Bigger and bigger

I can't believe my baby is 10 months old. I wish I could freeze time sometimes.

She still won't crawl. She's just too chicken. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks but then drops to her belly and rolls where she wants to go. She will army crawl sometimes but only a very short distance. Its actually kind of nice. I haven't babyproofed anything yet. However, she is starting to pull herself up on things to stand. That means trouble in a different way.

She is working on those 2 upper front teeth and they look to be big'uns. Sorry Darbs. You inherited my teeth.
She is starting to hold her own with her sister but Eva still scares her with her rough play.

Sleeping has become a bit of a trial but we are working on keeping a regular schedule even if she doesn't seem to want to go down. She usually gives up the fight pretty quick. I think she doesn't want to nap because she is working on so many milestones right now. Also, she is finally healthy after a bout with a cold and the stomach flu.

She is working on talking and babbles quite a bit. I swear she says "mama" and "dada". Its funny to hear her "talk" to herself while she's eating or when she's playing.

Though she is a Mommy's girl, she is finally developing a relationship with her dad. I think that those 2 hours of one-on-one time on Sundays while I teach Primary has begun a bond. Now she will lean in to go to her dad from my arms. Its nice to see.

She's still a big girl (about 31 inches and 20.5 lbs) but weight gain has leveled off. I am not sure why. She eats all. the. time. Not nursing so much but solid foods. I cannot believe her appetite.
And I still think she is the prettiest little thing EVER. I may be biased but I don't care.

Victorian Holiday

I have no pictures of Thanksgiving. Sorry. But I do have plenty of the day after. We got out all the Christmas decorations and set up the tree. I immediately saw how much time I will spend putting ornaments back on the tree after the girls take them off daily. Sigh. But it was fun to have a whole house to decorate this year. Oh the possibilities!

And forget Black Friday (my holiday shopping was done two weeks ago anyway). We went downtown for the Dickens Holiday. Downtown Fayetteville was decorated like a Victorian era village, complete with people in costume everywhere, carolers, an olde time band, horse drawn carriages and hot cider and gingerbread.


Of all the costumed people, Brendan wanted his picture taken with the Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come. Silly boy.
The local children's museum was open for reduced admission and had ornaments for the kids to make. Jason had a special affinity for the dental exhibit. :)


There was also a gingerbread house competition and a place where you could decorate your own cookie.



The night ended with a candlelight procession to the Christmas tree lighting in town square and then FIREWORKS!


It was a grand time. I really felt like the Christmas season had begun.

On a Sunday afternoon

Treasure hunting

Our friends, the Andersons, turned us on to geocaching. It is a sort of guided treasure hunt, with GPS coordinates and cryptic messages. When you find the cache you sign it, letting others know you were there, and with some you leave a little trinket. Caches are everywhere. You'd be surprised. Sometimes they are small, sometimes they are large and sometimes they are just something that doesn't belong where it is. The whole family enjoys it and best of all, its free.

Daddy found this one and Brendan reached in to get it from the tank treads.

I spotted this one. The title of the entry on the website was "Who Are You?" and I thought this owl looked a bit odd deep in the woods.

For this one, Brendan brought something to trade so he could bring home this giraffe.

Treasure hunting. Fun for the whole family.

What to do on a rainy day

Some of these days lately have been a little soggy so the kids stayed inside to play. On this particular day they hung out in the book room. Brendan was playing with his white board and Eva was perfecting her coloring skills (she has become quite artsy).


I love this room. It makes me happy just being in it.

And what was Darby doing while this quiet activity was going on? Not taking her nap. Little stinker. :)

Flower delivery

Look what Brendan picked and brought inside to give to his mommy. He even got out the cup to put it in. Awww.

Tornado warning

There was a tornado warning in North Carolina a few nights ago but that is not the kind of tornado I want to talk about. My tornado is about 3 feet tall and hates to have her hair brushed. My tornado did this to her room.


Yep, she's asleep on the floor, with Pooh as her pillow, holding a toy on top of her leg. I wish the picture showed her bed as well - the top mattress is almost totally off the boxspring. And ALL of her books were out of their container and thrown in the corner. Must have been some seriously exhausting play.

In a galaxy far, far away . . .

When my five year old son hears "Toyota", he asks about a Lego Star Wars minifigure.

Ask him about the Millenium Falcon, or General Grevious or even Jabba's pet, Rancor. He can tell you about them. He's bringing a Star Wars Lego set for show n tell. He builds Tie Fighters during his quiet time. He even has Star Wars Lego pajamas. Yep, he's obsessed.

The "T" word

I swear our lives here lately revolve around teeth. Jason is a dentist, of course, so there is not surprise there. But the two older kids and I have had/will have dentist appointments and Darby is teething BIG TIME.
My appointment was the first I had had since I was pregnant with Brendan. Oops. Not very good for a dental student's wife. However, I have been blessed with very good teeth and the hygienist couldn't believe I hadn't been in almost 6 years. I think the Lord did this to me to make up for my poor eyesight and other physical issues. No cavities, no gum disease and my wisdom teeth have never developed so no problem there. It makes Jason crazy.

Brendan's appointment was yesterday and we found out he has 2 teeth starting to come loose (my baby boy is old enough to lose teeth?) and that he will likely need braces later. The pediatric dentist was great with him and they were even able to get X-rays, which is no small feat with a wiggly kid. Eva goes in next Monday for her first visit ever.

And now onto Darbygirl. Her gums are red and swollen. It looks as though she'll inherit my large front teeth. Poor girl. Thank goodness for Baby Anbesol. She is SO cranky. She also has the usual snot-faced, coughing, "I'm so tired but won't sleep" cold that seems to come with teething.

And so all the conversation at my house is about teeth. Jason has pictures on his phone of dental procedures he did that he is proud of. We watched a movie about the tooth doctor to help the kids get ready for their visits and discuss germs and brushing and spitting out the toothpaste. Also, I check daily to see if Darby's teeth have broken through.
And here I thought that the teeth talk would go away after dental school. :)

Davis Dental Clinic

Jason here. Upon arrival here in North Carolina I was assigned to work at Davis Dental Clinic. Most everyone here is great and I love treating soldiers. I have two dental assistants that work with me Brenda and "Miss Mack" and we get along great.

Army dentistry for me is pretty bare bones. I do exams, amalgams, and emergency treatments (i.e. initiate root canals and pull teeth), and then I do more exams. Did I mention that I do a lot of exams? One day I did 62 exams. We are busy, busy, busy here.

I like my work situation for the most part. It is great to work with so many other doctors around. I get to bounce ideas off them and ask their advice for things which is nice for a new dentist. Its not all rosy though as I have had a few run ins with the replacement officer in charge, but oh well nothing and no one is perfect.

I carpool with one of my Officer Basic Course buddies from San Antonio, Andre Ledoux. He is going to be starting the OMFS program next year and that is good because the guy was born to be an Oral Surgeon. He has been out of school for less than six months and already experienced dentists are asking his advice and referring cases to him. His wife Joanne is also a dentist and works here in town. They have a new puppy and I think they wish they got a kitten instead, it pees everywhere except outside (including on visiting car pooling buddies).

One recent development is that I have been re-assigned to work with 3rd Special Forces Group. I should say that I am not going to be a "green beret" but I will work with them full time and train the medics on simple dental procedures. Accepting the assignment meant that I had to postpone my residency training for two years though. By then the new residency building will be complete, so it is probably a better thing to do anyways. This is something of a dream job for me and something that I have been tracking on since before dental school started. The job opened up because the dentist there needed to take care of some things that would have been impossible to take care of from Afghanistan (they are deploying early next year) and I just happened to ready and willing. More details to follow on the deployment.

Finally

I think Fall is finally here for us in North Carolina. It has been cold enough to wear a jacket for the past few days and shows no signs of heating back up. Bring on the cute sweaters, coats and hats!