pregnant no more

I would just like to say that I sure enjoy not being pregnant any more! Immediately after giving birth, or maybe more like when the epidural wears off and I can start walking, I marvel at how normal I feel once again and how much more energy I have. I love not having to get up all night, too! Being pregnant just never feels quite normal. I'm down more than 20 pounds already (9 of that was Tristan), with 15 or 20 to go. One of the best parts of nursing is that the weight seems to come right off, though I'm sure it will take a few months. Also, I'm not constantly feeling hot any more, which is a let down for Dean. He loves when I'm pregnant because then we both like the a/c to be set pretty low. Now, I wake up at night shivering because it's cold...



Tristan is a wonderful baby, and we are so happy to have him. He is sleeping pretty well at night, and sleeps much of the day. He gets cuter all the time, in my opinion. This has been the longest it has taken us to have a baby, nearly four years since we had Kyler. Speaking of Kyler, he is learning Baby's cues. He knows that it is better to play loudly "when Baby's eyes are open" than when they are closed, and that if "Baby's mouth is open", he is hungry. Hunter will be home in a couple of days, so he will get to enjoy Tristan and get acquainted as well. It has been more peaceful around here since the boys can't squabble with each other, but Kyler asks about Hunter every day.



Meanwhile, Dean is gone yet again for the week. This time he is in Virginia for a combatives course, in preparation for being deployed. He left Sunday afternoon. It gets a little harder each time he leaves, as it is forboding of the long year to come. He called late this morning to report that he may not survive the week. From how he described it before he left, it sounded like a week of hazing or gang initiation, and sure enough the drill sergeants do not disappoint. He bought an athletic supporter and a mouth guard before he left - clearly some wisdom on his part. By the end of the day he was battered and bruised, and said he'd never sweat so much in his life. He downed a couple of 32 oz gatorades, and as much bottled water as he could find. They were only allowed to drink from a fountain all day. I always marvel at how I am so not cut out for the military. I do fine as a spouse, but I wouldn't see the humor in all that the uniformed folks have to endure!

Last week our desktop computer and Dean's laptop both died. He had just bought the laptop new a couple of months ago. Consumer Reports recommends buying a replacement warranty for laptops, and not much of anything else. It came in handy more than once with his last one, and sure enough he needed it with this new one. The hard drive had died on it, so he got store credit for what he had paid for it, and picked out another one (a better one for a little more money). And he went ahead and bought the warranty for a full three years. The desktop, which I primarily use, had a dead mother board. Funny how that happens - one evening it was working fine, I shut it down, and the next morning it was dead. But at least we were able to salvage the hard drive. Dean put it in the new computer. I'm always suprprised at how much he can do with computers, because he hates doing that kind of stuff, but he sure seems to have a knack for it. I don't! Anyway, I don't see where on the new computer to put the little disk from the camera to put the pictures on the computer and on the blog here, and Dean's gone... so sorry no pictures!