any of the cash we’ve already put into it. And even more than the material inconvenience of leaving, I cannot even begin to imagine my life without the friends/support system/general awesomeness I have here. In fact, I’m going to have to stop thinking about it right now or risk getting all sweaty and shaky and panicky. Starting over – even after 28 continuous years of experience starting over – is HARD.

To be 100% candid, re-enlisting also comes with a bonus – as in dollars – that would mean our plans to turn the third floor junk room into a guest room (and perhaps the guest room into a second nursery) could happen in the foreseeable future rather than “some day” and our “four bedroom” house could actually be sold as a 4-bedroom house. It would also mean canceling cable is as far as our drastic budget cuts have to go – no buying cans from the dented pile, veggies from the bruised cart of bread from the thrift store (true story: as a kid I thought the Hostess Thrift Shop was where they sold used donuts and muffins). That kind of financial security also makes me giddy and sort of lightheaded.

So there’s an upside to go with the downside. And truthfully, not having to worry about sudden unemployment or layoffs or downsizing or whatever not-at-all helpful euphemism companies are using these days is such a blessing. So I’m going to think about the good parts instead of the maybe-in-a-little-whiles.

Another upside? The uniforms. Oh, yes.

From the day E was pinned (promoted) to Chief

One of the Navy Balls - I was 3 or 4 months pregnant

E doing his best Top Gun impression (I'm still pregnant)

Sailor Sandwich! Tell me you're not jealous.

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Today is the last day to enter the TerraCycle giveaway! If you haven’t commented yet, that’s all it takes to win some super fun school supplies. Winner announced first thing tomorrow!

Weight: 22 lbs 9 oz (26th percentile*)
Height: 31 inches (41st percentile*)
Head circ: 47 cm (41st percentile*)
Hemoglobin levels: 11 (lowest possible acceptable level – meaning he needs more iron)

If you were keeping track (which, considering even *I* didn’t realize anything until after the doctor brought it up, I would be very impressed if you were) Baby Evan actually lost a little weight between his 12 month checkup and today. 1 pound 3 oz to be exact, which sounds like nothing until you consider he’s been gaining at LEAST that much every checkup for the past year, and then it sounds like an enormous amount. The doctor (not actual the doctor, just one of the nurse practitioners) was fairly concerned and made lots of frowny faces as I tried to explain Baby Evan has just weaned himself from nursing 5+ times a day to not at all and learned to climb and run and doesn’t like cows milk and and and but but but.

Frowny face. We need to see you again in a month to check his weight. And keep an eye on his diapers for blood.

When I got home, I ask Dr. Google Twitter about it and everyone assured me it was fine. Kids grow in weird patterns. As long as he’s not fussy or lethargic it’s nothing to worry about. It happened to my kid too. The doctor’s scale could be off. And the biggest “duh” – Baby Evan took both a huge poop and peed through a diaper just a few minutes before the appointment so if he’s been weighed an hour earlier he would have been AT LEAST a pound heavier. I felt much better. It’s just sort of ironic, you know? What with the giant childhood obesity epidemic in our country and my ped is telling me to add chocolate to my kid’s whole milk.

He also got three shots, two Heps (A & B) and his first MMR. We skipped tetanus this time because it was combined with a polio shot and he gets a polio vac at his NEXT appointment so it would mean a double dose. Um, no thank you? I mean, my belief and trust in vaccines is well documented but I’m not really interested in letting people just stick my kid with stuff unnecessarily. That just seems foolish.

The other super fun diagnosis is that once again there’s something slightly wrong with his circumcision. Since this is the internet and I don’t want him to die of embarrassment someday if his girlfriend reads this I’ll just say it’s nothing serious but that the solution involves either something really really unpleasant sounding or just hoping it goes away mostly on it’s own. Unlike the vaccines, I am not 100% behind our decision to do the circ and wish I had tried to talk E out of it. But again, I have no penis so I only get like, one percent of the decision making power on that one and I doubt I could have anyways.

SO. My goal for the next month is to fatten my kid up enough that the doctor at our weight check scoffs at the previous doc’s concerns. (Bonus points if he actually makes the “scoff” sound.) Any tips for fattening up a kid?

Oh man, I bet I get some weird Google searches off of THAT one.

*I used an internet calculator for the percentiles which I’ve found to calculate slightly lower numbers than the one my pediatrician uses. I forgot to ask for the numbers when we were there.

Last week my friend Kristi posted about one of her biggest pet peeves: people who ask stupid, obvious questions that could have been answered in TWO SECONDS by Google. Which is also one of my pet peeves. It is especially prevalent among pregnant women. As in “OMG I ordered an organic stone ground whole wheat veggie pizza and then ate it but it totally had SOFT CHEESE on it??!? Is my baby going to die!???!” (No) or “I’m, like, only 32 weeks pregnant and I’ve gained FOUR POUNDS! Is that too much??!” (Die in a fire) or “My husband want to have sex but I’m afraid he’s going to poke the baby in the head and leave a dent. Does that happen?????” (You are the reason Idiocracy is practically a documentary).

Anyways, I was thinking about my own pet peeves and realized most of them are driving related. How is it possible that there are SO MANY bad drivers, considering operating a car (unlike raising a child) is something the government actually requires a license to do.

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There’s a test and everything. In no particular order, things that make me scream and punch the steering wheel:

People who don’t understand stop signs
At the entrance to our Stop & Shop, there is a four way intersection with three stop signs. Incoming traffic is the one without a sign AND YET 99% of the time the car in front of me stops, usually for no reason. Although when there ISN’T a car in front of me there is always some idiot at one of the signs that thinks as long as they’ve paused for a second they magically have the right of way. I’m constantly almost t-boning someone who has suddenly pulled out even though I KNOW they saw me. I once had a lady roll down her window and yell “But I was already going! I can’t stop once I start to go!!” when I honked at her. Man, obviously she needs to get her brakes checked before she gets into an auto accident.

People who don’t understand parking
I could write a NOVEL on terrible parkers. Like the guy in the nice shiny Nissan 350Z who parked less than three inches away from my Jeep on the side with the car seat. Dude. You KNOW I need to open that door. If I could get my ass in that space you can bet your butt I’d swing my door open as hard as possible and leave you with a dent but since I am more than three inches wide all you get is a note on your windshield reminding you that you’re a douche-canoe. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Today it was the guy who parked in the middle of the road. It was a road in the park, so not extremely busy, but a real road with a name and lines and stop signs. His car was at the halfway mark between the curb and the double yellow line. I noticed him parked there on the way into the park and saw him getting in his car on the way out of the park with his fishing pole and bucket. The stupidest part – there is an actual parking lot MUCH CLOSER to the lake. Why not park down there? Are you allergic to convenience? I’ve also heard that our neighborhood is putting the best radar detector on areas where people constantly speed.

People who think the road is a sidewalk
This one is actually directed at pedestrians instead of drivers but it makes me practically blind with rage so I’m including it (I have issues). In the same park I mentioned above, there are miles and miles of walking trails, both paved and dirt. We use some of those paths for our Stroller Strides class so I can assure you they are well maintained and usually clear of giant rocks or branches. AND YET every time I drive the (very narrow, windy) roads I have to swerve suddenly to avoid walkers/runners treating the street as their own personal sidewalk. And then they glare at me. Death glares. As if I have suddenly driven my car right through a shopping mall and narrowly avoided killing several dozen school children and puppies. There was also a lady jogging in the street downtown next to a perfectly nice, clear sidewalk and blocking a whole line of cars from passing.

Speaking of biking, SHARE THE ROAD PEOPLE. Bikes are SUPPOSED to ride in the street. If it weren’t for morons like everyone in my town I could still take my bike to the grocery store without fear of being run over and left for dead.

*DEEP BREATH*

OK, I’m done. Feel free to share your own pet peeves – driving related or otherwise – in the comments. Rant begins: NOW.

Even though it was a bazillionty degrees on Sunday, we made it out to Buttonwood Farms for their annual Sunflowers for Wishes event, one of those things I’ve had on my “local stuff to experience” list for several years but somehow always managed to miss. They plant 15 acres of sunflowers and sell wagon rides and bouquets for $5 with all money going to the Make a Wish foundation. Fantastic photo op PLUS do-goody feelings? How can you resist?

I'm pretty sure those are the cows they get the milk for the amazing ice cream from. Unfortunately the line was at least 50 people long so we'll go back for the ice cream some other day.

I know the baby's not even pay attention but I think I look GREAT (minus armpit fat) so I'm posting it anyways. Vanity, thy name is 4 months pregnant in 95 degree heat.

Baby Evan like the wagon ride more than this photo seems to indicate.

There we a LOT of bees. Luckily, we're not allergic. I don't think.

Not a photo effect - they really did look like they were glowing.

NOW it's time for fun with photo filters.

I swear on all things cheese this photo is SOOC (straigh out of camera). I didn't adjust a single thing.

I'm sorry, I can't stop. They're just so pretty and happy and fun to do artsy photo stuff to.

17 weeks preggo

I couldn't resist buying a couple bouquets. Sunflowers are just so...sunny. Brilliant, I know.

One more for good measure.

It was a good day.

p.s. Remember, the TerraCycle giveaway ends Thursday and there aren’t that many entries so the odds are pretty good you might win! All it takes is a comment! Trust me, entering means more to ME than it does to you – I’m just trying out the giveaway thing and would hate to discover it makes people hate me.