Baby's Dedicated, Let's Eat... Or Not

We had baby dedication at church on Jan. 9 in which Hadlee took part.  She wore the family's christening gown, which was her great-grandfather's.  I think she's the 14th baby to wear it.  Since they only do dedication one a year at Pinedale we were worried about it still fitting her, especially since she's on the bigger side, but it's just a gown so it worked fine.  For that reason we actually had her professional pictures taken in it when she was 3 months old, just in case.  One baby at a time we all got introduced to the church by one elder per family.  Then all the elders, at the same time with the congregation, prayed for the babies and their families out loud.  The sermon that day was for the parents so we sat on stage during it (after we had returned Hadlee to the nursery).  I like how they do the dedication at Pinedale and that we believe that someday it's HER decision and choice to be baptized.  Now it's our job to get her there, with a little help from the big guy upstairs!  I tried to post the video I had my friend take to youtube but it's just not working.  The file is so large that it takes forever and then just stops.



3 months

It has taken forever to get Hadlee to eat.  We started at about 5 1/2 months and I think she and I are recently figuring it out.  We went through the normal stages of trying foods, learning to open her mouth for a spoon, learning to swallow and not spit it out.  It was all made much more difficult by what I've most recently resigned ourselves to.  That really, she just doesn't like baby food.  I eventually even tried pureeing some things, freezing them in ice cube trays, then thawing out a cube at a time for a meal.  She still wasn't big on that.  What she really wants is our food.  I don't know if it's the taste or she just doens't like slimey pureed things.  We did find, through all the trial and error, that she loves loves loves bananas which then causes a diaper problem.  We could get her to eat some baby food as long as it had a chunk of banana on it.  We still do that for some meals but have had to cut back on bananas.  I don't like poop, but it's necessary sometimes.  So now I try to think of meals that I can chop up tiny for her.  I put spaghetti in the pampered chef chopper, she eats tiny bits of chicken with real rice, last night we cut pork into tiny pieces with our sweet potatoes mushed up, or alternating barely tolerated baby food with real green beans cut into tiny pieces.  She's making life difficult.  The picture below is the face you see when she's either done or refusing to eat.  She pushes that lip out and seals her mouth shut tight!

Luckily she does remarkably well for no teeth and eating our food.  She hasn't choked yet!  She eats lunch and dinner and still nurses 5 times a day.  Unfortunately she doesn't like baby cereal, baby rice, or even cereal flavored with banana so I'm trying to figure out a way to sneak that in for more iron.  She tries to eat Gerber puffs, she gets that pincher reflex going, gets her hand to her mouth, but can't figure out how to release her fingers yet.  It's been a frustrating 2 months but I think I've figured it out.  It's only a problem if we eat tacos or pizza or other things that she just can't have.  She'll probably make me eat healthier! 

A Little Sisterly Love

Now that Hadlee is able to sit in the bathtub Maddox loves taking baths with her.  Hadlee flops her arms the whole time ( like a bird, Maddox says) and splashes water everywhere.  This does not really make Maddox happy.

But Maddox gets her payback by trying to wash Hadlee with a washcloth and getting water all over her face.  So far Hadlee doesn't really seem to care.  She can't breath, but she doesn't care.

 What an adorable little girl!!  She's such a happy baby.  It's insane.

I was trying to take pictures of Hadlee (7 months old now!) with her adorable headband one day but Maddox wanted to be in the pictures too.  It's virtually impossible to get a good photo of both of them together.  It still resulted in some cute sister interaction though!

 This is how they watched cartoons one day while I showered.  Maddox was pretending they were boats going to Florida to Grammy's house.  She's even rowing with her left hand in this one.  On the floor in front of them is a little construction paper boat for her animals (who apparently went overboard during this photo).

Christmas and New Year 2010

We stayed home for Christmas this year.  Jeremy had to work so that's why we went to Florida at Thanksgiving.  Instead, my parents came up here for the holidays.  We all went to church at Home Moravian Church for the Lovefeast on Christmas Eve. 

 We were also going to go to the 11 o'clock service at Augsburg Lutheran but do you see that trampoline on the side of the picture?  We had to put it together 3 times to get it right.  The instructions were terrible!  And by the time we got it done it was almost 11 and we all just wanted to have an alcoholic beverage.

 The girls had on their matching Christmas pjs.  By morning Hadlee's little legs were freezing though.  It was so nice that Hadlee could sit up the whole morning and watch what was going on.

 When Maddox would open clothes she'd hold them up to herself and show them off.

 Jessi was very happy with her bones for Christmas.  She knew they were there and I had to hide them way back under other presents.  As soon as they were in sight again she tried to get at them so I opened one for her and she spent the rest of the morning in the corner chewing on one.  Actually, less than two weeks later, they're both gone now.

 Present opening time is done, now it's time to check some of them out!

 Christmas afternoon it started snowing and snowed all the next day.  At our house we got about 5-6 inches.  We bundled up the kids in their snowsuits and went out on Christmas night to sled down our neighbor's driveway, build a snowman and have a snowball fight.  Maddox still doesn't like sledding or being pulled in the sled.

Christmas wore Papa out.  The next morning Maddox cuddled up to watch some cartoons while Papa napped.

 The snowman we built on Christmas Eve fell down within a couple of hours.  I think it may have had some help from some kids out walking that night.  So a few days later Maddox and I went out and built more snowmen.  Well, one of us did while the other played with her neighbors.  But they immediately became "her" snowmen.  She said they were her Daddy and herself.

 Along came New Year's Eve when we stayed home, had dinner, played Dance Dance Revolution, and the two young folk tried to learn to play bridge and the two old folk tried to learn to play Texas Hold 'Em.  Neither group was very successful.

 At dinner when we opened our crackers (because we forgot to open them at Christmas dinner) I popped Maddox' and gave it back to her telling her to get her hat out and put it on.  She could not figure out where this hat was and said, "Like this Mommy?" with a confused look on her face.

 I dug it out of the tube for her and NOW she's got it right!  "cheese!"