Arriving in Dayton

We drove to the Dayton area three weeks ago and spent the first five nights in an extended-stay hotel.  It had a bedroom, living area and kitchenette, and we got to keep the cat with us (for a fee, of course).  It wasn't ideal but was so much better than a basic hotel room, even with the extra cost.

Mike had some inprocessing and other base things to do the first few days, and then we house-hunted with a realtor (and both kids) for three days.  Neither our adventures in real estate nor being stuck in a hotel pleased the kids.  We did find a house, but we can't move in until Oct 1st...more on that later. 

We explored the area a little and found some shopping areas.  After spending two years in Germany, I really appreciate all the stores in the states.  Yay, Target!  I never thought I'd appreciate being in a consumer society so much.  Here, Mike and Ben found the 3D TV demo in Best Buy.

Once there was a spot available on base, we got to move into temporary lodging.  It's great: two bedrooms, full kitchen, living room, and a washer and dryer.  I can do laundry whenever I want!  Hey, it's the little things.  Availability for these rooms is limited, and Mike has to go back every so often to see if we can extend our stay.  We'll be here for another 2-3 weeks.  If we're super lucky we can extend again.  Oh, and this isn't free...we get so many days paid for, and the rest is up to us.

Since the whole point of this short-notice move was to get medical support for Madeline, we got the ball rolling by taking her to see her base pediatrician right away.  Ben reluctantly tagged along.

Sesame Street on my iPod kept him occupied for 2.5 minutes.

The doctor we saw is great.  She signed off on the referral to see dwarfism specialists in Cincinnati later this week, and she also set up referrals for both physical therapy and occupational therapy.  Plus Maddy's having some eating issues - she eats very small amounts and often throws up anything but formula - so she sent us off-base for some tests.

Here's Ben at Dayton Children's while Maddy was having an upper GI.  It was kind of neat being in a children's hospital where everything's tailored to kids.  We'll be going back soon to see a pediatric GI doc because we still don't know why Maddy's not eating normally.

We dragged Ben along to do a lot of boring stuff.  So we tried finding some playgrounds where he could blow off steam.  Yeah.  The base, while huge and boasting a ginormous golf course, doesn't have any functioning playgrounds right now.  But before we could hunt down one within driving distance, we found this play area in the local mall.  Score!  We thought it was kind of lame...and Ben thought it was AWESOME.  He can run, play, and badger other kids.  It's all he's ever wanted.  Besides his own iPad.