Early Summer Fun

So it's been a while since I've updated!! Nothing new going on in the deployment front. I gave our 30 days notice last week for our house (eek!) and that's about all. Kolt spends almost every spare second that he's home working on Readiness, boo. But I'm glad to have him home.

I started Weight Watchers while Kolt was gone. In that two weeks I lost 7.5 lbs! I'm loving the program and it's changed so much about the way I eat. Usually when we would go grocery shopping we spent most of our time in the middle of the store where all of the boxed, processed, pre made food is, well not anymore! Most of our time is spent in produce, a little in the middle, then the rest in dairy and frozen. I LOVE looking at our grocery cart when we're done and seeing all the wonderful healthy foods. I'm now in clothes that I haven't been able to wear in over three years and hope to be out of them by May. I've been running three days a week and trying to go to the gym on my off days, I just feel like I have this new lease on life. FINALLY we're living a healthy life style, and I'm hoping Leila will grow up learning to love to eat well and enjoy exercise.

Kolt and I made a trip to Whole Foods today to shop for sunscreen. I'm sure by now many of you have seen this website http://www.ewg.org/2010sunscreen/ and Kolt and I were shocked to learn about how awful the most common sun screens are!! Thankfully, the kind we bought for Leila was ok, but we went today to get new bottles for ourselves. We happened to find some made by Alba that were on sale so we didn't spend an arm and a leg because many of them are quite expensive.

The reason we need sunscreen is because we're going to Canyon Lake this weekend. It's supposed to be 92 and I can hardly wait. I'm not thrilled about getting into a swim suit, but if I'm being honest, I look better now than I have in years! I'm pasty white though, definitely need to work on my tan. We'll be hanging out with our Air Force family, The Nesbits and The Amports. We will have a BBQ (turkey hot dogs and black bean burgers) and swim, it will be a blast. This will be Leila's first experience with swimming and I hope she likes it. I'm really sad because the swim suit I was dying to get for her was sold out at Carters today. Boo. We'll have to settle for a different one from the BX. She'll look adorable no matter what she wears though!

Leila has two teeth now. They just popped up out of no where. I need to count my blessings and be grateful that I had no clue, so many of my fellow August moms have had an awful time with teething. So far she hasn't bitten me, she did bite herself today, it was quite sad to see her cry afterwards.

I think that's all for now. We have just over three weeks until Kolt's parents get here! Good grief where is the time going?? Before you know it we'll be moved out, in Idaho, and Kolt will be gone :(

Updates

We sent Kolt off to St. Louis on Sunday for a training. I cried at the air port when it came time to say goodbye. Not necessarily because he was leaving, because it's only for 2 weeks, but because I know the next time I say goodbye to him in uniform in that air port, it will be for a good long while. Time is just FLYING right now and I can't stand it. My baby girl will be 7 months in a few days, I have no clue where this 6th month went! We are moving out in about 6-7 weeks and saying goodbye to this house for good. Kolt's parents will be here in 5 1/2 weeks and that just blows my mind. There are so many little things happening up leading to the "big" thing, that it's happening so fast and I can't wrap my mind around it.

I was seriously stressed out about Kolt leaving and being totally alone with Leila. Not because I don't think I'm a good mom, but some days your baby has just been fussy all day long and you need a break. Thankfully, so far, it's been no big deal at all. I miss Kolt in the evenings especially, but for the most part she's a very good companion, and has been an angel. I'm so lucky to have such a good daughter. It's really funny to notice how much different this time apart has been different from our other experiences. Because I have a little one to take care of, all of my energy isn't focused on missing Kolt. Granted, it's been 3 days, but still, I can notice a big difference. Last night he didn't text me "goodnight" before he went to bed and in the past that would have broken my heart. Why? I have no clue, I'm needy I suppose. But I love that I don't NEED those things to make me happy anymore. It's nice, but not necessary, and I'm grateful that I'm maturing and growing in that way. Hopefully it only gets better as our time apart increases.

I've started Weight Watchers this week. I've lost a total of 50 lbs since Leila was born, but since January I'm only down 9 lbs and that's just not enough progress for me. WW accounts for breast feeding and that's a big reason why I decided to check into it. So far I'm really liking the online program, I'm a very visual person and it has little boxes to check off when you have a serving of water, veggies/fruit, dairy, etc. It's really made it obvious to me how little fruits/veggies I've been eating. It's rather embarrassing actually. I've got another 50 lbs to lose ideally and I think this program will help me get there. I've also restarted my Couch to 5k running program and hope to be running 3 miles 4-5 times a week in about 6 weeks. I'm also doing various other exercises on my off days, as the running is only 3 days a week, and I'm hoping to lose at least 5 lbs while Kolt is gone. 8 would be better but I try not to set super high goals, so I'm not disappointed when I can't make them. I'll update everyone weekly with my progress, I'm very optimistic about this!

A glimpse

My daughter is really starting to develop her own little personality. She gets mad if she's whining and you tell her, "It's ok, sweetheart." Oh boy, does she get mad. She screams even harder if you patronize her as though to say, "Don't you tell me how I feel!" She's got a pretty great sense of humor and laughs all the time. She's genuinely a happy baby and I love that, even if she is going to be stubborn. Today while playing with her I looked into her eyes and I felt like I got a glimpse into her future and who she is going to be, and I'm proud. She's going to be incredibly smart, funny, and opinionated, JUST LIKE HER DADDY. But I also think she'll have my warm, caring, and nurturing side as well. She's the best of both of us, and my heart is full. How I LOVE this little girl.

We found out this week that the date we have for Kolt's deployment is the day he has to be there, not the day he leaves from here. So we just cut a week off of our time left together, but honestly, this is a good thing. My sister and her whole family will be in Idaho in June and I was just going to miss there visit before. It looks like now I'll get to spend a little bit of time with them and Leila will get to meet her, uh, second cousin, maybe? My niece is having a little girl next month, so whatever my niece's daughter is to Leila.....we'll just call them cousins. So all in all I'm excited. He's going to leave anyway, the sooner he leaves, the sooner her can come home.

Lifetime network has a new show called, "Coming Home" a show about deployed military members coming home to surprise their families. I watched a preview of it and I started bawling. I've been SO focused on him leaving, that I've forgotten about him coming home. What an incredible day that will be. I find myself fantasizing about it, imagining what that first hug will feel like after so long. I wonder how Leila will react after 6 months away from her daddy. I am trying not to wish my life away though. There are lessons to learn, trials to solve, adventures to take before he comes home next year. I'm trying the best I can to just focus on today and being in the moment and enjoying the fact that for right now, my family is together and happy. We can deal with the rest as it comes.