4 months old!

Little Man – Owen is 4 months old today! This last month has been quite a busy month. He started to grab things with intention (including my hair), stands with assistance in his bouncer, he LOVES to lay on his side and so close to rolling over I can taste it. ☺ He is also very interested in his hands, which probably help his sore gums since he is cutting teeth! We have had lots of smiles this month along with a very special treat for mom! He giggled!!! I’ve been eagerly waiting this special moment and it happened just the other day when Brad was playing with Dakota. I’m not going to hide the fact that I teared up a little. It was so sweet to hear his little giggle and see the awesome beginning of a sense of humor. We have his 4 month doctors appointment at the end of the month where we will find out how much he weighs, how long he is and when we can start with some rice cereal or other ‘solid’ foods. I am hoping he weighs around 13lbs and will be average in length. He is kind of a short kid, which is surprising since both Brad and I are on the taller side. I suppose he is only 4 months old and has quite a bit of growing to do.

Mommy –I got a job!!! Our pastor somehow got into contact with this optometrist who has her practice inside Costco and discovered she needed part time help. I went in one afternoon, with Owen, and watched what happened, what I would be doing and then I had a quick interview. Then about a week later I was called by the office manager and asked to start the next day!!!! Yikes! It’s a great little office to work in. I am basically just a receptionist, but some day soon I will be confident enough to do the pre-testing, which includes glaucoma testing! Fun! This is just a part time job but I am perfectly fine with that because the 5-6 hours I’m away from Owen is hard enough. I can’t imagine being away from him for longer and more frequently. Brad had taken to his daddy duties very well. I’ve been able to pump enough for him to feed Owen through the day and he is getting a good routine down. ☺
Big news for Brad this month! He is officially done with school – atleast for now! At the end of September he should get his diploma in the mail! How exciting. I am so proud of him. He took a very full load of classes, over summer semester and ALL of them were online! He had his fair share of distractions and missed a few small assignments, but over all his GPA is just a few points shy of a 4.0!! He did so good that he will probably make it onto the Deans List! Here is to hoping that Owen get’s his fathers smarts!
We also learned this month that Uncle Tim (Brads middle brother) was hired on at Alaska Airlines! Congrats Tim! We are so proud of you!!
I am continuing leading the FRG for brads unit and it’s been fun to start from scratch. It’s currently myself and another female solider who is my liaison, but we have fun brainstorming once a month on different ways to raise money for the 411th HHD. Those of you who are on Facebook, and I know many of you are, please do me a favor and ‘like’ the 411th FRG. When I make it up to 30 ‘likes’ I am able to do more with the page and that means I can get more information out to the public about what’s going on with the unit. Next month they are standing up as a unit and becoming public, if you will. It is going to be a big deal, as there will be VIP’s there like the mayor of Billings and maybe even the Governor. Some high-ranking men will be there as well. I introduced myself to the Lieutenant Coronel, a full bird and a major. They were all very eager to see what I do with the FRG. Fingers crossed I don’t disappoint them.

These next few months should be pretty busy for us! Owen’s Godparents are expecting their little girl any day now! We are beyond excited to meet baby girl Diaz and I am sure she will make a debut on the blog next month! We also have the activation ceremony for brad’s unit in the middle of September along with traveling back to Seattle in October to celebrate Lucas’ first birthday. Before we know it, it’ll be Halloween and then Thanksgiving! Where does time go? Wherever it goes, it goes pretty quick!!

***Next blog I hope to post more pictures. I have taken TONS on my phone and with the actual camera, but I need to better organize my shutterfly folders so I know what month to post! In the mean time, enjoy the few pictures I know are from this past month! ☺

Stereotypes

Stereotypes

I've never liked them. White. Black. Rich. Poor. City girl or hillbilly. They are never fair and usually lead to hurt feelings. Brad and I experienced a stereotype tonight with our dog Dakota. She is a black pitbull Labrador mix and quite possibly one of the sweetest dogs you could meet. She is intimidating with her breed and small but muscular size but she honestly wouldn't hurt a fly. We have had Dakota for just over a year now and she turns 2 in October so she is still very much a puppy at heart.
She tends to get out and run and when she is running, listening is the last thing on her mind. Brad took her on a car ride last night to the local red box station to get a movie and when they got back she jumped out of the truck and took off down the street. Brad casually walked in and said "Megan, guess what!? Our dog ran away again!" I stopped what I was doing and went out front to call her and brad went out back. She never goes far and usually comes home within 5 minutes - I'm pretty sure she likes being fed and sleeping on our bed. This time was different. It took less than 5 minutes but this time our neighbors two houses down were outside and decided to make our lives difficult. They were yelling and screaming at brad to get Dakota off their property or they were going to call the cops. The lady went as far as to ask her son to hand her a baseball bat so she could beat Dakota!! Yes, please do that. That won't make our dog attack you at all!! They were saying that Dakota charged at the little girl and that she as growling at her. We know our dog and how she reacts and Dakota doesn't charge. She does this thing in our yard hat we have dubbed the Dakota 500. She races around out yard full speed 3-4 times and then is exhausted after. All Dakota was doing when she left the truck was doing a Dakota 500 around the block.
Now Dakota had been cooped up all day because she has kennel cough and it's being treated, but for the time being she shouldn't be around other dogs. She is like any living creature;if you are kept inside all day, when you have the chance to get out and stretch your legs you are going to take the chance.
The stereotype that pit-bulls are means dogs frustrates me. Yes, she has an intimidating growl but what dog doesn't? Dakota only attacks you in kisses and puppy pounces. She has never bit or attacked anyone. She listens to us when it really matters and is a good dog. It frustrates me that people think that she is a mean dog. Don't judge a book by its cover.
Back to our neighbor. After we got Dakota calmed down and a leash on her, brad did the brave thing and brought Dakota back over to the neighbor so they could get to meet her and see that she is a nice dog. The lady wanted nothing to do with brad and told him to leave or she was calling the cops.
This part really bugs me. If the cops were called it would be a 'he said she said' sort of thing. She could say that this mean dog tried to attack her little girl and that's all it would take to get Dakota hauled away. This is where stereotypes come in. Dakota is labeled as a mean dog because of the people who choose to train pitbulls to fight and be aggressive. Pitbulls are incredibly loyal and obedient dogs. I have heard that poodles are actually more aggressive and hurt or kill more people than any other breed. Never would have thought that!
It's aggravating to think that these people who were yelling and screaming at us to get Dakota away from them can ruin our whole evening and rethink our dog. We would never put Owen or anyone else is danger.