We've got a climber!!

Thankfully, we also have a near-by outlet to put all those climbing skills to work and we can minimize the things she climbs on in the house. She's partial to getting into her highchair on her own, climbing up on stools (big and small), and even getting onto the kitchen chairs (which are stools - we have one of those higher tables).

But at a couple of the local parks, including my favorite one, there's a little "rock" wall to get up to part of the play structure. She wore herself out today climbing up the rocks and going down the big slide over and over again. It was great until she was crying and asking for her "pahce-fy" (pacifier) all the way home!

She found the handle!

This big step is no problem!

Almost to the top!!

I would like to point out that she couldn't even get up the short steps over to the right of where she is in the picture just a month ago. It's amazing to me how quickly she's growing and changing!

(And don't worry, I wasn't just standing back and taking pictures and hoping for the best - Jason was with me today to spot her and make sure she didn't tumble backwards!)

Taking a turn in a new direction....

You'll probably notice that I've been especially terrible at keeping up with this blog recently. With posting a picture to my 365 project blog every night, and usually sharing a little story about it, I haven't felt a big push to get over here and keep things updated.

If you haven't checked out my 365 project blog yet, you should! You'll get pretty well caught up with what's been going on around here. And who doesn't like pictures?

Meanwhile, I've decided maybe I can use this space for more than just keeping you all updated on what's going and maybe just get some of my own thoughts and ramblings out. I thought about just starting another blog for that, but then I'd have three to worry about and you've all seen how good I've always been about keeping ONE updated... maybe three would be a bad idea! I'll still post updates here (I seriously need to get some video up!), but I need an outlet, too. Skip the wordy ones if you don't feel like hearing it!!

Since I'm coming up on the 6 month anniversary of my last official day in the Coast Guard, I've been thinking a lot lately about my new role in life as "just" a wife and mom. (And I put the word *just* in quotes like that because it's long been a huge pet-peeve of mine when people in the Coast Guard talked about someone's spouse or child and called them "just a dependent." As if, some how, by being a dependent and not the active duty member, your life is less effected by the craziness that is military life.) In my case I went from being a career woman, wife and, most recently, mother, to being "just" a wife and mother, as if, somehow the last two are less important than my former career life.

I have to be honest, in the last 6 months, there have been MANY times when I've felt like I lost my "real" (there's those quotes again) identity and became defined by who I'm related to, rather than who I really am. Some days are worse than others. Some days, the absolute last thing I want to be is Michaela's mom. (Most of the time I don't mind being Jason's wife, though... I think I'm more used to that one!) It sounds terrible to say that, but any parent out there knows exactly what I mean. Somedays they just make it so HARD to be a parent! But I'm slowly learning that it's not that bad to be identified as wife and mom instead of active duty Coastie, or any other career title for that matter.

I've found myself making excuses for giving up my career (which I haven't really given up, I'm technically on a sabbatical, so I could go back still!) when people ask. Or laughing it off and joking about how I'm still getting used to being at home and how difficult it's been to adjust. I think I really had myself convinced that I shouldn't like being a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), that I'd invested so much of my life and time into being a Coastie that I should be devastated or feel like less of a person by giving that up.

And then, one day a few weeks ago, Jason showed up at the park while Michaela and I were there playing and we decided to grab lunch together. We invited a friend along, one I hadn't seen since right before Christmas. As we were walking into Moe's, Matt told me I was looking good (who doesn't like to hear that!), and commented on my suburban mom outfit. Then, a couple days later, when Jason's dad was here, we were at the base and ran into Matt again. This time he told me that what he meant when we were at Moe's was that I looked happy, happier than I'd been in a while, and that it seemed like being out of the Coast Guard was agreeing with me. I felt like I'd been smacked upside the head! I mean, here I'd been trying to convince myself that I didn't really enjoy being out of the Coast Guard, or being a SAHM, and yet my attitude and demeanor were apparently telling a good friend something completely different!

Since that day, I have to admit, I seem to have turned a corner. I don't know if I needed "permission" to admit that I like being out of the CG, that I LOVE being home with my girl (most of the time... then there are those days....), or if I just didn't realize it, but it's true! I am truly enjoying this new phase my life. It's certainly not all sunshine and roses (like, I seriously miss my paycheck. A lot. Especially now that we live in a place where it's a lot easier to spend it!), but we've fallen into a nice little routine and we're having fun. I'm learning to be more patient than I ever thought possible, I'm falling in love with my little girl all over again every single day, and I kind of like being home enough to know what's going on and to make it really a home around here. (Jason might argue that I'm getting a little too controlling of the house and everything in it, but I'm trying to work on easing up on the Type-A-ness a little, too. Really.)

So there ya go. That's a lot to share on the first time out of the gate, huh? I just really had to get that out. Part of me is still trying to believe that I should still be missing the CG so much that I couldn't possibly be happy doing what I'm doing now, so maybe writing it down and being able to come back and re-read this will help me out with that.

But who wouldn't love the chance to catch every moment of this little girl's life? And she's growing up so stinkin' fast that I feel truly blessed to be seeing all of it and not just bits and pieces!

Angry birds....

I thought about posting these three pictures on my 365 Project blog, but I think they fit better here. Mostly because I have more of a story to tell about them than I've been sharing on the 365 blog, but also because it's supposed to be ONE picture per day, and I HAVE to post all three of these.

While waiting for our food at lunch today, we were trying to come up with something to keep the toddler occupied. I suggested letting her "play" angry birds on Jason's phone. Needless to say, she didn't really get what she was supposed to do, but she had no problem with Daddy helping out with making the birds fly. I never thought we'd get the reaction we did....

Watching the birds fly....

Wheeee!!!!!!

And then they flew into the wall.... and she said, "Ouch!!" over and over again.

And I laughed so hard that tears came out of my eyes. And Jason laughed so hard that he had tears. And my father in law thought maybe we were raising the world's weirdest child. And that maybe he should be concerned about the trauma we're causing our child in her early formative years.

But then I laughed all over again tonight while I was going through the pictures. Because it was hilarious!

I'll probably have to come up with some more toddler-friendly apps for my phone in the near future, but I know what I'll be doing if I need a little pick-me-up in the meantime!

What I did on my Christmas Vacation (extended version)

So I don't really get a vacation. Afterall, my job is to be home taking care of the kid and until I can find someone else to step in and do that for a few days, I don't get a vacation. But we did get away for Christmas, at least for a few days, so Jason got a vacation.

Where did we go? Why didn't I say anything about it before? We flew to CT on Christmas. To surprise my parents. And it worked. They were surprised. We had a great time. We're never doing it again. That might not be totally true, but we don't plan to do it again. This year was easy because Michaela was too young to know that Santa came to our house a day early, but we might not be able to swing that again in the future. We sort of decided spur-of-the-moment to go (I think 3 weeks before counts as spur-of-the-moment when you're talking Christmas travel) and it was absolutely worth all the craziness of the whole thing!

The first bit of craziness was Christmas on Christmas Eve. This is what our tree looked like after Santa came:

This is all that came from Santa:

The rest was from family and friends. We feel very loved and very blessed.

It took three hours to open presents. With only one child (if you don't count Jason). That might not have happened had it not been for this:

That was from Mimi and Papa. They graciously got the one with the red accents so it would match my living room decor. I've resigned myself to the fact that children's toys have officially taken over my living room. But I'm crazy enough to want them to match. Michaela really likes it, too, which made it very difficult to get her to come back to the pile of presents to open anything else.

You'll notice the Powerwheels car in the picture above. Guess how many times she's actually ridden in it. Go ahead, guess.

Thank goodness I got a picture. This was it. It hasn't happened again. Before we moved it to the garage so the kids who came to our brunch yesterday wouldn't run into the furniture, she spent a lot of time standing by it saying, "I drive." But then as soon as we'd try to coax her into it and try to get her to actually drive it, she'd run away saying, "noooo." Good thing Santa brought her that!

I guess this guy is a little more her speed.

And monkey bread. Monkey bread was definitely a hit. We have monkey bread two times a year - Christmas and Easter. We couldn't let Christmas on Christmas Eve stop the tradition. I think Michaela is all for the tradition.

After all the craziness of Christmas Eve Christmas, we got to the business of actual Christmas Eve, which means church for us. On the way to church, the second bit of craziness hit us - our flights the next day were cancelled. Delta cancelled something like 300 flights through Atlanta due to the predicted bad weather. I'm not sure how bad it actually got, but at least they rebooked us through Charlotte on USAir. We were very pleasantly shocked about that. The only bad part of the whole thing was that our 9:15am flight was now a 6am flight. That meant getting up at 3am ourselves to get things going, and then waking the baby up at 4am. Thank goodness for a flight out of Mobile (the airport is literally less than 5 minutes from our house) and not Pensacola (which would've been an hour+ drive). And thank goodness for the USO in Charlotte. We had a long layover there and spent the bulk of it in the USO lounge relaxing and letting Michaela play in a gated-off area. And it was a quiet spot to call Mom and Dad so they wouldn't get suspicious!

Of course the next craziness was just trying to get to the front door at Mom and Dad's without them seeing us. It didn't work since Mom walked by the door right as I was running up to it. I heard "Oh my gosh! No way! No way!" from outside as she ran to the door. Definitely a successful surprise! Ryan was in on it, so he snapped a couple pictures. Not great ones, but better than nothing.

Then it got less busy and crazy for a few days. We got snowed on (not sure I liked that), but made it out just as easily as we made it in. All was going well on the return trip until the last bit of craziness. The kid puked. On final into Atlanta. All over herself. On her carseat. On her dad (thankfully I wasn't sitting next to her - he was!). So we used up a chunk of our short layover getting her cleaned up and changed (prepared mommy that I am, I packed extra clothes for her). We hoofed it to a different terminal for our flight to Mobile, with me carrying Michaela in the Beco carrier, and then took advantage of the early boarding for people with children. And then we were the last people on the plane anyway because she puked. Again. In the jetway. On me. Because she was attached to me and there was no way around it. Something made me leave her sweatshirt off when we changed her, so she only puked on her t-shirt and then rode shirtless to Mobile because we needed to make sure she had something to wear home. I guess with all the traveling we've done with her in her short life we're lucky this is the first time we've had this happen. I REALLY hope it's the last time. And for the record, she was totally fine by the next morning.

Since we got home last Wednesday, we just spent a lot of time getting the house ready for company. We hosted a New Year's Day brunch yesterday, so we had to get everything prepped (ie clean the house) for that and then enjoy some more craziness of having 15 adults and 8 kids ranging from 17 months (ours) to 9 years old in the house. It was definitely fun!

But it wore us out so we didn't get the Christmas decorations down like we planned. That worked out for the best, though, since I didn't have a single picture of Michaela in front of the tree this year and was able to get one of her in her cute church dress this morning before we took it all down.

So the dress isn't Christmas-y, but it's cute. And she's cute. And the tree is in the background.

Now the craziness is all over. Jason goes back to normal schedule at work tomorrow after being in a holiday status for the last two weeks (only working once every 3 days), and I'm back to the fun of entertaining the energizer bunny by myself!

Oh, and if you look over there to the right, you'll see a link to a new blog. I'm doing the 365 project if I can stay with it (Thanks for the idea, Melissa), so I started up a new blog tonight. I already started a day late, but I'm really going to try to stick with that one for the whole year!

So that's what I did on my Christmas vacation!

Thanksgiving to Christmas

I think the best way to talk about what we've been up to is just to post a bunch of pictures. So that's what I'm going to do!

So first up are our visitors for Thanksgiving and the first part of December. Jim and Maryanne (aka Papa and Mimi) were here for Thanksgiving. Not only was it an awesome visit, but they flew in/out of Pensacola, so we got to get our Dunkin' fix when we brought them to the airport! YAY! Ok, there was more to it than that.... including a trip to the base to show off Jason's new work-place and pose for a few pictures. Here are Mimi and Papa with Michaela!

And, of course, I couldn't just take pictures of people. So this is a look at the side of the helo, looking up toward the rotorhead.

While Jim and Maryanne were here (and again with Mom and Heather), we went to Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas in Lights display. I had to get this shot of the flamingoes just for my lovely friends Christina and Brad! We think about you guys whenever we see flamingoes!!

Besides the flamigoes, I just LOVED these trees! These were just made out of strings of lights, in a huge open field. And the picture does them no justice!

Here are my two favorite people, taking in the view!! Look at the smile on that cute little toddler's face! If I remember right, a melt-down came shortly after that!

And since I never put any pictures of me on here, and I was happy to finally get a good one of me and Heather together, here's another one from our second visit to Bellingrath.

Michaela was eating up all the grandparent time! She and Grandma had some cuddles in the morning before Mom and Heather flew out after their short stay.

Once all the visitors were gone, it was back to the business of getting ready for Christmas. Shopping got done, cookies have been baked (and even given away to almost all the intended recipients) and we went to a few Christmas parties. First up was the kid's party held at the park next to the base. This picture absolutely screams "Christmas Party!" right? Yeah, I don't think so either, but those tights she's wearing sure are cute. And this kid seriously loves a swing, especially these particular swings because they have long chains so she can get some good air. Little Daredevil!

After another kid event - the Christmas night at Chick-Fil-A (complete with Santa Cow) - Michaela enjoyed a diaper change while checking out her new book. This is what happens when Daddy changes her - he teaches her all his ways. Of course, my first instinct was to go grab the camera. She's such a lady!

Finally, this was shortly after all the family/friend gifts were wrapped up, but before they were packaged for shipping! For reference, the tops of the windows are 9 feet from the floor - that's a tall tree! But with 11 foot ceilings, ya gotta go big! Sadly, we learned that "good" Christmas trees don't grow around here, so we'll be forced to get our tree off a lot for the next 4 years, rather than getting to cut our own, but we'll survive. It's not the same as heading into the hills to cut one down from the "wild" in Kodiak, but it's a beautiful tree anyway!

That's what we've been up to around here! Next up - Christmas itself! We'll have pictures to share after that. We've actually been letting Michaela open a gift every couple of days since there are so many and it will take her all day to open them if we don't start now. It's so fun, though, because she understands what happens when she opens a package and she gets excited about it! So Christmas should definitely be fun!!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the quick update! Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Is this thing on?? (Again... because I just realized I used that title a few months ago...)

In the last two days we've heard from three different people about the lack of activity around here.

All I can say is that I've been busy. First, there were preparations for Maryanne and Jim coming for Thanksgiving. Then they left and we had to re-prepare for Mom and Heather three days later. And then they left and I remembered that Christmas was only three weeks away from the day they flew out. And it was like they moved it this year or something because I had absolutely NOTHING done to get ready for it. At all.

I know... excuses, excuses. After all, I don't even work outside the house anymore, right? Can I just say that I really had a lot more time to myself when I worked full time and took care of the kid. First of all, Jason had duty days, so he would do things like clean and keep the house in order when I was at work and the kid was in daycare. And then there was daycare... those ladies did an amazing job of taking care of my girl during the day! They'd tire her right out and she was easy-peasy to work with for the few hours before bedtime at home!

Now it's MY job to do the tiring out and I SWEAR this kid is running on some sort of radioactive go-go juice because I simply can't keep up. I mean it. Naptime rolls around and I have this big plan - everyday - to do STUFF. (Not laundry - her bedroom is too close to the laundry room, but STUFF.) And then I sit down to eat my lunch - at 1:30 pm - and watch "The Talk" (my addiction to it has solidified my stay-at-home-mom status), and maybe just check facebook or a couple other sites real quick.... And the next thing you know, it's like my toosh is glued to the couch and I can't get up, even when I want to. Then two hours go by and I finally rush around trying to do things like lunch dishes and what-not so Jason thinks I was busy all day (shhhh... don't tell him!) and I can feel like I accomplished SOMEthing during naptime. Imagine how hard up I'd be if she only slept for a couple hours and not the 3+ we've been getting lately!!

So, my apologies for my absence (I think I say that a lot on here) and I really will try to do better. Maybe when I finally get to that "chore" schedule I've been meaning to do, I'll add blogging onto it. Not that blogging is a chore, but it's definitely something I don't leave enough time for. Like a lot of other things these days. Why do people ever have more than one child when one is so much WORK??

Oh yeah....

Ms. Personality

In her defense, I'll say that I got the tutu down for her the day before I took these pictures. I put her in the duck onesie she wore for her 1st Birthday Party, so I thought maybe she'd want to wear the tutu as well. BUT, I left it out in the living room and she definitely asked to put it on the next day. (As much as someone with a limited vocabulary can "ask" for anything. But getting it off the chair and bringing it to me while stepping into it definitely passes as "asked" in my book.)

So this is Ms. Personality. Oh, and tonight she tried to say "seriously" after I said it. Good grief we're going to have our hands full with this one.