Daddy's Home

Chris has been gone off and on for about 10 days w the ship. Well yesterday they got to come home so Rylee and I went to watch the ship pulling in. It was an awesome experience! I've been on Chris's previous ship before, but had never seen it actually doing anything other than just sitting there. So this was definitely an experience to remember! Rylee of course had no idea what was going and could've cared less. She was more interested in the other people that were around. Especially the little kids. There were a few other wives/significant others there waiting/watching w their kids.

Rylee and I did a whole lot of nothing while he was gone. It was extremely lonely and boring being cooped up in this apartment. We had seen him a little over the last week or so, but it still felt like the longest 10 days of my life!!!! We tried taking walks whenever possible, but the weather has turned kinda chilly so that put an end to that. I'm already thinking ahead to the next one which is longer than the last one!!!! UGH!! I will be so glad to get home so we can keep ourselves busy. That's the worst thing about him being gone is he's my only adult contact! So when he's gone we literally have nothing to do and nowhere to go! That makes for an extremely long week!! Things could definitely be worse though. . . he's not in Iraq or Afghanistan and he doesn't have people shooting at him everyday. I think of those men and women and their families all the time!

After we waited 3 1/2 hours for him to get off the ship we came home so he could clean up a bit and then headed to the Olive Garden. I really didn't want to spend his first evening home cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. And of course Rylee is the Olive Garden Queen! She loves pasta!!! Plus by the time he got off the ship Rylee hadn't eaten since lunch and I hadn't eaten since breakfast! And what little food was left in is we walked off by passing time waiting on him to get off the ship!!

Rylee loved the Olive Garden! She's been numerous times since she was born since this is Mommy's favorite place to eat, but this was the first time she was able to indulge in the yumminess!! There wasn't a thing she didn't like! She loved the breadsticks (especially dipped in Alfredo sauce) and I had ordered chicken alfredo so I was sharing that w her and she was shoveling it in by the handfulls!! Let's just say she left her mark on the Olive Garden bc by the time she was done she had created quite a mess on the floor!!!

Here are some pictures of Chris's ship pulling in. In some of them you can just barely make out the white stick figures around the top of the ship. These are some of the sailors in their white uniforms standing around the top manning the rails.

This picture was taken on the fishing pier after Chris's ship was pretty well out of sight. I just asked some random wives if they would take our picture. Rylee still wasn't awake yet. She hadn't had a nap so she fell asleep in the car for a few minutes. I had to wake her up to get her out to watch the ship pulling in.

Ok now you can really see the sailors around the top. This picture was taken after we were back in the car and getting ready to leave. I didn't realize they were going to be pulling in so close to where we were until we were actually in the car getting ready to leave. So I snapped a few shots from inside the vehicle. Most of the time it's not ok to be taking pictures or videos for security reasons so that's why I didn't get out and take any better pictures.

Well now that Rylee is one she is really keeping us busy! She's not quite walking yet though she does take a random step or two here or there. She loves to walk if someone helps her. If I'm sitting down she'll come up to me and take my hand and start to walk away. She loves to hold my hands and walk through the house. She does really good walking this way. She's also so much more aware of everything around her. If i'm sitting at the computer she'll come up behind me and grab ahold of my clothes and turn me around so she has my attention.

She's talking up a storm although you can basically only understand "Go, dog, and da da." She does have a couple new words. She says "duck" and just the other day finally started saying "momma." She still says da da more than anything, but is definitely saying momma more and more each day. She's started pointing at things and getting really excited. Like when Mickey Mouse comes on tv she'll point and smile real big and just get so excited. With all this new awareness comes the ability to throw tantrums! And let me tell you this little girl has that down pat!!

She loves to help mommy clean the kitchen. Although its usually when im loading, shes unloading. This was after her bath one night. She loves to run around naked!

This picture was so cute. She has such a sweet innocent look on her face. See that look on her face? She's already looking at me bc she knows I'm about to tell her no and to be nice to the doggy. That's the look I get every time she's about to do something she knows she's not supposed to be doingSometimes when I'm trying to take her picture I have to be very non chalant about it or she comes to investigate. Which is what she's doing in this picture. I was doing something and it caught her attention.I had no idea she had that funny look on her face when I snapped the picture. It's like she's trying not to let Rocky know that she's up to something, but at the same time she's keeping a close eye on him.See that awful look on her face? This is the I'm ticked off at you face and I really just want you to leave me alone! This was so hilarious. I had been loading the dishwasher w some assistance of course and I turned my back for a second to grab a sack (which you can see on top of the counter) that was on the kitchen table. When I turned back around she was sitting on top of the dishwasher w her Mickey Mouse plate and a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other! I laughed until I cried!!! Just a quick note on this pregnancy. . . the one that I tend to forget about bc of how busy this little one keeps me!! I've been feeling great! Half the time I forget I'm even pregnant!! I'll be 24 weeks this Friday (4/24). I am starting to get to the point where I'm feeling a little more tired than normal, but it's not that bad.

We'll be leaving for Indiana on Friday April 30th. So this will be my last blog for awhile till we get home and get settled. Chris will most likely be coming home w us for a week or two so I probably won't do much until after he's gone. So i guess this time I get to say. . . See ya all real soon!!!

1st Birthday Party

I can't believe Rylee is less than a week away from turning 1! Wow time flies!! We had a little birthday party for her Friday night because we're not sure if Chris will be here next week or not. We didn't invite very many people because she's so shy that she just clings to me when strangers are around. I had no desire to cart her around all night. Plus it's her birthday party so it's supposed to be fun for her. So we just invited the babysitter and her three little girls. I think they all had fun including Rylee. I had Wal-Mart make a Mickey Mouse cake for her which turned out to be adorable! And i bought some Mickey Mouse plates and a Mickey Mouse banner.

Chris took the whole cake up to her at first. We just wanted to see what she would do given the chance. She didn't hesitate to dig both hands in! It was kind of a last minute party so I didn't have time to make her her own separate cake that she could play in, so after we saw what she'd do with it we just gave her her own piece. She loved it! I think more of it ended up in her lap than in her mouth though.

We gave her the piece of cake on a plate and she dumped it upside down. Who needs to have manners when it's your birthday anyway!!! She's squishing the cake in between her hands.

Ok so I just realized my pictures are in the wrong order, so you'll just have to piece them together as you read.

Chris and I got her this big bag of mega blocks for her bday present. The babysitter has these huge legos at her house that Rylee loves to play with so I knew she'd love these blocks.

This is one of the toys that the babysitter and her girls got for Rylee. She loves this toy. It's one of those where you press the buttons and the animals pop up. Rylee gets angry when she closes one and another one pops up.

Overall the night was a success. Rylee had lots of fun. Eventually she started to wear down and was extremely grouchy so everyone took that as their cue to head out. She was so tired she went to sleep at 8:30 and slept 12 hours without making a peep all night!

Yummy. . . Ravioli and Peas She had been eating hamburger helper in this picture, but then she spotted Mickey. I was sitting on the floor trying to take her picture, but she wouldn't stay far enough away. She had to climb on me as I was trying to take her picture. So we got an extra close close up!

She got ahold of my cell phone. It was so funny because she started talking to it. Eventually by the time she was done it wouldn't work anymore. I guess it's not slobber proof! Here's what's been happening since I last updated. . . Rylee is eating all table food and not really any baby food. She pretty well eats anything you put in front of her. I haven't found much of anything she won't eat. Her favorite food seems to be peas and yogurt.

It started out that she was just dabbling in whatever I would eat. Chris and I always ate in the living room and she would stand in front of me and fuss till i gave her some of whatever i had. After about a week of this I decided to transition dinner to the kitchen so she could sit in her highchair and feed herself. She started off with fettuccine and hamburger helper then little by little she just ate whatever we were eating for dinner.

She is still taking a bottle, but we've transitioned down to just the bed time bottle. I haven't tried real hard to wean off that one because we can't get her to drink any milk unless it's mixed w formula. When she drinks out of her sippy cup it's usually always water. She loves water!

She's not quite walking yet, but she just started taking some steps the other day. If we sit on the floor with her and let her walk between us then she'll take a few steps in our direction, but like everything else she dictates how long she'll do this. Once she's had enough she'll hold her legs up in the air if you're trying to stand her up or she just won't stand up at all. She does stand up on her own for a few seconds. She's getting braver though. She'll have a hold of the couch and will turn around and let go like she's going to take off walking then she chickens out and grabs back ahold of the couch.

Her personality is definitely coming through and is more noticeable. She has no problem letting you know when she's not happy about something. She throws little temper tantrums already. I have a feeling these are just a preview for what's to come later!! She'll kick her legs and arms if you try to take something away or are trying to get her dressed. She's just recently started saying NO too. She'll even point her finger at you like you do when you're giving someone a talking to. It's so funny because if you do it to her then she'll start mocking you, but she doesn't point back at me. She turns and points at Chris.

Well Friday was my last day at work! YAY!!! I'm so excited to be able to stay home with Rylee all the time! We still don't know exactly when we're moving yet, but it'll be sometime around the end of the month. We've already started packing some things. We're trying to get as much packed as possible while Chris is still here to help.

Well I'm going to get off here for now. Hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently now that I'm not working.