Sorry it’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been really busy lately and my spare writing time has been used catching up on my Raelyn journal. I try to keep up with all her milestones and my reactions/feelings at being a first time mom in a Word doc. It’s pretty cool to go back and read my thoughts from the beginning. I think Raelyn will love to read it all one day too.

Anywho, Raelyn spent the evening with her Grampa last night. My dad came up to watch her while Seth and I went out. According to both of them, they had a blast. Grampa did a great job with entertaining and taking good care of Rae and she woke up this morning in a great mood so they must have had a fun time. He’s flying out tomorrow morning to join my mom in Las Vegas (lucky dogs). She’s been out there all week attending a Hospice conference and I’ve missed her very much. More than that though I’m just really jealous that she’s going to get to spend time with my brother Chris and his partner Will when they join them in Vegas on Friday. They’re all going to see Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere. Plus, my mom’s gotten to visit with my cousin Wendy and her fiance Seth who live out there. How ironic is it that there are going to be two Seths in one family?! I’m not sure I’m too happy about that, but mom says he’s a wonderful guy and that we’ll love him. I’m just excited for Wendy - she deserves a good man and a happy life! Can’t wait to meet him for the wedding in upstate New York in September.

So this evening I finally convinced Seth to try out this game on Shockwave.com called Zuma. My nephew Trevor told my mom about it and she passed the info on to me. Totally addictive. I could play for hours.

In other news, if you’re thinking of having kids and have ever wondered what labor and delivery are like, or if you’ve been through it and want to remember… read this. I’ve become addicted to this person’s blog. She just recently had a baby and her account of the events leading up to and including the birth of her adorable daughter will make you laugh so hard you get a stitch in your side. The post is VERY long, but WELL worth the time. When you’re through you’ll honestly feel like you’ve just had a baby. No kidding.

So that’s it for now. Nothing too exciting, just a slice of life at the Miller household. =)

Well, one night down and one to go. I got Rae home and fixed both of our dinners at the same time so we could eat together (and more importantly… so I could get to eat Then, I loaded the dishes in the dishwasher while Raelyn unloaded them. I made her bottles and prepared her food (labeled it, etc) for school tomorrow. I packed her bag with everything minus the bottles. We had some mommy and Rae time playing in the family room for a while. Rae had her bottle early since she was getting tired around 8:15. After her bottle Raelyn kept herself busy removing the wipes from the wipe container (Of course! Why the heck would we want the wipes to actually be IN the wipe container?!) while I got things prepared for her bath. Somehow she fell over and twisted around and landed with her head on the bottom shelf of her changing table and stuck in such a position as she couldn’t get up. Luckily I was right there and came to the rescue, but the whole event resulted in a very unhappy baby with a nice knot on the side of her head, a scratch on her nose and a scratch on her arm (don’t ask me what she scratched herself on).

After all that excitement we had a quick bath, I got her into her jammies and we read our bedtime stories (Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Good Night Moon). Then, she drifted off to sleep while finishing the rest of her bottle (something we never usually do, but I figured it was a special night since her daddy’s gone anyway).

With an asleep baby at 9:30 I prepared her morning bottle and got myself into the shower to be finished and awaiting Seth’s call at 10pm. I decided to work on some documentation for work while I waited and at about 10:30 I spoke to Seth for about 6 mins (according to the phone). He sounded like he’s having a great time and I wish I could share the fun with him. So, ever since then I’ve been finishing up this work in preparation for tomorrow morning and now I’m heading to bed.

Night night everyone… come on Lucy, let’s go to bed.

Seth is heading out of town tomorrow afternoon. He’s joining the rest of the TBS gang at the Ritz Carlton by Lake Oconee for a company retreat. They’ll be wined and dined and pampered with spa treatments and the like. I asked him to sneak me in his bag, but we both realized someone has to stay here and hold down the fort, take care of the baby and actually go to WORK! He’ll be returning Friday and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about practicing my ’single mom’ skills for three days. I have every confidence that I’ll be able to handle things, but I also know that it’s going to be a lot harder than when there’s two of us here. Seth does so much to take care of us and keep us on track each day/night - I can’t imagine having my own normal morning and nightly responsibilities and then trying to tack onto those all the things that Seth normally does. I think I’ve got a plan though. Seth and I got everything in order tonight: bottles, dishes, laundry, baby supplies, etc. I’m going to shower at night after Raelyn’s asleep instead of trying to balance that in the morning. Oh, and Lucy (our Weimaraner) will be keeping Seth’s side of the bed warm overnight. And let us not forget that the TV will be running at all times for background noise. You never realize just how quiet a house can be until you’re the only one home.

So, I am honestly looking forward to having all that one-on-one mommy and Raelyn time. Plus, I know I’ll feel so proud of myself when it’s all over that I handled things. Sometimes being an adult just sort of sneaks up on you. When you’re a kid all you want is for your parents to go out of town and leave you home alone. Then, when you’re an adult the thought of spending the night alone in the house (well, how can you be alone with 2 cats, a dog and a baby, right?) reminds you just how much you love being married. I like having someone to come home to every evening. I like sharing our responsibilities. I like sitting down to dinner in front of the TV together and catching up on the latest episode of Dr. Phil. I like climbing into bed each night and watching Food Network and discussing our days or the latest happenings in the news or technology world. One good thing out of all of this is that I am reminded to never take Seth for granted.

Seth, I love you and hope you have a wonderful time and make some great new friends or at least strengthen the bonds with the ones you have at work already… and then I hope you don’t have to go out of town without me again for a long long time.

What a great weekend! Friday night I joined Victoria and Kara for dinner and a luscious dessert at The Cheesecake Factory. The three of us split the largest most decadent piece of chocolate cake I’ve ever seen. The slice filled an entire huge plate and then was topped with vanilla and coffee ice cream, whipped cream, nuts, a cherry and a side of hot fudge to drizzle over top. Mmmm Mmmm! …and it was SO big we almost didn’t finish it - seriously. Luckily, Victoria dragged Kara and I over the finish line and we cleaned the plate.

Then, Saturday morning Seth and I met up with Bill, Alecia and Maddie to hit another local Church consignment sale. This one was in Smyrna and it’s the one where Seth and I usually find the most cute stuff for Rae. We didn’t do too bad, but our past two visits (last fall and spring) have been more prosperous. We did, however, manage to snag two bouncy seats and some books for Raelyn’s school. I hope they’ll be pleased. So, after our shopping spree we hit IHOP for some breakfast and then Best Buy to ‘test out’ the newest Playstation and X-Box games. Alecia and I helped the babies play together (they held hands!!) while the guys tried out a new football game for Playstation II. After that (and this is THE best part) we walked over to Bruster’s!! The flavor selection left something to be desired (that’s been happening at our Bruster’s a lot lately) but we were somehow able to each choose something we could enjoy. Even Raelyn got her free baby vanilla ice cream cup and ate every last bite. Like mother, like daughter. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Saturday night Seth joined Dave and 13 other guys for a night of Texas Hold ‘Em poker. The buy in was $20 and the top five players took home some amount of cash. Seth… did not. He did have a great time though - beer, guys, poker, a straight flush on his first hand - what more could you ask for?

Today Seth and I did some much needed lawn care and actually got our yard looking pretty spiffy again. It hasn’t looked this nice since before I got pregnant. This afternoon I attended a baby shower for one of my neighbors. She’s having a little girl and is due on May 5 so we’re excited for Raelyn to have a new playmate.

So that’s our weekend update, now here’s the latest on Raelyn: new shoes, walking better. We got her some new shoes at Target yesterday and although I’d like to attribute her improved walking to them in actuality it’s really a result of practice, practice, practice. This week she has really turned a corner. Before she was taking 2-3 steps at a time and now her average is about 5 steps or so. It’s not uncommon for her to go much farther either. Tonight I counted 13 steps in one instance and at another time we actually witnessed her turn herself around while standing. It was quite hilarious - she walked a few steps and then planted one foot and sort of hopped around with the other foot as if turning on a pivot point. I wish I could’ve caught it on tape.

I guess that’s about it! In summary: chocolate cake with girlfriends + shopping and ice cream with good friends + poker with guys + lawn care with dog + baby shower with neighbors + watching Raelyn walk = one great weekend!

My child is incredibly prolific! I think she’s going to be an arteest! Today she tried her hand at finger painting (pun intended). Her teacher said that she really enjoyed wiping her hands around on the paper and that she was much better at it than one of the other younger babies in particular. Of course, she tried to eat it as much as paint with it too. But hey, a little non-toxic finger paint never killed anyone… right?