Safe and Sound

Sunday night Alyssa and I picked up Dave from base! He was gone for almost 6 weeks but is now back safe and was just in time for my birthday the day after. I had Alyssa walk to him (with me holding one hand). We couldn't tell if she actually remembered him or not but she willingly went to him. I was just worried since it was 845 pm (her bedtime) that she would be tired and only want me. This is often a time she won't let other people hold her, so I was really worried since I knew it would hurt Dave's feelings. But she just looked at him for a few seconds and then gave him a big smile. And she soon remembered the game of ripping his patches off his flight suit. He spent the whole next day with us and he put her down for both of her naps and he even spent some alone time with her when I went to get my 1 hour birthday massage :). He's a little rusty on changing a diaper since every one hes put on so far ends up falling off while she crawls around, but thats okay. He can't get over how much more active she is now. When he was making me breakfast on my bday he was like 'babe you have to take her I cant watch her and do this at the same time, she wont stay still'. Welcome to my life the past 6 weeks. It is getting really hard to get anything done while watching her. One second she's right next to you and the next she's in the dishwasher or a cabinet or climbing stairs. He loves that she is more playful now. You don't have to worry about supporting her much, he can hang her upside down, flip her around, etc (within moderation of course). And she loves it all, shes a little monkey.

As far as walking goes, its just a waiting game. She has the physical capability for sure, she just lacks the confidence. She can stand by herself, climb stairs, and walk anywhere as long as one hand is touching something. When she walks holding your hand she doesn't really even use it to help her balance or anything, its just security. So she could be walking today, maybe a month, only she knows at this point.

It is so great to have Dave back, it was a really lonely 6 weeks. Having Alyssa made it less lonely but since she can't talk back there were some days where I never held a face to face conversation. So I joined the gym which has childcare so I could get some 'me' time.

As far as pictures go, I really don't have any to post. While Dave was gone, I took pretty much all of my pictures on my phone so I could send them to him on a daily basis. And I don't think theres a way to get the pictures off my phone to the computer. But I'm sure I'll take lots of us here in the next month since August is going to be super busy. We have a wedding to go to, we are visiting Dave's family in MO, and we are going to take some leave to spend with just the 3 of us.

Not sure if I've already said this but Alyssa's bday party is now Sept 12th! I can't wait, I went and bought some party stuff last week.

DAVE COMES HOME TODAY!!

YAY :)!!!

Pictures are up!

I posted pictures of Alyssa the last few weeks, finally!

Alyssa is growing up too fast. She stands completely on her own for extended periods of time so now I am just waiting for those first steps. She walks all around the house as long as she's holding on to furniture. She's a monkey. She loves to climb. I am her favorite jungle gym, the dishwasher is a close second.

She has a new love for Brody. She is actually starting to play with him, not just annoy him and grab at him. They were playing earlier and she was just belly laughing at him. I wanted to run and get my video camera but she would have followed me so instead I just sat and watched them. She was leaning in letting him lick her face and then she would jsut giggle at him. so cute. Brody is going to enjoy the extra attention for sure since most of his attention was redirected to Alyssa 10 months ago. How crazy is that? My baby is 10 months old. Her birthday party is getting closer and closer and I am so excited for it. She will get her first dessert, birthday cake!

Its getting easier to feed Alyssa since she is eating mostly table food now. Well, healthy table food at least. Still no sweets or fried things. But she gets seasoned chicken and veggies from whatever I cook for dinner and loves to eat chunks of watermelon/cantelope/etc. My veggie garden kind of died while i was in MD but I worked on it yesterday weeding, fertilizing with organic plant food aka chicken poop, and watering...hopefully I salvaged it. I did eat a pepper from my garden with dinner and I think a tomoato may be ready for tonights dinner.

Slacking

Sorry I've been slacking with my weekly updates. We got a new computer (and were waiting on the new one to arrive) so in the interem we were using another computer we couldnt upload pics onto. Now we have the new computer but I am in MD right now and forgot the cord to upload pics. Next week there will be lots of pics, I promise.
Alyssa continues to grow by the minute. I keep thinking she will be walking anyday now, she just needs the confidence. She'll look like shes about to and then she'll drop down and crawl. She never falls over, she just bends her knees and sits. Thats why I think she has the physical capability, she just doesn't know it yet. They say that often good crawlers are late walkers. If this is the case, she wont be walking for a while. Her crawling just keeps getting faster and faster. I don't think I could move that fast on all fours. I also feel like her talking is about to take off. We will be talking to her and she will repeat words that we say. I don't think she knows what shes saying, she's just repeating new sounds/words...but its still funny to hear words come out of her little mouth.
Last week Alyssa was SO sick. Her fever was almost 104. She didn't seem too bothered though and there were no other symptoms. I took her to the doctor and they said probably a virus. She wasn't fussy the whole time until the fever broke actually, and then she was a mess for a few days. And a "mess" for Alyssa means slightly fussy. People still commented on how she was such a happy/good baby, and I was like really? this is her a mess. I guess it finally all just caught up to her and she was exhausted. But shes 100% better now. It is nice to see my little girl feeling well again.
Sleep is the same...great on and off, then not so great on and off. Last night was a not so great night. She didn't get to sleep til 915 because she was crying (I had to pat her butt to sleep) and then woke at 545. I will not get her out of her crib until 7 though. So she cried for almost an hour and then fell back asleep, figures. But since we are in MD, we are sharing a room so I had to just listen to her cry. I finally had to sneak out because I was going crazy. We have a divider up so she can't see me but I think she still knows I'm in the room and not going to get her.
I'll be back in NC soon to upload new Alyssa pictures!