Hayden's latest and our Upcoming Move

Hayden is cutting his fifth tooth today. I have made the difficult decision to start weaning him to a bottle. (TMI WARNING - just for the rest of this paragraph) Due to sustained injury from teething, I have had to make this decision. Hayden is having trouble eating with me and the bottle right now. Nursing strikes and new stresses are depleting my milk supply, no matter how much Fenugreek I take anyway, but the straw that broke the camels back is the biting. I have tried since he started teething at 6 mos to teach him that biting is unacceptable, but he bites down when he's done trying to get milk out. I can't discipline him by making him wait a minute for it, because he doesn't want it anyway. Lately, when he is distracted, instead of releasing and looking around, he bites down and goes into a crocodile death roll. I am still using some of Charla's milk, which there is still an abundance of, but I am now ok with giving him formula, too.

Hayden has been much more difficult to predict with the uprising of his latest teeth. He won't take in full feedings during the day, therefore, he doesn't take full naps. Because he doesn't get enough calories during the day, he wakes up at night. I'm not complaining, though. It's only once or twice a night. Does this continue until all of the teeth are in?

Hayden will be 9 mos old next week! He has his 9 mo. well baby appointment on Sept. 8. We purchased a big boy car seat for him today. This means I can't leave him sleeping in his seat while I carry him into a building now. :( I hate having to wake him up, because he hates sleeping in my arms. I got a Leap Frog Activity Table from someone through craigslist last week. He can stand for quite a while assisted by it. He will usually start whining before he falls, but he has finally learned to fall on his bottom instead of his head. For a while there, he just wouldn't bend in the middle when going down. I still have to put pillows all around just in case. He moves around the floor quite well, but still hasn't learned how to put his knees into forward gear and crawl. Oh, well. Sometimes Paco will drop his toys among Hayden's. Twice I have left Hayden in the floor with his toys and walked away for a minute to come back and find him chewing on Paco's kong. Yuck! It is kind of funky from Paco. Good for the immune system, right?

Since learning on Tuesday that Mike is expecting orders to Ft. Gordon, GA, we have been obsessed with finding out all we can about Augusta, GA and planning for the move. I am not feeling as overwhelmed today. Some people think that making an overseas move is no big deal, but you have no idea. You can't just get a U-Haul and pack up and drive cross country. We are having to make decisions about what to sell and what to keep. The army pays for the shipment of our household goods, but that is only a portion of the expense of moving. We plan to sell the Futon, the cheap computer desk we have, our window unit A/C's that we don't even use, and maybe a few other small things. We'll probably sell more when we get there and unload our household goods and realize all that we don't need and all that was damaged and needs to be replaced.


We would really like to purchase a house. When you live in a state where a $200,000 home is a meth lab on stilts with a rusty tin roof, seeing what you can get for the money in Augusta, GA makes you itch to buy. Because Mike is active duty, we qualify for a VA Loan, which would allow us to purchase a house with no money down. The kicker is that the army grants us only 10 days of covered expenses between leaving here and moving into a home there. Therefore, if we buy, we will probably have to spend a chunk of our savings on hotel fees. I wish I knew someone in the area who would put us up for a while.


Moving is rediculously expensive (especially if you do it often) even when the government covers part of your expenses. The army will cover the shipment of 1 of our 2 vehicles and Mike's motorcycle will ship with our household goods. Hopefully the movers won't put our heavy couch on top of his bike. (I say this, because we actually know of this occuring to someone in Mike's unit.) It will cost us an estimated $1800 to ship my car from Hawai'i and pick it up in Dallas. Our prospective plan (as of today) is to ship my car to Texas and fly from Hawai'i to Texas and drive to Georgia. We are going to let Paco stay in Texas and visit his grandparents until we find a home. We would hate to have to kennel him the whole time. Hopefully he'll come join us around Thanksgiving.

There is always a lot of furniture damage during overseas shipments. Much of our furniture (since it isn't solid Amish grade stuff) will have to be replaced after attempting to move it. Every time you move, you have to purchase home decor that goes with the new place. Yay for Ross and craigslist.org (and hopefully Marshall's).

I did a search for churches in the area. Augusta is a big city (second to Atlanta). There are several congregations that bear the name "Church of Christ." We will probably attend a few before deciding where to worship for the long term. We'll go with the one that doesn't turn us out for wearing shorts and flip-flops. :)

On a different note: I feel the need to say this, because some people just really take things I say on this blog way too personally. Those of you who know me well know that even I don't take myself seriously most of the time, so you shouldn't either. So, if I post something that offends you, you are probably being too sensitive. This blog is for family and friends and anyone else in the world who wants to read it so don't make anything I say all about you. If you are offended by something, do let me know, but that doesn't mean I won't think you are absolutely nuts. Some people wander why I'm quiet. It's not because I'm shy, it's because I say what I think (but sometimes it doesn't come out right) and too many overly sensitive people in my life have made drama over it.