Giggly Bits

Maria's View-

Today has been a joyful day for Griffin.  Chris has a nickname for him when he is this happy..."Giggly Bits"...and I understand why, now.  This is the first time I have ever experienced him in this great of a mood!  He laughs for absolutely no reason and is just extraordinarily happy.  It is so cute!!!  Literally, all you have to do is look at him and he will laugh.  I left the room and heard him giggling only to find him doing absolutely nothing but laughing.  LOL.  love it.

Being this joyful has some drawbacks for him.  He has a hard time expressing his emotions correctly.  Even though he is extremely happy, I have noticed several times today that he will bang his head while laughing.  Pretty hard.  It doesn't stop him from laughing because I really think that he feels that this is appropriate for happiness!  When he is nervous, tired, or upset, he doesn't bang his head at all, he covers his eyes and shuts down...his most extreme behavior when he is upset is poking his forehead with his fingernails with locked fingers. 

So all I can do is stop him when he bangs his head, tell him 'nyet/no', and let him keep on laughing!

His fluid intake has improved, praise God!  His lab work has slowly started trickling in...so far, so good!

I'm giving Chris the day off today since he let me have some fun yesterday.  I think he is going to take Big G to the pool this evening after tennis.  Should be a great time!!  I would like for us to do this for each other every week.  Being that we are hunkering down a bit, it's good to have some time out of the house!  My next outting, The Lucky One, even if I have to go by myself.

 Roast, potatoes, and carrots in the crock pot for dinner tonight!  Easyyyyy!

Love and Hugs!


Chris's View-

Had a papa/daughter date today with Big G!

She got so used to us hanging out during the 10 day wait, and unfortunately, since I got back with Griffin, we have been unable to go hang out.  I needed it too... I think I needed it more than she did though.

After breakfast, I got around and headed to base with the goal of getting all the command sponsorship paperwork taken care of so we could get the package turned in.  See, for Griffin to stay here in Germany and to get full benefits as a military dependent, he has to be command sponsored.  More so, the command sponsorship affords Griffin protection under the Status of Forces Agreement... SOFA.  The SOFA protects us during many different situations and some legal issues in Germany.

So, I got to the base and went in to my work to print out the filled out command sponsorship paperwork.  I pre-filled it all out earlier this week, I just didn't print it out.  Anyway, after I got it printed out, I needed to get what is called a 1466, or a medical clearance paper.  I went to the EFMP (Exceptional Family Member Program) office to pick it up.  They couldn't do this paper until Griffin had his physical exam.  He had this last Friday, so I was sure this would be ready.  I get to their office and the SSgt tells me that she cannot give me the 1466 because I haven't gotten the doctors to fill out this massive stack of papers.  UGH!  Why wouldn't they give me this pack of papers when we had the physical?!?!?  This has become a huge problem in the military...

Okay... a little venting session, I apologize in advance... if you don't want to read this part, please skip down... I have noticed a very poor trend across the Air Force.  It seems like you cannot get anything done easily or quickly due to the "goose-chase" factor.  This package of papers should have been given to us at the appointment.  Not 7 days later.  Same thing, I filled out the package to get the DoD Adoption Reimbursement program.  I called my Personnel Office Customer Service desk, who promptly told me that I had to work that issue through Finance.  I sent an email to Finance... since we cannot call them or walk in to see them anymore... and they told me, yep, you guessed it, it was a Personnel Office function.  See, no one accepts responsibility or really knows their job anymore.  If I was to tell a pilot coming down final, "Sorry sir, I can't help you during your emergency, you'll have to talk to the Fire Department about that."  I can promise you I'd be fired in 0.0 seconds!  It has gotten so bad!  Enough complaining though.

So, I filled out & dropped the forms off at the pediatrician's office & left to go to the Personnel Office.  There were 5000 people in there, literally, not a seat to be sat in, so I decided that'd have to wait.  On my way off base, I realized I lost my military ID!  NOOOOOO!  This day just got real bad!  After getting back on base, I back track.  My ID was at the EFMP office... the one who gave me the huge pack of papers.  When she gave me my ID back she also gave me 2 more packs of forms!  WHAT!!!!!!!  You may want to go read (or re-read) the paragraph directly above this one!  I finally got home to get some paperwork that was needing to be turned in for the developmental pediatrician and went back to base.

After dropping that off, I picked up Big G from tennis lessons... she won both games at tennis camp today!  Yea!!!!  Afterward, we went to the base pool and had a good time swimming.  We stopped by the BX & Commissary, then hit McDonald's for an ice cream cone.  It was such a great time being able to hang out with my baby girl!  I need to make more time for things like this.  She's growing up way too fast, and I know soon she will not want a date with papa.  :(  Makes me sad to think about it.

See ya'll later!