"I bless the rains down in Africa/ Gonna take some time to do the things we never had"

These blogs, I just can’t seem to write them. I will say Charlotte is vastly improving in the area of separation anxiety. However, the nights are much worse. If I can get her to sleep till 4am I feel I’ve made improvement. It makes for one tired momma but I know I’ll look back and think it was such a short time so I’m trying to savor even the time I have with her in the wee hours of the morning.

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Friday, we headed to Auburn for a night and had a lovely dinner with my parents, brother will, and Will’s girlfriend Nadia was our lovely server. After dinner we headed back to the apartment, put Charlotte to bed, and all stayed up laughing till we cried watching YouTube videos of talking animals done by BBC. This sort of thing is typical for my family and I love it. I don’t know if it’s normal but I don’t care. We all love to laugh and laugh we did. That night I lay in bed thinking that I hope one day my own children and I have this kind of relationship. That I am not just a parent but a best friend. I know being a parent comes first and it all always did for my own mom and dad but somewhere along the way the respect and love of a parent bloomed into admiration of a friend. I pray someday Charlotte and I will share this kind of bond.

Saturday morning, my parents, Will, Nadia, Charlotte, and I all headed to Montgomery for Alabama’s first Annual Walk-n-Roll for Spina Bifida. It was my first social SB event and I hope it is the beginning of many more. The turnout was great and the walk was a ton of fun. THANKS SO MUCH to all those who helped make it happen. I can’t wait till next year. We have already decided to do our own T-shirts and I think Charlotte will enjoy it even more. She was a bit sleepy this time but next year she will really dig the face painting and all the fun animals. After the walk we headed to an amazing children’s store called the NameDropper to get shower and birthday gifts. They had smocked dress galore and it took all my will power not to buy them! Don’t worry Ben, I refrained.

After our day in Montgomery we were going to drop off Will and Nadia back in Auburn and I was continuing to Covington for the week with my parents. The adventure wasn’t over because we ran out of gas! I will not name the guilty party who forgot to fill up but it was pretty hilarious…and hot. We called Ben to bring us gas from Auburn and an 1hr later hot, and sticky, we were on our way.

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Monday we had a girl’s day and Dana, Lia, my mom, Charlotte and I all headed to Madison to shop around. It was fun but a bit exhausting. Charlotte and Lia are both very jealous of my mom and Charlotte threw a huge tantrum in one store because my mom was holding Lia. Little booger finally got over when we swapped and I held Lia!

It has been wonderful being in Covington thought I miss Ben like crazy! I’m not good at being apart from my husband for longer than a work day. I don’t see how the army wives do it. Fortunately, we will reunite Thursday in Birmingham for a weekend to celebrate my cousin Katey’s wedding. I will try to post lots of pictures after I get back home.