We have a thumb sucker...Teresa recently has figured out how to get her thumb in her mouth without any help. She had been rejecting her pacifier for a while now, good thing we have so many of them...and now just sucks on her thumb (sometimes her fist if she can't quite separate her thumb out). For some reason, she only sucks on her left hand, Marc is hoping that means she will be a lefty like him!

Being all we can be...

In case you hadn't heard the news, I (Marcus) enlisted in the Army two weeks ago. The military was something that Tara and I had been considering and researching for over a year, but everything came together a few months ago. After looking at all of the options and opportunities, we decided to pursue something with the Army. I knew that I wanted an intelligence job and based on the size of the Army they offered more positions than the other branches.

While I initially looked into imagery analysis, my eyes prevented me from the job as you need near perfect eyesight (my right eye is only correctable to 20/25). Fortunately, we had prepared for this and I was able to secure a Signals Collector/Analyst position. I've been able to gather bits and pieces of information (as even a detailed job description is classified) about the job and soldiers who do this work at some awesome duty stations (including Hawaii and Germany) and are rarely deployed.

I head to San Antonio on Monday for another interview and will fly out on Tuesday for basic training in Ft. Jackson, SC followed by advanced training in Florida. It will be hard to be away from Tara and Teresa, but they're both excited to move again after living in our new apartment for less than a month. They'll stay at Mom and Dad Rickers until we're assigned our first duty station next March(ish). We'll keep you posted!

Visitors!

We were excited to have our friends, the Bohons, come visit us last week. They are definitely on the list of things we miss about Utah (it's not too long, don't worry). They had to bring their little girl Adelyn to meet her future BYU roommate. She's about 5 months older than Teresa. They were super cute together. Well, Adelyn was cute, Teresa mostly just sat there. Adelyn did get some big smiles out of Teresa though.

BFF:




How cute are they in matching outfits?!

Two Months

Teresa turned two months old on July 29th, and she went to the doctor to have her first shots that same day. I didn't think she would have too much of an issue with them, since every other time she has been pricked for blood or something she hasn't complained too much. This time was way different! I think it was because this was the first time we didn't get to hold her while she was getting poked. She got two shots, one in each leg. The nurse was super fast, Teresa hadn't even finished screaming about her first shot when she was done with the second one. I felt so bad for her! Marcus scooped her up as soon as the shots were over, and she fell asleep almost right away. She weighed in at 12 pounds 7.5 ounces, which was less than I thought she would be, but still in the 90th percentile. She's 24.5 inches long, 95%. She's a pretty long baby, almost too long for her little infant bathtub already.

We went with my parents and Aislinn's family to celebrate Patrick and my birthday at the beach yesterday. So fun! I haven't been to the beach in forever. Well, we spent our honeymoon on South Padre, but Marc was throwing up the whole time, so we didn't really get to go to the beach at all. We went to Rockport this weekend, which is definitely the nicest Texas beach I've been to. The water was nice and calm, and so clean for a Texas beach, which was awesome. The sun was not so nice, as I got a pretty bad sunburn...which was weird, since I almost never wear sunscreen but did yesterday...Teresa had a fun time being held by Grandad, since he is not such a fan of the beach he was lucky enough to get to hang out with the babies.

I brought the camera, but totally forgot to take any pictures at the beach. I did get this cute one of Ciaran...he was born 11 days before Teresa, and wasn't quite awake when it was time to leave:



So cute! He's awesome, he didn't stir at all even though there were lots of loud siblings around him. Teresa, on the other hand, was wide eyed and over-whelmed by all the noise.

We've been trying out some different wraps for wearing Teresa lately. Thanks to Aislinn for letting us know about baby wearing. Teresa loves it! My friend Angie visited this week, and we went to do some window shopping down in Austin. I wore Teresa the whole time, and she slept through most of it. Here she is snuggled in with Daddy:


Teresa seems to think that Marc and I only exist to hold her all day, so wearing her has been so helpful. She gets to be held, but we can still use our hands and get some stuff done.