So I guess it's about time for a new one

A new post, that is. I'm glad to say we are doing great, considering. So far since Elias made it to Afghanistan, we have been able to e-mail back and forth pretty much every day. It is a bad, bad habit to get into (for me) because I look for his e-mails every day now which means if I don't get one, I start to go into freak-out mode... not in an extreme way, but in a can't-sit-still, constantly-in-the-back-of-my-mind kind of way, until I get another e-mail. While I know it's not good to get used to it, I can't make myself not e-mail him and I certainly still want him to e-mail as much as he can. It's a catch 22, I tell ya.

So when I became a military wife, I was introduced to all this new lingo. I swear, they have an acronym for everything. BAH, PT, MOS, PCS, NCO, TMO, PMO, MP... it's insane. If you don't believe me, Google military acronyms. The lists are overwhelming. Anyway, I have a new term in my vocabulary which has become my enemy. That term is River City. It's not a place, but a code that they use while on deployment. When someone gets severely injured or killed, the Marines go into what's called River City status. All internet and phone connections are cut off until the family of the person(s) who were hurt or killed can be contacted. It always happens without warning and could last anywhere from hours to weeks. River City, or RC = Reduced Communications. The reason for it is, if they (as in the Marines on the phone/internet) are able to talk to people back home, it might get back to the family or the media. They have special people who go out and personally talk to the families. While I completely understand and appreciate its purpose, it sure as hell is a bummer. The crappiest part is that I just have to assume I haven't heard from him because of RC. There's no real way of knowing. So I just wait on pins and needles. It's already happened twice since he got there, so I can tell you this is going to be one long deployment.

In other news (don't you love how I cram everything into one post?), Alexa is officially a walker. She might stumble around and crash like a drunk, but she's definitely there. It's been almost two months since her first steps. All she really wanted to do was crawl because it was faster, but now it seems like she's enjoying getting around on her two feet. And it certainly is fun to watch.

We also have discovered the best toy ever. It delivers tons of fun, belly laughs, and hours of entertainment. Ok, I might have exaggerated on that last one. Nothing will entertain her for hours. But for real, this was the greatest investment toy-wise that I think I've ever made. It cost me a whole 99 cents. What is this wonder toy, you ask? It's a ball. The big bouncy kind. For Alexa, it was love at first sight. I gave it to her and she followed it around the room for quite a while. She gets a kick out of watching me dribble it, and she loves when we roll it back and forth. She actually laughed herself into hiccups twice from ball-rolling today. Go figure.

If I posted more often, this would be broken up into different entries, but oh well. I have to share some pictures.

First, I won a giveaway on Facebook (yay me!) with Rubadub Buddies so I got this beautiful towel for Alexa.. check it out.

Here is a nice little picture of Alexa as I discovered her after she fell asleep for her nap the other day. She usually doesn't take long to fall asleep, so I was wondering why she was taking forever. I checked in on her a few times, but all I could see was her moving around. I guess I need to make sure I don't leave the open pack of diapers next to the crib anymore.. Looks like she had a grand old time before she finally passed out.

And here is Alexa's first trip to Chuck E. Cheese's. She had a lot of fun.

She loves pushing buttons of any kind.

It was her first time on one of these contraptions.

I let her play with my keys so she would sit still.. and she ended up dropping them between the wall and the booth. I had to grab an employee to get them. She had to move the whole booth. I felt so bad. My little stinker.. I'm never making that mistake again.

And last but not least, check us out:

I still have a ton of tokens left over, so we will be going back soon!

That's all for today! Hopefully I won't wait forever to write my next one so it won't be super long.