The First Day of Dr. Dad

I had to in-process today. It was an interesting day. Being a Medical Officer in the Army can be much different than being in the regular Army. For the last 4 years i have only actually worn my uniform a handful of times, usually i just wear scrubs. I don't do normal Army stuff very much (like salute, and carry around weapons, and drive in tanks) and i am not around normal Army people that much. That will all change over the next 3 years, as the small hospital i am working at is acutally on the base, rather than free standing like Tripler was. Also, I am highly deployable for the next 3 years, which will mean i may get a real taste of Army life in Iraq or Afghanistan. Anyway, today i in-processed with about 75 other soldiers. I think i was probably the only person in the room who hadn't been deployed yet.

Anyway, while i was doing all the crazy in-processing, Cris was home with the girls for his first official day as Dr. Dad. Although there was a very brief job prospect that popped up a couple of months ago, it didn't pan out, and so our plan for now is for Cris to be home with the girls. There are a couple of possibilities still for some research positions, but until we see what is going on with those, it will be Daddy Day Care at our house. Although I am disappointed that Cris has worked so hard achieving a lot with his career, especially with finishing his PhD last year, and scoring an awesome job at the University of Hawaii, I am at the same time finding an enormous amount of happiness in the fact that Juneau and Nova will have their #1 fan and superstar dad spending so much time with them. Cris is awesome at having a fantastic balance of loads of fun and energy, but not letting them get away with poor behavior. :) I think Nova looks so grown-up in this picture. Probably because she has hair, and she is losing some of her chubby cheek look. She is such a little sweetie.

We got a FANTASTIC package in the mail yesterday from Grammy and Aunt Bets. Cris noted that it was our mailman's first exposure to my mom's crazy flat-rate mailers. I am absolutely positive that if stuffing a flat rate mailer as full as possible was some kind of sport, my mom would be untouchable. Fortunately, this one did not explode en route, and no mail carrier's were injured from flying objects. Although I did note that the hot-glue gun had been used in the sealing process of the box.
As you can see the girls demonstrating, they got new outfits for their babies (Buddy and Jackson), they each got a new giraffe (a HUGE hit after the whole giraffe feeding trip), and Aunt Bets sent a little Baby Shrek from a happy meal. Juneau and baby Shrek have been inseperable (Aside from the brief period it was lost after Juneau put it to sleep in one of the bathroom drawers). She carries that little thing all around, and rocks it, and kisses it. She's weird like that.

One of the best things about moving is giant boxes!

Today we tried popsicles for the first time! Nova wasn't too sure about the whole thing, although she did finish her entire popsicle.

Juneau was obviously a huge fan. She instantly grasped the whole squeeze the ice from the bottom to the top technique.

mmmmmm......

I also want to make a little note that in Chicago, Illinois, on this day 5 years ago, Cris asked me to marry him, and of course i said yes! And so was the beginning of the beginning of our little family!