Finally!

So I'm not sure the two pictures below from the cruise were worth all that effort (photobucket was apparently less than happy with me for some unknown reason), but they're up now, so I hope somebody enjoys them in some little way.

We're Back!

We arrived back in wonderful Kansas on Saturday, and have been sleeping ever since! Not literally, but there has been plenty of naps, early bedtimes and sleeping in late taking place to make up for the lack of rest that usually goes along with a vacation (not due to being over scheduled, but due to the fact that I don't sleep very well when not in my own bed). Melanie and I are also recovering from colds that we seem to have brought back with us, but that didn't show up until we had been home for a day already (sneaky things must have hidden away in our suitcases!).

All sleeping aside, we're unpacked, most of the laundry is done (thanks to Matt, I've been much too busy being a wussy sick person to deal with such trivial things) and the souvenirs have been distributed. The pictures are on the computer, but I'm going to wait just a bit before putting together a slide show of our Alaskan adventure. Seeing as there were six adults on this trip, we didn't all take our cameras on every outing (who would make sure the baby didn't get eaten by a bear?) so once I get pictures from Matt's parents and siblings I will compose a wonderful tour through our vacation for you all to enjoy.

Until then, here are a couple pictures from the cruise. They had the usual photographers that go around taking pictures during dinner and in port, but they also had the option of having your picture taken in a more studio-type setting. So on the last formal night I decided we should try to capture the moment of the three of us being dressed nicely. While we were disappointed in how the family shots turned out, these two pictures were pretty darn cute (or more accurately, Melanie was pretty darn cute in them). I hope to have more pictures for you soon!

We're Leaving On a Jet Plane!

All our bags are packed, we're ready to go. They're sitting there, right by the door. Already I'm so giddy I could burst!

Shortly after 9:00am tomorrow we will be heading to Seattle to start our vacation with Matt's family (so if you think of it, please say a prayer for us while we're in the air, or on the boat for that matter - I'd appreciate it!). We'll spend a couple of days on Bainbridge Island with Matt's Aunt Karla and her family and hopefully get a chance to see our friends Bryan and Bri. Then Friday we board the ship to begin our Alaskan cruise. Our cruise both begins and ends in Seattle, stopping in Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka and finally Victoria, British Columbia.

I'm pretty excited, seeing as I've never been on a cruise before. If nothing else, for all the FOOD. That's the main thing Matt has talked about from his previous experience, is all the piles and piles (literally) of food - especially fresh fruit, which has been a pretty regular craving of mine. And it will be great to get to spend so much time with Matt's family. Melanie really loves seeing her Grams and Gramps, as well as Auntie K and Uncle John, so there will be plenty of people around to help Matt and I keep her occupied! And there's a kiddie play room on board, so that will be a fun adventure on our day at sea.

So this is it. The last 3 weeks of running all over town trying to get everything we might possibly need for this trip - most of which turned out to be clothes for me -has come to an end and we're packed and ready. Now if someone would just assure me that flying with a 15 month old will be just as easy as flying with a 4 month old was...

Goofy Baby

Just some cute pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

She's turning into quite the poser for pictures. She held this one for quite a while. I guess she thought she looked cute (which she did!).

Goofy table climbing type baby!

We've actually taken the coffee table downstairs b/c I got tired of spending my days retrieving her from on top of it.

Taking a stab at stacking unusual objects

Enjoying all her toys

Taking an unintended bubble bath.

Her soap bottle had leaked in the tub, so when I ran the water a bubble bath resulted. She enjoyed trying to put the bubbles in her tub cup with a fork (hey, whatever works, right?)

Adventures in Eating

Melanie is getting more open to trying new foods lately (Thank you, Lord!) While many are still in the bread family (toast with peanut butter, blueberry bagel *that she stole off my plate!*) there are a few that branch out farther (raisins, yogurt, spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce). She's starting to beg off my plate more and more, so I'm trying to be better about variety (which isn't always easy since some things sound completely disgusting right now). She is a very messy eater, so most days I just strip her down to her diaper to save on laundry. Here are a few of her latest eating endeavors.

She was way too attached to her p.b. toast to let it go, and she didn't want me to help her, so she drank her bottle like this at breakfast the other morning.

All gone! (well, not really)

I made a similar hand gesture the other day when feeding her, and she's been mimicking it ever since. Here she's eating fresh sliced peaches (yum!) which isn't really a new food, but she ate it with her hands, which is a big step for her. Until recently she's had a complete aversion to anything that makes her sticky/dirty. Whenever she gets something on them she brushes them together to get it of.

Further proof that she's over the sticky hands thing.

I was letting her feed herself while I made dinner, and she had been using a spoon (or so I thought). I'd give her a little food, go check on my sauce, give her some more, and so it continued. Every time I came to give her more she'd hand me her spoon, so I assumed she was using it, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how she was getting so messy using a spoon. It wasn't until I caught her doing this that I realized she had abandoned her attempt at civilized eating for a more efficient method.

Tiny Baby, Big Outfit

So I made Melanie an outfit last summer that I had hoped she could wear at the time, choosing the 3-month size on the pattern. Well, apparently this pattern came from the land of giants, because it was HUGE on her. I couldn't even feasibly alter it to fit her at the time, it would have been easier to just make a whole new one. So I tucked it away in her closet, hoping it would fit her this year. While the top isn't too bad since it's a simple A-line tie-at-the-shoulders number in which a little extra space isn't necessarily a bad thing, the bloomers are still massively over sized. To prove my point, I submit the following photographic evidence.

She looks like a baby sumo wrestler!

It's Hammer Time!

as compared with another set of bloomers I made that actually fit her

(one came from a McCall's pattern, the other was Simplicity)

The top looks cute with jean shorts, so she'll get some use out of it.

If she stays as skinny as she is now, the top may even fit next summer too!

Father's Day

I wanted to thank those of you that played "Where's Waldo?" with us a few weeks ago. In case you never found "him", check the "Outdoor Fun" post, and pay special attention to Melanie's shirt in the last three pictures. I'll give you a minute to look for yourself. Found it? Good. You are now among the growing number of people that are finding out that our family of three will become a family of four sometime in mid-February. Yay! Matt and I couldn't be more excited, and Melanie, well, she's just a happy baby, so we'll leave it at that for now. We'll see how she feels about sharing the spotlight when the time comes.



Oh, and I'd like to apologize for the rather cryptic instructions on the whole "Where's Waldo" thing. Matt was concerned that if I was too descriptive on how to play - i.e. actually tell people they were looking for a message instead of a person - that everyone would figure it out before they even looked and that would ruin all the fun. So vague and obscure was the road we took, and many detours and stops to ask for directions were the result, so don't feel bad if you didn't get what it was all about. I've learned my lesson. The majority of the population doesn't speak engineer, so I will refrain from using this little known language in the future.



So anyway, Father's Day was the appointed day upon which we chose to tell our families the happy news. Melanie made the announcement for us, wearing her Big Sister t-shirt as Matt and I did everything we could to not just walk up to people and say "Hey, did you look at Melanie's shirt? Did ya? Huh? HUH? What about now?!?" Luckily it never took very long for the detail to be noticed, so neither one of us exploded with anticipation. Everyone was thrilled, and several people said they just knew something was on the horizon. (Matt's brother John says he called it first after he and I had had a conversation the prior weekend about how he was sure I just couldn't wait *inflect sarcasm here* to be pregnant again. Oh little did he know at the time...)



Here are a few pictures of Melanie's Father's Day fun at Spring Creek. We took her shirt off so it wouldn't get dirty (it still had a job to do at my parents' house later in the day), so she truly looks like a little country kid running around with no shirt.

The shirtless wonder with two of her favorite guys

Giving the camera an innocent look so we won't suspect that she may take off on the 4-wheeler at any given moment

Super Baby!

All that hard playing deserves a bowl of strawberries and ice cream!

(Or at least a chance to squish Grams' around in my hands)