Yes, it has been a few weeks since my last post and yes, it isn't Sunday when I usually post my updates but with traveling and being alone it has really been hard to have time alone to work on it. Claire likes to terrorize our little office whenever we are over in the area and likes type on the keyboard if I bring my laptop out of the area.
Separation
As much as we appreciate all that the military has done for getting Chris through school and the health care that we get, the worst part is Annual Training. This year it is twice as long and in the heat of the desert in California with half of it "in the box" which means he can't have his phone at all. Very lonely for the girls he left here at home and the time without his phone has already started! He had a few days of travel and prep then went out to intense training in that dreaded box, but he has broken the rules and turns his phone on once a night to send me a love text that I get to wake up to. The week before we were separated we took time to have a date night, set up Claire's new bed to make room for Shay to take the crib back, and did a day trip to see his brother's graduation.
Traveling
When the time finally came to drop him in Pocatello (I wasn't about to let him drive away from me so we got those last 3 hours together), we said our sweet goodbyes and I continued to his parents in Blackfoot. I stayed the night and then left EARLY the next morning, since Claire is sleeping in less and less, to Montana and a week long stay with Nana and Grandpa Cox. We got to stop at this amazing new park in Butte that Claire had fun playing in. I made a snack case for Claire so I could open it and reach back to give it to her when she needed a snack that had many of the foods she has been known to eat. She really liked picking her own snack out of all the options and I learned which ones she likes most. I also learned not to let her see it until the actual trip because she wanted it all before we even got packed up in the car to leave.
Montana
It was so nice to spend some real time with my parents instead of just the quick weekends we seem to have these last few months. My mom is still recovering from her back surgery but was able to play and cuddle with the girls whenever she wanted. Claire met their new dog, Bentley, by scaring him while chasing him with a happy laugh, and she would get just as happy every morning seeing him again. It was like a new experience every time and I had to tell her a lot to be nice to the dog and pet him instead of hit because she was too excited. I had fun playing board games, cooking yummy recipes, and talking with my parents, while the girls enjoyed the children's museum and parks we visited while there. I am super jealous of their fenced in back yard because it was really nice to open the door and let Claire play outside while I watched her undo my dad's garden labels from inside with Shay.
Shay
Our little girl is already 3 months! I am amazed at how time seems to be speeding by and I can get enough of her smiles she has for me now. I love making her giggle and she likes to let people know she is alone by cooing and squeaking. She sleeps less and less time during the day but is doing great at night until I leave the room to teach my classes. I've been only teaching priority requests and short notice classes, which means I only open them the night before, and usually 2 a day so she isn't alone very long. I'll feed her right before class so she can sleep through them all hopefully but it doesn't always work that way, darn those cute babies for needing us so much.
Claire
I can tell that Claire really misses her dad because she smiles when I show her pictures and watched the videos he made for us one after another over and over again the other day. She is learning more words like 'ball' and 'yellow' this last week and now that she is finally copying my sounds I plan on making time every day to teach her more. We got to play outside the other day with our downstairs neighbor who talks so much more than her and they are only a month apart in age. Maybe I should have started learning earlier but she never seemed interested after learning the few sign language things I taught her. She would just repeat them over and over no matter what I tried to get her to do so now I hope thing can progress to words.Claire woke up one Sunday while I was straightening my hair and wanted to use it so I tried it out and found out I love her curls!
Home Alone
Now we are home and back to the some what normalcy that it brings but without Chris its all just about getting through the day. We've picked up going to the gym every day again and plan to find out how fun the splash pad parks around here are now that they are open with water. I'll be alone until the 13th when my best friend in the whole world is coming to visit and keep me company! I'm very excited for her to fly out with her little one to make the last week of my time without Chris full of joy. Last time she came I was all pregnant and the time went by too fast so we are going to pack in as much fun as we can this time.
She is definitely loving having daddy home by how many times she plays with him by locking him in her closet and climbing on top of him. She's going back to the habit of not eating very much now that there isn't someone to steal food from I guess. Whenever we try to get her to eat she doesn't stay put even now that we have a shorter table since Chris got nervous seeing her climb up on her own. It was funny when Claire woke up from her nap to see that we didn't have a table then luckily we found what we wanted for the same price we sold our other one for on the same day. It even fit in Chris's car so now Claire uses the easily pushed chairs to get to all the places on the counter she hadn't been able to get to...yay.
Holy cow this girl is getting so big! She will be 4 months tomorrow! She is getting so big and strong, especially when she is doing tummy time and looking around at all that is going on. She has rolled over once from her front to her back when I was out of the room and Chris was watching her, but not in front of me yet. She can roll herself on her sides when she is laying on her back so she will be getting there pretty soon probably! She can go to sleep better on her own for a couple hours but after the first long time she wakes up and only sleeps in two hour time periods. She is still sleeping in our room but I have her crib ready in Claire's room and she took her first nap in there today.
It has been a long month and I've heard many many different complaints about the heat in the desert and the wasted time that happened out there. I've also heard many times how happy he is to finally be out of there and how much he missed his girls and is glad he can get all the kisses he has missed out on. He is already back to Claire's favorite parent it feels like and Shay easily falls asleep on him which is so unfair because I love being cuddled with too! My favorite part of newborns is when they fall asleep cuddled into my neck but Shay only has naps on Chris, I guess he is pretty comfy to cuddle with.
