Almost There!

How are you all doing? I have been using all of my time either interviewing or deliberating on job offers or spending time with baby or writing love letters to hubby.  I had to catch up on all the blogs I follow to see what's been up and it is like everything happened while I was gone.  Hope you are all doing well.
About my job search, I had waited on interviewing for jobs because I wanted to see if my mother-in-law would be allowed to come back to the States.  She had exceeded her allowable time outside the US and so we took a chance.  But God had bigger plans and they accepted her explanations.  I have interviewed in a few places and I almost have a job and will sign a contract very soon.
About grandma; It is nice to have her around and she has been very helpful but there is still yet a lot of adjusting to do and we are almost there. One of our small struggles is baby girl feels that she ought to be carried all the time since grandma is always doing that, so I've had the talk with grandma that we need to work together and I would hate for baby girl to turn up lazy.  I never thought that baby girl could get anymore spoiled but grandparents always has something up their sleeves and baby girl learned quickly how to work her grandma.  Grandma also doesn't understand the whole development thing and will not let her pick up the sippy cup on her own, in fact she wants to help her do everything.  So Grandma is learning a lot from me about some of the things we do differently here.  She will also be accompanying me to her next doctor's appointment so that she can here and see what we check for and how we do things here.
Despite all of that, baby girl is trying very hard to take her first steps (tear drop) and she is almost there; she started standing for seconds at 7 months old and now she is so confident that she is starting to move her feet but so far she only succeeds at one step...I ask her everyday that if she's going to do it, she can only do it when mummy is home.  Being a working mom is rough.

Rocking one of her Nigerian fashions :)

Baby is also teething like crazy and it is coming from everywhere at once (poor child) so she and I have had a couple of rough nights.  She has also lost interest in puree foods and wants to eat everything that we eat (imitating the chewing process).  She finds her food boring but maintains excitement for breastfeeding; she still loves her breast milk and I plan to go for as long as she will let me.  Unlike my friends who stopped nursing and their children may take more to grandma when they go back to work, mine meets me at the door with smiles and then she cries because she is overwhelmed that she had to wait so long for her mama.  That feeling is great and I am not ready to give that up because I must confess that I am secretly jealous of MIL while I'm at work.
Papa is doing very well on the ship though he misses his girls very much but we are looking on the bright side - almost 3 months down and 3 months to go.  Baby and I sent him a recent care package with some home made jerk meats, chin-chin, chocolate chip cookies, candy bar and pictures of us.  He was so happy- that should keep him going for another 1 month. This deployment has been the most challenging for him since he feels like he is missing a lot with baby girl.  It has however been the least challenging for me because Baby keeps me busy.  He feels like each day is a new milestone with her; for him she is really developing fast so I can't complain to him about that.
Baby is almost 9 months old and that means her one year birthday is stirring me right in the face- what to do? what to do? It really went by fast and I plan to stretch the next few months as long as I possibly can. Oh wait ... I don't have the power to do that.