My Sous-Chef

Eight months!!

I can't believe it! Alayna is eight months old! These months have absolutely flown by! They have gone so much faster than they did with Daniel! She is doing so many fun things now! Lets see, she can sit up well with only a few topples, she is eating rice and oatmeal cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, bananas, apple sauce, and some bites of "real" banana that we were eating! She absolutely loves bouncing in the baby jumper! So cute!! And yes, that is our bathroom in the background, but it is the only place downstairs with molding on which to hang the jumper! ;-) She loves books, things that rattle, music, being held of course, her toes, being tickled and so much more! She enjoys sitting up more to play than laying on her belly to play. She really only lasts a few minutes on her belly before she becomes unhappy. She loves watching Daniel play and especially when he comes over to her to talk or give her a hug! We have a picture with a poem called "Children Are" hanging over the changing table. Every time I stand her up on the table, she swings her head and body around to look at the poem in anticipation of me reading it! So cute and so cool to see her recognizing something and anticipating it! We have been so blessed with two beautiful and wonderful children!! What a privilege and grand responsibility!

GE Formal

Last Saturday Brian had his annual GE formal event. It was held at the Embassy Suites in Greenville. The food was pretty good. Brian absolutely loves the jumbo shrimp cocktail, (the main reason he likes to go), but he wasn't as impressed this year with the food. There was dancing as well, so we danced a couple slow and fast dances! We had a really good time getting all dressed up, talking with his co-workers and just spending some time together without children!!

It snowed!!!!! Yea!!! It started Wed. night while we were at music practice. When we left practice Daniel was so excited! He squealed, "Hey snow, don't fall on my head! Hey silly snow, what'cha doing?" When we returned home, Daniel and I played outside until 10:00! We made a little snowman and threw snowballs at each other. Actually, I made the snowballs for Daniel to throw at me. Neighbors probably thought I was a terrible mother playing outside so late! But I was afraid the snow would be gone the next day. That night, I took a walk at midnight. It was snowing big snowflakes and the street was covered with snow. I love walking in the snow and hearing it crunch. It was so peaceful out there! Well, lucky for us, it was still there in the morning even though it had started to rain. We played outside in the snow for quite a while! We made two snowmen, one little and one big. I made the three big snowballs for the big snowman with Daniel, but we needed Brian to put it together because since it had rained, they were more like snow and ice balls which made them extremely heavy!! And yes, those are Tootsie Roll Pops for the eyes, nose and mouth. Since it was so icy, nothing would stick, so we needed something we could stick into the ice. I just happened to have some pops left from Halloween! :-) We came inside and had some hot chocolate. Yummy!!! What a treat the snow was for South Carolina! Not having cold weather and snow down here is hard!! So I thanked God for the snow a lot that day!!! It was so exciting to see how much fun Daniel was having!! We had a blast! Yea snow!

Alayna with her Nonnie and Ama

First Bites of Veggies!

Alayna had her first taste of sweet potatoes! She was not very excited about this however. She didn't cry, just crinkled her brow and would not open her mouth for another bite. :-) I tried to alternate between cereal bites, then I tried mixing a tiny bit into the cereal, but she still clamped her mouth shut! I think we were able to get about a teaspoon in! I have been trying a little bit at each cereal feeding and today she ate it pretty well! (mixed with cereal!) The sweet potatoes on her nose is just too cute!

First Bites of Cereal! Yummy!

Alayna had her first taste of "solids" December 28th! "Solids" sounds a little funny since it it is more like liquid mush! She did really well! I was ready for her to hate it at first since that was our experience with Daniel, but she ate it really well! She actually ate a total of about 6 tablespoons! I still make sure I nurse her first to get the good stuff! She is eating cereal twice a day now. It has almost been a week with no reaction, so in a few days we can move on to a veggie! We started with sweet potatoes with Daniel, so that is probably what we will do with Alayna. I'll keep you posted!