Little time

So I get to take the train on Wednesday to see my hubby. The best part....BABY-FREE! That means I am traveling with no baby at all! My dad and step-mom are allowing me this trip by watching baby girl. Goodbye baby and hello Matthew!

Will write more about new things L is doing soon. Have a wonderfully wodnerful day! I am off to see the man who has made my dreams come true for almost 6 years!

BTW -- Bday count down, 13 days until it is my Birthday!!!

I feel sorry for me, but it is getting better

Being away from my husband for almost 4 months now and just over two months to go is taking its toll. The first 3 months I was so grateful to be off of recruiting duty that it was no problem being away from the man of my dreams. Now we are far enough away that I am just missing him and lonely without him. The past week 1/2 have gotten hard. I am not sure why the lonliness hit but its here. So, to try and get through this I am listing my blessings as I occassionally do when I need a kick in the butt to get over myself.

So it is time to count my blessings:

I am not the one away from my daughter. Matthew doesn't even get to see her that often and he doesn't complain at all!

Lexi is growing and developing as all parents hope a child would.

Inspite of me, Lexi is growing and developing well ;).

We have gotten to see Matthew 5 times, which is more than some families get to see their husbands/daddies.

We are in a good place with family.

The weather in SC is so WARM! I started working on my tan in April!

We soon get to move to Japan. While there, we get to see my brother Brandon on a regular basis.

My whole family is currently healthy.

Brain, one of my brothers will be coming home from Iraq soon!

We get to go to Disney this summer.

We get to see Matthew's sister get married and my friend Annie is getting married and we get to be there too!

At least we get to keep the spice in our marriage because we see each other so infrequently.

We are so blessed to be able to cover all bills and save some $$ right now!

Have a wonderfully wonderful day!

One Month Away

So one month from today is my birthday. i am not sure what I will be doing on the day. M's sister is getting married in Bermuda and we are flying there at the end of May. So maybe L and I will be on the beach!

Speaking of travleing, I would like to share my travel plans over the next four months because it is CRAZY!!! What am I thinking?!?!

May 19 -- Drive to Columbia, SC to catch a train at 4 am on May 20
May 20 - 21 in VA to celebrate M's graduation from TBS (The Basic SChool) I am so excited about doing this trip baby free!!!
May 21 -- Drive back to SC

M is with us for Memorial Day weekend

May 26-June 7 -- L and I catch a flight to Bermuda

July 8 - July 21 -- L and I fly to KC,MO to go to Annie's wedding!!!

July 23 -- Drive to VA

July 24 -- Drive to NJ

July 25 -- Drive to Vermont and spend a week there

July 31 -- Drive back to NJ

Augusta 3 -- Drive to SC

August 8 -- August 16 Driving to Disney to spend a week there

Sometime during the week of August 16 we are hoping will be our move to Japan.

We have a lot going on! At some point in there, I need to fit a trip in to NJ to be there when the movers come and pack up all our stuff. So this is our crazy life for the next couple of months. I am excited aobut moving to Japan, but sad about syaing goodbye to people for 3 years. However, I am trying to work a 4 day stop in Hawaii on our way to Japan, so that makes the move even better.

What are you summer plans?

Birthday!

L's birthday has passed, and that means that the count down to my Birthday begins! Just so that you know my Birthday is 7 weeks away. I typically start calling all my friends about now to remind them. Since I have a blog, I will pass the information along this way as well. I don't want presents. I just want you to know that it is soon to be my birthday and birthday month (yes, I get a whole birthday month, even if it is only in my head). June 1 I will be 30 years old!! Yeah!

Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago if I was freaked about turning 3 - 0. I said no, of course not. My dreams in life were the following:
to become a teacher -- check

to live in Hawaii -- check

to live and teach in Hawaii -- check, check

I accomplished those goals. Life from here on out is icing on the cake. I get to be a wife to an amazing man, a mother, and I will get to go back to teaching at some point in the far away future. So I am thrilled with the way my life has been blessed by God and I love my Birthday!

So happy birthday to me in 7 weeks!

Big 'ole Birthday number one!

L enjoying the attention and cake















Mommy and Daddy helping to blow out the candle



L had a fabulous Birthday. She was a pleasant creature suring the whole affair. We are so thankful for our baby girl! Check out our website for all of the updated pics.

Birthday Celebration!

We have had the most wonderful birthday week. L is one year old. We are so thankful that she has been healthy for one whole year! We are grateful that she is developing normally and we are so blessed to have so many people in our lives who love her too!

I am excited to share photos on our web page soon. Hopefully in the morning I can get them up. Until I share new photos, I wanted to share some of the cool things L is up to:

She will hold out one pointer finger when asked how old she is.

She will usually answer...
"What does a dog say?" "UUU UUU" which is Woof, woof

"What does daddy say?" She tries to answer with an Ooh rah.

"What does a cow say?" "Oooooo"

She roars for a lion and sometimes answers for a cat.


The cutest is when she is told "Let me hear your war cry" she will growl at you.

She is eating strawberry foods, cereal bars, tried watermelon, dried fruits, and she loves being the center of attention.

She is able to mostly walk across a room.

She enjoyed her Birthday and and loved being around family and friends.

Look for pics soon.

Weekend with M

Ok, I have to share one of the most touching things I have seen lately. On Friday night we got to Quantico to visit M. M was not quite ready and still had some things to take care of. So L and I pottied, diapered, and played around in the barracks while M finished up. L has a new habit of holding one of my fingers and walking along. So we walked through the hallway to burn off some of her energy from sitting in a car seat for 8 hours. The barracks looks just like a dorm -- a crappy dorm - but a dorm. So all the guys M is in school with live together on the one floor of the barracks. Most of these guys have been in the Marine Corps. many years, are extablished people with families. So as L and I are walking through the hall, the guys are changing over to the civilian clothes and heading out to get dinner. As many of the guys stepped into the hall, they would stop and look at L. This where I get teary eyeed... The guys would look at her and say something along the lines of she's cute, but then this look would pass over their faces. This look of sadness, joy and longing all in one look. You could see on their faces they were thinking of their kids. Then most of them would tell me about the kids they have at home. They would light up talking about the ages of thier children and the names. Whether the kids are older or one guy has 6 month old twin girls. When they saw L, they all thought of their kids and you could see they wanted to be with their children. I was so touched by these grown men who are trained to kill longing for thier children. So if you see an Acitive Duty military person, thank them for what they do and the time they spend away from their families. Let them know you think of the times they are sparated from their children and you appreciate what they do.

Onto the the rest of the weekend:

What a blessed weekend! We went to stay with the Leonards in DC while visiting M over the weekend. So you know what they did for us?!?!? Brad and Vanessa kept L upstairs with them Friday and Saturday nights. In case she woke up, they wanted to let us have time together. Then they kept her Saturday evening so M and I could have a date. We got to go to a movie and dinner baby-free and just spend time together! It was such a blessing to have that time! So thank you Leonards for the weekend! Getting to see M once per month is not fun so thank you for the gift of time together.

We are so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.

Please say a little prayer for all the people who are spearated from their children.

Loosing the baby weight

So now that L is turning 1 in just 6 more days, I am no longer going to look like a fat dumpy mom with an infant. That time in my life has passed so we are moving on.

I have been working to loose wight and have pulled off 13 pounds. I have 13 more to go and we are getting strict now! M's sister is getting married in just over 2 months, so this frumpy mom will not be dumpy for the wedding. Thank you to God who has helped me curb my cravings and thank you to Wii Fit who has motivated me in dropping those pounds.

I went shopping! You see, when I call to tell my husband that I bought new clothes, he responds with "Where did you go?" And he is not referring to me going to a too expensive store. He is referring to when I used to buy all my clothes off of the Sears clearance rack. (I LOVE to save $$$.) I had this addiction to looking like a frumpy mom even way before I was a mom. So when I say "Express, New York and Co. or Ann Taylor" he is a happy man. What would you give for a man like that? I do admit that I am still addicted to looking frumpy (that is naturally me and naturally comfortable) but we are making progress.

I got a new doo. I know that I look best with short hair, but when I had a newborn, the last thing I wanted to do was my hair. So I grew it out and put it in a pony tail or sloppy bun every single day. That is easy to do when a baby is crying. Well, now L is about to be one, so since she can crawl around at my feet or play with toys in the tub while I do my hair (my new SC friend had this suggestion, tried it today and it was fabulous) I have found time to actually do my hair. So it is chopped short with highlights and it is cute! Oh, when I told M that I got my hair done, his response was "You didn't go to Super Cuts did you? You went to a real place right?" And yes, I have been known to go to Super Cuts to save some bucks.

Eyebrows waxed. I feel so much better when my eye brows are done. But it is soo painful to tweese and I don't like to spend $$$. So I mostly do nothing. But yesterday I thought "What would Matthew do?" He would tell me to get my eye brows done if I wanted to...so I did!

So thank you God for providing $$$ to help me fix myself up and thank you God for providing a husband who says "Do whatever makes you happy." Thanks to R.S. and R.C. for helping with fashion.

I really wish that What not to Wear would come and help me, but maybe I will get this figured out. So here is to moving on and enjoying being and active, fit and hot mom!

Independent

So are your kids hugely independent? Does your child look you in the eye and then continue to do what he/she wants to anyway? Did your child start at 10 months testing you? Mine did.

One night I was giving L and bath and she tried to stand up in the tub. I sat her down and said "We're sitting." She looked up at me with the most precious expression, and then stood up again. My thought was, "Holy crap, here we go." She proceeded to stand up about 20 more times, all the while looking at me daring me to stop her. Each time I sat her down and said something along the lines of sit down, we are sitting, time to sit, etc. How does a 10 month old start testing!?!?!

The next night I could tell my method was working because she only tried to stand up about 6 times. Since then all I have to do is say "sit down" once and she stays.

Then came her testing int he high chair. She started a new thing of swiping the food on her high chair tray all over. She thinks its hilarious to send the food flying. The first time I said "No" in a firm voice. She looked me straight in the eye, yelled at me in baby Chinese and swiped again. Over and over we went through this. Does anyone know where this strong will comes from??? Couldn't be from me!

She swiped once with daddy and he told her no...oh you would have thought he just beat her. Her little lip came out and she sobbed for about 2 minutes. Then swiped again. Apparently daddy saying no has much more of an impact than when I say it. She just yells at me and does it again. So these are our new things! Is it normal for a 10 month old to do this?

I have spent many years working with people who have disabilities. People from age 11 months all the way to almost 70 years old. I was used to not being defiant until about 3 years old because my kids at school/work were so delayed. So this surprised me that L would test me so early. But I think this is a typical development at this age, so we are grateful for neurons connecting the way they are supposed to.

I am continuing to let her know when she is not supposed to do something, but also replacing the behavior. For example, when she goes to swipe, she can't swipe food, but can swipe with a wipe at the end of the meal to "help" me clean up. Hope all these strategies I've been passing out to parents for several years work with my little rascal.


Other new and cool things L is doing...
1. Following one-step commands "sit down and come here"
2. Walking 10 steps fairly well
3. eating big girl food -- bread, cheese, yogurt, apples, pears, grapes, blueberries, baby puffs, rice, chicken, beef, bananas, refried beans, tortillas, and some others I probably forgot.
4. Signing milk and more
5. Has imitated moooo, meow, and neigh
6. Laughs so much more -- she used to laugh at something only once. Now she laughs frequently
7. She tries to follow the big kids from room to room to play with them
8. This afternoon she may or may not have swallowed a penny. Guess we will find out tomorrow.
9. Looks like our little girl has an under bite, so at about age 6 or 7 she will probably have to wear a hockey mask to fix the jaw.

Have a wonderfully wonderful day! In just over a week our baby girl turns 1!!!!!

Birhtday Wishes

L's Bday is only 2 weeks away, any Birthday wishes you would like me to write in her baby book for her? I will include in her baby book all of the birthday wishes that have already been written.