Day 196 - July 14

It was a rainy, yucky day here today. It stormed and rained on and off, with the sun peaking through every so often. On top of that, I slept terribly last night, so Jason let me stay in bed this morning, and we missed the window to get out for some kind of indoor activity even by the time we were all showered and dressed.

So by dinnertime tonight, I was going stir-crazy (I generally leave the house every single day for at least an hour or so). Because I had also forgotten completely about pulling something out of the freezer for dinner tonight, too, we needed to get some food. We shouldn't have resorted to fast food, but I wanted to check out the new Crazy 8 store at the mall, so we headed there and hit Chick-fil-A first. And then we bribed the kid with a ride on the carousel if she behaved at the store.

Besides bouncing off the walls (what the heck was in her nuggets?!?!?), she was great, so she got her carousel ride (along with a nice stash of new clothes), and everyone was happy.

Bribery. An excellent parenting tool since the beginning of time!

Day 195 - July 13

Friday the 13th... and I took no pictures.

So I'll share one from late on Thursday the 12th instead.

Michaela has started to ask to play tic-tac-toe. Basically, what she means is that she would like a piece of paper to draw on, and she would like to use a pen for her drawing implement, instead of the standard washable crayon. I'm not entirely sure how that's what tic-tac-toe came to mean, but there ya go.

I tell you this to say that she asked to play tic-tac-toe and then drew me the picture attached here. She asked me to draw a happy face, so the head, eyes, and mouth were my creation, but she filled in the rest.

You should look for hair, a nose, ears, arms (which come out of the ears), legs, and feet. I'm not entirely sure what the swoopy lines are just under the head and at the top of the legs, but they were drawn as part of the legs, so I'll just leave it at that.

This is the first person she ever drew. I'm pretty impressed with her skills, actually, and it's been fun watching her come up with other stuff over the last couple days!

Day 194 - July 12

Ah, the afternoon thunderstorm... ubiquitous to the south, and the reason why Mobile has the highest rainfall of any state inside the Continental US almost every year.

It might make it a pain to try to make afternoon plans outside, but it can also be a great source of fun. Especially if you love your rain boots and your polka dot umbrella.

It could take a week for the inside of her rain boots to dry. And I'm not 100% sure she understands the concept of an umbrella.

Day 193 - July 11

Ah, Michaela. Yes, we're back to her.

I have two related pictures tonight because I couldn't choose between them.

First we have the kid playing in the doorway from the living room into the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. Why she couldn't bring the toys 5 more steps into the living room, I don't know. This is the second time in a few weeks that this particular toy has stopped right here. It's fun stepping around all the plastic food, along with the grill itself. She's awesome.

Since she was grilling, though, she had to, of course, feed someone. Apparently the yumminess that cooked away in the crockpot all day wasn't as appetizing as plastic hamburgers and hotdogs. And ketchup and mustard "drinks." Personally, I'm glad to see she protected both her own and Daddy's shirts with the napkins.

Day 192 - July 10

Ok, I have a lot to say today. I'm going to condense it down as much as possible.

First, in keeping with the theme of last night's picture, 17 years ago today, Jason and I both walked through the archways at Chase Hall and started our journey(s) in the Coast Guard. I can't believe it's been that long. Holy cow.

Now to today. This picture is pretty crappy quality. I should've thought to take it when it was light out instead of 10 minutes ago. Oh well.

Jason brought me home some sunflowers today, to bring a little sunshine into my world. My day started off REALLY badly with the news that my midwife has broken her arm in five places, needs surgery, and will not be seeing any patients for the rest of the month, at least. Yeah. I'm due in two weeks.

I felt a little better after talking to her shortly after my minor (major) panic attack at the front desk at her office this morning (I showed up for an appointment I didn't end up having), but I'm still not in the best place. She is literally the only provider in this whole town who is fully supportive of VBACs (vaginal birth after Caesarean), which is how I'm planning to deliver Yellow, so not having her there - or potentially not having her there - is pretty devastating. Not to mention the fact that I now have to see some random doctor for the remainder of my prenatal care, and potentially have the "fight" about not doing a c-section early, not worrying about if I go over 40 weeks as long as me and Yellow are both doing fine, and all the other things that I trusted my midwife to be totally up front with me about, but I know can be an issue with some of the other OBs in the practice.

So Jason brought me sunshine in the form of my second favorite kind of flowers. He's a good man, that Jason. I think I'll keep him!

Meanwhile, if you're the praying type, please say a prayer for my midwife - that her surgery goes well tomorrow and they're able to piece her poor arm back together. And another one for me and this whole situation, that whatever the plan is for how Yellow is supposed to come into this world, it all works out in the end. I truly believe that God was at work in leading me to my midwife in the first place, so I still feel that she is supposed to be involved in Yellow's birth. But the unknown is so difficult, and having zero control is nearly impossible for me to handle! So prayers are appreciated!!

Day 191 - July 9

It hit me about 3/4 of the way through the day.... two years ago today I was having my Change of Command ceremony and getting ready to leave the Coast Guard. I'd say it was my last day, but I continued to get paid until August 15th that year, courtesy of leave time saved up.

But it was the last day I put on a uniform, and the last day I officially did any kind of work for the Coast Guard (or any work of the outside-the-house variety at all, actually!).

I seriously cannot believe that two years have gone by already. Somedays it feels like I left yesterday and somedays it feels like my life in the Coast Guard was a whole different life, a whole lifetime ago. Don't you think the same can be said of almost any major change in life?

The funny thing about it being a full two years, and the fact that I never put on a uniform after we moved here to Mobile, is that there is still a name tag and a set of shoulder boards sitting in a decorative wooden bowl in our spare room. And they aren't Jason's. In my defense, that room sort of has a military-ish theme to it, so I'll just say they're part of the decor. Yeah, that.

Day 190 - July 8

She's growing up too fast. Way too fast.

Michaela isn't even 3 yet (though we're close) and she already recognizes all but 2 letters by sight (E and N give us problems), the numbers 1-10, can count pretty well (we need to work on that a bit more - at least getting past 16), and, apparently, she can write some letters, too. At least one letter.

In church this morning, she asked me to write a 7. Then she asked me to write a 1. Once the 1 was on the paper, she said, "I'm gonna write a h." And she did.

Usually she tells us she's going to draw something or write a letter or a number and then it looks nothing like it's supposed to. But today, she very deliberately wrote a capital "H."

SLOW DOWN, kid! Mommy's not ready for you to be doing this stuff!!