Sleep Deprived!

Looking like a red head today!

One week down, one to go. John has been out to sea for a week now, and at times it almost feels like he was never here. Mackenzie and I haven't been doing much of anything. I'm trying hard to get Mackenzie's eczema under control, so I prefer to keep her at home in our air conditioned bubble. As you can see from the photo above her face is looking a lot better than what it has been. It's still there, but she doesn't seem to be bothered with it as much as she was and it has definitely faded a lot.
Apart from her face Mackenzie is doing great. She is so busy now! She's pulling herself up to stand on everything and is now at times trying to stand on her own. She's been able to do it for a few seconds, but most times she just lets go and falls down! I believe she's trying to give me a heart attack the way she does it! Yesterday she also managed to climb up onto the bottom step, so I guess I need to learn how to use the safety gate we got. John did tell me how to use it, but I only half listened thinking he'd be around to do it for me! She was very proud of getting up there, but proceeded to fall off it too and hasn't gone back there!

Wearing her Texas shirt my friend Nancy got her!

She's still being a pain in the butt to feed! Store bought, home made she'll eat it one day, then refuse it the next. It gets so frustrating!! She's now also starting to get mad at me for even attempting to feed her at times. Tonight I was trying to give her chicken which she tried then looked at me in absolute disgust! I then tried to mix some apple sauce into it and she tried it and again no go! I then moved on the just plain apple sauce and got in trouble for not feeding her fast enough! She is loving the finger foods however, so I'm thinking maybe tomorrow I should just grill her up a steak and let her have at it!! She loves banana! She basically eats half a banana in one sitting! I am also going to try and order some Weet Bix (for you American readers it one of the greatest Aussie cereals!!) from a on-line store here in the hope that she might like that too! The bottle is also at a stand still. Today I tried the sippy cup and she cried or should I say scream when I attempted that so I took the lid off and she drank! I think she thinks she is two already!


She's always standing up these days!

As for me I'm tired. I haven't been sleeping to well these last few nights and I'm feeling rather exhausted. Saturday nights always seem to be a restless night for me. I think because it's the weekend and people are doing more there is a lot more noise in the area, and sometimes I get myself spooked, then there is no sleeping for me. On Saturday night I think I might have gotten three to four hours sleep. Last night I figured I'd go to bed early and catch up on the sleep I missed out on and I just couldn't shut off and go to sleep. I left the tv on as it normally helps, but instead I watched one show after another, after another. I think I dozed off around 1am and was awake again around 7. I need a holiday/vacation!

No Mackenzie!

No climbing on the tv!

Mackenzie is a very busy little girl these days! Now that she can crawl she's everywhere. Her latest trick is to pull herself up to stand so now nothing is safe! I now find myself saying "No Mackenzie" over and over again! "Be careful", "You're going to fall", "No touching", "Stop Mackenzie"...the list goes on!

No touching Mummy's books!

Be careful Mackenzie

No touching the books

No touching Mummy's Wii stuff!

These are all the photos I have so far. Other trouble spots are the cable cord (she loves to either pull or chew on it), any remote she can get her hands on and the trash can/garbage bin in the bathroom. She is getting so good at pulling herself up to stand, and she's not scared to try and stand without the support of something. I guess it's walking next!
Today I took her back to the doctors about her eczema. Her face is getting bad again and when you add her scratching to the mix I'm a little scared she's going to end up with scars on her face. I saw a different doctor today and he loaded me up with a bunch of creams and stuff. He also gave me some medicine which is meant to stop her scratching. I have to give her that three times a day, the medical creams twice a day and I need to keep her moisturized at least three times a day! Fingers crossed it will clear up once and for all.
She did great at the doctors she was smiling at whoever would look at her, and did not cry for the doctor! When you go to the clinic here once you check in they eventually call you to a room where they take their vitals (height, weight, temp etc) and to do this they ask you to strip them down to their diaper/nappy. I was sitting with Mackenzie after this and she was half wrapped in her pink blanket. She was smiling at a couple of nurses and when they walked past one of them said to the other "I think you have a boyfriend there." It stresses me out when people call her a boy...does she look like a boy? I mean she was sitting there in a PINK blanket!! This is a big reason why I always dress her in mainly pink when we go out!

Home Alone Again

Mackenzie sitting in her duck. (It was a gift from my friend Chrissy and is meant to be used in the bath, but Mackenzie is a bit too big for it now to go in the bath and prefers to play with it everywhere else!)

Monday morning was an early one for us! We had to drop John off at his ship by 6am. He has headed out today for I think two weeks. (that reminds me he never really did tell me when he was coming back!) Mackenzie slept through being put into the car seat and the trip, but managed to wake up when I was getting her out of the car so I didn't get to go back to bed like I wanted too. Hopefully it will be an early night for the both of us! I'm also hoping that she sleeps a little better than what she did last night. I think she'll do better now that she has "her" bed back with Daddy being gone!
We had a nice, but quiet weekend. On Saturday we went to Little Italy for some lunch. We had a beautiful bowl of pasta each and left there with full bellies and the most wonderful desserts! On Sunday we just hung out around the house and gave it a good clean. John received his stuff from Bahrain on Friday which contained a whole bunch of laundry for me! Every time he comes back these days I get a clothes hamper full of his clothes!! With Mackenzie added to the mix I can't believe how much laundry I do at times! With John's pack out we also finally got our Persian rug that John bought while he was over there. He did a really good job at picking it out! It matches our couches and is so soft! I will make sure to take some photos of it this week. I was concerned that Mackenzie would make a mess of it, but so far it's been me who has dropped something on it! New rule for the house is...no food anywhere near the Persian rug!!

Mackenzie and I at the Aquarium

On Friday Mackenzie and I went to the aquarium. We met up with my friend Marjolien (she is Dutch in case you are wondering about her name) and her two children Tim and Sanne. I used to look after Tim when I worked and became good friends with Marjolien. We like to get together and complain about our immigration and the differences here to our own countries!! Sanne is about four weeks younger than Mackenzie so once they get a little older they can be play mates! The aquarium was really nice. Mackenzie was mildly interested in the fish and we had a really nice morning.

The view from the aquarium!


Two sleeping beauties...neither of them budged when I took this!

Mackenzie started eating big people food this week and is so far loving it! Her eating has actually been a whole lot better in this past week, and she definitely loves to eat what we are eating. So far she's tried pasta, toast, bread and watermelon. For some reason I always seem to have the most problems with her in the morning...I don't think she's much of a morning person. I still haven't tried her on the bottle! John was meant to help me with that, but I guess I'll be doing that on my own too! I have got a couple ready today so my plan is to try one tonight! Fingers crossed she takes to it!!
As you can see from the photo above she's still in our bed at night. It definitely is not the best situation but none of us seem to want it any other way. Last night she did her crying thing where she's not even awake and just wants to be moved for most of the night, so I think John finally has reached his limit. He said this morning that he's going to help to get her sleeping in her own bed when he gets home. Maybe between the two of us we'll have the strength to do it!! :)

My smiling girl!

32 Weeks

A family shot at Bondi

Mackenzie is 32 weeks old today...where does the time go? In 20 weeks she'll be a year old. I can't believe how fast time has gone. We had a really nice weekend. We picked up John on Friday and had him at home and off of work until Tuesday. He went back to work on Tuesday, but gets to come home at the end of each day so we really enjoy that. He will be heading back out to sea this coming Monday for I believe two weeks, then he should remain in port until they leave in September. As of yet I'm not sure when and if he is getting leave before he goes. I have given up stressing out over the Navy as there really is no point in taking it out on John. He can't do anything about it, and we don't have much time together to be spent pissed off at one another. I am still a little mad about the whole situation though because John had to give up his time off so his boss could go on vacation. (The word asshole comes to mind when I think about him....sorry about the language Ruth)
As for the deployment I don't believe anything is finalized just yet but at the moment the departure date is possibly September 17 or 18 and they will be going to the Persian Gulf. There is a possibility that the ship may pull into Perth, but apparently Australia asks for a lot of money to do that so they might not go. If the ship does go there we may look into Mackenzie and I going to Australia, but nothing is definite yet. Other places John may be going to are Guam, East Timor, Bahrain (there is no escaping that place for him) and Thailand.

Sitting up like a big girl

On Sunday we went to Bondi for a little taste of Australia. Unfortunately they had no pies or vegemite so I left feeling a little ripped off! I got to enjoy some good Aussie sausages though so in the end I left a happy girl! Mackenzie enjoyed looking around and trying to steal Daddy's beer. I got the classic Australian shots of baby with the beer bottle, and don't worry she drank no beer!! :)
This weekend was a little warm for us here. There is never much of a temperature increase here, so when it does get warm I feel it! You would never believe that I come from Darwin anymore...the idea of heat like that scares me! Mackenzie it appears is super sensitive to the temperature change because on Saturday she ended up breaking out in a bad heat rash. We weren't out for long, but I guess it was too much for her. I've spent most of this week at home in our little air conditioned bubble to keep her from breaking out again.

At Bondi

The shot I was wanting...

Mackenzie however had other ideas!!

Drinking from a bottle for the first time

So the great food dilemma continues with Mackenzie. One day she'll eat good, the next day I'm lucky if I get her to eat a quarter of a container. I think she is just too reliant on the breast. She knows that if she doesn't eat the food that I'm eventually going to feed her. It's been my goal all week to attempt to pump some milk to get her used to the bottle and I still haven't done it. I did pump some, but we didn't get around to giving it to her and too many days passed so I had to throw it away. I'm thinking now that maybe I'll just try the bottles with formula because if I can't pump now, how am I going to do it when I'm back at work? Is it bad of me to think like that? I've been breast feeding her for almost eight months...I kind of feel like I'm a bad Mum for considering formula.
As for sleeping...John is worse at it than I ever was! He doesn't want to hear her cry at all so we've been allowing her to fall asleep in our bed, then she is moved into her own bed, then she's back in our bed once she wakes up again. Today he came home and saw that Mackenzie is more than capable of falling to sleep in her own bed, so she went to sleep in her own bed tonight. She didn't cry too much, so everyone in the house is happy! Now if only we could get her to spend the entire night in her own bed.....

Sleeping Beauty

This is the new way Mackenzie has decided is the best way for her to go to sleep. Yesterday this was how I found her, and she did the same thing last night too! I should just be happy that she's going to sleep in her bed, but this doesn't seem too comfortable to me! She loves to press her face into her blanket as she's drifting off and I hate it! A lot of the time once she's asleep I have to move face as I'm scared she's going to suffocate herself. She's been sleeping in her bed really good since John left on Monday. She's still not sleeping through the night in there, but I guess we'll see what happens as John is home again today. I believe he will have the weekend plus Monday off then he's back to work. Fingers crossed the ship stays in port, that way he will be able to come home at the end of each day.

Sleeping while sitting up....not my idea of a comfortable nap!

With John having to go back to work Mackenzie and I were at a loss as to what to do this week. We didn't do much of anything. I got my hair cut on Tuesday and Mackenzie was great while I was getting that done. She sat and watched and eventually drifted off to sleep to the sound of the hair dryer. I also enrolled in my class for next semester. It's a history class, so I'm kind of looking forward to that. I enjoy history as a subject but I'm sure I'll be complaining about the work I have to do!
We also went and handed in my application form for work at my old bosses center today. I have so much work to do if I'm going to have Mackenzie ready to go to day care! She is yet to drink from a bottle, so I really have to make a start on that. I sterilized the bottles today so my plan is to start on that this weekend. I was hoping that I could breast feed Mackenzie pretty much up until she turned one, but I know pumping and carting breast milk around is going to become old kind of quick. Have I mentioned I don't want to go back to work!? :)


Mackenzie modeling her new hat!

Yesterday we got a package for Mackenzie that included a new hat and some swim wear. I got them from this company called Coolibar. It's sells hats and clothing made from sun protecting material with an SPF of around 50. Seeing as how she has inherited my skin I want to make sure we start taking care of it now as I don't want her to end up like me. She loved her hat although it's a little big. I also got her two swim suits. Thinking that the 6 month old size wouldn't last her too long I got a 12 and 18 month outfit. These things are huge!! I haven't tried the 12 month on her yet, but I can't imagine when she's going to fit into it! I will definitely take some photos when she does finally get to wear them!

I love that it's big and floppy and protects her entire face and neck!! (Ignore all the those around us...we were in the middle of playing!!)

I have no idea what we will be doing this weekend, but whatever you get up to I hope it's a good one for you!!

Daddy's Here....and He's Gone Again....

Getting ready to drop Daddy off!

John finally came home on Thursday and we had just enough time to get used to having him around and he's gone again. I've held off attempting to write this in the hope that I can be a little calmer, but I'm still frustrated beyond belief! This is so unfair...and I'm so completely done with the Navy at the moment that this may become a little bit irate at times, so please forgive me if it does. I'll begin with the bad first so I can just get it out of the way and hopefully end the posting a little more pleasant.
I believe around Thursday John started playing phone tag with the warrant officer (his new boss) on his new ship. On Saturday he got a call and he was asked if he could come join the ship now for something called change over as he has to leave the ship. Of course he tells John that it's his decision, but what choice does John really have when it's a new duty station for him and he needs to be there for the next two years with the hope of promotion etc. He tells John that he will be joining the ship which is currently out off the coast and he will contact him to let him know when. Then on Sunday he gets a call and he's told that there will be a helicopter going to the ship on Monday and John needs to be on it.
This guy knows that John has just come home from a years deployment, that he has a infant daughter that he's barely seen and that he'll be gone again in September and basically doesn't really seem to care. So now John has to work till at least the 20th of July and hope that he can get time off before he leaves again. He should hopefully be back in port on Friday, but I'm not holding my breath on that. This was not the way I wanted to begin John's time on this ship. I thought we were just coming to the end of a bad deployment and it seems like we're headed for yet another one. I knew that John was going to be spending time away when I married him, but I never imagine it would be like this. I'm just so completely over living like this. I just want to be able to have some time with my husband.

Waiting for the fire works

Let me stop though...in the small time that he was home Mackenzie had Daddy wrapped around her little finger within the day. She was a little shy at first, but I think that was mainly because she was tired. John's flight ended up getting delayed by about an hour so it was around 8:35 before he got home. Mackenzie was tired and way out of routine, so she went to him, but was a little stand offish. The next day however she was smiling at him and enjoyed having someone else in the house to play with.
Daddy in all his tough talk about getting Mackenzie to sleep in her own bed is even weaker than me. The first time he heard her whimper she was out of the bed. There is now three in the bed!! Lucky for us we have a big bed!! Mackenzie is a little unsettled with him in the bed though as she is very used to being able to stretch out in the bed. Sunday night she spent a lot of time head butting John in his side in an attempt to move about! With Daddy gone again I'm back to trying to get her into her bed...at the moment she's sound asleep in there so Daddy needs to see that she actually can do it, she just doesn't want too!

Waiting for the fireworks

Saturday was Mackenzie's first Independence Day. She wore her red, white and blue and we took her to see the fireworks. We went to our usual spot on the base and timed it just right as there were a lot more people there than the previous year. I guess with the economy being the way it is a lot of the extra fireworks shows that are normally put on around the city were cancelled. Mackenzie stayed awake and wasn't too phased by the fireworks at all! I think she got to see some of them, but she was too busy looking around at everyone to really notice them. Going home was a total nightmare! It took us over an hour to get off the base. At first Mackenzie was screaming so we figured we would pull over, get her settled and wait for the traffic to lighten a little. We got her settled and got back on the road only to see that the traffic was still just as bad. In all their brilliance the Navy decided to shut off all the traffic lights, have no one to in turn direct traffic, and open no extra gates to get people out. Any holiday spirit people may have had was gone quickly after sitting in traffic that barely moved!! We eventually got home and headed straight to bed!

Mackenzie July 4th dress!


She's a real Daddy's girl

Smiling with Daddy!

John and his girls.

We also got to catch up with Dakota before she headed off to LA to hang out with her cousins. Mackenzie had a lot of fun being the center of attention!
So here we are again home alone. Mackenzie really doesn't know any different which I guess is a good thing. I would have hated her to be older and have to explain that he was going again after so few days. Today I had to take her along to my hair appointment, and thank goodness she behaved herself. She only got upset a little, and that was fixed with something to eat, which she proceeded to get all over her clothes. After that she drifted peacefully off to sleep! Since coming home we've watched the Michael Jackson memorial and then I enrolled in my classes for next semester. I have only enrolled in one class so that I don't get over whelmed with John being gone again and going back to work. I wanted to make sure however that I do something for school so that I don't let it fall by the way side. As much as I don't want to study anymore I do want to complete this degree.
Hopefully John will be back on Friday and hopefully he won't be going out to sea again. Hopefully we get to spend some time together as a family...keep your fingers crossed for us.

Today's the Day!!

Here I am counting down the hours till John comes home!! He just called and said that his plane is delayed in Denver due to poor weather so just our luck I have to add some more time till he comes home. The house is ready, I guess Mackenzie is as ready as can be expected and of course I'm ready!! I'm looking forward to seeing him...then I'm going to disappear and have a bath. I've been wanting a relaxing bath for so long now, but being the only one here I haven't given myself that luxury because I was always concerned that Mackenzie would wake up!!
Mackenzie is doing great and her new thing for this week is pulling herself up to stand. Crawling I guess wasn't enough for her!! It's a little scary because she wobbles and all the rest and I don't want her hitting her head. John is going to probably have a few heart attacks when he sees her in action!!
Anyway I don't have any new photos but will post some soon of Mackenzie and her Daddy!!