Hot Husband and Sweet Baby

So, I'm taking a break from watching American Idol right now, because to be honest, Neil Diamond night isn't exactly super exciting. Ahhh, my love/hate relationship with American Idol. Anyways, thought I would brag on my husband and little girl for a minute or two...

This past weekend, we went to Oklahoma City. Why? Cameron ran Sunday morning in the Oklahoma City Marathon! I'm so proud of him and incredibly impressed by his physical prowess (hey, hey, get your mind out of the gutter, I'm impressed by his athletic abilities). He finished the 13 mile Half Marathon in 1 hour 43 minutes, which is a really good time. What makes this feat so astounding is that he didn't really train that much. I think his longest run in his "training" was a 8-mile run. I have to train just to be able to run 2 miles, never mind 13. OK, lets just stop for a second and put that into perspective. Running 13 miles is running 52 laps around a track (Ughhh, that would be terrible), for you Colorado friends running from church to my old house, aka the Holt Manor, which would take me 20 minutes driving, running from one end of the town of Altus to the other end and back, or running for the equivalent of the amount of time it would take to watch a movie...there's me watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith while Cameron runs his half marathon. Can you believe it? Needless to say, I'm so proud of him. And now that he's gotten a taste of sweet running victory he'll begin training for the Seattle Marathon (26.2 miles) in November.

I always wonder what one thinks about while running for an hour and a half or more. Well, I'm about to find out. Cameron has convinced me that I too can train for a half marathon in Seattle. I'm a little skeptical because I don't exactly have a loving relationship with running. When I played sports in high school, running was used as a punishment for doing something wrong. Didn't rebound enough? "Get on the line!" our coach yelled. Didn't play with full force? "Get on the line!!" Didn't hustle enough? "Get on the line!" How do I rebuild my relationship with running when it was so horribly torn down? But I've decided to do it, have something to work towards physically and I'm kind of excited. Now, me mentioning this to you means that I really am going to have to do it. May I mention that I've had 2 knee surgeries?..ok, ok...you're right, I'm just making excuses in case I can't/don't do it. And unlike my competitive husband, I really could care less about the time in which I will run the longest 13 miles of my life. My goal is just to finish, just do it, as the Nike ad would say.

OK, so on to me being proud of Malone. First, she slept through the whole 2 hour drive to Oklahoma City. Then when we went to the mall, she just sat in her stroller and looked around, enjoying the Oklahoma people gazing as much as we did. Then, as if it couldn't get any better, when we went to dinner with our friends, Steven and Yami, she just sat in our laps and looked at the scrumptious P.F. Chang's food, being as quiet as a mouse. Isn't she wonderful? We went to sleep pretty late and had to wake up pretty darn early. When we arose at the ungodly time of 4:30am, she woke up, ate and went back to sleep as we got Cameron ready for the race. We were all ready to go watch him run the race, but unfortunately we weren't quite ready for the rain and 40 degree weather. So we sat in the car while Cameron ran the race. BUT....she slept the whole time, which made it a million times easier.

All this to say, I'm so proud of my husband for his perseverance and so proud of my little girl for being soooo sweet and good. Hugs and Kisses to them both!

Here's some recent pictures:

A visit to the Ouma and Oupa

So sorry for the long blog world absence, but yes, we are back and lots of pictures to share!! Malone and I ventured out and traveled together for the first time this week. We went to Alabama to visit my parents and little sister and Malone's Ouma and Oupa and Tannie Christelly. *Ouma is Grandma in Afrikaans, Oupa is Grandpa and Tannie is Aunt. We had such a splendid time visiting with one another. But instead of me narrating to you about it, I'll explain the whole story in pictures.

I admittedly was a bit nervous traveling with a three month old. So, like any neurotic new mom I called the airline a few days ahead and asked a poor customer service agent a million and one questions. My friend Hillarie volunteered to take us to the airport in Lawton (the closest semi-large town about an hour away) early Tuesday morning. We headed out wondering if there really was an airport in such a small town and soon found out that there indeed was an airport although it was little more than a building, strip of pavement and 2 airplanes. Let no one say that I was not prepared for everything but a hurricane!Picture 1: Here we are on our layover in Dallas, stroller, car seat, and backpack filled with everything I could possibly need for a few weeks. Imagine trying to go through airport security where I had take Malone out, hold her, break everything down, take off my shoes, put everything through the x-ray machines, all while holding Malone with one arm, and then setting everything back up again. Needless to say, next time I think I'll take it a bit easier on the stuff.

Malone did great and slept on most of our flights...to the great delight of everyone on board who was visibly nervous about the lady with lots of stuff and a baby.
Picture 2: Here is Malone on her first flight ever. Apparently they are very serious about the fact that the baby HAS TO sit by the window. I found this out after the flight attendant repeatedly made an announcement on the plane PA system saying, "Ma'am, the baby has to be by the window." It took me a little while realizing she was talking to me :)

Finally, we arrived in Birmingham where we were met by my parents. It was love at first sight, Malone and the family. Everyone fighting over who would get to hold her, play with her and rock her to sleep....with the exception of changing diapers. My dad informed me that part of being an Oupa was that you no longer had to change diapers :) Tannie Christelly blew on Maloney's belly to make her laugh and had numerous photo sessions with her.Ouma rocked her to sleep, worked on her hand/eye coordination, held her, and played with her endlessly.Oupa would come first thing in the morning to make Malone smile and giggle with his stories and even had "tummy time" with her on the floor.Oh, and they did their part to make sure that she will be a bi-lingual baby, speaking only Afrikaans to her the whole week.

We also had a few visitors who came to meet Malone. Malone and I worked very hard on her first impressions, but alas, I think she missed the part where you are not supposed to scream a lot when there is new people. That and how farting in front of people was a bit of a faux pas. On Thursday afternoon, one of my best friends, Emily came to see Malone and visit with me. We had a great time catching up.

Then Friday night the Oom Johan and Tannie Karin, longtime South African family friends of ours arrived for a nice weekend visit. Saturday morning we woke up, drank some tea and ate beskuit (very South African) and later had a nice brunch outside while the sun was warming us up nicely. Malone just sat on Ouma's lap and looked at all the people, even joining in the conversation a bit. Later, Christelly and I had the best bike ride ever! All in all just a great weekend. Here's Malone fascinated by my mom's coffee cup.

Uncle JD sent Malone a beautiful pink blanket as well as a lovely letter written in Afrikaans. My mom is reading it to Malone.

By the way, in the midst of our trip Cameron and I finally officially became homeowners as we closed on our new house. Here's a picture of our house. I'll put up a few more pictures in a few days.

Sadly, our lovely time with the family had to come to an end. I packed up our stuff, which somehow had increased quite a bit since I had arrived, and we were off to the airport. We truly enjoyed the trip so much and I'm sure Malone will miss her Ouma, Oupa and Tannie Christelly very much.



Here some more pictures for you:

Malone trying to figure out what's going on as we're on the airplane.

Just for cuteness.

How cute is she when she wakes up?

Malone loved the swing at Ouma and Oupa's house. She tried to hard to play with her toys.

She was soooo tired when she would take a nap. It would take forever for her to fall asleep because she was just too interested in everything going on.

Auntie Christelle and Malone bonding a bit.

2 month check-up

Malone had kind of a hard day on Monday. First, she didn't sleep so well the night before because there were heavy thunderstorms, sirens going off due to the very close proximity of a tornado and then the tv on for a few hours (I was a bit freaked out and had to track the storm at 3am). We were hoping that Monday would be a great day, Malone's 2 month doctor's check-up.

The good news is that she has gained 3 lbs and 2 inches, just perfect. She is in the 50th percentile for her weight and head size and in the 75th percentile for her height. The doctor said that he liked her curves....ha ha...growth curves, that is. So yay, for Malone growing!!!

Not so yay for what had to happen next, her first immunizations. Missy was already getting hungry and tired, so she didn't need a reason to be cranky. Four needles shoved into her little thighs, one drink of some sort of gross immunization, blood on her clothes and lots of pitiful goat screaming later and she had had enough! But now she is protected from all kinds of gross bacteria and diseases, so it is kind of worth it.....I think.

Picture 1: Look at her little legs. Note the blood on the bottom of her little onesy. Ouch :(
Picture 2: Here's the other little leg
Picture 3: Her sleepy, groggy, scared face all day Monday

In other news, I think Malone is having a style identity crises. I don't think she can decide whether to be a ghetto gangster or a punk rock star. My vote is for the punk rock star.

Picture 4: Her ghetto gangster self relaxing while waiting for her homeboys to bring her some food.

Picture 5: Her punk rock self practicing singing into her...ehm...microphone...
Isn't she getting beautiful? Just too cute!

Picture 6 & 7: Just hanging out while mom folds the laundry. I think the camera kind of scares her...she always looks terrified.