The best thing EVER

According to Teresa, at least. I found some banana yogurt at the store on Monday. It's pretty much the best thing that's ever happened to Tressa. It even has fruit on the bottom. What more could she ask for? She cried when it was gone.

The one where we go to the beach again

Thursday night Marc decided we should do something fun this weekend, and made arrangements for us to go to Destin. So Friday after class we loaded up Tressa and Kevin, and headed out. It's about an hour and a half away from us, and is supposed to be a really awesome beach-y place. Way more tourist-y and stuff than our beaches here. Unfortunately, it was drizzly and overcast the whole time we were there. BUT, we still had fun. Apparently this part of Florida is called 'The Emerald Coast', and it definitely had some of the greenest water I've ever seen. It looked so tropical, way prettier than every other Gulf Coast beach I've ever seen. We'll have to go back, because if it was that pretty on a yucky day, I can only imagine how nice it would be on a good weather day. We stayed on the Air Force base near there, and learned that we will never share a room with T again, if we can avoid it. She definitely knew we were in there with her, and refused to stay in her bed after 4:30-ish. Also, we had to wait in the bathroom while she fell asleep both nights, which wasn't our favourite part of the trip.

We got to visit with some alligators while we were there. Tressa saw her first albino gator (which turned his head and snapped at her, even he could tell how yummy she is ;). They weren't doing it while we were there, but usually you can hold a gator and feed them, so maybe we'll have to go back. As long as they don't try to eat T...

We ended up taking zero pictures there, so here are some from our last beach trip, and from today, per Grandad's request:




This girl lo-oves her banana's. She freaks out whenever she sees one, we have to be very careful to store them where she can't see them, and to not let her see us throwing the peels away. And don't even pretend to eat some of her banana. She usually thinks it's really funny if I pretend to eat her food, but she gets MAD if I do it with a banana.

As of yesterday...

Teresa can walk! She took three steps in a row, twice yesterday, and once today so far. I guess she really is a big girl now...

Six hundred and six...

...is the number of pictures we have taken since Saturday. Three guesses who the main subject was (and the first two don't count...). It's possible we're slightly obsessed. We actually don't usually take THAT many of her. Anyway, I whittled it down to nine for today, partially because I know not everyone thinks T Bear is as fabulous as we do, but mostly because I didn't have the patience to do any more picture re-sizing.

We'll start with her new toy bins. She loves to take things out and put them back in. It's fun to watch her hard at work over there sometimes. Plus, they make the house look SO much less cluttered.



Here's T with her first 'official' pigtails. Yes, you can still tell how unevenly her hair is growing in. Any guesses to how long these babies lasted? Long enough for the pictures, not long enough to actually make it to church. I blame the car seat. They're cute, but a little too much effort at this point, so we'll probably wait a while before making them a habit.





Just a happy baby, mid-clap.



These are from today. I just love this little dress. And I'm used to everyone seeing how cute her clothes are all the time. Marc doesn't do quite as much oohing and aahing over outfits as the Aunties and Granny used to.









Aaaaannnd....her new top row of teeth! I was pretty worried about all those top teeth coming in. For some reason I really thought they would make her a little less cute. Oh well, I guess everyone's wrong sometimes ;)

It happened again

But at least this time it wasn't right in my face. Actually, this time we were at Best Buy. Which really worked out nicely for us. Ironically, we had just walked by the steam cleaners and were looking at the vacuum cleaners when Tressa just blew up. We're talking projectile vomit here. It was everywhere. I actually couldn't believe how much of it was just spewing forth out of her mouth. Marc was the lucky one holding her this time, so right after it started he was smart enough to hold her out and away from him. She still got his arm (including all the little crevices of his watch), his shirt and his shoes. But the majority of it was definitely all over the Best Buy floor. Gross. I sent Marc to tell someone while T and I stood by her dastardly deed. She, of course, was acting as though nothing had happened, she just looked tired. Marc returned and we stood there for about seven more minutes, waiting for whoever he told to come. No one did. So Marc went and told someone else. We stood there for a few more minutes, and when no one came we left. I felt pretty bad for whoever ended up having to clean it up. We figured that was why none of the employees we told came to do something about it, they were probably waiting for someone else to discover it and clean it up (Can you blame them? They were all teenage-y looking boys, I'm sure the last thing they wanted to do was clean up some kids throw up). Anyway, we went back today and the carpet looked good as new. so. I guess no harm, no foul, right?

The weird thing is that it happened almost exactly a week after the last incident. Like, within 15 minutes. Now we're both a little scared of getting too close to Teresa...I guess we'll see what happens next Friday. Actually, we do have some theories, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, since you lasted through such a nasty story, here's a sweet picture to make up for it:

The Beach. Yes, that is the most creative title I can think of.

We went to the beach on Saturday, which is what won me over to living in Pensacola when we visited in January. It was slightly overcast, but still nice and warm. The water was a little cold, and Teresa wasn't too thrilled with that part of the experience. She sat right at the edge of the water with me for a while, but was much happier when we moved back up the sand. Marc brought his friend Kevin, who was a week ahead of him at AIT, and now they're doing the same training. He's also in our little military branch here.


Hmm, maybe I should actually put the camera on beach setting...


Much better.


Why, yes, this is the only picture of me and Tressa. Are you so jealous of my dollar spot Target sunglasses? The perfect price when you have little hands trying to pry them off your face all the time.




Showing me the sand on her hands. She loved it, which was no surprise, since she loves pretty much everything outdoors. She actually tried eating less sand then I thought she would, so that was nice.

There just happened to be a big hole in the sand near our blanket, so Marc decided we should bury him in sand.




Teresa wasn't much help.


She thought Kevin was pretty funny, though.


All done...


Dad?





And, of course, no beach trip is complete without a snack break!

She's pretty much the awesomest baby ever.

FYI, this is our 101st post! Sooooo exciting...Now, on to the real purpose of today's post. I'll let Marcus start:

Warning! This post is disgustingly graphic and not for the squeamish. You have been warned.

I hate vomit. I can't stand the smell of it, the sight of it, and sometimes just the thought of it makes me dry heave. But that's not where our story begins. Tonight we enjoyed a delicious dinner at the home of the senior missionaries in our branch and made it back home a little after Tressa's normal bedtime. She had been super happy and playful all evening, but was showing signs of being really sleepy. Tara and I decided to cut her bedtime routine down to just one book and a few songs.

Teresa kept flopping back and forth between us on the bed, giving me the occasional kiss, when she leaned over to Tara (for what she thought would be a sweet kiss) and to her surprise was vomited on 4 TIMES! Not baby vomit mind you, but big-kid, full on-chunky-vomit on Tara's eyes, nose, hair, and in her mouth. I was horrified at the first instance, but the three machine gun-repetitions that followed left me stunned. Tara was amazing and quickly made her way to the shower while I hustled Teresa off to my bathroom. Teresa was generous enough to get it only on Tara's pillows and her side of the bed. Had it been on my face and side of the bed this story would have been about the night Teresa and I both puked on each other. The best part was Teresa's anti-climatic response as though nothing had ever happened. I got her washed up and went quickly and peacefully off to sleep. She's pretty much the awesomest baby ever (especially for not puking on me :)

This is Tara. Seriously? My eyes are still stinging from all the puke. Pretty much the most disgusting thing I've experienced to date. She's actually done this four times now. Not in my face, of course, but she'll be acting totally normal and then just throw up what looks like four days worth of food. And then go back to acting like nothing happened. She's sleeping peacefully now, of course. We hadn't planned on renting a washer and dryer, since we'll only be here for six months. But now that we have a bathtub full of my clothes, our bed sheets, and most of the pillow cases from our bed, I'm starting to think having a washer here would be pretty nice. The other ironic part? Just a few days ago I was commenting on how we really needed to get a mattress cover for our bed if we were going to be letting Teresa spend so much time on and in it. Hmmm...I guess I should have knocked on wood after that comment. I honestly thought she was coming to give me a kiss. I was pretty excited, because she's quite stingy with her kisses, she mostly only gives them at bedtime, so I had stopped mid song and was ready to kiss her back. She was probably less than two inches from my face when it happened. Actually, now that I think about it, she probably thought she was just coming to give me a kiss too. It probably surprised her just as much. Although not as disgusting a surprise for her as it was for me. I guess there's no way we could have pinned the blame on Colin this time...

Dave Ramsey

Do you listen to him? You should. My mom has been listening to him for years. We got his book "The Total Money Makeover", soon after we got married and it's really great. He's really helped us not spend as much money. Usually when Marcus wants to buy something we don't need, I say "would Dave approve?". (Not always, but usually ;). And most of the time we decide he would not approve, so we don't buy it. Which is good, because, you know, we're poor. We don't have huge amounts of debt, but he's really awesome at helping people with that, too.

Anyway, here's what he has to say about taxes.

"It was reported that 47% of taxpayers will have no tax burden this year. Just think, half of all American taxpayers will pay nothing for the public services that benefit all of us. About ten percent of tax payers pay 70% of all the taxes in this nation. Why is that? Because of envy. Envy is a bad spirit that has swept our nation. It's a sin. If you're Catholic, it is one of the seven deadly sins. I'm not Catholic, but it is a sin. Jealousy is, 'I want what you have.' Envy is worse. It is, 'I want what you have but can't see myself ever getting it, so I want you not to have it, either.' Envy is worse than jealousy. It's wanting to punish the person who has what you don't. And it is a bad spirit that has settled over this nation. Envy is what has created a tax system that is so crazy, so unjust, that 10% of all taxpayers pay 70% of all taxes in the U.S."

Now, we're some of that 47% not having to pay taxes this year. And as grateful as we are to be getting that awesome tax return (thanks Tressa), I still have to agree with Dave. Because I REALLY hope that someday we'll make enough money to not qualify for the return we're getting now. That's the plan, anyway. And when we do,I probably won't be as excited about doing taxes then.

Florida!

We finally made it to Florida last week! Teresa was okay in the car. Not great, but she could have been a lot worse. There was that one time, crossing the Atchafalaya basin, when there was no where to stop for 18 miles, and she screamed the whole time. That was no good. Poor baby, she had the biggest baby burp ever once we were able to stop. But other than that she did okay. She just loves Marc! We were, of course, a little worried about how she would act towards him, but she just totally loves him. She's been babbling "da da da da da" since we got here. It was actually something she rarely said before, so I'm pretty sure she knows what it means. She is fascinated by his glasses, she just won't be put off from grabbing them. Even when he's not wearing them, she'll spot them across the room and head right over for them.
Example:



And good grief, is it humid here! Holy cow. The good news is, now I can break out all of T's cute little shorts outfits. And it makes her hair all cute and curly when we go outside:


I really like our apartment, it's probably my favorite that we've lived in yet. Smaller than our first Austin place, but bigger than the second one (you know, the one we lived in for a whole month...). The kitchen could use some more storage space, and there's no microwave, but other then that I have no complaints. There's a big lake in the middle of our complex and what Marc calls a creek, but what is really more river-like in size running around and through it. Which means we have LOTS of ducks hanging around. And not the regular, cute ducks. These ducks. They're slightly more aggressive then I would like them to be, and they don't really quack, it's more like a hissing noise they make, but T really, really likes them. She waves at them all the time when we go for walks (which we've done a lot of since we've been here, since we had no internet access...). She's so cute, her little arm flies up as soon as she sees one, and she just waves so enthusiastically at them. There's a cute little flock of baby ducks that she especially loves, but their mama usually heads in the other direction pretty fast when she sees us coming.

Tressa hasn't had the easiest time adjusting to the move. She's been pretty cranky and demanding a lot of the time. Oh, and not interested in sleeping too much. But happy and smile-y and cute enough of the time to make up for it. She's been teething up a storm. She has three on top now, with two more top teeth threatening to break through at any moment.

The teeth, before that third top one came all the way through:

And that's her Easter panda she's holding. A very nice Easter Bunny put five dollars in one of Tressa's eggs, so we took her to Target to pick something out. She loved the panda, every time I took it and offered something new she would push the other item away and reach for the panda again. She gets huge smiles when she sees him.

She is climbing on everything, little rascal. After she tired of drumming on some pots, she pulled up on my legs when I was making dinner one night (to beg some cheese, of course). I gave her some and went back to what I was doing, but I could feel her grabbing at my leg a lot and moving around. So I looked down at her to see that she had climbed up on one of the pots and was standing on it holding on to me. She's also been climbing up on all the boxes she can find. It's not unusual for me to find this:

I guess I should hurry up and finish unpacking...

And, just some more pictures from our first week here: