Monday, September 19, 2011

The whole tooth and nothing but the tooth...

The long awaited first tooth is finally here! It popped up a week or so ago after a couple of particularly grumpy days. There was a slight fever, an upset tummy and then, like magic, the top of a sharp little white tooth appeared.
The arrival of this tooth, has made me sentimental. Time is passing so quickly and I am beginning to grasp just how fleeting all this sweet yummy babyness really is.
A part of me is longing to stop time so that I can savor every moment of this sweet, sweet time. But then, I start desperately missing my husband and wishing I could fast forward to next year, when we're all together again.
Andrew and I have settled into a nice routine here at our new little home. We spend a lot of time snuggling and playing and learning. It doesn't take a lot of effort to keep this tiny house clean and I do my work at night when Andrew is sleeping. Andrew's newest feats are as follows: He can back into a sitting position when crawling, he can get his little star shaped spinach and apple puffs to his mouth every time (almost) with his little pincher grasp, he can make the "L" sound (as in la la la la), wave bye bye pretty consistently, play tug with Brody, and about a thousand other little things I can't think of right now. He really does learn something new everyday.
Andrew and Wyatt are starting to really interact with each other more. Wyatt just learned to say "Andy" but what he says sounds more like "Annie." It is pretty adorable.
I know I've probably said it before, but my Andrew is just the sweetest baby. He is so loving. Every morning we walk over to my parents' house for coffee and breakfast and Andrew is in the habit of going first to my mother and "loving" her and then he leans over to "love" my dad, putting his little face against my Dad's face. Of course, this just turns them into mush. He loves to cuddle up and give big wet sloppy kisses.
As for me, well, I'm trying to keep my mind off the stressful things -- like the fact that my husband is going to be gone to a very dangerous place for a whole year and the fact that our house hasn't sold. I'm going to Weight Watchers and just signed up for a Zumba class. I am trying to get back down to my pre pregnancy weight by the time Andrew is a year old. I've waited a long time to start this, but the pending deployment and the move just made it pretty hard for me to focus on myself.
One last note, I am feeling more like myself than I have in a long time. Being near my family and taking this medication my doctor prescribed for my PPD has really changed things. I was very reluctant to take the meds and didn't actually start taking it until months after it was prescribed. I wish so badly that I had started taking it back when I got the prescription. It has been a small miracle for me.
I know it's something people don't talk about because it is quite embarrassing to say that you need help and there is a whole stigma attached to depression. But, I was in quite a funk and now I'm back to being me. I will keep taking the medication because I think with Greg being gone, I am likely to slip back into depression. I don't want to be that person ever again. I like being me.
To anyone who might read this if you find yourself in a similar funk, don't hesitate. Get some help. It makes a world of difference and that is the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth!

Friday, September 9, 2011

So long

It's been so long since I blogged. Seems I can only manage a post a month. Bah.
I feel bad about that. It's not what I'd pictured when I started this blog.

The long and short of it goes something like this:

Andrew is eight months old. Holy cow! I am more in love with him everyday. He crawls now -- well he army crawls. He is the fastest low crawler you've ever seen. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth but when it's time to move, he drops down onto his belly and pulls with his chubby little arms and pushes with his little toes and scoots all over the place. He still doesn't have any teeth. I am assuming they are in there by the looks of his gums, but they are certainly taking their sweet time. He still loves to eat. We are still doing baby food but more and more he is eating table food. Or as Greg calls it "human" food, as if I've been feeding Andrew hamster or dog food for the past four months. He loves it all -- hummus, potatoes, peas, pasta, beans, fruit -- even cooked onions. He is so smart and everyday he amazes me. He loves anything with a string or tassle but his favorite thing is to pull my hair. He says "mama" "dada" and "papa" and makes sounds that are like "hey" and "no." He makes a sound like "eeehhh" when he fusses at Brody or at Wyatt (for some reason he loves to fuss at Wyatt).

We made the move from Louisiana home to North Carolina. My parents flew out to LA to make the trip back with me and Andrew in the van and Greg left a day later in his truck pulling the Uhaul trailer full of our stuff. We spent a night in Alabama and then another in Georgia with my cousin Amy and her family. It was a long trip, but Andrew did wonderful. He only got grumpy a couple of times and that was at the end of the day.

We got settled into our little temporary home here and it is nice. We went up to Massachusetts to visit Greg's family before he left. We tried to spend quality time together. He tried to do everything he could think of to make it easier for me.

The night before Greg left, I gave him Andrew's bedtime bottle and sent him off to put our little one to bed. After a long while, I could hear Andrew fussing so I went down the hall and found Greg hunched over Andrew's crib, patting Andrew's bottom and crying his eyes out -- his whole body shook and the tears just ran down his face. It broke my heart.

Greg has been gone almost a week. He's in training until mid-November. The good news this week is that he will get to come home during a long weekend in October -- the weekend before our ninth anniversary. I had thought we would be apart for both our ninth and tenth anniversaries. But, we will get to celebrate this one together and I'm grateful for that.

My parents and my entire family have been great. There is something to be said for having Granny and Papa so close. Andrew loves spending time with them and so do I, of course. My niece Kelli comes over to watch movies and drink wine with me and my sisters drop in for short visits almost everyday.

Our house in Louisiana still hasn't sold. We are hopeful that it will sell but we think we will eventually have to rent it out. I miss the house, but not nearly as much as I miss my husband. Home truly is where the heart is.

I leave you with one of the photographs Liz took the week before we moved. Andrew didn't want to smile for her -- which is odd since he's always smiling. But she got some beautiful shots despite that fact.