Still loving the bottle and bouncy seat

"See my awesome bottle?"

"Mmmmm I love chewing on my bottle."

Look how much bigger she has gotten in her bouncy seat! She still enjoys it. I'm dreading the day she can't/doesn't want to go in it anymore.

She's changing so much these days. She eats three meals a day and still there's nothing she doesn't like. Last night she had barley for the first time, which smells gross, but she enjoyed it. Soon she'll be trying green peas. She loves banging on stuff, specifically computers. I hope to get her a baby piano and also a baby laptop for Christmas. I just know she'll love them although they may be annoying to me, hehe. We're just plugging away at this dumb old deployment. It's been almost two months, which means we're 1/6th done, which is good! Mike probably gets to come home in March for Bailey's first birthday so we're looking forward to that!

Girls weekend 2009

This weekend was our girls weekend to the mountains. We went to the Orchard at Altapass in Spruce Pines, NC first. The orchard was fun but the ride up there was precarious, adventurous, treacherous and some other "ous" words I don't even know. The GPS took us up the mountain via a one lane, dirt, winding, NARROW "road." The GPS called it a "highway," a very loose term for highway. It was so scary. Thank God Heather was driving because I would not have done well driving the 5 miles up the mountain where at any time we could have slipped right off the side of the mountain! Anyway, it was fun. We went on a hayride, sampled some delicious dips, listened to a live bluegrass band, and bought some cider.
Then we went to our hotel, ate a delicious dinner at an organic vegetarian Caribbean/Mexican type place. I had a tofu quesadilla with chipotle cream cheese and coconut rice. We had plantanos for an appetizer too. It was different and wonderful. We also went shopping because what girls weekend would be complete without shopping? Although shopping has changed a lot for both of us because we were both mostly buying things for our little ones. I got Bailey some really cute clothes from Gap and Osh Kosh and we even bought Pilot (Heather's baby that's due in January) and Bailey matching outfits!
This morning we got up and headed back to Monroe to pick up Bailey. She had a great time with Nana and Poppy. And mommy had a great time being away from her but I definitely missed her! She was so happy to see me when I got back.
These days she's doing a lot more cool stuff. She's making more sounds, still trying to crawl but not quite there, eating three meals a day (including pumpkin, zucchini, yellow squash, tofu, etc), and enjoying her exersaucer like crazy.

Vapor bubble bath to the rescue!

It was a rough week here at our house. Bailey got the cold that had be going around our little circle. She seemed fine but her sleep was terrible. She ended up in my bed four nights in a row and was up for 2+ hours for a couple of those nights. I was at my wits end and praying hard that she would sleep and then last night, she did! God is a prayer answerer, for sure! I discovered soothing vapor bath (thanks to my good friend, Melissa!) and also vick's baby vapor rub. It definitely helped us get through the night, I think.
We've been able to talk to Mike a lot this week, which we're very thankful for. He reenlisted for three more years and got a nice bonus, two years stabilization here at Bragg (means they can't move us for 2 years), and a whole semester off to go to school. It's an amazing blessing. Since he won't be home until September of 2010, he hopes to take classes the spring semester. I can't wait to have him home more. The bonus is nice and the two years is great but the thing I most look forward to is the school time. Sure, it will be different but he'll definitely be home more than when he's at work. We'll get spoiled. I can't think of a better way to make up for being gone for a whole year than to basically be off for a few months! Woohoo!

Bailey after her bath with crazy hair

She wasn't sure how to take the bubbles situation at first but she liked it after a minute

Big week of firsts

We had a couple nights last week where Bailey didn't sleep well and in the middle of the night ended up in my bed. I took a picture to show where and how exactly she sleeps when she's in my bed. Only a few people will know that she is ON MY SIDE! She basically ends up cuddled next to me in my arm pit, which doesn't make for a very well-rested mommy but it's better than nothing and nice to wake up to that sweet smile.
This weekend we went to UNC to see the Tar Heels play GA Southern. Mom, Dad, Bailey and I all loaded up into the Jeep and went to the happiest place on earth, which has often been mistaken for Disney world, but is in fact Chapel Hill, NC! Our heels played a great game (for a change) and Bailey did a great job at her first game. We were all a bit concerned at how she'd do without a nap but, as usual, she was a rock star. She fell asleep in the 2nd quarter and even the fireworks that went off during touchdowns didn't phase that child. She definitely sleeps like her daddy. We got her a cute little Jock in the Box (like a jack in the box but has a Carolina basketball player pop out instead) that plays the Carolina fight song. Awesome! All in all, it was a great day.
We ended the night at Ham's (one of my favorite restaurants) in Sanford, where Bailey sat in a highchair at a restaurant for the first time ever! Heather and I had gone to Olive Garden for dinner the night before and noticed she was definitely ready for a highchair rather than sitting in the carseat at dinner. So we put her in it on Saturday night and she loved it. She played with toys while we ate and even ate her own dinner while we were sitting there.
This week was a big week of firsts. She also sat in a shopping cart for the first time this week. She was so funny because she looked at me like something crazy was going on. I could imagine her saying, "Mom, I'm sitting up and moving... at the same TIME!" Too cute. This week she ate some "table food" too. While we were at Olive Garden Friday night, she was getting hungry so I gave her some of my cheese from my manicotti and she loved it, of course. She also got some dessert in the form of whipped cream and caramel from the top of our pumpkin cheesecake. Yum!
Sorry it took me so long to update, I'll try and keep it updated more often!