Too Cute!

My daughter is 13 months old and she doesn't really talk yet. Occasionally you can make out a word, but I am never sure if I actually heard her say a word or if I am imagining it, besides Mama, Dada, Ba (for ball and anything else that starts with "B-A-", and Mmmm (for a cow's moo). But TODAY was different.

KD loves our dog, she laughs every time she is around him and he puts up with a lot from her (thank goodness). Today she was looking out the sliding glass door and laughing. I looked outside to see what it was and it was our dog. She tapped the glass with the palm of her tiny hand and said, "Doggie" very clearly and slowly. It was so cute! She must have wanted him to come back inside to play. (He was busy burying a new bone I gave him.) Its very rare that I get to hear her form an actual word so clearly, so I am a bit excited. (If you couldn't tell.)

JD (my pilot husband) just left on Friday for his 35 days of work far away from us. It was nice though, this last time he came home early and then they rotated his shift to start 5 days later, so that was MORE bonus time home with us. So I can't really complain. When he is home its like I am on vacation. He lets me sleep in, he feeds the dog and the bunny for me, he does all the laundry and half the cooking and so much more. I must admit I get a bit lazy after all that time he is home doing what I normally do while he is gone. And I let him do a lot of the baby stuff, because he likes being around her since he is away so much. But I suppose I deserve a break, after all I am living a "single-mom" life when he is gone. Its all on me. Well, actually I do have the help of my in-laws while he is gone too, but its not the same as having your husband around.

Another thing I get to do when he is home is pop out the door whenever I want to run errands and go grocery shopping. I don't have to worry about waiting for KD's nap to be over or if she has been fed or if she is going to get cranky while I am out. Its great. That luxury I definitely miss when he is gone. People have offered to watch her while I do things, but its hard to actually call up someone out of the blue and say, "Hey, could you come over for an hour and sit in my house while my baby sleeps so I can run some errands?" How many people can just drop what they are doing to do that? And if they are willing I guess I need to ask more often, but I don't know who is really all THAT willing. And then if she is awake I can just imaging her crying her head off, if I left her at a neighbor's house, the whole time because I left her alone there. Sometimes I end up feeling "trapped" at home. I am waiting for her to either wake up so I can go somewhere or go to sleep so I can go through the mail, look over my e-mail and blog, or even be able to cook something for myself to eat finally! But I am sure EVERY stay-at-home Mom goes through that to some degree, I don't think its really a "Pilot's wife" thing. Most Mom's actually never have their husbands home during the day to be able to pop in and out all they want. And if they do its not for a month straight! So I count myself lucky.

Now don't you wish you were me? hee hee