Now that Kolt is healed from his surgery and has returned to work, he received orders for the two C-schools that he needs to attend in North Carolina. He originally was going to a four week school starting in Feb and then another starting in March. Now he is just starting with the March school first and then will go to the next C-school that starts in April. Basically he is going to them in the opposite order than he was originally going to. Each school is four weeks long, with a week long break in between. Kolt is also taking a week of leave after the second school is over, but will only stay in NC for a few days. He will be coming back to Sitka to fish in a tournament or something. Brinleigh and I will be leaving for NC three days before Kolt and we will either all fly back together (which is the plan) or he will return home and then Brinleigh and I will fly home after him. This is due to plane ticket prices. My travel schedule is based on when I can fly for the lowest price, rather than a specific time. Kolt's tickets are paid for (or will be reimbursed in full) so we don't have to worry about how much his tickets cost. I realized this weekend that I only have two and a half weeks until I am supposed to leave and thought I should probably buy my plane ticket to NC ASAP. Brinleigh will fly for free, but I will have to hold her the whole time. Because this is such a long distance, I had to choose our flights carefully. We will be taking a couple long flights (about four hours) and so I wanted longer layovers, especially since I will be taking care of Brinleigh alone. I ended up getting an overnight flight which I think will work best due to the length of the layovers and the number of times we have to switch planes. The majority of our flight time will be during Brinleigh's bedtime hours so hopefully she will sleep during those flights, especially with me holding her. Then momma can sleep a little bit too. We only switch flights twice, in Seattle and again in Atlanta. The downside, our layover in Seattle is six hours :/ But that will give us plenty of time to do everything we need to do, including feeding Brinleigh since she is now on solid foods. We might look for the USO for the remaining time to see if we can hang out in there. The layover in Atlanta is two and a half hours, I think. So wish us luck!
Brinleigh is doing amazing with her night time sleep and nap schedules. She is getting so big and is almost ready to move on to her nine month size clothes. She rolls over like a champ and can spin herself around on her belly like a pro. She also now lifts herself up onto all fours and rocks herself back and forth. She pushes herself backwards and then brings her arms in to scoot herself back again. I've attempted to record multiple videos of this cuteness but she gets mesmerized by the camera/phone/camcorder and ends up just staring at it. She also moves all over her crib throughout the night. Every time I check the baby monitor she is in a different angle, position, or side of the crib. Now that she is getting bigger and stronger and can raise herself up on to all fours, Kolt lowered her crib mattress this past week. I was scared that she would learn to pull herself up in the middle of the night and fall out of the crib :o She still loves to play in the exersaucer and will jump and bounce all day long. Kolt moves her next to the sliding glass door so she can watch Gunner when he is tied up outside...... she loves it. She also keeps herself entertained in her playpen for longer periods now, giving me time to clean, vacuum, make dinner, etc.
