Fall and a Turkey Child

 Alas, fall has arrived and our warm days are gone.  Dave is at home and school, Kristine is advising at work, and Victoria is into everything. 

She's funny.  She likes to see new things, meet new people, play with new toys, but she does not like to move differently. 

Case in point.  Once she learned to sit, everytime we went to put her down, her legs were already up in the sitting position.  As we have tried to get her to stand, everytime we go to set her in a standing position, she refuses to put her legs down.  Slowly she caught on that there was more than just sitting.  She learned to army crawl on her belly and refuses to get up on her hands and knees.  Its not that she can't, she just doesn't want to, and doesn't really appreciate it when we try to help or show her. I guess the problem is that she is so good at army crawling she doesn't see any point in changing, and she gets around rather quickly.  Depending on her grip, she can pull her self up to standing, but she is still working on her balance.  We think walking might happen soon. It seems like she is growing so fast. We are amazed at how long her hair has grown in the last few months. She is so much the toddler.

Here she is on Grandpa's tractor. She loves sitting in the seat and trying to push every lever, switch, and button.  

and occasionaly she likes to taste the seat too.

 Always happy.

This is what the back seat looks like any time we go shopping.  If she can get to it,she will pull it out. 

Since Dave is home 3 days a week with Victoria, she likes to help out in the kitchen.  Getting into places where she shouldn't is her specialty.

She really is so helpful and determined.  She thinks "No No" means try again in a minute. She listens then forgets then tries again.  She is very sweet, busy, and full of life.

Back in the Good ol' U.S. of A.

Dave: If any of you have read Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day then you know basically what my entire trip home from Iraq was like.  The plane from Baghdad was canceled. 6 hours later the next flight was delayed 7 hours due to a sand storm.  When we arrived in Kuwait, no one had our paperwork and we had to submit for flights again.  4 hrs later we checked on our paperwork only to find out "all taken care of" means time to do it again and hand carry it where it is supposed to go.  Next we found out there were no flights designated for redeployers (me), so we and the other 200 redeployers were on standby in case any seats became available.  Lucklily the R&R flights which everyone used to get out on, got reduced 3 days earlier from two flights a day to just one which made sure there wasn't any room for stand by.  After 5 days of waiting at the transit tent in case we got on a flight, the base commander realized she was about to have a mutiny and put some of us on an R&R flight.  They told us our flights would be arranged and we would recieve our iteniraries when we arrived in Atlanta. Erronious information once again.  Atlanta had no idea who we were and took 4 hrs to figure out how to get us on another flight.  After 2 full days of traveling from Kuwait,  we arrived in Ft. Dix, NJ to out proccess. Once again the Army administators had no idea who we were.  It took 2 weeks to get our paperwork done and finally get a flight home which was also canceled, and my bags never made it onto the later flight.  Think of that travel experience next time your flight is full or gets delayed an hour.  I left Iraq on 3 Mar and didn't fly home to Syracuse until 23 Mar. 3 Full weeks of limbo that I don't wish on anyone. 

While waiting at Ft Dix, my wonderful wife came to see me.  On the weekend we took a trip down memory lane so she could see where I grew up in Doylestown, PA.

Here's our old house.  Everything is overgrown and big.  We were the one's who planted those trees and it is interesting to see them so large.  I guess thats what happens over time.   

After briefly touring the town, we went to the Mercer Museum.  Having lived in Doylestown for 6 yrs, somehow I had never gone to this giant museum. 

Mercer was an industrialist with a thriving tile business.  He recognised that as time progresses materials, tools, working processes change and as such he wanted to keep a record of the industry of his day.  The mercer museum is full of products, tools and machines, from approximately 1900.

The whole building is made from concrete and they even hung display objects from the ceiling 3 stories up.

Here is Mercer's house, also completely made from concrete.  Mercer designed, and built it as he pleased, which ended up with rooms, windows, and even concrete furniture haphazardly placed.

High School again.

Next we went to the Philadephia Zoo.

Kristine's favorite, the zebras.

My favorite, the penguinos.

It was fun to visit Doylestown again. Fun to share my past with my future.

Victoria's First Days at Home

Time for a little blogger ketchup.

Here are a few sweet pictures from when Victoria was first brought home.  Thanks to a good bit of love, Kristine's mother Carol came from Utah to help out with the new baby.  Peter immediately appreciated the attention.

Peter did not know what to think of Victoria.  He didn't think people came in that size.

So little and cute.  Kristine looks appropriately like a happy newly sleep deprived mother.

Our good friends, Dave and Angela Couzelis, came over with baby Makayla, who at 2 months Victoria's senior, was soon to become her first friend ever. 

A little sleepless baby bliss and two days later Dave left heading back to Iraq for three months.

Babytime in the Clay House

With the advent of Victoria's birth comes all kinds of fun and funny pictures.  Victoria is very sweet and communicative.  By communicative, I mean she lets you know when she isn't getting what she wants.  She has different cries for food, nap time, play time and just wanting attention. 

Here she is at two months. Growing, growing, growing.

 Here she is hanging out in her jungle playyard.  She really likes animals, but hates being on her stomache.

Victoria got her first ride on a carousel.  She really likes movement, so this was right up her ally.  Thankfully Grandymom was there to make sure she didn't fall off.

 

Time for the tubby.  At first Victoria isn't quite sure whats going on...

but then she realizes how nice it feels.

As you can see Syracuse gets A LOT of snow. This is how it is when you are a winter baby in Syracuse.

Its a good thing we got all bundled up for our first snow angel. 

Baby Victoria

Click here to view this photo book larger

Hospital visits

We were lucky to have lots of happy family visitors over the course of the 5 days we were in the hospital. Sorry Aunt Nicki I didn't get a picture but you're part of this big day too!



Grandymom Whipple came all the way from Utah to help me heal and get back to normal when Dave has to go back to Iraq. She's not only a pro at raising kids after having 8 of her own, she's also a pro grandmother with more than 20 grandbabies!

Megan, Paul, and baby Zoey stopped in and brought beautiful happy flowers in a vase with a purple ribbon and all. So thoughtful! Thanks!

Grandpa Clay sees baby Victoria with socks on her hands to help keep her sharp nails from scratching her face.

Grandma Clay came to visit lots too.

Grandymom helps Victoria nap while chatting with Grandpa Whipple in Utah. We finally got to have her in the room with us after 3 days of trucking back and forth to the NICU. they were worried about her lungs and any meconium that she might have from the birth. But, thankfully, the tests just showed some extra fluid and trauma to the lungs that, after a few days of an IV and time in an incubator, dramatically improved. She'd lost some weight but was still in normal range so they released her from the NICU just in time for 1 full day in our room before being sent home from the hospital.

The happy (though visibly sleep-deprived and exhausted!) parents. Dave was absolutely INCREDIBLE in making this whole motherhood thing easier on me. He held my hand the whole time and came and cuddled in the hospital bed whenever we got a chance to sleep. It's almost been a mini-vacation in the hospital after spending more than 7 months apart. I can't express how much I missed being next to him and how wonderful it's been to have my kind and loving husband back at my side (if only temporarily). I know it's been a rough experience for him, too, and he's going to need his own recovery after his long return air flights to Iraq. We are SO blessed that the timing worked out to have him here for Victoria's birth. She will only be 5 days old when he boards the plane back to Baghdad, but we will all be happy and grateful daddy was part of this life-changing experience.

Baby's first stuffed toy--a smiley snowman from Grandma Kathy. It's as big as she is! A perfect memento of our sweet winter baby.

Our sweet baby girl asleep on my legs. And check out that head full of DARK, STRAIGHT hair! Dave promises she's the right one--that he actually saw her come out of me in the operating room--but I don't know where she would have gotten that dark hair from! :) J/K. Her daddy had dark hair when he was a baby but we hope it will lighten and she'll look like her mommy and daddy soon. She's amazingly expressive with her little hands. They are ALWAYS up at her face just like they were in her sonogram pictures. I have to fight her hands away in order to try and feed her and she's already opening them up and wiggling her individual fingers around. She likes to make circles with her wrists like she's stirring a pot. It's really cute.

We'd just had her first photo shoot with the in-hospital company that comes around to take pics in your room that they put online.

Hanging out on our last day in the hospital as we wait to be discharged. It's been a LONG and emotional journey, but we are grateful to have our beautiful girl coming home safe and healthy.

Victoria's arrival

My first real view of our baby girl. They wouldn't let me see her right away because they'd taken her over to the NICU to work out the junk in her lungs. Here I am in the recovery unit with her NICU cart. They had to check on me every 15 minutes or so to work my uterus back to a normal shape and make sure I wasn't bleeding out or having any problems with the incision. It was hard to see her so "hooked up" but we are glad to be in a day and age when they can bring us a healthy baby girl despite having a rough start.

A proud new daddy.

Some kangaroo care and extra lovin from an exhausted mommy.

Our growing family.