6 week milestone

Yesterday, Malone is crossing the 6 week milestone. Its hard to believe that only six weeks ago she was a longing and excitement in our hearts and my belly. However, over the past few weeks she has firmly established her position in our family. I don't have much to update you on, just an increase in appetite and diaper size and a decrease in sleeping. Here's some new pictures. Enjoy!

Picture 1 & 2: Malone napping with her daddy









Picture 3: We like to call this look "Milk Drunk Baby"
Picture 4: This is the closest I can get to showing you her beautiful smile
Picture 5: She knew I was taking pictures for you, so she thought she would wave
Picture 6: She is posing for you...Note for my mom: doesn't this look like the pictures we have of oumagrootjie, ouma and you where you're each doing the pose fixing your hair? (the original was of oumagrootjie)
Picture 7: She was sooo sleepy
Picture 8: She finally went to sleep....squishy face and all.

Update 2.22.08

Gosh, it seems like a lot has happened since I last wrote. The movers came, took all of our stuff which is probably already in Tacoma by now. Malone celebrated her 1 month birthday. We had a 1 month check-up with the doctor for Malone. We moved down to Altus, OK. We bought a house. All I can say is that is has been one busy week.

Moving- The movers came last Thursday and packed up all of our stuff. One of the perks to being in the military is that every time they send you somewhere new, a moving company comes and packs everything up for you. I mean, they literally get everything out of drawers, shelves and cupboards. I felt kind of like a lame-o just sitting around while someone else packed up all of our stuff, but we're not technically allowed to help. Then Friday, a ginormous truck came and took all of our stuff away. We spent then weekend furniture-less, with the exception of an air mattress and our computer (God bless the computer and internet). During the day we cleaned the house and at night we got caught up on LOST. Strangely enough, we kind of enjoyed the semi-camping.

House- We bought our first house! I can't remember right now if I told you this yet, but we bought a brand new house in Tacoma. It will be finished in April and ready for us to move into it shortly thereafter. We are so excited!

Altus- We finally left Enid, cars full, on Tuesday afternoon. Cameron, Malone and I were ready for our new adventure in Altus. But first we had to make it through the 3.5 hour drive there. Oh wait....did I say 3.5 hour? I meant to say 6-7 hour drive. That's right. What was supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive turned into a 6.5 hour drive with a baby screaming for most of it. It was crazy! Malone was not too happy about the car seat, long drive, being alone thing and she wasn't afraid to let me know. But finally we made it into town and Malone was also FINALLY asleep. Did I tell you about the hot dog factory in Altus? No? Pardon the mistake. Yes, my friends, there is a hot dog factory as you drive into town. Enough said. We're staying on base in a hotel-suite type of room. Its pretty small. Some day I'll write a post with pictures and all about it. The positive point of being here is that there is cable television in our room. I'm enjoying lots of FOODNETWORK, TLC and HOME & GARDEN channel :) But so far we're happy and getting adjusted to our new life.

Malone: YAY! Malone turned 1 month this past Sunday (She was born January 17th, contrary to a previous post where I mistakenly said she was born on the 19th, I'm such a bubble-head). We didn't really have a chance to celebrate, but have been enjoying the milestone anyways. Tuesday, we had a check up at the doctor's office. Malone passed everything with flying colors. She has grown an inch and gained almost 2 pounds!! Not to mention that she is more beautiful everyday. She is cooing and even smiled at me and Cameron yesterday. Both Cameron and I laughed so hard because it was soo darn cute. We looked so retarded, I'm sure that's why she was smiling at us. Nevertheless, it felt like some sort of parenting victory. I even cried! Here's some picture updates:This was taken a little while ago on Feb. 9th. I had just given her a bath and did her hair. Can you see her little curly Mohawk?


This is her "dad, what are you doing? " look.


Sleeping beauty taken yesterday.
This is just a funny picture to me. PS: I realize that she is wearing the same outfit in all these pictures. Purely coincidence. I promise, I do change her clothes.

There it is friends, what we've been up to the last week. Feel free to leave us comments. I welcome questions, suggestions even comments on who you think Malone looks like (I like to say that she is a lovechild between Cameron and my dad. She has features of both of them). We love you all and love having you in our lives!

Moving

Tomorrow the movers come to pack up our stuff and send it to Washington. Our stuff is going ahead of us by a few months to scout things out. If that was the truth, all that they would be scouting is a military storage unit. But all kidding aside, I've been attempting to sort through my clothes, Malone's stuff and house things to see what we'll need in the next few months before we have a splendid reunion with our things in our new house (did I mention that I think Cameron and I bought a house yesterday....I say "I think" because we're still in the process...I think...that's for a whole other post). Its kind of daunting to try to decide what you NEED based on unknowns. We don't really know exactly when we'll be going to Washington, we don't know what our housing situation will be in Altus, we don't know what the weather will be like in 2 months, we don't know what Malone will be like in 3 months, see, lots of unknowns.

Speaking of Malone, it struck me the other day that she is almost 1 month old. Time has flown! I was wondering, is she still considered a newborn? Then I got kind of sad, thinking that perhaps I haven't cherished these first few weeks enough. After all, I will never have these moments again with her. Then, I realized that I will think that at every stage of her life, because indeed I will never have that particular stage with her again. Its little overwhelming to realize that you can't take any day for granted because you will never have it again. So in the last few days, I've tried to avoid feeling consumed by all the STUFF and just focus on her a bit more. I try to look at her a little longer, study her various faces a little more, play with her a little more, just enjoy her a bit more. Its been really great. So, below is a string of pictures we took this morning in mommy and Malone time (Cameron has the camera, oh...and he's on his way back from Washington). Looking at these pictures I'm not sure if she has really enjoyed the extra time with me. But luckily, I don't think she's old enough to care!

Picture 1: She looks a little worried.

Picture 2: This is her "mom, you're so weird" look.

Picture 3: Whoops. Her head is still a bit floppy. I think you can actually see me saying, "whoops."

Picture 4: Her face shows what she just did in her diaper. My face shows my surprise at the noise coming from her diaper. HAHA!It will probably be a few days before I write again due to the move, but I'll try to sneak away to update you all on how she's doing with the world as she knows it completely changing.

VICTORY!!

I am pleased to announce that Malone and I have reached a temporary truce regarding outings. Our agreement includes compromise on both our parts, however, the conclusion is satisfactory. I have agreed to feeding her for a REALLY long time before we leave, waiting until she's asleep, wrapping her up nice and warm and then taking a SHORT trip to Walmart and then she'll be really sweet and sleep the whole time while I buy some diapers that don't leak gross things all over her clothes, yogurt, oranges and an already made rotissery chicken (sadly, I haven't figured out how to cook as a single parent) and maybe even let me eat some of the chicken. This deal worked out quite well for us. Although, it is at this time only a temporary truce, I consider it a major VICTORY for tired new moms everywhere! So with that, I stand with my fists in the air and cheer "Victory! Victory!"

On another note, I would show you a picture of how beautifully serene she is right now (part of her deal), but can't locate the camera. But as soon as I do, I'll post her weekly Birthday Picture. Can you believe she's on week 3? And more beautiful than ever!

PS: Because I feel really bad not posting a picture today, I thought I would share with you a picture of Cameron giving Maloners a bath earlier this week. Needless to say, she loves her wonderful daddy!

crawling and old navy meltdowns

I'll try to make this quick since I have a baby who just fell asleep and is already making noises of waking up. A few things of interest for this week: crawling...or attempting to, an Old Navy meltdown and being a single parent. First things first, our wonder-child is attempting to crawl at the ripe old age of 2 weeks. Is this normal? Below, you'll see a video of this marvel along with hearing her version of what baby dinosaurs sound like. Perhaps she'll be crawling around in a few weeks (a possibility if she really is the child prodigy we think she is) or she'll just be exercising her legs like this for a while. Either way, she loves her tummy time and looks absolutely adorable attempting to crawl.


Did I mention that I have officially been a single parents for the last few days as Cameron is enjoying some Air Force training at the beach in Florida? The things our tax dollars pay for! I have no idea how single parents do it. It is crazy! If I manage to get out of my pajamas and find a way to eat lunch, I consider it a victorious day. Not to mention that exercise time with Mommy isn't exactly as much fun as exercise time with Daddy. I'm sure Malone is getting sick of just seeing my face all the time. All that to say that we miss Cameron very much.

Lastly, I attempted to take her on our first outing alone the other day. For any new mom, the idea of still wearing maternity pants because nothing else fits AFTER you have already had the baby is not a very exciting thing. Hence, I decided to go buy a pair of cheap pants at Old Navy to feel like a normal human being again. I took Malone, fed, changed and sleeping. I towed along the diaper bag and the stroller, figuring this will be the easiest way of getting some shopping done. By the time I got to Old Navy, took out the stroller, attached the bar to fit the car seat in the stroller, while still nervously keeping an eye on my newborn (I'm trying to be a good mom and not leave her unattended :), attached her in her car seat to the stroller, she awoke and started crying. But gosh darnit, I was determined to make this shopping trip work. It was probably a bit of me trying to hold on to my independence that now is long gone. So I took my crying newborn into Old Navy and even managed to find some jeans I liked. Then the "I'm just waking up in a strange place" little cry turned into full blown hysteria along with the little goat cry (the one where her little chin quivers). People were staring, I was trying my best to calm her, jeans falling over the the side of the stroller. It was a mess. I ended up handing over the clothes I wanted to try on to a sales associate who could see the desperation in my eyes and took pity on me and we left. I must say I felt a little defeated after our Old Navy meltdown. Am I ever going to be able to leave the house again? In any case, not sure if its bravery, stupidity or necessity, but I'm going to try again today, with a trip to the grocery store.

Oh...little Missy is awake and in need of some nutrition, so I need to run. I'll try to keep you all updated on how the grocery store trip went. I leave you with a most beautiful sight that I get to see every day (and for right now, every minute)...

They come and go

This week was one of joy and sadness because of the the coming and the going of family. First, we all enjoyed our last few days with my sister, Lydia here. She came out for about two and a half weeks to help with Miss Malone. She made dinner (her awesome fried ravioli was the BEST!!!) and took Malone in the mornings so that the new sleep deprived parents could get some sleep. So when she left early Wednesday morning, Malone was very sad. She made several faces similar to this one once she discovered Auntie Lyddie was gone.

But luckily, the before Lyddie left, Grandpa Jay and Grandma Claire (Cameron's dad and stepmom) came to visit. Malone enjoyed their visit very much, sleeping so comfortably in Grandma Claire's arms and feeling super safe under the protection of Grandpa Jay.





















But then on Friday morning they had to leave. Again, Malone was very sad....We had to console her with her little elephant....and try to entertain her as much as possible to distract her from her sad little heart.

A few other events that happened this week: Malone celebrated her 2 week birthday. Yay! She is more beautiful everyday and already looks a lot more grown up to us. Also, she rolled over (from her belly to her back) this week. We're not quite sure if at two weeks this was just a fluke or if she's abnormally advanced in her motor skills. We like to believe that we have a child prodigy on our hands.

Tomorrow, I'll post a video of Missy trying to crawl...seriously, a child prodigy people!