Influence operations

Mister spent 13 years as a psychological operations specialist in the Army Reserves. Wikipedia (which is a totally legitimate source, right?) defines psychological operations as planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. So I think it’s no coincidence that I found a file named “Dream Car” filled with photos like this on my computer (we each have our own).

Randoms – or, a post without pictures of the cutest baby ever to be featured on this blog

*I have finally received little miss Adele’s passport and visa, so there is nothing stopping us from going home. 23 days until we leave!

*I am kind of really dreading this trip. Mister is meeting us in Paris, so it will just be me and Adele for the first leg. I think once I get on the plane I’ll be fine, but getting to that point is going to be tricky. This is how I picture it: baby in the front carrier, diaper bag (maybe two) on my back. Carry on suitcase in one hand and the car seat in the other (or somehow strapped to the suitcase. It’s not going to be pretty, and I recognize that I probably won’t be able to go to the bathroom once I go through security (my mom suggested I wear a diaper). Anyone have any traveling tips and tricks to make it easier?

*We start anti-malarials next week, and I have been told to put the baby dose in corn or chocolate syrup because it’s so bitter, but I am hesitant to give that to my two month old. There have got to be some readers out there who have given mefloquine to babies. What did you use?

*I feel like I’m getting ready to go into hibernation with the sheer quantity of fast food I’m eating. I just might put back on all of my pregnancy weight by the time we leave.

*I have come up with a new hallmark card, inspired by conversations with my husband, thousands of miles away:

I would live in a third world country if it meant I’d be with you.

Catchy right?

*I am obsessed with Starbuck’s passion iced tea, and forever ago bought the filter bags so that I could make it myself and save some money. The problem is that I have never been able to make it taste as delicious as it is when the baristas do…until now. My dad and I spent a good half hour trying to figure out the right ratio of concentrate to water for the cup that I use (the plastic cup that looks just like a Starbucks venti cup) and were successful. I’m in heaven.

*I am very interested in minimalist running, and I thought there would be no better time to try it than now, since I don’t really have any habits to break. I just bought some super cute New Balance Minimus, but I understand you are supposed to ease into wearing shoes like that. Too bad the only other pair of running shoes I have with me are super old Nike Frees, so I’m waiting until I get back home to try them out. Well, that and the fact that I’m too busy stuffing my face with everything I see.

*Speaking of running (or in my case wogging), I will be doing the couch to 5k program and was looking on iTunes for a c25k podcast so I didn’t have to rely on myself to get the intervals right. I had resigned myself to the fact that I’d probably have to use one with crappy generic songs, but I stumbled upon one called The Chubby Jones Podcast and it is so so good. She has excellent taste in music, if I do say so myself, with artists such as Gotye, Santigold, CSS, Katy Perry and a ton of other indie artists. If you’re interested in starting a c25k program, I recommend you check it out. You can find it on iTunes or online here.

*My birthday is coming up and I am driving Mister crazy with my inability to come up with something he can get me. He has made no less than 50 suggestions (no exaggeration), and I’ve shot all of them down.

*When I was younger, we had this neighbor who would sit on his porch and yell at all of the cars to slow down. I always thought that was ridiculous until I recently found myself sitting on the porch with Adele barely resisting the urge to yell at all of the cars driving by to slow down. I’m turning into a crotchety old man.

*Speaking of my crotchety old neighbor and my birthday, I’m pretty sure I was the only kid on the block he tolerated. Every year for my birthday he would call me over and give me a box of nutty ice cream sundae bars. They were huge and had little bits of caramel on the outside, so delicious. I’ve looked for them in the store recently and they don’t exist anymore. It’s such a bummer.

*I had a night out with a good friend of mine last week, sans babies (she had a baby a month after I did). I was pleasantly surprised when I made it all the way through The Campaign without sleeping. This is kind of a big deal. I can’t remember the last time I stayed awake for a movie, as I usually fall asleep within 10 minutes of one starting, and wake up magically when the credits roll. It’s one of my greatest talents.

*Adele passed out before her last feeding tonight and I am dreading the consequences of this action. In anticipation of this, I should probably go to bed right now. Nighty night.

2 months

This little lady is two months old. At her check up she weighed 10 lbs 1 oz and was 23 inches tall, which, percentage wise makes her tall and thin, or as Mister said, “she’s going to be a model!” She is cooing and smiling like crazy, which makes her such a delight to be around (and makes you forgive her instantly when she has a blowout or spits up constantly requiring you to change her outfit multiple times a day). During the day if she doesn’t fall asleep in her carseat during our frequent outings, she will only sleep in your arms for any length of time. Put her down and she’s awake within seconds. As a matter of fact, she’s passed out in my arms right now. (I’m so talented!) Luckily, bedtime is a totally different story. She will g0 down right away, sometimes with a binkie and sometimes not, but will lie there quietly until she’s good and ready to fall asleep, and she’ll stay asleep for a good 7-8 hour stretch. From what I understand I’m a bit spoiled. I just feel lucky to have this sweet little girl as my daughter.

happy girl

This video is awesome. Make sure to watch to the very end to catch the grand finale.

Photo dump

Trying (unsuccessfully) to get a smile

Grandma’s questionable taste in bow placement

Cuddling with her new friend Sophie

Those hands…always doing something cute

In the middle of her nightly warm cloth spa treatment. Also, check out those crazy long toes!

Defying gravity. The clean up was arguably worse than unsuccessfully catching it with my bare hand. I will spare you that photo.

Finally! Evidence that she smiles!

‘Tis the season

A few days after Mister and I met, he asked me why I was still single (for the record, probably not the best question to ask a single woman), and my response was, “I don’t know, I think I’m a great catch!”

We’re currently in the middle of bidding season. For those of you who don’t know what that means, basically, Mister has to apply for a new job every 2-3 years. With one year left in his current assignment, a big fat list comes out of available positions in different cities around the world (including in the US). We have to then narrow that list down to no less than 6 and no more than 15 (our current list has close to 300), and then try to convince the powers that be that he’d be a good fit for one of those places. It’s pretty nerve racking! We submitted our bids last week (fun fact, we have friends currently posted in over half of them) and I am so anxious. We would like to stay overseas, but so do more people than there are overseas assignments. While we have accepted the fact that we just might come back to the states, we’re still holding out hope that one of these bids stick. Talk about stressful! Oh how I wish I could call up the people in charge of making the decisions and tell them, “hey, you know that Mister? He’s a great catch!” I mean, that line worked for me once.

We won’t know where we’re headed until November. Until then I will be driving myself crazy thinking about the what-if’s and wishing we didn’t have to do this every couple of years!