Busy Summer

This summer has been the busiest ever! It definitely holds some of the most fun times. We've been extremely busy this last month or so. We left June 10th for Virginia to visit Chris. Well this I will never forget bc Rylee and I flew by ourselves. I was extremely nervous ahead of time worried about how well she'd do on the plane and how many meltdowns she'd have w in the hour of the flight. As usual I had nothing to worry about. She did great and slept the vast majority of both of the flights.

When we arrived at the Norfolk airport Chris was there waiting on us. This was another of my worries. . .how she'd react to him. I kept talking to her on the airplane about going to see daddy so she'd wouldn't be too surprised. I think he was a tad worried as well. When we first saw him she kinda gave him a look like "I think I know you, but I'm not sure?" Then w in just a minute or two he picked her up out of her stroller and from that moment through the rest of our visit she was daddys girl!!!

Well we immediately started our visit off w a little excitement. Turns out we had picked up the wrong carseat and had actually gotten back to the hotel w it before I got a phone call from the airline saying we had the wrong one!! I never really looked at the carseat to be honest. Chris picked up our luggage so I just kinda randomly pointed at a carseat and said that's the one. And then he was the one to buckle her into it and since this was a borrowed carseat he had no idea what it looked like to begin w. So we returned the carseat and everything worked out fine.

We had a great time while we were there. We took Rylee to the zoo for the first time and it was blazing hot. She was an angel the entire time we were there. Once again I was amazed at how well she was while we there. She's so hot natured and you could see how red her little face was, but she never really fussed at all. I think it was bc her daddy had her most of the time. She loved to look at the animals and would point and get all excited and giggle.

We had plans to swim in the hotel pool while we were there, but Rylee had other plans bc we took her down one time and she clung to us like we were going to toss her in at any minute. So instead we just spent quality time in the hotel and then of the evening we'd usually go out for dinner. We got to visit w the babysitter and her girls and we also got to visit the hospital where I used to work. Those are the only 2 things I miss about Virginia. I loved my job and I loved our babysitter.

Chris took us back to the airport on the 15th. Thankfully he wasn't able to stay long bc he had to be at work. It was almost easier that way to just say our goodbyes and get it over with. Taking him to the airport the first time was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do and then leaving him again this time definitely comes in a close 2nd. The first time we left Rylee didn't really react to him leaving. This time though was a different story. One that I don't want to go into bc it makes me sad.

Things have been even busier since we've been back. We just celebrated the 4th of July a couple weeks ago. I took Rylee to the parade in Shoals. This was her first ever parade. I wasn't sure going into it if she would really enjoy it. She's awfully busy and doesn't like to sit still so i wasn't sure she'd sit through it. But once again she proved me wrong and did really well. We did not attend any fireworks just bc they were right about bedtime and I think she's still a little young to enjoy those.

She's now not only walking but running around like a chicken w its head cut off!!! She just gets busier and busier!!! After we got back from visiting Chris I started working on her bedtime habits. Her routine got all out of whack when we moved into a new place w "new people" and w o daddy. She wasn't going to bed till midnight and then would wake 2 or 3 times in the night and when I would finally get her to go to bed I would have to stand in there patting on her till she fell asleep. Which sometimes was an hour long process. So once we got back I decided we needed to work on going to bed like a big girl bc one baby Loren gets here Mommy isn't going to have time to stand in there for an hour every night. It wasn't as bad as what I thought it would be and it definitely didn't take her long at all to going to bed like a big girl. I started by taking her in and turning her seahorse on and I would hold her a minute and then tell her mommy and daddy love her and it was time to go nite nite and I'd see her in the morning and then I'd lay her down and walk out. The first several nights she cried a little, but never more than 2 or 3 minutes. After the first week of this she was good to go and going to bed on her own! Now when I tell her its nite nite time she won't let me stand and hold her! As i'm giving her a kiss and telling her we love her she's already pulling away from me wanting to be laid down.

Here are some pics from the last couple of months. . .

I took her to the Washington park the other day to feed the ducks and play on the playground. Ok so you know the saying. . . "What goes up must come down" well Rylee knows it too. She climbs up the slide and then slides back down.

This look she was giving me wasn't real loving! Here is Rylee at the most miserable day of both our lives. . . the baby contest. I entered Rylee in the prettiest eyes and prettiest girl. She got 3rd in prettiest eyes. This contest was awful! It was outside and it was so hot! As you can tell by her face she was not happy and was ready to go. Furthermore it didn't start on time and it was incredibly unorganized! Her and I neither one were happy and we won't be doing it next year.

Here she is patiently waiting on the parade to start Her and I went outside to play one day. This was one of those weeks where we had like 3 days of absolute beautiful weather. She loves to just take off running once we're out there. She never wants to come inside. See that happy look on her face? She loves to be outside! This was her right after we left the zoo. We weren't even out of the parking lot yet.

See how engrossed she is? I couldn't get any good pictures bc she was too busy looking at the animals to look at the camera.

She was telling daddy all about whatever animal she saw! You can already see how hot she was and we had just gotten there. "Daddy come out!!!" Chris had gone into the bathroom w o her. She let him know she was waiting by banging on the door. By this point she was done being patient. She either wanted him to come out or him to let her in.

Well just a short side note on baby Loren. Im just over 2 weeks away from delivering, but the dr. is doing an ultrasound this week to see how big she is. We don't want anymore 10lb surprises! I'm extremely miserable and very ready for this to be over w and her to be here. Im anxious to see how Rylee will act around her. Still no word on whether or not Chris will be here for the delivery, but he has turned in his leave request and they sent it back to him wanting him to list my dr. phone number and the hospital phone number. So I'm taking that as a good sign, but trying not to get hopeful. Very seldom does the Navy do anything that makes any sense!!!