Figured out the camcorder

After months of having our little camcorder, and wondering why it only came with software/drivers for a PC, I finally figured out you don't need any of that for a Mac. I seriously need to learn more about my computer.

So, since I got it hooked up, I'm now going to see if I can figure out how to get a video on here. If this works, this should be video of Michaela climbing the stairs a couple weeks ago, the day she was 10 months old.

Here goes nothin'!!

First word... I think

I'm pretty sure Michaela said her first word today (or maybe it was yesterday... the days are running together).

I think Jason would like to think her first word was Dada since, lately, when I ask her to say, "Mama," she just looks right at me and says, "Da-Da," instead. That's an awesome ego boost for me, in case you wondered. But, although she can say "Dada" she doesn't actually use it in reference to her father. So I'm saying it's NOT her first word.

However, in the past day or so, she HAS said "Hi." (that's with a period, not an exclamation point) in the correct context. And I have to tell you, it's the cutest little sound in the world! It should come as no surprise that "hi" would be her first word, though, since her very favorite thing to do is wave hello to everyone she sees. She's been waving hello for a couple months now, and only recently figured out you do the same thing to say good bye as well.

So, I'm calling it - "Hi" is Michaela's first word, spoken a handful of times today, May 28th, 2010. Time to write that down on the calendar!

M is for....

.... MOOSE! (and you thought I was going to say Michaela, right?)

No, I still haven't seen a moose, though I have high hopes of finally getting to see one when we get to the mainland at the start of our cross-country trip this summer.

The moose I'm talking about is the kind that's neatly packaged in our freezer.

In anticipation of the move, we're trying to finally eat at least SOME of the stuff we've got in there. We're planning to have someone ship whatever is left to us once we get to Mobile, but, in the meantime we need to eat some of it or we'll spend half our moving money to get it to us. So this past week, we dug into the moose.

And our little Alaska girl - the one who had Daddy-caught salmon as her first meat - couldn't get enough of it. Granted, it was moose disguised as smoked sausage (and later hotdog), but she still absolutely loved it! Add that to halibut and salmon as some of her favorite proteins. Yep, Alaska girl!

(I know it's hard to see, but the little nugget she's getting ready to pick up is, in fact, moose sausage.)

In other food news, I finally let go of my Type-A-ness for a few minutes and let her just pick up some noodles with marinara instead of trying to feed them to her. In a nod to the Italian part of her heritage, she definitely had no problem with that. She LOVED it!

And, finally, making this post about Michaela, yet again, this picture just cracks me up. No, she does not put herself in there, but, yes, she likes it. And the bonus is that I can keep her contained for a few minutes. Now that she's mobile - wait, did I tell you she's mobile? Yep, crawling like a champ... even tackled the stairs the other day - keeping her contained for a few minutes is a nice thing to be able to do.

I think I said something in my last post about trying to keep up with the blog better. Ha. That's funny since it's been over 2 weeks again. In my defense, though, I finally got around to planning our cross-country trip and that kept me busy for quite a while. I'll tell you all about it in my next post. We're not sure whether to be excited or scared to death about our 19-day adventure beginning in Kodiak and ending in Mobile, with about 4500 miles of driving in between!

Pictures and pictures and pictures

And almost all of them are of Michaela. A little because she makes a good subject and a lot because I'm pretty sure her grandparents would kill me if I didn't include them.

Let's start with the (mostly) non-Michaela stuff...

It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL the last couple days here in Kodiak. Jason finally got back from three weeks in Mobile (1.5 of which I was traveling, too) on Saturday, so we took the chance to do some family stuff for the first time in a while.

It's the time of year when the whales start to come back to Alaskan waters, so we hopped in the car, made a pit stop at Java Flats (our favorite local sandwich shop), and headed out the road. We went out toward Narrow Cape - Pasagshak - where we ate our lunches in the car on the beach, watching the whales right off the beach. Unfortunately, even the super-mega-zoom lens wasn't enough to capture them, but it was awesome to watch. Lunch done, we bundled up and headed for what turned out to be a VERY short walk on the beach. It was FREEZING!! The thermometer said 45 and it was sunny, but the wind made it bitterly cold. Michaela, my little Alaska girl, loved it!

Besides the whales, Pasagshak is also the place to see Kodiak's wild-ish buffalo herd. For these guys, the super-mega-zoom was handy!

When we got back from Pasagshak (with both a morning and afternoon nap out of the way in the car!.... um, for the baby....), we still had the business of taking the dog out for a walk to attend to. So we headed to another cape - Spruce Cape - to get some exercise for Fred. He was kind enough to pause for a moment and pose for me.

Michaela posed, too. Oh, and I would like to point out that it was May 2nd yesterday. And she's wearing her snow suit and winter hat.

The business of fun out of the way, we headed back home where my to-do list failed to be completed and it took me way too long to get up-to-date on the finances that I hadn't touched in the three weeks since we'd last been home together. Ugh. I still have that to-do list to get to, but figured catching up here was more important!

Moving on to the Michaela show.... here are some of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks. We'll start with one I took in the car after we went to visit Grammie (my grandmother) when I was in CT. We should see if we can have a happy baby next time, right?

Next up - crazy hair day for daycare last week. April was the Month of the Military Child, so they had a different theme to each day last week... pajama day, dress up like mom or dad, crazy hair, etc...

I tried to do something crazy to her hair, but it's so fine that mousse wouldn't even make it stick up. I probably could've tried gel, but like every other day while Jason is gone, we were already running late, so I went with Plan B - clippies!

She also figured out how to dump over her toy bin in the living room while I was busy getting everything ready to go. Oh, and this was the 2nd to last day that it was safe to leave her alone - because she's now MOBILE!!! Yep, stinker finally decided to crawl on Friday, right at 9.5 months old. We're thinking it's going to be short-lived, though, since she's already learned that walking/cruising/standing in general are more fun. See?

And, finally, a series of pictures from tonight. The light was great in the kitchen and she was having fun playing with the magnets I put on the lower part of the fridge for her. Just for the record, she has about a million dollars worth of toys. But she'd rather play with anything that isn't really a toy - like paper, plastic water bottles, cups, and magnets. Oh, and the sunglasses are new and I'm trying to get her used to having the band around her head. Enjoy the Michaela goodness!

And, some close-ups. In addition to a happy baby next time, we're going to try for a cute one, too...Oh, and the tear is because she'd had a crying fit a minute before I set her up with the magnets because Daddy had the nerve to cook dinner, and Mommy had the nerve to go to the bathroom, leaving her all alone (in the middle of the kitchen, where Daddy was) for about two and a half minutes.

She's also a little ham who stops whatever she's doing to have her picture taken. Cracks us up. I was sitting all the way across the room, using a zoom lens, in an effort to get her without her "posing," but that only worked part-way. She's just too much!!

As far as Michaela's parents - we're doing well. We're down to about 2 months left here in Kodiak. Jason got a bunch of stuff taken care of with the new house during his trip and we'll be closing in less than 2 weeks! We still have a cross-country trip to plan, a house to finish selling here (we're under contract), a house to get ready for movers, etc, etc. The next couple months are going to be crazy, but that's ok... we're up for it since it means heading back to the "real world!"

Ok, it's after 10, I have to be up in time to really be on time for work tomorrow (it's so good to be the boss since that's not usually an issue), I haven't gotten my Mother's Day card(s) ready to send to Mom yet, and I should already be in bed. Hope you enjoyed the update. I know I always say it, but I really will try to be better over the next couple months if I can!!!