"...he said to just let him live his life."

Sat., January 4, 1992

     I guess we had a good first Christmas with Elizabeth. It wasn't exactly like I'd pictured it. I figured she'd be crawling by now and wanting to get into the tree & the presents. Whenever we'd first turn the tree lights on, she'd watch them blink for a couple of minutes then look for something else to do. When it came to opening packages xmas morning, she helped pull the bows off once I'd start them. I think she liked all the things Santa brought. We may have gone a little overboard but not too much. I intend to start a word processor disk to list all her xmas & birthday presents so she can remember or look back on it when she grows up. Sometimes I think back to certain things I got for xmas and wish I could remember when it was.

     Anyway, we sat her down in the middle of things and showed her her new toys & things one at a time. She seemed to get excited about each new thing. And we got it all on video tape! I'm so glad we got that camera, even if it's taking forever to pay for it. One of Guy's xmas presents was a tripod so we could all be in the picture together.

     That afternoon we went over to Mike & Carole's. There was a girl there that Carole works with, her daughter, (her husband's at sea), and a friend of hers (male). We took Chief with us. He did ok. Better there than he did in the car. We laid half of the back seat down. I had to finally hold his leash &/or collar to get him to be still and even then he wasn't still and was constantly whining. I don't know how but he's got to learn to behave in the car, especially now that Elizabeth is back there.

     In case I haven't mentioned it, I took Ez. in for a weight check the week after our trip. She was 19 & 1/2 lbs. & the nurse said that was close enough to turn her car seat forward. We have it in the middle of the back seat (except when Chief went along). One of us still has to sit back there with her sometimes when she gets fussy & won't go to sleep without a bottle. Sometimes we even have to stop on the side of the road for me to move from front to back. Once I even switched at a stop light. Hopefully she'll get used to being in the back seat alone soon.

     Back to xmas day. We went over about 1:30 or 2:00 & stayed til 7-8? (I can't remember now.) Carole fixed Cornish hens & they were good. I gave what I couldn't eat of mine to Guy. She also made yeast rolls. I made a pecan pie & black-eyed peas. She made everything else. It was a good dinner. We ate around 5. After supper we played a new game - Shanghai rummy. It was a bit hard but fun. It reminded me a little of Yahtzee. There were 13 hands. You got 11 cards each time. We used two & eventually three decks of cards. Each hand you had to get different things. I think the first hand was two sets of three. The next hand was a set of 3 & a run of 4. It got progressively harder. One hand required a run of 10 plus something else. If you weren't the one to go out, you counted the points left in your hand to go against you. The player with the fewest points at the end was the winner. I was at the opposite end.

     Guy & I had to take turns with Ez. while we were playing. She slept some while we were there but not much. We tried to feed her supper while we were there (she'd finally eaten some bananas at lunch) but she wouldn't take any solids.

     Her appetite finally came back last Sun. I think. She finished her Amoxicillin on New Year's Eve. We still gave her the Proventil for another day cause it sounded a little rumbling in her chest. Both her head & chest seem to be clear now - knock on wood. She'll need her 9-mo. shots soon so she needs to be well for that.

     For our anniversary this year we went to a different place, one Gayle Hardison recommended. Steinhilber's. It's down past where Mike & Carole live (they kept Ez.) on the water but we didn't see a view. Gayle said to ask for a table downstairs & that's what we got. It was a little chilly but I didn't have long sleeves on. (I wore the dress I'd made for our pictures.) But the food was terrific. We got their specialty - fried shrimp. It was delicious. But they didn't do anything special for our ann. That's why we stopped going to Tandom's - because they quit doing anything extra for our ann. Maybe we can find something else next year.

     Guy gave me a cassette case & three cassettes for our ann. He told me ahead of time that he didn't get me anything romantic. I got him the watch he'd asked for for xmas. I've decided not to get him any really expensive one any more cause he wears them our too fast.

     After we ate we drove around looking at xmas lights before going to get Ez. Carole had just gotten her to sleep and when we rang the doorbell Katie (the dog) started barking & woke her up. She was screaming by the time we got in but she was ok by the time I got her down stairs to see her Daddy.

     I forgot to mention Luana Carter kept Ez. xmas eve aft. while we went to see Star Trek VI. It was pretty good but I don't think it's my favorite. We went to the theater over by the base. It was nice. Ez. did good at Luana's.

     Guy's arm is doing better. He had a smaller cast put on then when they took the staples out they put on a removable splint. He was only supposed to take it off to take showers and he was real good about leaving it on. Yesterday morning they removed it for good. He still has one week convalescent leave. He's not supposed to do any heavy lifting for another month. He'll be on the ship by then. There's a couple of exercises they told him to do but I haven't seen him doing them much yet. I'm not going to nag him about it though. We had a "discussion" one night. He said I was wanting him to do more around the house & then when he tried to do anything, I'd tell him he'd hurt his arm. I asked what he wanted me to do & he said to just let him live his life. So that's what I've been trying to do the past few days. He says he's not mad at me & I'm not mad at him, but things just seem different any more. I thought once we finally had the baby we wanted for so long that everything would be wonderful. But sometimes it's like we're further apart than ever. It's like we're both giving everything we've got to Elizabeth and there's nothing left to give to each other. He said something about maybe we're just around each other too much since he's been on leave. He may be right about that. I've tried to keep a regular schedule but it's really been hard. Ez. isn't taking very good naps any more & since she's been sick she doesn't sleep as well at night any more. We try to take turns getting up with her & sleeping in but seems like I'm always tired and/or getting headaches. We've started staying up late and I just can't do that & get up with Ez. in the mornings. It's going to be rough at first when Guy goes back to work. Once he goes back to work he's only got a week before he leaves there. He's going to take a couple of weeks off before reporting to the ship. There's a guy from church who's on the Opportune & he said they'll be at Key West the whole month of Feb. So he'll have to go to work at the transit personnel something-or-other til the ship gets back. They're supposed to go in the yards for 3 mos. in April but they don't know where yet. Don't know when their first big cruise is but I already dread it. It's going to be so hard taking care of Ez. & Chief by myself.