Sleeping/Napping Shenanigans

I hate naps. I mean, I love naps but I'm a bad nap taker. Everyday, I desperately want to take a nap, just to rest my eyes for a few minutes, but the cost is too high for me. You see, I can't take a cat nap because it takes me forever to fall asleep during the day, one of many reasons I should never be a grave-shift worker. Rather, I have to take a REAL good, long nap in order to feel like its worth it. But who has time to take a two hour nap? And this is the bad part, then I wake up groggy, in a slumber and just plain in a bad mood. Cameron on the other hand is the king of naps. He can take a 5 minute nap and feel as fresh as a daisy in Spring. My dad, too, is a good napper, laying down for his 15 minute cat nap after lunch is a daily ritual (he gets up so early that it is only expected for someone to take a nap midday). Not me.

You know who else is a bad napper? Yep, Miss Malone. She whines, cries, rubs her eyes red, scratches her face and tries to break the world record for longest eating session when its nap time. And when she's finally asleep, its like a game of Russian Roulette, will she really sleep or is she just faking it? **Side note: anyone have any advice on getting her to nap better? Oh, and I forgot to mention that when she does nap well (my lucky day!!!) she wakes up not in a good mood. I think I can hear my parents rejoicing as they read this, thinking "Oh the irony of Karma!"

Keeping all this in mind, Cameron and I REJOICE every morning when she wakes up, because she wakes up in the best, cutest, most cuddly of moods, all full of smiles and giggles. I think its my favorite time of day. So in honor of Malone and her crazy sleeping/ waking up shenanigans, I'm posting some pictures of her when she woke up this morning.

Waking Up
Picture 1: She just woke up and is starting to smile because she saw us. Ooh , she looks a bit rough...look at that bed head.
Picture 2: Look at that goofy smile...I think she got a bit over-excited.
Picture 3: Beautiful smile

Awake
Picture 4:Here's smiling Malone. Obviously glad to be awake and looking a bit more pulled together.
Picture 5: Here's scared Malone. " What? I'm going to have to take a nap?"
Nap Time
Picture 6: Will she or won't she? Note how proper she is folding her hands one over another. Cameron and I were catching up on some LOST episodes while she was napping yesterday. It lasted about 15 minutes.

Happy Easter

**I wrote this yesterday, but little missy wouldn't let me finish it, so pretend today is yesterday!***

Today is Easter Sunday, one of my favorite days of the year. It is a day that signifies life, light and new beginnings. We woke up pretty early in order to get ready for church on time. There is no room for "fashionably late entrance" on Easter Sunday. Plus, we decided to go to church on Base and wasn't quite sure how many people there will be. Cameron looked quite handsome in his dress clothes and I have to admit I didn't look too shabby either even though an Easter pastel color was nowhere in sight in my outfit (who remembers to pack an Easter outfit 2 months ahead of time?). But the one who stole the show was our little girl. Dressed to the tees with her pink dress (courtesy of Kenzie Kotby) white socks and white dress shoes, she wowed everyone who laid eyes on her. If only we could get her hair to lay flat!

We enjoyed church and then celebrated the resurrection of our Lord with a nice Easter Brunch Buffet at the Officer's Club. Oohh, it was so good! We enjoyed a spread of the best kinds of Brunch foods. We enjoyed the food so much that we needed to rest and recuperate a little afterward. And that is where we are at in our day, full, still coming out of our afternoon slumber and deciding what to do for the rest of our day. This is the best Sunday afternoon ever!

Here's some pictures of our little Easter bunny:

Picture 1: Look at that cute outfit!
Picture 2 & 3: Malone and her handsome daddy










Picture 4: Malone and mommy
Picture 5: There were little bloomers to go with the dress. They were a bit big...

Picture 6: She's posing
Picture 7: We went for a little workout...she even has her workout outfit on.

2 month birthday!!

I know its been 10 days since I last made a posting, a fact I am shamefully admitting. However, I want to make sure that your visit to my blog is worthwhile and since our minutes are not all full of excitement I collected our newsworthy moments for a post like this.

We've been enjoying lots of family time lately because Cameron has been doing his C-17 training at night instead of during the day. Malone has really enjoyed some extra time with her daddy. She loves the songs he makes up for her and appreciates his crawling coaching. She is growing like a weed. We've noticed that she looks a bit chubbier (only to make her cuter), especially in her cheeks and legs. Here's a nice chubby picture of her in her car seat.

Check out those cheeks.
Here's a nice one where you can see the rolls on her legs....FABULOUS!!! She was really excited to go on a walk.
But not to worry, she doesn't just lazy around all day, she's working on her sitting and spitting up skills. She is getting so strong. We bought her this awesome little chair to help her with her sitting up. She loves her chair even though she just has little 5 minutes stints in it at this point. Here she is trying out her Bumbo chair.

The weather has really been warming up, making it really nice for us to go on walks around the base in her sweet stroller. The other day, we put on Malone's first summer outfit, a sunny yellow tennis dress. I think its a sign of things to come, Malone playing tennis with mommy and daddy. How yuppy of us?! Here's some pictures of her in her super cute summer tennis outfit.

She was kind of giggly and getting sleepy so not so sturdy in the neck and body department.We've come to realize that Malone doesn't like pacifiers. How? By her vehemently spitting them out with disgust every time we try to put one in her mouth. She doesn't suck her thumb either. Rather she sucks her whole hand! Its so funny to see.

She randomly fell asleep the other day on her Boppy pillow. Cameron and I call this her lazy boy...and she fell asleep on it without us even noticing. I think we were doing something and all of a sudden she got kind of quiet (which made me nervous) and I looked over and she was doing the eyelid dance. The eyelid dance is when someone is so tired, but they are desperately trying to stay awake. So their eyelids kind of dance between being closed and open. Then all of a sudden she was out like a light, with her hands resting perfectly on her belly. SO cute!

Last but not least she is a squabbling machine. She is making all kinds of noises that sometimes even resemble words. Every once in a while Cameron and I will look at each other in amazement and ask, "Did she just say 'hello'?" We love hearing her interacting with us a bit more and can't wait until she can actually talk. Here's one last picture for you of Malone and her big beautiful blue eyes.
We are so thankful to have this little girl. It feels like she has always been in our little family. So here's a toast to Malone and her 2 month birthday! Hip, Hip Hooray!

Her Majesty, the Queen

Cameron and I watched a documentary on the British Royal Family the other night. It was spectacular, making me long for something that included a bit more pomp and circumstance than changing a diaper and cleaning spit up. One of the highlights of the documentary was a unprecedented photo shoot with Her Majesty, the Queen (that's what everyone called her) by famous American photographer Annie Lebowitz (she took the naked pregnant picture of Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair in the 1990s). It inspired me to have a royal photo shoot of my own.

I'm sure just like Annie Lebowitz, I charged the camera battery, adjusted the lights (by adjusting the lights I mean I turned them on) and got the scene ready. While I was getting the studio ready, my model was primping and getting ready as well (have you seen the picture of her fixing her hair?) I had high hopes for a smooth photo shoot with the notorious diva of a model. Much like Her Majesty, the Queen, everything had to be perfect in order for her to cooperate and give me the best shots.

Miss Malone was finally ready, clean, changed, fed and awake. We started in the bedroom and moved to the living room. Realize when I say "room" , please note that they are not actual rooms as our living space at the moment is a but on the small side. Its more like, moving from the bed to the couch. Anyways, it worked! She was a perfect model!

Here's the results of our own Royal Photo Shoot:

Picture 1: She started out pretty reserved.

Picture 2: She sat there with her hands folded, as modest and unemotional as Her Majesty, the Queen.
Picture 3: Then all of a sudden, she let loose and started dancing...a little jig, if you will. I was surprised to say the least.
Picture 4: This took quite the skill on her part as she's not exactly the most stable in the neck and body department. Most of the time she resembles a bobble-head.
Picture 5: This was my moment of glory as a photographer and her moment of Majesty as a model.
And so ended our wonderful royal photo shoot.