Catching Up

Our days have been pretty repetitive over here lately, which means I don't have much to blog about. Since I normally only come back when we have gone on some sort of adventure or with an update on Dominick I figured I could update on some things that have been happening in our house.

+Ryan tests for SSgt the very beginning of May. If you think about it, say a prayer for him. He is taking about 2.5 weeks off in April. We are very excited for him and I hope he makes it. Currently, he's somewhat deciding on if he wants to cross train to another job or if he will do a special duty to break up his time. As of right now he is planning on making this a career and surprisingly I'm 100% for it. To be honest, it's kind of an uneasy feeling whenever he "jokes" about getting out. And most of the time it's just a joke (thankfully). 

He has less than 5 classes to go before he gets his Bachelors and at that point he's pretty confident he would like to commission. Again, that would be a huge blessing. Unfortunately, right now the AF (, Army and Navy) have all suspended tuition assistance which is kind of a huge kick to the you know what. I think it's really disappointing and quite sad, but nothing can be done at this point. Ryan WILL still complete his degree and we will just pay out of pocket. In the end his education IS worth it.

His days are busy at work and his evenings are busy with studying for Staff or homework. Last summer his friend and him started doing routine and final outs for yards and they were quite busy with that so I think that will start picking up again soon too. He didn't mind and he enjoyed the extra money; unfortunately, his friend who he was doing it with just had surgery and is going to be recovering for a little over a month (I think) so I don't know how many he will do alone...if at all.

+I am busy with work and being a momma. Some days I feel so guilty for leaving Dominick at day care for 5 days, but I know it's best for our family right now. More on this later. In the middle of February I started working on base again, still with the same company that contracts with NASA. I really enjoy coming to work and my coworkers are all so nice which makes it much easier to come in every day. My commute went from 45 minutes to 10 minutes. I now wake up AFTER I was supposed to be leaving and am home around the same time as before...even though I would be getting out an hour earlier. It's nice. I love my evenings with Dominick and they're mostly filled with being a momma and wife...two of my favorite "jobs"

I live for the weekends when I can spend more time with Dominick and to rest and recoop from the weeks, although most weekends are spent with friends, running errands and catching up on housework from our busy weeks. We make it work and we are FINALLY (after 6 months) getting a good schedule down. 

+Dominick is still growing like a weed. He is an army crawling pro and has even made progress with crawling on his knees and hands. He LOVES his purees and will yell at us if we don't get the spoon to his mouth quick enough. We've also given him avacado, bananas and small pieces of chicken.Even though he is still eating GREAT, he has finally slowed down on the growing. He goes for his well baby check tomorrow and I'm pretty sure he's only grown about an inch and gained around 1 lb. He is very health and a very happy baby most days. 

Dominick with his Easter Basket

 With that said, he has been having a rough time at day care, but I think he is beginning to adjust. We are both trying to help him, but honestly there's only so much either of us can do in the situation we are given (meaning me and the day care provider). She is a friend and someone I trust, so I feel confident in leaving him there it just pulls on the heart strings when he has a rough day.

Last night he also slept in his crib for the first time. We originally didn't buy a regular monitor thinking we (read I) would be okay with out it. Well when he finally came I realized I just couldn't imagine having him in his room not knowing if he was okay and being so little so we left him in our room. Well over the weekend we decided to purchase a video monitor in hopes of moving him to his room yet still being comfortable hearing/seeing him. He's been sleeping in his pack n play and while I think he's comfortable in there, I also think between the dogs jumping up and off of the bed, my constantly adding or removing covers or (Ryan) snoring during the night he wakes up. So last night was his first night in his own room, in his crib. I watched the monitor the majority of the night and woke up to every sound I heard. He did pretty good, but I had to give him his pacifier once and by 5 this morning he was awake. I brought him to bed and he fell back asleep again. I'm not sure how long he slept after I left for work (I had to work early this morning), but when I left at 6:20 he was still sleeping for his dad. I consider that a win considering he was sleeping at 7:15 last night. 

This summer we have high hopes of going camping to Yosemite and a trip to Hawaii on Space A this fall is also being discussed, but will take a little more work considering it is Space A and our leave requests are always unpredictable (mostly Ryan's). In addition we are planning a trip home to Michigan in the summer time, which we are most excited about. Dominick is also going to be turning 1 and I'm starting to think about his big party! For any of our Michigan family we would LOVE to have you and California would be a nice vacation. :) Just a thought. 

If you made it this far you deserve a pat on the back! As you can see not too many exciting things happening in the Boutwell household.