Looking Like Her Daddy!

Layla is looking more and morel like Jeremy every day. The faces she makes are just like his. They have a lot of similar qualities. She looks like him in all of these pictures! Plus, look how well she is holding her head up!!!!

Tattoo baby...

What can I say? She wants to be like her mama.

For Robin, From Jen. You are the pee in my pants.

1. When you are sad - I will help get you drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.

2. When you are blue - I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile - I will know you finally got laid.

4. When you are scared - I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried - I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and to quit whining.

6. When you are confused - I will use little words.

7. When you are sick - Stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don 't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall - I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass

9. When you pe your pants - I will point and say "Look! It's me!"

This is my oath...I pledge it till the end Why, you may ask? Because you are my friend, and I love you, Remember: A good friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body. Let me know if I ever need to bring a shovel.

Yucky shots.

Layla had to get her two month vaccines today. She was quite the little trooper, but she did scream. Loudly. Nobody likes getting needles stuck in their legs! She's been pretty cranky and took a looooong nap after we got home from dinner. She really needed the rest after such a hard day. I think the baby Tylenol helped her to feel better. I don't think she liked the taste of the medicine though. She had the face of "what's this?!"
Layla has grown to 23 inches and weighs 10lb 8oz!!! I could not believe the numbers on the scale! She's such a little chunky monkey! I don't remember what percentile the doctor said she's in, but he said that she is right on track and about average for her age. All her reflexes were excellent and he said that she seemed much more aware of what was going on around her for someone her age. I don't think she liked the doctor though. She didn't cry or anything while he checked her, she just had this look on her face that said "who is this new person? why is he moving me around? why is he trying to look up my nose?" She probably thought he was a weirdo. I really like the pediatricians on base here. They've all been really nice and helpful.
Jeremy is doing really well on his deployment. He is all in-processed and ready to start working and saving the world. The quicker he gets the job done the better. I'm hoping he comes home early! I know that is not going to happen though. We miss daddy! I know Layla misses him feeding her at four in the morning. It's weird, the first thing she does when I pick her up is just stare at me with a confused look. She's used to her daddy getting up and watching Mike&Mike on ESPN for an hour every morning. He's been doing that feeding with her since she got on that schedule soon after we got home from the hospital. I always put Mike&Mike on because I think they're funny and I think she can hear and is comforted by the fact that one thing hasn't changed. She still misses her daddy though. Layla is daddy's little princess and she just adores him!

Learning to Crawl!

Do like Auntie Robin does!! Coordinate the opposite hand ans knee!!

Just like this!!!

Fine, if you want to squirm I'll let you squirm.

You know the killer whales at marine world? You know how they come up out of the water onto the platform and lift up their tails? Yeah, Layla likes to pretend she's a killer whale at marine world.

Is Daddy going to be mad?

Okay, so Jeremy had the living room arranged a certain way when I moved in and he really liked it. I thought it was okay, but our huge window was always blocked off and I couldn't really look outside from the couch. Also, the room is huge combined with the dining room and it has so much potential for a lot of open floor space. I like an open layout with floor space.

Robin is here and we're both pretty bored. We also don't want to spend a lot of money because we're just some crazy, poor white chicks. To get rid of our boredom we moved the furniture around! Robin had a great idea of where to move things that fit my description of how I like the room. I guess I should have taken before photos, but this is what it looks like now (and I love it!):The couch used to be lined up about a foot in front of the window with some space behind it and the bookshelves were all on the wall that the couch is on now.

The T.V. used to be directly underneath the green painting and the floor lamp was in the corner to the right of it.


That's Layla watching Gangland on The History Channel.
She is learning how to catch them and put them into prison like her grampa!

Gabby Girls.

Layla is quite the talker. Here is Layla sitting on her Auntie Robin's lap and talking and laughing up a storm. It's pretty cute.

Forts, Birds Nests, and Tattoos!

The other night we were bored and Layla was fussy. Finally we put her in her bouncy chair and set her up in front of the T.V. She sat there and happily watched Mobile Home Disaster on CMT. I think she likes red necks because anytime the host, Cap, would speak she'd get so excited and kick her little feet and smile. It was hilarious. Robin then jokingly suggested I build a fort to cure my boredom. Well, you should never joke about forts with me, because that is something I take very seriously. Yes, I built a fort in my living room using dining room chairs and blankets and pillows. Zver didn't know what to make of my awesome fort and wouldn't sit in it for long because he didn't know how to behave in a fort. Layla eventually became fussy again, so I brought her in to the fort with me! I think she enjoyed my fort. I know I did.
Since the weather has been so nice, Robin and I like to go sit out in our lawn chairs and enjoy the warm weather. I think she enjoys it because it's not as hot as hell like back in California. Even if it's cloudy and storming, it's still warm outside! In fact, we just came in from sitting out in the cloudy but warm weather and we sat out there and ate fudgecicles! Zver tried to eat them of course, and we let him lick the sticks when we were done. Anyways, while sitting out in the back yard I noticed there is a birds nest right above the patio! In our bog tree a birdie made her home, and I think she has eggs in there because she is always just sitting here with her little head popping up over the top. It's cute. I hope the little baby birdies are annoying and chirp all the time though.
Today Robin and I had appointments to go get tattoos. I got my start touched up. They weren't colored very well, and looked faded. So I had him turn them into nautical stars. They're pretty cool! He did a bad ass job. I think I'm going to go to him for all the rest of my tattoos. Robin got some old western style filigree behind her ear. It's a pretty design. Kind of looks like the swirls on Wyatt Earp's gun is the best way to describe that. It's really small and feminine and I think he did a great job on it! Thanks Bryan at Big Brain Tattoo in Omaha!

Little grunter!

Before Jeremy left he took a video of Layla trying her best to scoot around on the couch. She's such an active little baby and I know it won't be long before I'm chasing her around the house. Thank God for baby gates! She doesn't get very far if any where at all, but it's cute to watch and listen to her trying.

Good bye daddy.

So we got to celebrate Jeremy's first Father's Day as a daddy together, but I just got back from the airport after dropping him off. This is his first deployment, and it's especially hard because we are still newlyweds and I'm alone with the baby now. Luckily my best friend, Robin is here to help me out and as always Zver is never more than three feet away from me. It's nice to have someone here for me, but no one can ever make up for Jeremy's absent presence.
We've spent longer periods of time apart, but this one seems so much longer. Plus, there is a greater distance in between us. We used to only be a few states away from each other, but now there is an entire ocean separating us. I know that things could be so much worse. It's really not a long deployment like some other wives are going through right now, but it doesn't hurt any less. I miss him so much already. It feels like he's been gone a lot longer than a few hours.
=*(

9 weeks old and standing!

She needs a little help and guidance, but she pretty much stands up one her own!
I better watch out. This little one is on the go!

Night Out

Jeremy, Robin, and I dropped the baby off at her grandma and grandpa Chastain's house last night so that we could go out and enjoy the Iowa nightlife. (Yes, I had new mommy syndrome and did not want to leave my little one.) We went to the horseshoe casino just over the state line and gambled for a little while. Jeremy and I lost money, but Robin hit the big time winning 30$!! We also ate dinner at the way too expensive buffet. It was pretty good, and we tried to eat our money's worth. I was ready to get home as quickly as possible to see my little one. After carrying her around in my belly for ten months and then for the past nine and a half weeks spending every waking moment with her, it was hard to leave. I don't think she could tell the difference because sh was happily passed out with her belly full when we picked her up!

Yay! Aunt Robin is here!

My best friend, Robin, is here in Nebraska visiting us and meeting her little niece. We're having lots of fun hanging out and going to different places. We have been to the zoo, hooters, the casinos, and to the first game of the college world series. She's going to be here another week and will keep Layla and I company after Jeremy leaves for his deployment.
When she heads back to California, I'm going too! Layla and I are going to visit my home state for a few weeks and we're going to try and do a lot of different things. I'm taking her to her first Giants game, sticking her feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time, we're going to Lake Tahoe to have some fun, and a ton of other things.
We're very happy to have Aunt Robin here to do all these fun things with and to visit and just have fun! Layla loves her Aunt Robin!

Florida State!

Okay, so they lost today, but we went to the Florida State-Standford game today at Rosenblatt. We had general admission tickets so we sat in right field. It was a pretty good game, but it was so HOT! The heat was a little too much for Layla, so we left a little early. Robin, Jeremy, and I enjoyed some baseball though!

Portraits!

For Jeremy's father's day present we took Layla down to the mall for some portraits. They turned out so amazing! She's just the most precious little thing I've ever seen, and she was a natural in front of the camera!

Thank you picture people in oak view mall, omaha.

Rosenblatt here we come!!!!

Florida State Seminoles beat Wichita State in baseball today. They had a best out of three series and were tied going into today's game. They were able to pull ahead and beat them 11-4! You know what this means?! They're coming to Omaha!!! They'll be playing at Rosenblatt stadium against Stanford in the first round next weekend, and we're going! Eight NCAA baseball teams come to Omaha every year for the college world series.
Jeremy is a huge FSU fan, having attended Florida State and his brother, Josh, is currently a student there. So of course, Layla and I have become huge Florida State fans as well. Layla's little onesie is too big for her (it's made for 3-6 mo, and she's not even two months) but she wanted to show her Seminole pride after today's game. She just looks so darn cute, even though the outfit drowns her tiny body.

Funny Daddy!

Jeremy is such a good daddy to Layla. You can tell by the way that she looks at him that she just loves her daddy! Even though she is so young she already knows who her mommy and daddy are and knows that she is so loved by many. She's a lucky little baby.
Whenever mommy or daddy talk to her and smile at her she gets excited and smiles back and tries to talk with us. It's so cute watching her and Jeremy bond in this special way.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

So I rented that movie and made Jeremy watch it with me last night. I enjoyed Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina and Roman Holiday, and thought I'd give this one a try. I really enjoyed it! She played a tough little cookie looking for a rich husband in NYC. She had some good one liners and I was laughing a lot during the movie. I highly recommend you check it out. If you haven't seen Roman Holiday or the original Sabrina, you should rent those as well. I promise you won't be bored! Sabrina is my favorite out of all three, so I suggest you start with that one. I love old movies!

Video for Mikey

I wasn't planning on downloading this, but I just found out that my cousin's little boy, Mikey, loves crazy weather. During the craziest night of all the storms I managed to get a short video of the lightening lighting up our neighborhood. I hope Mikey enjoys!

Beautiful Day!

The past few days have been crazy! We had tornado warnings and crazy thunderstorms! The night the tornado was close to Bellevue we loaded up the bathroom with pillows and blankets and water bottles and of course all the baby stuff. We were pretty well prepared and if we had to shelter in there we would have been nice and cozy with all that stuff. Luckily the cell of clouds lost any kind of rotation they had by the time they got near us. Though, the thunderstorm we had was crazy! The lightening was right above our house moving from cloud to cloud right over our heads, and not even seconds later thunder boomed and shook the walls in the house. I don't even know how to describe how loud this thunder was. Layla slept through all the crazy weather of course. She was in her happy place passed out on her daddy. Being from California, I've been in thunderstorms, but none like this! I prefer the kind that tornadoes don't come out of! Or give me a California earthquake any day over this tornado weather! We also had hail. In the area there were reports of golf ball sized hail, but in our yard we only saw pea sized hail. The second day, right before the storms came a transformer blew up in our neighborhood and the whole area's power went out for a while. We lit candles, and it was actually kind of cozy in the house all warm with the candles spending time hanging out together with out the T.V. on.
Today was a nice change from that crazy weather. It was a little windy out, but the sun was shining and it was nice and warm. Layla didn't like the sun, it was too bright for her, and the wind was a little too much for her to handle, but I think she enjoyed off roading in her stroller while daddy pushed her along the base lake. The base was having a barbecue for all the base personell and their families. Jer and I went and enjoyed a few hot dogs and sat listening to a live band playing some classic rock tunes. There were a lot of activities like rock climbing and those blow up water slides. The local police department were out there with the D.A.R.E. van and they had their bike cops hanging out. Layla wanted to see what it was like to be one of them, so we set her up on one of their bikes. I think she enjoyed herself.
Since Jeremy is leaving soon, and my friend Robin is coming to stay with me while he's gone, this is our last weekend alone together just the three of us. He decided to take a few days of leave to extend that, so I'm excited we get to spend more time together. It's going to be hard to be home with the baby with out him here, but I'm going to be in California and Utah most of the time he's gone. I'm only coming back to Nebraska to spend some time with Zver and I'm in a friends wedding here in Omaha.
We're going to miss daddy being home with us!

Cooing!

Alright, you can barely hear it, but she is starting to coo! She'll sit and stare at either Jeremy or I and she'll smile at us when we smile and talk to her, but lately she's been making cute little baby noises like she's trying to talk back! It's the cutest thing ever!

Little jumper!

So Layla is not tall enough to start bouncing on her own in the little bouncy seat, but she does like to sit in it and have her mommy bounce her! It's nice to put her in when I'm doing the dishes, because she just sits right there and bounces and just hangs out. The ball of her foot can reach the ground and sometimes she'll push off on it, but she won't bounce too much yet. It's going to be fun watching her grow and realize that she will be able to bounce herself!