Early Holiday Joy

Today was an exceptionally exciting day.

First, a couple of good friends of ours here in the Pacific Northwest had their baby (adorable Leila Marie!) this morning. She is just beautiful! They are all doing great.
In addition, I was finally able to upload a new video of Miss C with her new trick. The best part is at the end of the video, so please give it a minute, ok?



After all of that wonderful news, I got home to see Miss C received an early Christmas present. In our mail box was a neat package from Amazonqueen's DOM. What a wonderful blanket Miss C received! I attached a couple of photos we took today of her enjoying this wonderful gift.


















OK, I admit, I had to call Alphagal to confirm the sender as I am not always current on her tia's real names!
Anyway, Alpha tells me that the blanket was Amazonqueen's idea so I have to publically thank both women for such a wonderful, enduring treasure. I know Miss C will enjoy it forever! I would give you loads of hugs if we were in person, but blog hugs will simply have to do until then!
I guess that's pretty much it for today. Thanks for stopping by! Drop a line if you get a chance, ok?

Lookout! Here we come!

Well, Thanksgiving was lots of fun and Miss C and I have another couple of days before we both go back to our normal schedules. Her care provider, Mrs J, is home with her kids until Wednesday, so Miss C and I have been enjoying loads of time together. It turns out this is the week to be home. Since our leave started, Miss C has not only shown us that she can roll from her belly to her back, but also from her back to her belly! I swear I think the cat is traumatized. The first time we realized Miss C could roll both ways was when we jokingly told her to "go get the kitty" and, well, she did. It wasn't fast but the cat was sure the baby couldn't come close without our help. Boy was she wrong! My goodness the look on the cat's face when after a few minutes she glances over her shoulder at us to discover Miss C a mere foot away!

Aside from that major milestone, Miss C is getting more vocal. She tends to talk to the ceiling fans and the cat, but hey, she could be talking to us and just looking at the other stuff. Who knows! She's also got much better manual dexterity. Whenever she drops a toy, we can lean her over to pick it up herself. That too started out as us joking about it, leaning her down and voila, she picked it up. Crazy! Miss C is also great at balancing in a seated position. She can't put herself in that position but once she's there, she can play with toys and still stay in that position for a long while (20 minutes once!).

Well, hope you're having a great weekend and enjoying the football games as much as we are! Go Chargers!

What are you thankful for?

I am thankful (in no order what so ever)...
- that our cat survived yet another move (her fifth in nine years) relatively intact (she's still a little pissy about it!),
- that our house in SoCal is still standing after the Harris fire,
- that while we may still have our house in SoCal on the market, we are not in over our heads fiscally,
- for our daughter, Miss C, she is the light of my life and brings us so much happiness daily its impossible to imagine life without her,
- for my husband who puts up with me even when I do go a little nutty,
- that although we have been without my father for a decade now, our memories still run strong and we are able to share them with Miss C and her cousins (including stories of Herman!),
- for our families, every joy and every sorrow, we share as a family,
- that Uncle W and Aunt L's little one (due in late June) is on track and doing great,
- that Aunt A and her three children, Miss C's cousins, are thriving and growing so fast,
- that Aunt C and Cousin M, while on the opposite coast are doing well in their own ways,
- that Uncle J calls the day before Thanksgiving even though we understand he might be busy!
- that Uncle D, even though we aren't able to converse right now, is still doing well in his chosen career,
- that Auntie J is willing to give up her vacation to come visit us and help us out,
- that Miss C's Grandma and Grandpa are doing well and will be visiting around the new year,
- for our friends, those willing to read and comment here as well as those who call up just to say hi, stop by for a visit or lend an ear when we have concerns.
- for Alphagal and her DOM who are willing to come visit us when DH is on the road so we don't feel too overwhelmed so early on,
- for Poobou and her family who open their doors to us when we travel so Miss C isn't stuck in a plane and a car for six hours straight
- that Mrs J happily shares her home and her positive outlook with Miss C when DH and I have to work,
- for our new jobs which have allowed us to spend this Thanksgiving together
- for my new job, while i may have to stand silly watches, I won't be called on during this tour of duty to go overseas, to fight the war on terror on that front line,
- for DH's new job that allows us some semblance of normalcy by scheduling his departures in advance, as much as they can,
- for our friends and family, who while they may no longer be with us in body, remain so in spirit

- for the freedom to write and post blogs about what I am thankful for.

What about you? What are you thankful for this year?

Thanksgiving (A little early)

It's amazing how much a child can alter your perspective. This year I am more thankful than most, mainly because Miss C is doing great, very healthy and just about the happiest little one I have ever met. For the past month and some change, we have been adjusting to a new house, new jobs and all that. Miss C is doing a great job of adjusting to her new teacher (its better to think of Mrs J that way since she does educate Miss C) and a somewhat new schedule.
Oh! Miss C did make her very first Christmas ornament. It's the cutest snowman ever! She patted down home made play dough and helped "cut it out" with a cookie cutter. So very cool!
Due to a leave situation, I get to spend the next week and a half home with Miss C (Mrs J and family are going home for Turkey Day then taking a little vacation so...). I am really looking forward to spending time playing with my little one.
Ok. As far as the rest, still no drapes. The hardware has arrived but the drapes have not. We should see them sometime this week. Ugh! Enough already! I need drapes. This does show how far out in the boonies we really are since I haven't really griped about my lack of drapes that much!
Work is an interesting place. There are a lot of folks with a lot of different experience. We just went through a major system upgrade so a lot of what I have been learning about is now irrelevant. That frustrates me a little but I am sure I can learn the new system. I am still not 100% sure what I will be doing. I know I have to qualify as a watch officer and hopefully that can be done before DH has to go on his first road trip, but outside of that, I am not really sure. I have been talking to my boss and he has ideas that can apply basically everything I have done for the last 15 years, but I am afraid that would make wayyy too much sense so it probably won't happen.
One of the major concerns I have, after making sure I have child care set up for Miss C in the event that I am on shift work, is how I can take and do well in a class this spring. Miss C sleeps quite well, so I would have time, kind of. See, I have two classes left so I really do need to take one this spring and one this summer in order to graduate. Then I can take a little break before I start on the next degree. I guess i am just not sure of my time management skills once DH has to leave for his trips. Well, that's pretty much it. Consider yourselves caught up. If you're in town for Thanksgiving, drop on by. We fully expect to have wayyy too much food and will definitely be watching football. If not, know we are thankful for you all!

Miss C is 5 months old today!

Holy cow! Where did the time fly? Let's just get moving onto the latest, shall we?
1. Miss C is now officially an ankle biter. Yesterday, while sitting in DH's lap, playing, Miss C leaned down and wrapped her chubby little arms around his foot and put her wee little teeth into his ankle! It caused more laughter than anything else, but yes, folks, its official, Miss C is an ankle biter!
2. Miss C loves to play with her toes, her feet, her hands, everything. Check out this new photo of her tasting her toes. Too cute!

3. Miss C has 6 (I kid you not!) teeth coming in, the four bottom front and the 2 top front. The bottom front have broken through but are still quite clear so they are hard to see. The top left one has a point through and the top right is swollen. Poor kid! She drools like a champ though and doesn't complain much. She does use everything she can get her hands on to help her. She even likes the "Super Soothies" pacifier and holder to chew on!
4. Miss C is much better at balancing while sitting up. She sits in her boppy to play. This has in turn led to her sitting up in the bath tub so now we are giving her baths in her little tub but without the back support. Instead, she gets Mommy back support. She likes it this way, her ducky is always at hand!
5. Miss C is more fond of oat meal than rice cereal. This didn't take long to figure out. We started her off on rice cereal and a week or so later decided, what the heck, give oat meal a shot. I kid you not, she loves it!
6. At first glance, Miss C is not fond of green beans (see photo below). This is, however, the first time she tried them and she had recently gotten up from a nap. I think that she will grow to like tons of stuff, but we couldn't stop ourselves from taking this photo. It reminds me of how DH looks when I offer him green beans!

7. Miss C is much more communicative. For example, when she needs something, she leans towards it and gets it. If she can't reach it, she grunts for us to get it for her. When she is hungry, if I am holding her, she will grab my face and suck on my chin. She got her care provider's nose the other day because she "missed a sign" that Miss C was hungry. She will even pat your chest if she thinks that will help!
Well, that's pretty much it for today. Miss C caught a little new care provider bug. Just a little stuffed up, well, more like runny snot, but you know how it is. We've got her leaning just slightly in her crib and it, as usual!, helps keep her clear so she sleeps well. All we have to do now is get over this one hour time shift. It seems to take Miss C a little while to adjust. Its really such a neat process!

Settling in

I have to say, this is really a challenging transition. My entire career I have been driven to excel. I still feel that same drive but it is tempered by something else, an intense desire to spend as much time as I possibly can with Miss C. I have 5 years to go before I am eligible for retirement. There's no turning back now. Its just that with my last job, well, I had a lot more flexibility with my hours than here. As I mentioned in my last posting, we found a great provider for Miss C during the day, but when DH has to go on the road, I will probably be on shifts so I have to come up with an alternate plan for the days that I have evening or even night watches. I can do some watch exchanges with other folks who prefer not to be around during the day, but I am trying to convince the powers that be that once I complete the qualification that I should take over one of the day jobs, one more in line with my rank as I am senior amongst the watch officers. See what I mean? Before, it would have been no big deal, but now....

Speaking of Miss C, she is doing great! She is having a little difficulty adjusting to day light savings time, but who isn't? We're trying to adjust her little by little. She only got up 45 minutes earlier than normal this morning so it looks like we will do this in 15 minute intervals!

Be sure to check out the flickr and if you get time, the you tube too, I managed to upload a couple there in the past week or so. I still have more videos to upload but when I have a choice between playing tummy time with Miss C or uploading videos, well, the videos always end up waiting!

Oh, before I forget again, I have been meaning to post formal congrats to my brother W and his wife L. They are going to be parents around Miss C's birthday! So, congrats again and don't be afraid to post or check out Alphagal or Poobous' posts. We're all more than happy to answer any questions or help in any way!