I still don't have a picture of Jacquelyn's first tooth. Now, it has two friends!! The second one came in about 2 1/2 weeks after the first. The third one came in today. She hadn't been napping well over the last few days. It's so hard to tell at this age if it's changing weather, growth spurt, tooth, etc. I hope she sleeps better now that it has made its appearance.
Jacob is now 4. Where does the time go?!? We will celebrate with a party on Saturday. He is very excited but didn't understand why he couldn't have it on Wednesday, his actual birthday. The fact that he got several presents in the mail that day seemed to help a little!
I will post more after we take pics on Saturday!

October 2008

The kids are doing well and we are settling back into a routine. Jacquelyn finally got her shots last Friday. There were four as well as one oral vaccine. She wasn't to happy with the shots but came through like a champ. She is now 19 lbs 4 oz and 27 inches long. It sounds big but she is actually slowing down. At birth, she was 2 pounds bigger than Jacob but she is only 1 pound more than his 6 month check-up. She also decided to pop out her first tooth. Monday night was a rough one. She woke up every hour. Since Ben was out of town, I thought she just had the cold that is going around. (Kids always get sick when Daddy's are out of town.) Turns out it was just a tooth. She didn't sleep well last night either but it doesn't seem to bother her during the day. I will take a picture when I get a chance. She isn't showing it off yet! Jacob is anxiously awaiting the day when she can play with him. He wants to feed her and loves to spend time with her. He has been such a big help and I feel blessed by my wonderful little boy!

Has it been a week already?!?

I can't believe it has only been a week since we returned from our Gustav evacuation. The ride home took 12 1/2 hours but the kids did well. The morning started off much as our trip up...the DVD player stopped working 15 minutes into the trip. After a meltdown, I had to explain for the next three hours that McDonald's doesn't serve Happy Meals this early (7am) in the morning. When we finally did stop for lunch, he was disappointed that they were out of Star Wars toys. I'm still in a sleep deprived haze and Ben is still recovering from working nights in St. Louis. Now he gets to work long days for the aftermath of Ike so it will be awhile before we are well rested. Jacob was able to start school on Wednesday but it was cancelled on Friday. It will resume tomorrow. Jacquelyn is 6 months old today and we have been trying rice since yesterday. I'm not sure if it's the texture or the taste but she doesn't seem to enjoy it. Due to the storm, she gets a reprieve on her shots. The MD lost her vaccines in the power outage following Gustav. We will call back in 3 weeks to see if they are back. Can't wait:)

Plan to return home tomorrow

Ben got home this afternoon. They flew him to the NAS/JRB. When he finally made it to the house, we still had no power. We expected this. From what he could see, we didn't have any damage. There was much debris in the yard but we will clean it up when we can get into the garage. He bolted the wooden door closed since it's rather flimsy. We have to wait for the power to come back on to use the garage door opener. He thought he smelled the decaying food aroma from the fridge. Thank God it's already in trashbags. I would like to wait for the power to come back on to cool the food back down and kill some of the smell before we open the door. Removal of the boards from the windows to allow the house to air out is also a must. The kids and I plan to leave tomorrow and drive back. We will stay with Ben in a hotel downtown. Several of our friends will be back so Jacob will have people to play with if he gets tired of Daddy (or Daddy needs a break?) I think Ben is still recovering from the night shift! The Children's Museum and Aquarium are both open on Sunday. Jacob will spend as much time in the hotel pool as we allow but this will give us other options. This may be my last posting until our power returns (unless I can borrow someone else's computer.) I pray for a safe return for all those on the road tomorrow!

There's no place like home.....

Ben is scheduled to fly out tomorrow after his shift. He should be leaving around 8:30am. Once he gets back to NOLA, he doesn't have to work for a few days. As of right now, we still don't have power. According to the local news website, Orleans Parish can expect 100% power restoration by Sunday. I have no idea what time Sunday or if we will have it back sooner. At this point, Ben will go home to check on things and clean out the refrigerator, freezer, and deep freeze. Trash service was scheduled to resume today but I'm not sure if that is still the case. The Coast Guard will pay for a hotel. Unfortunately, they are all booked. The military bases are also closed. Needless to stay, I will be here at least until Saturday morning.

Still Waiting

I know that we didn't have any flooding but I don't know yet about roof or tree damage. The power was out yesterday and I haven't heard if it's back on yet. The phone was still plugged in but we have cable phone service. Since the cable is out, I can't call home to see if the machine picks up. Now we are waiting to see what Ike and Josephine do before we decide to go home. I hope to be home by the weekend. It's been good to visit family and friends but a little stressful as well. Neither child is sleeping well and Jacquelyn either has allergies or a cold. Makes things a little harder. Since Jacquelyn isn't sleeping at night, I'm not either. This should make the drive home very interesting! Baby is crying now. I hope she goes down for a nap!!
It's many hours later. She did not go down for a nap. We decided to go to the park to let Jacob run around outside. Just as we were leaving, Ben called to see how we were. Jacob was so excited to talk to him and we decided to drive into St. Louis to see Daddy. It was a good visit but too short. Jacob was very sad to leave (as was I). Jacquelyn fell asleep 10 minutes into our drive back to Grandma's and Grandpa's house. Jacob fell asleep 2 miles from their house. I drove around for an extra 20 minutes to let him sleep. It was difficult to get both kids to sleep but they are down for now.
Tomorrow, we hope to visit with friends in the morning while Ben sleeps. Mid-morning, we will drive up to see him and spend the afternoon. The plan right now is for him to return home Friday morning. As of now, we still don't have power. I'm not sure when we will be returning. I will keep everyone posted and pray safe returns for all of our friends.