Happy Birthday Eva!

I can't believe my baby is one year old. Actually, one year and 3 days now. Where did the time go? These past couple days being with just the two of us and no daddy, I have come to love her even more than before. I just love to watch her and all the funny things she does. She smiles this insanely adorable smile with her four teeth showing and her nose all crinkled--it makes me want to eat her up every time she does it. Already she is beautiful and funny and smart...I'm sure all of those qualities will only get more pronounced as she gets older. But she really amazes me. I love her with my whole entire heart!

She had a great birthday on Easter Sunday. She wore her adorable new dress from Mammy and looked like a little princess. She got WAY too many presents and wasn't interested in opening them at all. So I helped her. She did like her new books though, and looked through those for a little bit. She just loves books, and that makes me so happy.

Why is it so impossible to get a good picture on important days? She was NOT interested in posing at all. As you can tell. At least I got a picture that demonstrates a real part of her personality. :)

We made her a birthday cake and she LOVED it. She chewed on her number 1 candle too and ate the burnt part of the wick. Gross.

Happy birthday, Eva!

Long day

We made it to Houston. I am exhausted. I need to write about our wonderful Easter/Eva's birthday, but...not tonight. Just popping in to say I'm here and our almost month-long vacation has officially begun.

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning the primary had an activity that we took the liberty of attending because of my calling as primary chorister. It was a pancake breakfast and an Easter egg hunt. I ate too much greasy sausage (gross) but we had a fun time talking with friends while sitting on the miniature plastic chairs. Eva found one egg, and she was very proud of herself.

She shook it but never seemed interested in opening it.



On a separate note, one year ago today (3 hours from now) I went into the hospital to begin the process of induction. How crappy I felt then, and how happy I was to finally be on the verge of giving birth. And how happy I am now to be a year past that horrible time! Unbelievable that here I sit, pregnant again. I know most people think I'm crazy. And maybe I am, a little. :) But I am happy to report that I weigh about 50 lbs. less than this day last year, I can still wear my wedding ring and all my shoes, and I don't feel like a cow. Yet. So I'm feeling pretty dang good.

St. Patrick's Day

At the bowling alley on base it was $.50 for anyone wearing green for St. Patrick's day. So after a pretty boring day, we decided to don green and head to the lanes. Andrew surprised me by wearing his Napoleon Dynamite "I'm training to be a cage fighter" shirt that he bought when we were dating. It's too small and pretty tight, and he looks totally hot in it. I didn't know he was wearing it until he took off his jacket at the bowling alley, and I just had to laugh.

Eva was sporting green pants and a green onesie, just for good measure. Totally didn't match, but she still looked cute. We kept our streak of horrible bowling. We used to be pretty good, for a while. Alas, the only thing we are consistent at in the sport of bowling is inconsistency. Every time. But we had fun.

Book review and more

I finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I liked it. I don't know if the timing was right for me to read this book as it didn't really "speak to me" as I had hoped it would. The story was set in the post-apocalyptic world, from what I understand, and it was about a father and son who are almost the last people on earth. The world is dismal and gray and rather depressing, and although I was touched by the father-son relationship, I think it wasn't the book for me to read at this point in my life. I was hoping for something a little more uplifting. Trevor would be disappointed in my review, but...there it is. I'm not UNrecommending it. It was a great book, and I will probably revisit it again in the future.
I have now started One Hundred Years of Solitude and am 2 pages into it. I like it so far--more info on that to come.
Tonight we had one of our old friends over for dinner, Matt Lohmeier. It was nice to have someone over because it forced me to cook a nice meal on a weeknight. Something I should probably do more often. But we had a good time talking with him.
Great weather today. I found a CUTE pattern for headbands on Elizabeth Kartchner's blog (her link is on the left) and had to run to the quilt shop in Hennessy to get some fat quarters to make headbands. Originally I had intended on making them as gifts, but the fabric is so cute, I just might keep them for myself.
Playgroup was at Leah's house and she made a DELICIOUS pork polente, I think it's called. Yum. I am really going to miss my friends here--that is the worst thing about moving. Thank heavens for blogs--we can all keep track of each other as long as we live. Or at least as long as the internet lasts.

Losing my mind.

Being a mother is the best thing I have ever done. With that said, allow me to complain about one negative aspect of motherhood. I have gotten DUMBER. I realized this the other day when I was in the mood for a good book. I was browsing through my bookshelf and nothing looked appealing. I saw my favorite book ever, Pride and Prejudice. I HATE to admit this, but the thought ACTUALLY came into my head, "No, I don't feel like reading something that requires that much thought." Immediately after thinking that, I was struck with the realization of my diminishing intelligence.

Back in college, as an ENGLISH LITERATURE MAJOR, mind you, I absolutely loved to read. I read tons of books, all the time. And now I have gotten to the point where a Jane Austen novel is just too much work. Not that motherhood is directly responsible for this--Eva does not require so much of me that I simply don't have time to read. It's just that I have chosen to do other things for so long that I've completely gotten out of the habit of exercising my mind.
Overwhelmed with shame, I set out looking for a good book to read that would get me back in reading mode. At this exact same time, I reestablished contact with my best friend from college, Trevor Berrett. Let it be known that Trevor probably had more influence on me in college than any other living person, and I trust his opinion on all things literary more than anyone else I know. We lost touch years ago and have both since gotten married and had a child and one on the way. Thanks to the power of Facebook, we are officially friends again. :) On his Facebook profile, he has a list of his favorite books. As in the past, I was suddenly compelled to read anything he recommended (much to the chagrin of my dear husband, who was insulted that I have not yet read a book he recommended, despite my attempt at kindly explaining to him that Trevor's recommendations are in a whole different category).

So yesterday at Walmart I found The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I started reading that. But my thirst for books was not quite satisfied, so I went to the library today to pick up three more off Trevor's list: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I also bought the movie of the latter, as that was also on Trevor's list of favorite movies.

Hopefully, thanks to Trevor's accidental help, I am on my way to restoring my full mental capacity. No more living in ignorance for me. With just a little effort, I will soon be able to say once again, in full honesty, that Pride and Prejudice really is still my favorite book. And it's not over my "motherly" head.

P.S. I must clarify that I do not worship Trevor as some sort of English major god. After our long friendship, I simply came to trust his judgment on things like this. :)

Big girl carseat

We have reached a milestone in Eva's life. Yesterday we moved her to her forward facing carseat. I know, she's not 1 yet (7 more days until she is!), but we were just so excited that we couldn't wait anymore.

She seemed a little confused at first, but soon got used to being able to see us. We both kept pulling down our mirrors to look at her. I think we were more excited about being able to see her than she was to be able to see us!

She chattered away (sometimes I think she's trying to sing with the funny sounds she makes!) and we had a good drive down there. We took a little excursion to OKC to go to Target. Man, I love that store. We got a Baby Einstein movie and a cute outfit for Eva's birthday. I think we've officially bought her too many birthday presents, but it's just so nice to have a good reason to spoil her. :)

She was a little terror for most of the day because she wouldn't fall asleep. We have been working all last week on moving her to one nap a day, but a full day with no nap at all--NO FUN. For anyone. Including everyone else in the store.

We finally gave up and left to go home around 4pm. And within 5 minutes of driving, she was fast asleep. Little punk. At least she's a cute punk. :)

We stopped for dinner in this small little Mexican restaurant in Hennessy. At first glance I said, "No way," but after gathering my courage and telling myself if it was THAT bad I could just at the chips and salsa, we ventured in. I probably wouldn't take the time to go back, but it wasn't too bad. We were pleasantly surprised. And I didn't have to make dinner, so that was even better.

After playing with Eva and letting her watch her new movie (I think we were more into it than her), we put her down and spent the rest of the night picking out house options. We have officially decided to build, and we are SO excited. We've moved up our "house hunting" trip (even though the hunting is done, there is still lots of paperwork!) to the end of March, and I'm SO excited. Andrew will be gone from home for almost a full month, and he's pretty sad that he won't get to see Eva for so long. He has not yet expressed how sad he is to be leaving me, but hopefully that will come soon. :) Picking out all the stuff for a brand new house is time consuming--there are SO many decisions--but it has been really fun. I'm so anxious now to get moved in! September can't come soon enough.

Relieved.

A few hours after Eva was born, Andrew was asleep on the couch and I, full of the energy that comes after giving birth, was bored and wanted to hold our little baby. I couldn't get up very well though, so I decided to get Andrew to bring her to me. After whispering, then calling, then yelling his name at least 78 times, he finally came to consciousness enough to hear me. He got up and I realized he wasn't fully awake. But he picked up little Eva and shuffled over to me. I had my arms out waiting for him to gently set our sleeping baby there. But that isn't what happened. He got close enough, held her out, and dropped our newborn from a couple feet above my waiting arms. Luckily, I caught her. But I was LIVID with him. Not that he remembers this, because he was pretty much sleep walking. But I still give him a hard time about how he almost killed our brand new baby simply because he is a deep sleeper.

Since that day, I have often wondered what would happen if someone were to break into our house at night and try to kill Eva or me. Would Andrew be able to wake himself up enough to fight off the bad guy and save his family? What about a fire? Would I be able to shake him to get him up in time to grab Eva, all my scrapbooks, and the hard drive from the computer in enough time before our house burns to the ground? These are concerns that have often plagued me, and I have recently expressed my fears to him. Of course, with dismissal--"Of course I would be awake enough!" Well, considering his track record, that is hard to believe.

That is, until the other night. It was Friday night (or rather, Saturday morning about 3am), and all of us were fast asleep in our beds, dreaming peacefully. (Wait, I NEVER dream peacefully. I'm sure in my dream I was discovering that my sister had come home from her mission without telling any of us, or that my mom all of a sudden became a chain smoker. But never mind that.) Suddenly, we are both awakened instantly by a SHRIEK, followed immediately by a terrified cry. I had barely registered what was happening and hardly had time to think about what was going on before Andrew had bolted out of bed and ran into Eva's room. I was positive she had somehow fallen out of her crib, or gotten stabbed, or something horrible. I got in there a little slower (I'm getting bigger by the day, unfortunately) and we both tried to calm her down. I still don't know what caused her to scream like that. She wasn't hurt or bleeding anywhere, and her crib was still intact. It must have been a bad dream (wonder which parent she inherited that from?) or something.

Although I felt bad for Eva, I was so grateful to have had a chance to see Andrew react to a middle-of-the-night emergency. He was so fast and awake that I have to say, I'm no longer worried for my safety if something REALLY bad happens. He'll be able to save my life just fine, no matter what time of the night it is. I'm so relieved.

I'm in no rush

I have just decided that "I'm in no rush" is my motto for the day. Possibly longer. It should probably be something like "Clean your house, you filthy slob" or "Stop eating candy bars, you're getting fatter by the minute," I don't care. Today I am in no rush.

Yesterday was mostly spent outside with Eva. I think we went on 5 walks--some with her in the stroller and some with her walking. While she's in the stroller, she constantly points to everything she sees--mostly birds--and asks,"What's that?" (souding more like "Asat?") It's when she decides that she wants to walk that our little excursions take MUCH longer. See, she has entered that phase of exploration, where every single blade of grass, piece of bark, and dried up leaf is the most fascinating thing she has ever seen. She'll pick up something (for example, an acorn), look at it, then continue walking. About 10 steps later, she stops walking, bends over in this really funny way, and sets it on the ground. She remains bent over though, and picks it right back up.

She may pick it up and set it down 3 or 4 times before she stands back up with it in her hand and keeps on walking. At least, for another 10 steps or so. At this rate, it takes us an inordinate amount of time to get down the street and back. And at some points, my instinct is to say, "Come on Eva, let's keep walking."

But really--I'M IN NO RUSH. I have nowhere to be, nothing pressing to do (the mold will not be any less in the bathroom when I get back from the walk, at which point I still probably won't clean it), nothing more important to do than watch my little girl explore the wonderful outdoors. I'm so happy it's good weather and we can walk all day long with a stroller full of snacks and water. And if she wants to, we can pick up every leaf in the neighborhood. Because I'm in no rush.

Catch up

So I just looked through all the pictures of the last week or so and I've decided I'm just too lazy to post any of them. Maybe someday. But for now, I'll just say that graduation weekend was great. I was SO proud of Andrew! Family came and went and we had a great time with them. We had a birthday party for Eva on Saturday morning with our new tradition of waffles and ice cream for birthday breakfast. Yum!
The weather has been amazingly beautiful so we have been spending a LOT of time outside. And also spending a LOT of time on the computer picking out house things. Whoever knew faucet knobs were so expensive? But it has been so fun picking out what we want and trying to balance it with what we can afford.
I read a book the last couple days called "Photo Freedom" by Stacy Julian, and it is changing my life. If you are a scrapbooker, you MUST read this book. Another recommendation is for a movie we watched last night and LOVED--"Dan in Real Life." I am definitely buying that movie.
Not much to blog about and not really in the mood to write, but I thought I would post for the sake of not having so much to catch up on when I am in the mood to blog. I think I'll go outside now!

The Flu

Today, I decided enough was enough. 6 days of fever and sickness with no visible improvement is just too much for a mother to handle--despite complete confidence of a wave-of-the-hand dismissal from the medical community. So I took Eva to the doctor. Our pediatrician is out of town, so we saw a family practice medical doctor. No offense to the medical military professionals, but I have come to doubt their ability. After my pregnancy and birth with Eva, I have no reason to feel anything but speculation and hesitancy. (Except, of course, for the birthing process--I need someone to give me an epidural. ;) ) So as I suspected, it's the flu. And of course--there is nothing they can do.
Which brings me to the bone I have to pick with...I don't know who. Nature, I guess. WHY in heaven's name can we not come up with a cure for the flu? I know my scientific and biological knowledge is small, to say the least, but it just seems like we SHOULD be able to do better. We can cause human reproduction to work in a petri dish. We can give people new organs that function better than their original ones, like on Return to Me (great movie!). We can clone animals. We can find answers to bizarre diseases, like this guy in Malaysia or something I saw on television that had this wart strain that caused him to grow TREES from his hands and feet. We can do brain surgery. We can sometimes even cure cancer. Why then can we not find a way to make my daughter's runny nose and fever disappear? I just don't get it.

Orders

Our orders finally came! It was a little frustrating to not know WHEN we would move, and I'm so excited to finally know. We officially leave Enid on May 9 and report to Altus, OK, where we will live until August 14. After that it's off to Washington with a report date to McChord AFB on Sept. 10th. So baby Leighton will be born in Oklahoma after all. I'm a little nervous about switching doctors at 30 weeks, but I know it could be alot worse. I'm just hoping for a better experience than the last birth--that's all I can hope for.

The other exciting thing is that now we know Andrew's survival training dates and we can plan our house hunting trip! It looks like we'll be out there on April 4--exactly a month from today! We have really been looking at building a house and I'm SO excited about that prospect. So everything is falling into place!

On a sad note, Eva is still sick--worse than ever. She seems to be following my pattern of sickness from last week, so if that continues then this should be her worse day. It was horrible being sick, but I think it's just as bad watching her be sick. Especially since she can't even blow her nose--it's just cruel that babies can get just as sick as adults but can't take any medicine to help them! Hopefully she gets better by tomorrow, because that's when Andrew's parents and grandparents come in for graduation weekend. The rest of the clan (his sister Chanel with husband and 3 kids and my mom and my sister) will arrive on Thursday, and then on Friday the festivities begin. Yay!

Also, since Eva's been sick I have been on the internet a LOT, and I found the most amazing company with the coolest website. If you want some cool stickers for your wall, go here. I am definitely getting some for our beautiful new house.

Wow, that picture is miniscule--it's the best I can do. :)

The yellow barn

Saturday we drove out to the middle of nowhere to a town called Ames, OK. Earlier that week Andrew had found a yellow barn while out riding his motorcycyle and thought it would be a cool place to take pictures. It wasn't QUITE what I had pictured in my mind (besides the fact that it was private property and very awkward), but we still got a good picture or two out of it. But I'm still on the lookout for my dream yellow barn.



21 weeks tomorrow!

This is a first for me

Actually it's technically a second. The first time I won something was on a radio contest in Colorado Springs, and I won tickets to see the Broadmoor Christmas dinner and concert, which was amazing. But now....it has happened again. I won something. And not just any something--possibly the cutest bag known to mankind.

It all started a couple weeks ago when I was bored on the internet and was just blog-hopping. I came across a darling ETSY shop called SweetMe Designs, and she happened to be having a contest at that same time--a contest for one of her adorable bags. So I left a comment and then let it slip my mind. Well, today I got an e-mail saying that I WON!! I am thrilled beyond words. I got to pick the bag I wanted, and that darling Lollipop Trees purse is the one I chose. But if you are looking for an incredibly cute new bag, please go to her website. Her name is Wendy, her blog is here and her etsy shop is here. She also sells jewelry and some cute prints for your wall. Check her out!