Ready or not, here we go

Phew.

We finally are moved out of our house. I don't even want to talk about what a nightmare that was, but if you've ever had a young baby who has gone an entire day without a nap, you'll get sort of an idea. Oh, and she is terrified of the sound of packaging tape. ANYWAY. Our stuff is all packed up and on its way to Japan, or somewhere I guess - I don't really care. It was such a hassle to get it all packed up that if I never see any of it again I won't be sad. But moving on.

We are in an awesome extended stay hotel now. It is a lot nicer than what the base could offer us, plus it has a free breakfast buffet in the mornings and free beer, wine, and appetizers/desserts in the evenings. And hello, housekeeping!! It's a nice break after the past few weeks of chaos, and before the coming weeks of even more chaos combined with jet lag.

I wish I could say that everything is ready to go, but of course it is not. The things we set aside to put into storage are residing in a friend's house because of an Air Force scheduling error; our government passports still haven't arrived; the Air Force bought me three plane tickets, but none for Paul or Avery; and due to the language barrier, we are only sort of certain that we have a hotel room booked in Japan. C'est la vie.

In other news, Miss Avery is doing awesome. She has become the easiest baby. She sleeps in her own bed all night now; she only wakes up once during the night to eat and then goes right back to sleep; she no longer screams in the car; she loves going places, especially if there are people there who will pay attention to her; she tolerates her stroller and adores riding in the baby carrier; she takes regular naps and goes to bed without crying at the same time every night; she does great on airplanes. And I can't take credit for any of it. There was no sleep training, scheduling,  bribing or anything at all that I did. She just did it all on her own. I really have nothing to complain about -- she is such a fun and easy little girl. She has been so great about all the changes and transitions so far (arguably better than me).

She is all about putting things into her mouth now -- her fingers, toes, blankets, clothes, and anything else she can pick up. She slobbers constantly, gags herself regularly, and is even starting to laugh at herself. Pretty cute.

I dare you to try to say no to this face.

In addition to chewing things, other current favorites include standing (she stomps her left foot when she is excited), taking baths (sitting up like a big girl -- she refuses to lay back most nights), going new places, and kicking things that make noise.

Hopefully my next update will be something along the lines of "Made it to Japan! Avery slept the whole 15hr flight and has adjusted to the new time zone beautifully. We are in a house on the beach, all our things arrived promptly without anything being stolen or broken, we are all fluent in Japanese already and vacationing in Bali ext weekend." Ha.