Las Vegas and a two month old

Yesterday Adalie and I took a big adventure to Las Vegas. Yes, she has now cruised the strip. We picked up Jamie (Rick's coworkers wife) who is down for the weekend to visit her hubby. It was so nice to get out of the hotel and out of this town even if it was only for three hours. I think Adalie wanted to stay because when we left she started to cry. I wish that I could have got a picture of her in front of the MGM...lol, I was too afraid to stop, big city driving is not a strength of mine.

Tonight Rick is on his way to go watch Christopher Cross. One of his long time favorite artists. I am kind of happy that I have an excuse (the baby) not to go. He is not exactly one of my favorite artists. Rick almost didn't go due to my mental breakdown. I'm not one to cry, but this trip has been hard because of all the new life dynamics. It is hard being in a new place (and in a new body..does the flabby stomach ever disapper?) without any friends or family and not knowing of any parks or places to just go. Having to schedule my day around Adalie's feeds and still healing from labor and and and... I am just missing home and work and my old normal life. I love Adalie with all my heart and embracing our new life is a work in progress. Thank god she is a good sleeper and so dang cute!

Holly competitive old people!!!

So as I'm sitting in Starbucks this morning (located in the casino downstairs from my hotel room) posting my blog two old men start yelling at each other. This is happening as I'm 10 feet from either of these two old guys. Normally I would say gentlemen but when they started to hit each other the term gentlemen now longer accurately describes either geezer. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen an actual fist fight happen in front of me and this was one of those times. From what I could gather the first old guy (I would say he was probably about 80 with his cane in one hand and prune juice in the other) "stole" the other guys lucky machine. Words were exchanged, then the pushing started and then fists were thrown. Here I am sitting thinking is this really happening and why is everyone else just ignoring it. I mean really a hip could have been broken and we all know it's just down hill from there. Adalie asleep in her stroller wasn't even phased by this demonstration of utter ruthlessness. So, I did what any new mother would do, I started screaming for security, the tellers in starbucks soon joined me and then Adalie joined in. Security soon came and took them away. Wow, how ridiculous! I'm still pissed at these two old boys!

Day 8 in Laughlin and everything is going well so far. The day before arriving here we were able to see Rick’s Aunt and Uncle in El Centro and my Aunt and Uncle in Yuma. It was so nice to see family and the positive comments we received from both of the communities where our family’s live were amazing! I hope we can go back and visit again before we leave the southwest.

Our hotel, The Aquarius (an 18 story casino), is where our home base is and will be for the next few weeks. It is weird living at a hotel, especially one that has a huge casino as a lobby. Going to the grocery story and bringing in food/purchased items is just awkward, not to mention the looks I receive for bring Adalie into a smoky gambling establishment. Thankfully the rooms are all non smoking and we are on the 16th floor. Our room is pretty nice with a view of the Colorado river and the Mojave Desert. Adalie has been fabulous at night (I feel tempted not to write this for fear of jinxing a good thing). She is sleeping in 5 - 6 ½ hour periods at night with no crying. Rick and I could not be happier. Now if my stomach would settle down everything would be right on track. I developed a bad case of gastritis (a condition where the lining of your stomach is damaged causing intense pain after eating because of the digestive acids) after taking Improper. Thinking that my stomach was still sore from labor I continued taking the pain killers only to worsen what was really wrong. My diet the last few weeks has consisted of lots of rice, fish, apples and coconut milk. Anything else and I’m out for the next few hours with crazy stomach cramps. Note to anyone reading this don’t take ibuprofen longer than 14 days or with coffee. The results are not good. At least the body is resilient and this too shall heal….hopefully soon because some of these buffets down here look so good!

A trip to the Zoo

In an effort to make sure our daughter experiences new thing her crazy parents took her to the zoo. Adalie became the exhibit for most of the smaller children we passed. We were even asked by a very polite little girl if she could photograph Adalie. This request made Rick and I very happy :). The trip down to Needles has been good so far except for last night. We thought a nice Valentines day dinner and an early night would suit our little girl just fine. At 7 we put her down for sleep as normal and it wasn't until 2am that she stopped crying. I think it was the seafood that I ate or who knows but she was not ready for sleep she wanted to be up and be up she was. This is especially awesome when staying at a nice hotel and you get to ride the elevator down with your neighbors who most likely were up all night too enjoying the songs of a baby crying. All I could do was smile. Tomorrow night will be better...it's got to be.