Busy weekend!

My mom and I picked up Layne at the airport on Friday night, so she finally got to meet her first nephew. She'll be here until May, taking care of Daniel during the day while I'm at work. They're already getting along famously!

On Saturday, I headed off to Weight Watchers while my mom and Layne attempted to climb the Stairway to Heaven aka Haiku Stairs (they were turned away by the security guard at the base, unfortunately). The scale was my friend this week--I'm one pound away from pre-pregnancy weight! There's still a little ways to go after that, but I'm feeling good and fitting into all my old clothes, which is what really matters. On Saturday night, my mom took us out to dinner for Layne's birthday (she turned 21 on Wednesday), so I suggested one of my favorites, town in Kaimuki. It was delicious as always (and I probably gained back half the weight that I've lost so far!). Then for dessert, we walked down Waialae Avenue to JJ Bistro and French Bakery. We ordered from the dessert display case and brought our treats home to enjoy. We especially loved the Chocolate Raspberry Pyramid. If you live here and you feel like treating yourself, make the drive to Kaimuki and you won't regret it!

Dan's wearing a bib to catch the massive amounts of drool that he produces:


Daniel wearing Layne's bracelet (apparently he loves the bling):

Sweet treats (raspberry creme goodie, pear tart, and the pyramid):

This morning, my realtor called at about 7:45 to tell me that the appraiser was coming over at noon. Yikes! We went into a cleaning/straightening up/hiding stuff frenzy! My mom and sister even packed their luggage and hid it away. The appraiser was in and out in like half an hour, but at least the house is a lot cleaner! (We're refinancing while the rates are low, so that's the back story.)

Then my sister and I hit the commissary while my mom watched Daniel and then my mom and I ran to Lowe's while Layne took the baby on a long walk. I think three people is the ideal number for taking care of an infant! At Lowe's, we finished buying all the new stuff for our downstairs bathroom/laundry so our contractor can start work on it tomorrow. It's the last room in the house that I really just can't stand, so hopefully I'll see a big improvement when it's done. I'll post some before and after pics.

And finally, Daniel had a good, long bath before going to bed tonight. Somehow in all the excitement of yesterday, we totally skipped his bath. So he had a smelly case of "cheese neck" this afternoon. (Zach is convinced that the area underneath his triple chin has an eau de Havarti quality--sorry if that's too much information!)

Pre-bath:


Now after my nice, relaxing weekend (HA!), it's time to go back to work tomorrow!

Daniel weighs....

16 pounds, 8 ounces!

So a lot of you guessed correctly! Congratulations.

He's in the 75th to 90th percentile for weight and the 75th for length (almost 26 inches long). And perfectly healthy in every other way, of course. He even did great with his shots. He was too busy eating to cry very hard when the nurse poked his leg. Dan has his priorities straight.

My sister Layne arrived tonight. She'll be here until May, watching Daniel during the day when I'm at work. My mom leaves on Tuesday and she's sad to leave the little buddy. Good thing we'll all see each other in San Diego in a week and a half! (That'll be Daniel's first trip to the mainland, so we'll see how that goes.)

Some pictures from my camera phone:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls

Step right up and take a chance! It's time to play "Guess Daniel's Weight!" No prizes will be awarded, but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you were right, so that's good enough. His appointment is Thursday morning but the results won't be revealed until Saturday so all you stragglers can play along.

(Reminder: He weighed 13 lb 9 1/2 oz at his 2-month check up on November 4th.)

poll by twiigs.com

Our little reader

My mom has been here almost two weeks and she has somehow convinced Daniel to take a morning nap and an afternoon nap in his bed, something I have been trying to get him to do for four months now. And he's sleeping from 7 at night until 6:30 in the morning with only one feeding sometime in there. Success!

But, contrary to what these pictures might imply, she hasn't taught him to read quite yet. Maybe if we give her another two weeks, that'll be the next big accomplishment!




The Baby Whisperer (sorry, Aunt Jean, but my mom is the current title-holder):

Big boy in his bath, with a washcloth for modesty, of course:

Someone thinks I'm funny

While I may never make it big as a stand-up comedienne, at least Daniel thinks I'm hilarious. For some reason, it cracks him up when we're playing and I break eye contact to look at the TV or my mom or anything. If I look back at him very quickly, he breaks out into adorable giggles. Maybe he thinks that I forgot he was there in those few seconds where I wasn't paying all my attention to him? Who knows what's going on in that growing brain of his!

We've had some quiet days with Zach gone. We're going to mail his first package to him tomorrow. Nothing exciting like cookies or other treats, mostly just stuff he forgot when he left.

Dan's adjusting to the separation. In the days leading up to Zach's departure, he really wasn't interested in nursing at all. He would still nurse at night, but in the daytime, he would only drink bottles of pumped milk that Zach fed him. So I think he could sense that a change was coming. Of course, I was feeling very left out and worried that this was going to be a permanent nursing strike. But now he's fine with nursing again, so I'm glad that Zach and Daniel got the chance to bond through feeding before he left.

Here's Daniel, laughing at my silliness:

Quick Zach update

Zach has arrived safe and sound in Kuwait. He and about 25 people from his squadron left on Monday night and flew on United from Honolulu to Kuwait City, with several stops on the mainland. Zach said that United treated them very well, bumping him to first class on one of the legs and Economy Plus on another. United also let the whole group use the Red Carpet Club on one of their long layovers, so they were able to take showers and relax instead of spending hours trying to get comfortable in those terrible plastic seats at the gate.

The group arrived in Kuwait around 5 pm on December 31st. It was great timing because it means that he'll get his December pay tax-free since they got there on the last day of the month. (If Zach has to be gone, I'd rather he arrive at 5 pm on the last day of the month than 5 am on the first day of the month!)

No word yet on when they'll move to their base. Zach's part of the advanced party, going in before the rest of the squadron to set things up.

Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and support! We're doing fine here--we survived New Year's Eve in Hawaii, which means lots of illegal fireworks and smoke-filled neighborhoods and drunk drivers.

Happy New Year! Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Seven months to go....

We dropped Zach off at the hangar tonight to begin his 7-month deployment to the sandbox. This is actually the first time that I've been home when he's left for deployment. All the other times, I was deployed myself. So I don't think I was mentally ready for how hard it would be to say goodbye to him, especially since Daniel's in the picture now. That definitely makes it a thousand times harder, knowing how much Zach is going to miss. I'll try my best to take pictures and video, but it won't be the same, we know.

But I'm trying to look at the bright side. I had a boss once who said about deployment, "Once begun, half done." I always took that to mean that the anticipation leading up to the beginning of the separation is bad, but once the deployment begins, so does the countdown to homecoming. So here I am, marking down the days until Zach's home!

Here are some pictures from our last day together:




And some video of a silly Daniel: