Only a few days left!

Jacob & I have been home alone without Aaron for 5 days now. It's been pretty loney without daddy around. I'm sure the dogs are totally confused about everything. First we pack up all of our stuff and then their dad leaves them here with a crying baby. But they are adapting well. They have actually learned to walk with the stroller. I tie Georgia's leash to one side of the stroller and hold on to Smokey. I'm a little scared to tie Smokey to the stroller...if he decides to take off for some reason then I'm sure he will be dragging the stroller with him. Not a good idea!

Jacob is doing great, as usual. He was extremely fussy and cranky the day Aaron left. It's as if he knew something was up. But now he is doing really great. He's starting to poop on a regular basis now. :) No more once a week or once every 10+ days. He seems a lot happier, but still cries and strains to get the poop out. I know...way too much information. His head control has improved so much. He is starting to love to sit up on watch everything. This weekend I put him on the couch and he seemed to really enjoy sitting up by himself.

This is our last week in Sicily. I'm excited to leave, but so sad at the same time. I'm going to miss site seeing and all of our friends. I will not miss the crazy neighbors I've had, the gossipy women at this base, or the dumb Italian drivers. The next few days are going to fly by. I have appointments every day. Hopefully Jacob will be an angel this week and everything will go smoothly! Fingers are crossed!

Here are some new pics from this past week...hope you enjoy!




After seeing this pic, I thought he looks like a leprecon. His hair really is not orange! It's more an auburn color.



Jacob sitting up...this is not our couch..this is our loaner furniture we got. It's pretty ugly!



Everything goes in his mouth now


Jacob helping mom blow out the candles

All in one day

Yesterday Aaron left to go back to the states. It sucks that Jacob & I are still here for another week. Hopefully it will go by very very quick!!

Of course the day Aaron leaves, Jacob decides to be a fussy baby. He hasn't been this fussy since he was about 6 weeks. It was pretty bad. All he wanted was to be held. I tried to lay him down for his naps and even let him cry it out for a little bit. And boy did he cry. He wasn't giving in, so I did. I held him while he slept. The poor guy was so tired. But thankfully when it came to bed time, he let me lay him in his bed with not much of a problem.

Right now he is taking him morning nap, but on the couch next to me. I don't think it will last long since he keeps squirming around. I am hoping today will be a little better.

We also found out today that Aaron got promoted!! Yay!! I found out around 2pm our time and was dying to tell Aaron. He was still on his flight to Atlanta, so I had to wait about 6 hours. It was so hard!! When I did finally tell him, he didn't belive me. He thought I was playing a joke on him. But I wouldn't joke about this. That would be too mean. We are extremely happy about this! So if any family in Ohio sees Aaron this week, congratulate him! First Class Hanlon!

We may have found our new home. Or at least we are hoping so! We found a semi-nice house on 3 acres. The land is the best part! The house is okay...or at least from the pics. Maybe with some paint and a little work it will be really nice. I love remodeling and decorating, so I am sure I can have some fun with this. It has a really nice long drive away. The land is cleared out around the house, but the perimeter is surrounded by trees. You don't see any neighbors or the road. It will be a great place for the dogs and Jacob to play. Keep your fingers crossed! Well be able to look at it on June 1st when we get down to Gulfport.


Here are some pics of Jacob in Catania. We wanted to take some pics so when he is older he will see where he was born. We will probably come back here to visit when he gets older.

Is he breathing???

This morning Aaron's alarm went off at 6. I woke up and couldn't believe that I had slept that long without Jacob waking up for a feeding. Neither one of us had heard Jacob in the middle night crying. So of course I start to wonder is he breathing? I go and check on him, and of course he has wiggled himself to the middle of the pack-n-play. And yes, he's breathing! Thank god! I go back to bed, and Aaron asks "is he breathing?". I thought I was the only crazy one to worry about that. The night before last he slept 8 hours between feedings and last night 10+ hours (he's still sleeping!!). I don't want to ginx our selfs, but hopefully this is the start of something good! :)

Wiggle Worm

Jacob has now learned how to wiggle him self around the pack-n-play. Almost every time I go to get him in the pack-n-play, I find him in the opposite direction of what I layed him in. Thankfully once we get back to the states he will have his crib and will have a little more room to wiggle around.



Here is Jacob doing some tummy time today.

Jacob is getting so big!!

Growing Jacob

Jacob is happy as can be right now in his bouncer playing with his new toy. Yesterday Jacob & I went shopping. I realized that I didn't have much summer clothes for him. I have some onesies, but some of them are long sleeved and it is getting way too hot for them. Plus he is becoming a very hot natured little guy. Or at least we hope...after doing some googling I found that his over heating could also be a cause of a heart problem. Once we get back to Atlanta, I will get a second opinion. The heart scan we did here at the local Italian hospital went well, but it's better to get a second opinion and one from a doctor that we can actually speak to. He doesn't have a tempature, but he gets pretty hot easily. So we got him some really cute summer onesies that are a little bit longer than the regular ones and look like shorts. They are so cute.

We also got him a new toy that he picked out! Well at least he tried! I showed him two toys and he kept staying at this one pacticular toy, so that is the one we got. It attaches to his stroller or crib or he can play with it in his lap, like he is doing right now. He really likes it. He's actually talking to it right now and getting all excited. We noticed that he is starting to really like his toys now. He touches and grabs at them now rather than just starring at them. He's a growing little man.



Here are some pictures from yesterday....

Jacob & his new toy

The good...the bad

The good news is that we are finally done with the pack-out! We stayed up till 3am in the morning Wednesday night getting everything done. I know we did way more than what we needed to do. I made sure to pack all of my expensive breakables, most of my clothes, and most of our electronics. I have heard so many bad stories about the movers here. The movers actually arrived on time and had almost everything packed up by noon. I was a little worried about Jacob and keeping him happy during all this. He did a great job! He was a very happy baby. He did start to get a little fussy in the evening only because he didn't get decent nap during the day. So we were all pretty sleepy after this long day.

The bad is that we found out on Wednesday afternoon that there is a change in our travel plans. Jacob and I are now leaving on the 29th. I had so many things planned, but of course it's the Navy and nothing goes as planned. Aaron is still going back on the 21st. So Jacob and I will be here alone for a few days. I'm a little worried how everything will go since I have Jacob. I somehow have to get both dogs to the vet with Jacob by myself. I can barely walk both dogs with Jacob, let alone get them in the car and into the vet's office. Hopefully there won't be any other dogs in there b/c I won't be able to hold Smokey back.

We are now living like college kids (or maybe even worse) until next Wednesday. We have a lovely air mattress, tv, and some lawn chairs. We are using Smokey's extra large case as furniture too. We turned half of it into a tv stand and the other half a coffee table/dining table. Sounds pretty nice, huh? ha! We get loaner furniture next week, so until then we are camping out in our house.

This is our lovely tv stand


This is our coffee table/dining table/baby changing table/night stand all in one!



Guess what I'm typing on?? My new laptop! :) Aaron got this for me for Mother's Day and my birthday. My old laptop finally died. The new one is pretty sweet. I'm still finding new things on it. Aaron did a great job! It came with a webcam so we will be setting up Skype to talk to everyone. If you have it and want to chat, let us know!

Here is Jacob on moving day.

Mommy & Jacob in the jeep carrier

Jacob getting ready to go on a car ride...we caught him off gaurd.

10 days left!

Only 10 more days left in Sicily! I can't believe it. I feel the need to fill my face with all the good sweets and cappos! I told Aaron that we will have to go and get some canolis and cappos this weekend since it is my last weekend here.


Today we had Jacob's heart echo scan at the local hospital out in town. We were escorted there with an Italian translator. We went during lunch hours, so it was crazy busy around town. Our driver was driving like a normal Italian - crazy as hell! ((One thing that I will not miss!!)) Jacob was such a happy camper today! I got him all undressed and layed him on the table and all he kept doing was smiling. I was waiting for him to be fussy and unhappy since he was naked. But nope, he was enjoying himself. He even stayed pretty happy during the ultrasound except when the doctor's hand kept touching his mouth. He wasn't too happy with that. The doctor said his heart mumor was small and that he will eventually grow out of it. So everything is good to go!

Tomorrow we have to have everything done for the packout. All we really have left is to put anything we do not want packed away in a separate room. Sounds easy enough, but Aaron has yet to pack any of his clothes. I have so much stuff that I need for Jacob that I need to pack in a box or put in my suitcase. I will be happy when this is all over with. I can't believe we have to do this every couple of years. It seems like we have accumulated a lot of stuff over the last 3 years.


If you haven't noticed yet, I pretty much take pictures of Jacob on a daily basis. He is just too damn cute! Of course I'm his mother and I'm supposed to think that!

12 days left!

Yep, I'm counting down! 3 more days until we pack up all of our stuff. I'm so not looking forward to that. But we are almost done getting everything somewhat ready.

We took Jacob to his first party this weekend. He did a great job! I was a little scared he would get fussy or act up. But he thankfully didn't. He ate, slept, and then woke up a little and hung out. It's nice to know we can still do the same things that we used to do and include him, just now we leave a little earlier so he can get in bed.

Here are some pics of him this morning... He is so happy in the morning.

15 days left in Sicily

It's hard to believe that Jacob & I only have 15 days left here. It is bitter sweet. As much as I hate living in a small military community, there are so many thing I am going to miss. Like the real Italian food! Anyone who thinks Olive Garden is Italian food is freaking crazy! The food here is soo good that it could never compare to Olive Garden. I will also miss all of our great friends that we have here. They have become family to us. I know we all will be friends for many years to come! So I have two weekends to fill myself up with some good food, wine, and time with friends.

This weekend is going to be pretty busy for us. We have our friends kids birthday party in the early afternoon, then I have a baby shower later, and following that I have a cinco de mayo party. All of this on Saturday! On Sunday we have so much to do to get ready for our pack out which is on Thursday. We are half way done, but we still need to pack our suitcases and take some things off of the walls. Our house is a complete diaster. I am actually looking forward to having everything packed up and moved out so I can clean. It is really bothering me having everything all over the place. I'm a total clean organized freak. Everything must have a place and be nice and neat, otherwise it stresses me out. Only a few more days!


Jacob is doing really well this week. He hasn't been very fussy at all. I think it has a lot to do with him finally almost sleeping through the night. He gets his last bottle around 9 or so and then goes to bed. He doesn't wake up until around 4:30/5am for another bottle and then sleeps for another 3-4 hours. I have been very lucky latley to be getting some decent sleep. I'm sure in the next few weeks his schedule will be a total wreck with all of our traveling, so I need to enjoy it while I can. Every day he seems to get bigger and bigger and of course so cute! When Aaron comes home from work, if Jacob is in the room and can hear his daddy but can't see him, he will get fussy until he sees his daddy. Today Aaron was at home for lunch and I had Jacob in his front carrier. I was talking to Aaron and Jacob couldn't see him. Jacob was trying his hardest to move his head around so he could see Aaron. I moved the top of the carrier so he could see his daddy and he put on a huge smile. It was so cute. Jacob loves his mommy and daddy! I will have to get this on video one of these days.

Tonight I left the two men at home and had dinner with a great friend! It was so nice to get out and have a great dinner with many glasses of wine! Thank you so much Danielle for the invite! I'm going to miss her! Her husband is from Ohio as well and she is from Jacksonville, FL. They have another year or so left here, but I'm sure we will see each other again soon. Either in Florida or Ohio.

Well I better get to bed now since Jacob is already in bed.