Scot's First Message from Afghanistan

I made it to our destination yesterday. Just getting acclimated to my new surroundings. LOTS of people here. It's been raining pretty much constantly. Thunderstorms and such. So much for desert. Our living conditions are pretty nice, I'm told, in comparison to those of many others'. Our complexes are basically six rail cars side-by-side and stacked two high. There are doors at either end and a bathroom facility in the middle. Each of them are configured a little differently, but are basically split into different "rooms" with blankets or sheets. Bunkbeds in each division. Each crew decorates it to their own standards. There are TVs and such there, but things get scavenged by other crews looking to improve their areas. We are bunked with another crew for today, but will get our own place tomorrow morning. It will be nice to finally unpack after living out of my backpack the last week.I bought some post-cards, so look for those in about a week. I hope things are going well for everyone. I've been taking pictures, so I'll try to send some. We don't have internet in our room set up (yet), so I'm writing from a common area. It's actually the "Pat Tillman USO." Pretty cool.

Bye Bye Daddy

I think today was actually less hard to deal with than the last few days, if that makes any sense at all. There's just been so much buildup and anticipation, that it's almost nice to have it over with and get the countdown started until when he comes back home. I've cried so much over the last week, that it was like I almost didn't have any tears left in me today, you know? Scot kind of felt the same way--he is excited to go do his duty and finally put his training to use, so it's been hard for him too to deal with the drama of packing and getting everything ready and, let's face it, deal with the emotional train wreck that is me. :-) Well, that and we were up at about 4:30 am to be at the base by 5:30 am--I think we were all in a daze! Ava was a complete angel surprisingly, for being up at that hour and we just had a nice time having breakfast with a bunch of the other troops and their families. Otherwise, it was pretty anticlimactic. We didn't stay to watch the plane take off because they had another couple hours of briefings and preparations after breakfast. So Ava and I just went home and sacked out for 2 1/2 hours--it was heaven! And yes, I did take a vacation day after being at my new job for an entire week!

Here's a picture from this morning:

Anyway, he'll be gone for about 7 weeks (his return date is scheduled for May 14), which isn't too bad. It could be a lot worse. It takes them 4 days to get there and 4 days to get back, so it's also comforting that 8 days of their tour is travel time. I think it will be nice to have the distraction of a new job and I'm trying to keep my weekend calendar full. Ava and I are starting a music class this Saturday, so we're looking forward to that! I am also fortunate to have a lot of friends and family nearby to help out. Now if I could only figure out how to speed up time...

If you have any positive thoughts laying around that you could spare, we'll take them! :-)

We had a great weekend together--we had a date by ourselves on Saturday night, spent Sunday afternoon with Scot's family, and ended the weekend with just the three of us. It was perfect.

Here's a picture from Saturday:

Firsts

Isn't this the cutest picture?

I guess we can start calling Ava our little stripper now. This morning I went to check on her after her nap and she was standing in her crib with her pajamas off and in her hands. Too funny!

We also took advantage of my last day of stay-at-home-momdom and ventured out to the MN Children's Museum in St. Paul. It was a lot of fun! I'd show off pictures but I don't have any, as I discovered the memory card in my camera was full when I got there. Anyway, they have a separate toddler area, which is kind of like the play area in the mall. And she enjoyed running around in all of the other "exhibits" too. It's completely interactive and nothing like a regular museum--more so just a huge free for all with some learning disguised as play. We'll definitely go back.

New words this week:
Ear

Eye
Toes
Shoes
Dog

Juice

Keys

Switching Gears

Here's the "Before" picture:

Here's the "After" picture. We actually did all of the work 2 years ago, but I just repainted it because I wasn't happy with the color we chose. Some of the improvements we made were: tile floor, wood blinds, new brushed silver fixtures, recessed lights, exhaust fan, new overhead lights, new mirror, new countertop.

Ava slept in until 8 (heaven!), we ate some breakfast, and then I took her over to Vicki's so I could paint. It was so cute, when we drove up the driveway all the other kids were looking out the window and when we came in they all said "Ava's here!" It was the cutest thing ever. Everyone was crowded around us as I took off her jacket and then I let her go and she started crying. I think she was a little overwhelmed with all the attention, and the fact that we were disrupting her new routine. She was fine again within seconds and resumed being the social butterfly that she is.

Chatterbox

Ava has seemed to have doubled her vocabulary over the past week.
"ni-ni" for night, night; also tilts her head to one side if you ask her if she wants to go night, night
"mo" for more and milk
"my" for mine
"ba" for ball
"no no no no no..." for no. She knows what she is not supposed to touch, so she will go up to certain things (remote, garbage can, litter box, etc) and say "no no no no no". However, this does not mean that she won't touch these things :-)

She also got 2 more bottom teeth over the weekend, bringing her total up to 8.

We're having fun during my time off from work. Yesterday she got to come along with me while I did my urine drug test for Medtronic--what 15 month old gets to do that? Today we got the oil changed in my car and she had fun "coloring" with crayons in the waiting area. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Something tells me she can't wait to get back to daycare...