New Serna Baby

Our little man is getting SO BIG!

We have had a few milestones in the last couple of weeks or so that have warranted the time to post and share. First we found the fingers, then we discovered the magic of the THUMB!

David continues to be a wonderful sleeper. With a bedtime of 7 to 8:30 and usually a wake-up of 6:30-7, Mommy really can’t complain about getting up just once in during the night. And for a few nights there I thought we had made the breakthrough when he slept all the way through the night for about 3 nights in a row. Of course an ever growing boy gets hungry during the night, so that didn’t last for long.

Speaking of growing… look at our big little guy! We finally decided it was time to make the step from bassinet to crib. I think David’s pretty happy about it too. What do you think?

Yes, that’s our little man standing up all by himself showing me just how tall he is. He likes to play the “look no hands!” game, but soon realizes there was a reason he was holding on!
It seems his curiosity with foods just could not be held back any longer so we decided to try some carrots. As you can see… those were a pretty big hit. As are yams, peas and pears. Mostly, we haven’t found anything yet that he isn’t a HUGE fan of. Even Oma was amazed that Momma can’t seem to shovel the yams in fast enough!

And just today he has learned how to roll from his belly onto his back! He did it probably about a dozen times either when I rolled him onto his belly, laid him down that way, or if he flopped from sitting. And he can roll either direction, so I’m pretty convinced that he’s actually figured it out and it’s not merely an accident. Now if he just had ANY desire to be on his belly in the first place we could work on rolling the other way!

Be sure to check out his gallery at www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=jgm1q5o.2gvcjluw&x=0&y=-kr2kic&localeid=en_US as I will try to post more of his “everyday” photos there. Also don’t forget to check in on www.youtube.com/sernapilot occasionally as well as I post new videos there fairly often.

Preparing for an eventful Christmas season!

Well, we’ve got the Christmas decorations up, the lights on the tree, the ornaments are hung, some shopping done… now we’re just waiting on baby! Which hopefully will be SOMEDAY soon! It is hard to believe we are already a week into December. We are doing our best to take it one day at a time, otherwise I am sure I would be going nuts with anticipation by now. But really the best news we received this week… the big question everyone has been waiting for… WE ARE COMING HOME!!! We finally got our official orders and to our complete shock and amazement, we are heading to Fort Lewis! It is still to early to really know what all that means. But at this point we at least know that sometime in early February we will find ourselves back in Washington.

6 weeks to go!

Yesterday I went in for my 34 week check up AND my 4D ultrasound! I was definitely looking forward to the opportunity to take another peek at our little guy. It was all the way back on August 1st that we last got to look in on his little world! As you can probably see by the pictures… his little world has gotten a whole lot smaller for him

The ultrasound technician was saying we are getting towards the end of the window to do the 4D because of specifically that problem. They keep getting bigger, their space keeps getting smaller and it gets harder and harder to manage to get a good (non-squished) shot of them. And of course, it does require a certain amount of cooperation on their behalf as well.

I think we managed to get lucky with a few of these. Most of the time he had either his hand over his face, his arm, or the combo hand and foot! In the first picture on the left below, those are toes covering his eye and his little hand pressed up against his cheek. If only I were still that flexible I can barely manage to get my socks on without straining myself! Overall she said he was doing just perfectly. He has settled into the head-down position and is up to 5lbs 5oz.

She was guessing he will top the scales at just over 7 lbs if he decides to join us around his due date. His mother on the other hand… (for the more curious of you) is up to 141 lbs. and a whopping 39″ around. So, 6 weeks and counting! And we’ll see if those truly are Brian’s chubby cheeks and lips that I see here

Baby Shower Times

Just about the time I thought I would be going nuts, either out of boredom or loneliness, my Mom comes in to town to rescue me! And not only that, but on Sunday threw me a baby shower, which turned out to be quite the affair! She did a marvelous job getting everything coordinated between the cake, the food and the decorations. My good friend Emily worked as her liaison down here and helped to make this such a wonderful day. All I had to do was deliver the invites. Which wasn’t too hard to do since, amazingly (sadly?) enough, most of our friends are still here too.

As you can probably see by the pictures, we had a bit of a full house. But we made the best of it and after about an hour of chatting (and eating!) we got down to business. Mom had a few games planned for us which tested our skills and baby know-how. I think she was a bit surprised with the 6 mothers in the house, 4 of which with babies under a year old, we pretty much had them aced.

Of course what would a baby shower be without cake and presents!?! Here I must say, I feel rather spoiled. Not only was everyone VERY generous, but they all have fantastic taste to boot!

Mom chose a perfectly appropriate cake, complete with a Kiowa in honor of my absent husband. The two girls in the picture above are Valyn and Tristin, daughters of Billie and Kristin and my two helpers with all the presents. And of course, probably the most appropriate bib out there, for those of you who know Brian.

These are just of few of the special women in my life over the past goodness 19 months! of my time here at Fort Rucker. From left to right for the curious ones: Meredith and her daughter Isabelle (8mo), Amy keeping me organized (her son, 1mo, didn’t make it in the picture), Stephanie and her daughter Kaitlynn (2+mo) and Carrie and her son Christian (6mo). And people wonder why we call Fort Rucker baby central!?!

I got quite a few plane and “little aviator” outfits which I can’t wait to show Brian when he finally gets home. Some wonderfully soft stuffed animals which I just might have to borrow before our son gets here. And really too many other adorable outfits, necessities and just plain great ideas to share here. A special thank you to Andrea and Ryan, my Dad and Mere and Jaime for the gifts from afar. The thought, time and effort (even in getting them here!) that went into the gifts is truly felt and I am so very grateful. Thank you again to everyone! I really cannot thank you enough.

Lastly, with that many moms in the room there had to be plenty of helpful advice! It really was a wonderful day and I had a fantastic time.

Long awaited picture

We have heard several requests (complaints?) for some new pictures and figured it was about time I actually got behind my computer to at least post SOMETHING. Unfortunately, I really thought we had a few more to share. It turns out OUR FRIENDS seem to have any pictures that may exist from any recent that photo worthy events. So as soon as I manage to round up a few more, I will be happy to share them with you! So for now… I hate to say this is going to have to do. And please pardon the ultra-cheesy smile, Brian was making me laugh.
As for the rest of our lives… well… we are pretty boring. I am working close to full time hours at Toys R Us. Mostly just trying to keep up without wearing myself out. Brian has been on hold since the last week of September waiting to start his survival training class. The good news is (depending on your perspective) he will officially be starting this Sunday. So about 5:00 Sunday night I get to drop him off for 3 weeks of starvation and torture. He’s really looking forward to it, as you can imagine At least it will be over with. Then shortly thereafter the BIG question finally gets answered… where we will be going next! Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully it will go by quickly for both of us

It’s official, I’m pregnant

As this Friday officially marks the end of my 6th month and I thought it was probably time to share a few pictures of the growing belly. We were ‘out on the town’ yesterday down in Dothan, mostly just getting out of the house for the last day of Brian’s 4 day weekend. Literally everywhere we went someone said something about me being pregnant. So I figured, it must be official if complete strangers are telling us congratulations.

Whether it looks it or not, he is definitely getting bigger every day. And stronger too! He continues to get more active every week. His favorite moves are still the sideways stretch and curling up in a ball, most often on my left side. Leaving me of course, quite lopsided. However, he has his baby aerobics at least 2-3 times a day where I get his regular jabs and kicks for a solid half hour or so. And he definitely doesn’t like scary movies! We were watching Event Horizon last night and he was throwing a fit the whole way through.
In other news… I have decided to rejoin America’s work force as the Store Receiving Specialist at Toy’s ‘R’ Us down in Dothan! I have been a little over a week on the new job. All is going well and I think I am starting to get an idea of what all my job entails. And most importantly, how to actually DO it. All in all, it seems as though it was just meant to be. The woman who I am replacing is also pregnant and is due the end of this month! So although the job is not particularly physically, or mentally, taxing, my boss and co-workers are already used to dealing with a pregnant lady on the job. The biggest downside, besides the commute, is yet again I have found myself working retail during the holiday season. At least this time it’s not on the sales floor! On the upside, I get to go to Tallahassee next week for a day of training. Woohoo! A REAL city!!! I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures

An Eventful Wednesday!

We had quite an exciting Wednesday with family day (how fitting), the birth of our God Daughter and the birth of our nephew to top it off! Brian is now in his final 4 weeks of flight training, most commonly known as Gunnery. In this phase they bring all of the other skills they have learned together and get to go “blow stuff up” as they say.

To kick off this final round (pun intended) they host a Family Day. Family day is basically a day where family and friends finally get a chance to see what our aspiring pilots actually DO everyday at the flight line. Unfortunately this family day wasn’t quite what we were all expecting. One of the other wifes and I got together to coordinate the food. I mention this only because after everything was said and done, I think our array of Subway sandwiches, cookies and brownies were truly the highlight of the event. About an hour after arriving class finally got underway with the announcement that today was test day. So after a rousing 45 minutes of gun system gibberish we were able to grab one last sandwich before heading out to the flight line.

I should mention the temperature out on the flight line is easily about 115 degrees. Fortunately with the Apaches flying overhead coming in they created enough of a breeze to keep it tolerable.

We got to watch them preflight the aircraft as they check everything out, down to the nuts and bolts holding everything together. The gentleman with all the papers on the front of the aircraft is Brian’s Instructor Pilot (IP) and the flight commander for their entire class. He’s a pretty cool guy.

And of course I had to get the classic Brian cheeze grin shot before hitching a ride back down to the snack shop to cool off.

So after beating the heat, Brian and I raced down to the hospital to await the birth of our God Daughter, Kaitlynn Marie Russell! I was even lucky enough to be invited into the delivery room. I did my best to be of use anyway I could. For the most part, that meant I was on camera duty to document this blessed occasion for them.

So not only did I get to witness the whole birth experience first hand, but got to see their beautiful baby girl only moments old. I can only hope I manage to get through it with as much grace as Stephanie mustered!Dad got to be the first to hold her and since that moment he has had a hard time putting her down! Daddy’s girl FOR SURE.

We went to visit them the next day to see how everyone was recovering. Brian got to do a practice run. For those of you who know Brian, I am sure you realize just what a momentous event THIS was. It was a very happy moment, he’s going to be a great dad

We are very pleased to report the happy family seems to be doing wonderfully and adapting well to their new roles.

And last but certainly not least… Our night was made complete with the birth of our nephew Rogan James McKay Davidson at 10:56pm! Congratulations Ryan and Andrea! We couldn’t be happier for you both.

.

.

.

.

.

-R

We’re online!

Well after much frustration, I think we have an up and running baby blog. Now we will be able to share our news in a more reader friendly format for you all to enjoy. As I continue to figure this out I will try to add previous pictures and such. Wish me luck! - R