Moving On...

Kayla tried her first "solid" foods tonight. She had baby rice cereal. She has been ready to eat big people food for a few weeks now, and I finally got to the store for some rice cereal. For baby's first cereal you're supposed to use a tablespoon of rice cereal (I have the Gerber pre-cooked kind) and mix it with 3-4 tablespoons of warm water or breast milk. I used water. I fished out some little plastic bowls Kayla's Grandma Sevison had gotten for her over the summer, and some hand-me-down Gerber baby spoons we'd gotten from Jason's cousins (they are so wonderful! They sent us so much helpful stuff - including the amazing breast pump), and prepared to introduce her to "real" food. At first, she was more interested in the fun (huge!) plastic bib around her neck than she was in what I had. But then she saw the spoon and quickly got excited about it. I had a hard time keeping her from grabbing at the spoon before I could get it in her mouth. She took several "bites" and then got frustrated/tired/annoyed so we called it quits for the first time. It was fun, though...and we'll be doing it every evening now, gradually thickening the cereal. For now, it's basically getting her used to eating from a spoon instead of sucking on something. And she's doing quite well! She also had her first drinks from a real cup today, too. At lunch her gums were hurting her too much to suck, and my supply was rather low, so I put some pumped milk in a mug (all I had at the office) and gave her about half an ounce that way. She loved it! Watching human development is one of the most amazing parts of being a parent.

A Vast Improvement

Ever since we moved into our house (September 2007), the toilet paper dispenser in the downstairs bathroom has annoyed me. First of all, it's on the same wall as the toilet so you have to twist around backwards to get any. But that' can't be helped unless you put the roll on one of the free-standing stand thingies. And that just gets in the way. But the other thing was that it was loose from the wall. We tightened the screws (didn't help) and redrilled the holes (making it not level), and finally gave up. A couple of weeks ago Jason pulled the whole thing off the wall and decided he was going to fix it. For good. So he used the stud-finder my dad bought him this summer and pulled his tool box into the bathroom and got to work. After deciding how to fix it, the above photo shows what he had left in the bathroom. The white board is a painted piece of plywood (that's all I did to contribute to the project: painted). And...the completed project:

Level and secure and everything! It's beautiful. My husband rocks!

Me Too! Me Too!

Tonight Jason decided if Kayla did it all day long, it must be super fun. So he attempted to stuff the rattle/toy in his mouth and banged it on his leg and shook it...he's not so sure about the fun part. But it made me laugh.

WHEW!!!

I had a dream - a nightmare more accurately - a few nights back that I had been careless and had gotten pregnant again, but didn't know it and had continued to take my oral contraceptives and the baby was deformed and sick. Though I "knew" it was a dream, I continued getting more and more freaked out about it. So to make myself feel better, I stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home tonight and picked up a pregnancy test. The above photo is proof that I have no reason to be freaked out anymore, so I'm saving it for constant reference. Picking up the test, though, was no easy thing. I did NOT want anyone I knew to see me with it. I knew the teasing would be inevitable and pretty soon the rumour would abound that we were pregnant again. Before I even took the test! And as anyone who knows WW (or another small town) knows, it's very difficult to go to a store such as Wal-Mart and NOT see someone you know. To make matters worse, the "sex stuff" (pregnancy tests, condoms, pleasure jelly, etc.) is all in the aisle people form a line in for the pharmacy. So, since the WM pharmacy is extremely busy and slow, that aisle is always full of people. Embarrassed, I decided the only thing to do would be to stand in the line and wait until I was up next to the pregnancy tests, then snatch one off the shelf and make a dash for it. It was then I remembered that I had a refill of my oral contraceptives to pick up at the pharmacy. Convenient! And quite ironic, actually. So anyway, I got home, took the test, and felt TONS better. It was just a dream. Thank GOODNESS!

NOTE: I read up on it, and continuing to take my oral contraceptives after getting pregnant wouldn't hurt a fetus. Just for future reference.

Motivated

This morning I got up and said I wanted to get things done today. So I made a list of about two dozen things I wanted to accomplish over the course of the day. We got close to half, if not more, of them done. Which is impressive, I think. My biggest chore: Cleaning the stove. But look how shiny and clean it is! Halfway through it dawned on me I should've taken a "before" picture to compare with an "After" shot. Oops. Just know that the burner hole covers were all BLACK and there was dried food and drips and drops of who knows what on the stovetop from the last couple of days. We're messy people, it's true. But we usually don't let it get that bad. It's usually cleaned off every day or so. But it hadn't had a real thorough cleaning in months, so I got serious and scrubbed hard! I was pleased with the results. Ta-dah!

She's Super Freaky

This is what Kayla did throughout the church service today. She was sleeping. But her eyes were cracked open, as though she wanted to make sure no one played any tricks on her. Kind of creepy, actually...

Caught in the Act

Wow. Without even trying I caught a single droplet of water comng off that icicle. And it looks so perfectly round! It's beautiful! I'm just so surprised! Anyway, today it rained and then the sun came out and the temperature in the sun soared to close to 60, melting all the snow and ice we accumulated over the last 3 days or so. So all the trees and buildings were dripping, making it look like it was raining outside. Here's another picture to demonstrate: