I just discovered some "trigger words" yesterday that get Babysierra to smile. He will already smile for me when I look him directly in the face (provided he's in the mood, of course), but now others can get him to smile by telling him he's "so cute!" He smiled for the lactation consultant and both my parents. And it's not just any smile, either – he grins, tucks his chin, and lowers his eyes, like he's flirting or being coy. :)

This is the best smile pic I've gotten to date (taken with my phone):



Heh. Now to teach him his first words: "I know!" ;)

So, Sweetie is gone for two weeks. I'm not a wreck, but I do feel kind of pathetic. Directionless. Seriously, though – two weeks is kind of a drop in the bucket for us. So why do I feel so blue?

Because the first two weeks of a deployment are the hardest. He's not deployed, but he's gone for two weeks with limited communication. It's close enough to a deployment, 'cause he's not here. There's really not a whole lot of difference in the feel of it, except that I know he'll be back home in two weeks to resume "normal" life.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out my daily schedule so I can actually start booking some facials. Baby has hit a growth spurt, so he's eating often and for longer, especially in the evening. However, I've found he will go four hours between feedings now and take longer naps in the afternoon. That gives me a chance to do a facial or two a day. I don't get to move as fast as I'd like (doesn't help that I'm afraid of my phone!), but I'll at least get moving! And I'm about to get over my phone fear just so I can get out of the house in the evening!

Baby slept almost eight hours last night. I didn't, because the eight hours were from about 8:45 to 3:45, and I was at my parents' house till almost 11. (Okay, so he slept about seven hours. Math has never been my strong suit – especially when I'm sleep deprived.) I'm hoping he'll do it again tonight, despite having slept much of today away.

In other news, Baby is two months old today! Time is flying by, and he's growing SO FLIPPIN' FAST.

I managed to catch a bit of a smile on camera:



And the obligatory (and totally adorable) two-month photo!:



For more photos, check out the photostream. The newest ones are at the end.

In the future: Videos! I just need to upload them to YouTube so I can share them here, but I'll need to get the login info from my husband.

For now, it's Baby's (and my) bedtime. 'Night!

I should be posting most of this in my tiny_socks blog, but I'm lazy. ;) Not to mention, this is my life now. This has turned into a MOMMY BLOG. But I'll try not to overdo it. I merely want people to adore my son as much as I do. ;)

ANYway – I didn't have any clean newborn clothes to dress him in on Saturday, and he needed something new to wear. I looked around for something that said 0-3 Months and put him in a full-body outfit without footies. At first, he seemed to swim in it. By the end of the day it fit perfectly. Anyone ever heard of children having growth spurts just to fit an article of clothing? Me, neither. It was creepy. :)

Anyway, since that fit so well, I decided to try another outfit on Sunday in 3 month size. I came up with a onesie and pair of jeans I've been dying to use since I got them at my shower (they're not from the same person, but they're both so darn cute).

Check out my little "stud muffin" (heh, he looks so bored!):



He ended up spitting up all over the onesie, and it was cooler today, so I dressed him in the jeans and a littlt sweater. Originally, he had on a little blue zip-up hoodie, but it was a little too loose to wear while feeding.

He was SOOO tired this afternoon, that when he lost his pacifier while falling asleep, he didn't even cry for it:



He's getting so big! It's hard to tell sometimes, because he's still curls up so tight when he's held, but I'm beginning to notice his head is bigger, and he wears bigger clothes. I can hardly believe it! Also, it seems like a switch has been flipped recently, because he's looking at us now and beginning to notice things. He's beginning to coo, and he gave us his first real smile last night! We got a second one this morning, too. SO CUTE!!! Can't wait to get a picture of that. For now, it's just enough to get to see it. :)

Okay, enough gushing. :) I'll post pics of my brand new niece later. She is also very cute. But that's a given. ;)

I added more pictures to the Flickr set.

Here are a couple of teasers:





I can't get over how utterly adorable my son is!

He turned six weeks old yesterday. He's still pretty tiny, but he's beginning to grow out of his newborn clothes. He'll be swimming in his 3 month clothes for a while. I just have to sort them out and find the ones that fit the best till he can wear them all.

Hmm . . . I forgot what else I was going to say. I suppose I should take this opportunity to shower before he wakes up and wants to be fed again . . . Hasta! :)

I uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr. I was hoping to get all their titles and descriptions done so I could post here before feeding the baby again (and having to type one-handed). But – I fell asleep. As usual.

If I'm not out running errands or feeding the baby, chances are I'm unconscious or nodding off. Thus the lack of posts here.

I'm inbetween feeding at this moment (up until this sentence, I was typing one-handed), so I will quickly post the link to the Flickr photoset for the baby, so you can go there yourself to see our adorable little boy: Photoset

Turns out my fevers weren't the flu – I don't know what they were, actually. The 800mg Motrin given to me by the hospital knocked the fevers out. Someone brought up the idea to me that it might have been my thyroid readjusting itself. Between that, milk issues, and sleep deprivation, I was probably set up for some really wacky bodily reactions. I haven't had a bad temp since Sunday. Things seem to be reverting to "normal".

The baby is cute, Sweetie is bursting with pride, and I'm happy. I just can't stay awake for long enough to finish a post . . . Falling asleep now, actually . . .

'Night!

I woke up LATE today. But I went to bed late last night (early this morning, really). Sweetie has been up for a few hours already and is off at my brother's house, fixing his wireless network. It's a gorgeous, sunny day. I should be productive!

My living room is covered in bags of baby stuff from my shower on Saturday. I really ought to figure out where I'm going to put it all. :) At some point, I'm going to have to face my closet. All that pre-pregnancy clothing is going to have to go somewhere else and make way for maternity/post-partum and baby. We got several gift cards to Target, so we'll probably pick up some more metal mesh shelving to set up in the bedroom to keep all the baby stuff close at hand.

In the midst of this, I also need to go through all my old Mary Kay stuff and do an inventory list. Last Tuesday, I did what I didn't think I would ever do again, at least not this early: I re-signed up to sell Mary Kay. However, this time, I have a director who I LOVE and I'm surrounded by people I know, so it's not as scary or confusing this time.

Even before that guest event I went to last Monday, I had been staying up nights writing out a plan of action to run this business debt-free. I accumulated a lot of debt last time, making orders when I didn't have the sales and making an initial inventory order when I didn't have the resources (or know-how or motivation) to sell it off. In fact, a lot of the credit card debt is mine alone. And I don't want to get a J-O-B to pay it off. I want to do it a FUN way. :)

Part of the speech the National Director made last week included this statement: "Hm, I'm being asked to sell a product I love to people I like. How hard can this be?"

I feel exactly the same way.

I believe wholeheartedly that my skin has been nearly perfect this entire pregnancy due to Mary Kay products. I have never had such great skin in my life (well, after puberty) since using Mary Kay products. I like the company. I like the product. I love my new director and new fellow consultants. It feels right! :D

And, because I made my decision overnight (I'd filled out an agreement to win a free starter kit that night – feeling like I was going to throw up, because I wasn't sure I was ready and I definitely didn't have my husband's blessing yet), I earned this gorgeous ring:



The tag was still on it: $45.00.

I rarely get excited over jewelry, because I wear so little of it. Here's how excited (and proud) I am of this particular ring: I took off my high school class ring, which I've been wearing for the past twelve years straight – even in my wedding – to wear this one for the past few days.

I thought it would be hard to get my husband's okay, because he knows how much debt I could go into. I couldn't ask for it that night, so my director held the agreement and my check for me till the next day, when I could talk to him. I couldn't go to sleep right away and I couldn't stay asleep that morning when he got up – but I also couldn't form coherent sentences before he left for work. SO, I emailed him, laid out my reasoning, and told him I'd thought about just going for it without asking but I didn't want to start out that way. I also bribed him with steak. ;)

He was very happy that I'd asked. I got his permission with the condition that I not impoverish us. :) I called my director and had her mail the check and agreement that day, and I went to the meeting that night to be pinned. I still felt a little like throwing up, but this time it was excitement. :)

My goals:
-Pay off credit card debt (without going into more debt).
-Make some extra money that will give us some freedom to do things we wouldn't be able to do on a Soldier's salary.
-Pay off car debt.
-Fund Sweetie's lasik eye surgery.
-Eventually buy a house.

I'm even looking at that pink Cadillac as something I would be willing to drive, after all. Maybe my son could drive his date to high school dances in it. :)

I do have a lot of work to do to get myself to the point of meeting these goals, but I did the math, and if I sell just $200 a week, I can pay off one of our credit cards in a year. That's a long time, but if I didn't do it, that credit card would still be sitting there with a big ol' balance a year from now. I believe I can do better than $200 a week, but that's my "Start Small to Get Big" approach at this point. I'm about to have a baby, so starting out (and continuing on) like a cannonball might not be the option I can take.

Certainly doesn't mean I shouldn't try, ;), but I have to be realistic this time around. I can still dream, but I need to be realistic about my goals. At least the baby will be helping me get up early in the morning, and will be a constant living reminder of the life I want him to have. My husband is a good reminder, too, but he's also the main breadwinner. It's easy to fall back on that when business isn't moving along. But we're also looking more job options in the face, including deployment later down the line (maybe), and I want my husband to have choices. Heck, if I do really well with this, maybe someday he can be a Mr. Mom or stay home and write or build computers, or whatever he wants to do.

I've mentioned before that I'm afraid of this next presidential election. I suddenly have this urge to do everything I can do to help us become financially free – unafraid of bills and tax time. I'm not willing to go into real estate investing, like my dad wants to do, or try to start my own business from the ground. This is the best opportunity I've come across for me. And it feels really good. :)

And I actually looking forward to Seminar this year – the registration for which I will be funding with the money I make from my sales/commission, or I will not go at all. That's my deal with myself. And Sweetie might come with me! :D

I feel so good about this decision this time. Now I just need to get crackin'! :D

Is't possible?

This is my least prolific NaNoWriMo yet. I haven't written in over a week. Not a thing. My character is stuck staring at a box, and doesn't know what's in it. Neither do I. I haven't a single clue.

(As an aside, I just installed AdBlock Plus (alternate link here, if the other one doesn't work for some reason), because it was slowing down my typing here. This computer is almost five years old, and the processor just can't seem to handle most of the flash ads AND regular content. I feel a teensy bit guilty for blocking most sites' form of income, but, dang it, use something unintrusive!!! </rant>)

ANYway . . . I'm not officially giving up yet, but I'm just not going to depress myself over the fact that this year has sucked in the writing department. Too much in my head, too much in my house – too much clutter, period. I feel unapologetically unengaged.

I haven't even been posting as often here. Usually I have a ton of things to say, but lately I haven't felt like saying much. How about some pictures, instead? :)

Me, at 19 weeks pregnant (And I thought I was huge then!)

At 24 weeks – sucking in (taken today)

At 24 weeks – letting it all hang out (I totally need this shirt. And this one, and this one, and this one . . . )

The absolute cuteness that is my youngest nephew.

We had an amazing sunrise on Wednesday. I had to stop and take some pictures. I wish I could have captured the pink mountains that I saw a few minutes later, but I was already extremely late for a meeting.

Additions to the Funny Signs Set:
Popeye's uses text speak (how old do you think the employees are?)
Another hilarious grammatical abomination (apostrophes, semicolons, and misspellings – oh my!)

So, yeah. There's a little slice of life for ya. :) Till later!

I still have no ideas for NaNoWriMo. Well, nothing that stands out and says "write me!!!", anyway. I want to do something fun, not something laborious and filled with heaps of research and angst. Well, maybe a little angst. ;)

I'm thinking I might go with Sweetie to his job at the Tacoma Armory one of these days, maybe this week, to take pictures of the place and maybe explore it a bit. It would be cool if they let me explore on the grounds that I'm a writer in search of a plot – as long as I don't explore any secret files, or anything. No way! Strictly architecture! I probably wouldn't base my story in that building, but it's tempting. The place is down the street from a courthouse, a penitentiary, and the weirdest-looking hospital I've ever seen. If nothing else, the building is just about THE perfect place to be in the event of a zombie (or even dragon) apocalypse. You'll agree with me when you see pictures of the place.

I've been having spooky-weird dreams of late, and am leaning toward a paranormal plot. I almost wish we were still living in Monterey, because then I could drive around the abandoned buildings on base (I wish I'd taken pictures – there was serious ghost-town creepiness out there) and set my story in there somewhere. I might still, because I remember the look of the abandoned barracks out by the police station. There were curtains in some of the windows, and I think I even saw a lamp stand in one of them. They were not abandoned in a hurry, but I think there wasn't much point in taking the furniture out. I can imagine the rest. :) It had a great post-apocalyptic feel to it.

I've been feeling the urge to do more photo essays lately. I was never in the habit of carrying my camera with me when I went out, but I've taken to putting it in my purse the past few days – just in case. I think much of the urge has come from my discovery of some funny signs in my community, and the amazing color of the leaves right now. I really need to get a picture of one of the bright red maples before all the leaves fall off in the next windstorm. They're amazing to behold.

Another urge has come from reading the Wardrobe Refashion blog. I want to change my old clothes into new ones, and take pictures of the progress! I've even started grooming my "writing" blog, Rainy Day Sunshine, to become my "crafting" blog (to include writing, too, since it's a craft I take up), where I can show off my finished products and those in progress. Fun, fun! :D

The next order of business is to turn off the internet for a while. I still haven't done it, and I really need to. The amount of time I waste online is becoming worse than ridiculous. Ugh. For instance, I've done nothing all day, and my house needs a minor miracle in the cleaning department. It's pretty bad. :p

All right, I need to get off my butt and do . . . something. Baby's been kicking the heck out of me all day. He's more active than I have been! Sad, sad . . .

Until later!

I added a link list, to the left where the ads used to be. I'll add more links as I think about them.

In the meantime, look at pictures I've been meaning to post!

Henna Tattoo
I love my shotgun! :)
Sunset off the front of the ferry, last week, on my way back from Seattle.
Sunset off the front of the ferry, last night, on my way back from Seattle.
Grapes and apples from my backyard — no longer available, unfortunately. :(

So I finally took pictures of my hair after coloring it. One of them is my new default icon here (I wasn't crazy over the one that used to be the default — one reason I colored my hair. It was just so drab). The pics will open in another window or tab, depending on your browser. I'm going to try to remember to make that the normal order of operation from here on out. The key is in the remembering. ;)

Here is one taken with the flash. The color doesn't come through that well, but I liked the picture. ;)

This one shows the color much better. I didn't use the flash that time, and the pic didn't even blur! Go me. ;)

I liked this one, too. I forgot about it. Except for the Lysol can in the background, it's one of the better shots.

I had some other things I wanted to write about, but I've got things I need to be doing before tonight's retreat (not the least of which is eating something). Also, the computer needs to charge soon.

I'm still sick, but the Sudafed the doc prescribed me when I went in last has helped, and so has the Nyquil I've taken the past couple nights. Allergies are icky. :p

Later, all. :)

I was feeding her squash, and she got it on her hand. Then she brushed her nose with her hand, and the result was so cute, I couldn't resist snapping a shot. :)

Squash Baby (opens in new window)

More niece pictures forthcoming, now that I have a camera! Also, I took pics of the cottage last night, but they're pretty huge, so I need to resize and upload them, and all that. Got the Flickr plugin working for iPhoto, so it'll be a little easier to do it from there. And maybe I'll play with the scrapbooking option through Livejournal, so I don't have to link to a different site.

Today I'll get some daylight photos of the place, so you can see the outside. I got there when it was dark last night, so I only got indoor shots. I was hoping it would be sunny today, but no such luck. We've had quite the stormy weather lately. We even had snow mixed with rain last night. Brr!

Okay, gotta take a shower and get out while it's still light (I'm a slowpoke). I have other things I need to do today, which I really need to quit putting off. Including purchasing the rest of my gun tonight! :D I'll get pictures of that, too! :)