New Serna Baby

S.E.R.E. sucked…

…but not entirely.

What’s S.E.R.E.? That’s where I was for the last three weeks. Twenty-one days, specifically 363 hours of really good training.

What kind of training? Survival, evasion, resistance and escape training… S.E.R.E., get it? No? Well, son, I can’t tell you about a lot of the stuff we did because it’s classified secret. That would be most of the E.R.E. part. I can’t even tell your mom. But don’t worry, we’ll cover ALL SORTS of the survival part when you get a little older.

Now I’m not talking the kind of survival training King Leonidas “gets” to do in the beginning of 300. His was a sort of test which decided his ability to become both a man and a king. Since you don’t have any foreseeable future as a king of, well, anything, I am thinking we might try a slight variation on their technique. Which is not to say that I’m ruling their method out, I just think that you could benefit from a different approach to wilderness survival training. We’ll even give it a fun name like Camping, or Backpacking. You might even think it’s a game or sport especially if we mix in climbing, shooting, or playing around in the snow.

Running around in the woods never gets old, even when you haven’t eaten in several days if you can believe that. Seriously. When you’re young you get to run around pretending you’re some kind of ninja special forces guy saving the world from destruction, planning an attack on an impenetrable enemy stronghold or hiding from imminent capture by an evil terrorist organization who is tracking you down. When you get older, you can run around pretending that you’re young again without a care in the world, making “forts” in the woods and putting your best Swiss Family Robinson skills to work. Trust me, it’ll all make sense the first time you get to sleep outside in a world that is very different from the one indoors.

You’re gonna love this book. No, it’s not the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. It is the original and still the best reference for boys and young men on stuff that every young man should know. The new version, sadly, lacks both the Norman Rockwell painting on the front cover and tons of great information on plants, insects and wildlife. Don’t worry, I’ve got a copy from when I was a Boy Scout, and we’ll be golden.

So that would be the part of S.E.R.E. that didn’t suck. The stuff I can talk about is the survival training where they taught us knots (learned in Boy Scouts), water procurement (learned in Boy Scouts), shelter construction (learned in Boy Scouts) and fire building (learned in Boy Scouts). I’ll grant you that they did elaborate quite a bit and I did learn some new techniques and procedures that were useful, but are you sensing a trend here. It’s a bunch of fun stuff that you can start doing as a little kid and NEVER gets old. I know right now it’s all about TOYS ‘Я’ US, but trust me, soon it’ll be all about R.E.I. and MSR. Oh, the fun we’ll have. And I promise, I won’t even make you wait until you’re older.

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

Another Poo-Machine Family Addition

Say hello to your furry new cousin, Diego!

HAHAHA, you silly little boy, that’s a puppy, not a cousin. Grant you, he does poo a lot, drool a lot, and lacks all sorts of coordination, but I assure you, he is a puppy. Here’s a cousin. You’re so naïve.

But then, you’re supposed to be. Your being right now is almost the definition of naïveté. In addition to his ability to create unbelievable amounts of poo and drool, you also share with Diego this lack of worldly knowledge and experience. You’re both bestowed with a certain amount of innocence and openness to learn and adapt and become a part of this world you’re coming into. But Diego will forever live in the now, his memories and experiences only seasoning his moment to moment existence. You, on the other hand, are like some sort of super sponge that absorbs and absorbs but never gets squeezed out.

It’s kinda crazy that even holding you and playing with you while you’re so young you won’t even remember will partially shape and mold the boy and man you will someday become. I know, I better not screw that up, eh? Lucky for us your ability to adapt can even compensate for my screw-ups.

Despite not being a cousin, I am looking forward to the two of you playing together, ’cause every little boy needs a dog in his life.

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.

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-R

In the meantime…

Your older cousin was born. Rogan James McKay Davidson. I know, he’s got lot’s of cool names and you only have one so far, how horribly unfair is that. I don’t really think that it’s unfair at all, I just enjoy rubbing it in - but he does have a cool name. His name means “red-headed” from Irish and Gaelic origin, but the word on the street is his hair isn’t so red. But as I recall, Alex Rogan wasn’t a red-head either but he still managed to save the Earth (and Rylos, I suppose) from Xur and the Ko-dan Armada pretty much single-handedly.

So he’s got that going for him.

That and the fact that he has hair - which seems to be the in-thing these days. Roughly five hours before your cousin Rogan entered this less comfortable, bright and noisy new world, my goddaughter-to-be was also born. I know, babies are coming out of the woodwork here. Kaitlynn Marie (Kaitie to me) was born 6:20pm CDT (20.5in, 7lbs 5oz) to our friends Clif and Stephanie Russell - and also had hair… a fuzzy little head full of hair.

No, I don’t think there is such a thing as a god-cousin. Little Kaitie may, however, end up being your distant cousin umpteen times removed since Stephanie’s family tree does in fact have some Lucero branches in the northern New Mexico, southern Colorado area. The jury’s still out on that one.

But you’re changing the subject. I was talking hair, and from the last peek into your insulated little world, you’re sporting a real nice Kojak look right now. Hardly fair, I know. You’ve still got three and a half months to work on your little coiffe. And in all fairness, compared to your uncle Greg, I was pretty much bald when I was born too.

Oh, and for the record, you needn’t fear Clif, he doesn’t really eat babies. He’s on a diet.

Work with me here.

I do believe the quandary of this newly created blog lies in the fact that our son is on back order and our lives have not become ‘baby-centric’ as of yet. Which is to say… we’re kind of boring. I’m sure I could fill volumes with the joy of performing out-of-ground-effect hover power checks and with heart-wrenching tales of nap-of-the-earth flight under goggles. Renee, however, named this blog “New Serna Baby”, therefor focusing our creative literary energy on our expected child.

So, son (I’m speaking to him in the womb), we have certain needs and expectations regarding this blog that you need to step up to. We’re trying to document for all eternity the moment by moment prenatal development of YOU. YOU’RE THE STAR - and you’re giving us so little to work with. What have you given us so far? Let’s see… well, you kick during loud movies… or when Renee eats dried fruit… or when she mashes your little head to try to get a reaction - which she must do regularly since you seem to be so unbelievably contrary to doing anything interesting.

Seriously, do something cool like… oh, I don’t know… double in size this month and make Renee really fat (HAHA). How’s that? You were already gonna? Oh. You know you could have shared that with me before I went on that little tirade. Well I guess that’ll be pretty cool.

What else you got? Eardrums? Oh, so you can actually hear us talking about you, eh? Too bad you don’t know what nouns and verbs are or you might have gotten a clue before you get out of there. No matter, we can use those little eardrums to introduce you to some of my best friends: Ella Fitzgerald, Led Zeppelin, Beethoven, Ben Harper… Trust me, they will be your friends your whole life. You just got to get to know them. Don’t worry, at the volumes I listen you’ll be sure to hear.

See, now you’re starting to give me something to work with.

What?

You want a name?

You got a name. Serna. S-E-R-N-A. Serna.
Oh, you want more of a name. Well, if you want more of a name, you need to start giving me and your mother some more stuff to write about. ‘Bout right now you best start learning nothing in this life is gonna be free, kiddo. So you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, and maybe we can see to a mutually beneficial end to our current situation.

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