A long, long time ago, Jay signed up with the Air Force. The separation date they gave us was June 29, 2009. I remember, because that would be the day before my 33rd birthday, and I told Jay that what I wanted that year was a plane ticket home and a house (I'm totally low-key for birthdays, huh?).
And she's still totally worth it.
In addition to the museum, Alice had several other firsts this week. On Wednesday, we went to the zoo. It was horribly hot, so we only stayed an hour.
Normally we wouldn't have gone when it was so hot, but Jack had to see the dinosaurs one last time before the exhibit closed.
We also stopped by the butterfly garden and Jack got to work on a butterfly hunt.
Thursday was the first time Alice went to storytime. You can't really tell it from the one picture I took, so just take my word that she's in the storytime room.
And I didn't take any pictures while we were there, but Friday was Alice's first checkup. She weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces and was 22 inches. When she was born, she was 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 21 inches, so she's growing quite well.
Today Jack got his first video game for his birthday--a Madagascar game for the GameBoy Advance. He thinks it is the coolest!
Alice went on her first trip to a museum today.
As you can see, she was really excited.
The kids inside--they were very well behaved!
Listening to the story...
Doesn't every baby have someone else's finger to chew on?
Today is our ninth wedding anniversary, and as I've mentioned before, we don't usually do too much for this day. Last year, though, we began to use our anniversary as a sort of birthday celebration for our family.
Did I mention that this pregnancy was harder than the first one?
Jack was excited to introduce Alice to the librarians.
He also got to make a bird puppet.
Just because it's cute: Jack at Pigeon Day in 2006. I can't believe how much he's grown!
Is there any better way to start your birthday than getting a He-Man DVD? I think not.
We had to stop by Jay's office, so Jack took the opportunity to organize a sack race down the hall.
Later, we went to the Hat Symbol (Jack's name for Arby's) for lunch. The workers there were nice enough to look through all of their kids' meal toys for the two he was wanting, so we got two kids' meals. Points to Jay for thinking of this cheaper, quicker way to keep up from going to Incredible Pizza. (Here is the only picture I have of my 5 year old and 5 day old together today.)
The obligatory 4:30 picture.
This evening he got to choose his dinner (PBJ) and then we went to Braum's, where he chose some Birthday Cake ice cream. Happy Birthday, Jackabooter!
Contrary to popular belief, I was not blogging in the hospital. Instead, I had done a post ahead of time and set it to post on Thursday since I'm all high-tech like that. Truthfully, though, I would have been posting on Thursday if I could have because I was bored out of my mind.
Around noon I checked in at the hospital and the waiting began. I was so bored it was crazy. I watched about 43 episodes of Law & Order and napped on and off. 
Jack was thrilled that he got a baby sister. He is still mostly thrilled with her, although I think he would be happier if she had the skills of at least a three year old.
Friday night, Jack and Jay stayed at the hospital with us. I think Jack was the only one who got any sleep.
By Sunday afternoon, we were more than ready to go home. Alice had a very fussy day, but made up for it by sleeping almost all the time yesterday. Today has been a mix, but overall, she seems to sleep a lot more than Jack did.
With the baby due to arrive sometime Friday morning, Jack and I made the most of our last day out for a while. Hopefully we will pick back up with things soon, but it will be a while before I can handle a day like today! We started at the movies, where we saw Nim's Island.
After the movie, we met up with our friends for a nature walk downtown. It really turned out to be more about how nature is incorporated into urban spaces and architecture than a regular nature walk, which was quite interesting, but hard to listen to while you're making sure a five, a four, and a two year old aren't flinging themselves into oncoming traffic.
And after walking all over downtown for an hour, of course we had to have lunch when we were done.
After lunch we spent some time watching the ducks and playing on the playground before finishing some errands. We ended up being gone for about 8 hours, which was a looooong day for us. It's going to be quite a while before we do that again!
