Back Home in Vienna

It has been a week since I've been back from ODS and here with Anna and Lillie. It's actually pretty amazing how much Lillie has grown in just five weeks. Here are a few examples of some of the things Lillie wasn't doing before we parted:


We've had these blocks for at least a year and Lillie has finally started playing with them and she gets so proud when she builds a little tower. She comes running to us to show us and then if it falls over, she giggles and giggles. She'll sit and stack them for hours and sometimes knocks over her towers just to watch them fall and laugh at it.

As we were driving yesterday it started to rain suddenly, and here is our conversation:

Mike: "Look at that guy driving in the fancy convertible. He's getting soaked."

Anna: "Ha ha..."

Lillie (loudly in the back seat): "Ha ha..."

As I was holding Lillie in my arms a couple days ago, she had some gas and tooted loudly. She then, with a cute little grin on her face, said: "Scooz mee".

Lillie has started saying more and more words all the time. I am so impressed by how much she can say and how much she picks up from what we say. She remembers things super well and understands the most intricate of requests that we have for her. An example: "Hey Lillie. Can you go pick up your pink shoe from in the other room and put it on the shelf upstairs next to your crib?" She will then proceed to pick up the exact shoe we described and put it right where we told her to. We think that's pretty impressive for a 20-month-old. You may not think so, but it is quite a big step for her and us. We love being able to communicate so well with her.

Having returned from being with her princess cousins in New Mexico , Lillie is wanting to watch Disney princess shows all day, every day. We have watched almost every single one we own and seen them several times, just in the last week.

Lillie will not go into the road without one of us holding her hand. We have been trying for a long time to get her to hold our hand without trying to run off and get into trouble. It's a big step now that she requests a hand just to walk around and she won't be fussing and screaming as we try to hold on to it to prevent her from running away. She will even walk with us to the car, climb into her car seat by herself and begin to buckle herself in. That is also a huge change since she used to absolutely hate getting into her carseat.

We are so grateful to be back home together and to see how much can change in only 5 weeks. Anna noticed that I look alot slimmer and tanner. Being right on the beach to get plenty of sun and having to wake up at 4am everyday to exercise for an hour and a half might have contributed to that. Anna also thinks her baby bump has grown quite a bit also, although she still looks slim and sexy to me. Stay tuned to the next blog where I will give more pictures and details on my training to become a United States Navy Officer.