3 weeks 'til cast change

After my downer Christmas post I thought I had better write a more upbeat one. Three weeks from today is Cecilia's cast change, then 5 weeks and 5 days later and the cast comes off. Can't come fast enough. I think I'll add a count down to the blog, if I can find one.

Cecilia has been sleeping much better since Sunday. I think getting back into a routine in a familiar place really helps. Hopefully we don't have anymore hiccups this weekend when Shaun is home. There was even one night she slept from 6 pm to 7:30 am with a feeding in the night during which she fell asleep and two 2 hour naps during the day. This was behavior like before the cast (I just realized I can abbreviate that to BC and I love it, think I'll use that in the future) and I was so happy! Mom and dad got some good sleep too and everyone woke up refreshed and happy in the morning. It is amazing how dependent on sleep we as humans are (me especially).

On a side note Shaun and I are working on not wrapping her to sleep. She is really old to still be swaddled, but she just won't calm down and eat and go to sleep without it. Before the cast she loved being wrapped and would smile and coo when I did it. But like everything else, the cast changed that and now she fusses when I wrap her. So we have been working on some strategies to get away from it. We have settled on stratagies that wrap her until she falls asleep and then unwrap her so her arms are free after that. Then we'll work on getting her to fall asleep without it later. Last night was the first night we tried it. The first attempt of not wrapping her, but holding her arm so it doesn't flail didn't work at all. She hates it when I hold her arm and just concentrates on getting it away from me instead of eating. That attempt was ditched while I thought about a better way. Next attempt (for middle of the night feeding) was to wrap her until she fell asleep (during eating so still being held) and then pull her arm out. It kinda worked, I got one side free but the other was too disruptive and I abandoned it. I felt one being loose was good enough for a first try. She even woke up when I put her down and I was so nervous for what came next. But shockingly she only talked for a minute and then got quiet and went back to sleep. It was very encouraging and while I know there will be battles hopefully they won't be very many. I think she is ready for this, remind me I said that after the battles :)

Future battles, drinking from a sippy cup namely formula, sleeping through the night, and stopping nursing to sleep which will probably coincide with weaning. But all in good time, and most of which probably after the cast comes off, except drinking from a sippy cup. We are concurently working on this one and are having some success, again if her arms are tied. Stay tuned...

Almost three weeks in

Let me just say THIS SUCKS! Ok now that I got that off my chest...
Last week was probably one of the hardest of my life. It was so long that I can't remember the first week Cecilia was in the cast to compare. But she didn't sleep anymore than the first week and it was harder on me because:
1. Everyone says the first two weeks are the hardest. I kept wondering if that meant this is what the rest of the time was going to be like. Up in the middle of the night with a child who cries unless you are holding her and not sleeping for hours and skipping naps on top of it.
2. I was sick. Let's just say I couldn't decide if throwing up would make me feel better or not. I didn't, which given my history is a bit of a surprise. But I spent a lot of time in the bathroom and probably couldn't sleep even if Cecilia was and I certainly wasn't any help to Shaun with her.

It was the worst Christmas ever! No sugar coating this one. She was up for about 5 hours in the middle of the night, a record for her. And I was in and out of the bathroom the whole time. We were at my parents house and they were generous enough to try their hand with her around 4:30 am and to watch her after she got up again at 7 am (after not quite two hours of sleep) while we slept in. They are so sweet and patient with her, I have a lot to learn from them. Anyway let's hope next Christmas will be better. I would say it can't get worse, but I know I would be proven wrong :)

On to the lesson I learned this week. I went to church on Sunday (because she chose to skip a nap). While there I heard several other kids fussing or crying and thought to myself this could be worse. We have a sweet baby who only cries in the middle of the night when she can't sleep and we put her down. Amazingly she hasn't been much more fussy with all of this missed sleep. I'm sure Heavenly Father has his hand in our lives right now on this front. She is still a sweet happy girl and smiles or giggles when she sees us. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and need to remember this is difficult for her too.

One last thing and I'll finish. Cecilia gets punchy when she doesn't sleep. It is kinda funny, except it reminds me she is overtired. Since she got her cast she has started to grin a huge, toothless, cheesy grin. Well last week she started giggling. She has always been a smiler, but getting her to giggle has been a challenge. Until sleep deprivation! Every time Shaun or I walked into the room from being out of sight she would smile huge and start giggling. It was hilarious! We started a game where I would walk away and then come at her and she would just laugh and laugh. It was the silver lining of the week. I was able to get a video, although this doesn't quite do it justice, I guess you just have to experience it for yourself. Anyone is welcome at 2 am to witness it :)

Moving Backwards

This whole experience with Cecilia in a cast has really thrown Shaun and I backwards. We feel like Cecilia is a newborn again. We have to relearn how to hold her, how to diaper her, how to bathe her (sponge), how to dress her and what will fit (nothing really). I have to figure out how to nurse her again. We are back to middle of the night soothing and feeding several times and sleeplessness. Shaun said this morning he can't remember having a worse night with her, not since she was born. It brings back memories of those first few nights when I was up every two hours and had so much adrenaline that I couldn't sleep between feedings anyway. The list of similarities goes on, she can't do the things she used to like sit up on her own, play on the floor by herself, roll over (which she has tried to do several times while I'm changing her diaper and it breaks my heart to see because she just figured it out), kick me when I'm changing her diaper and most precious of all stand up. She cries for no apparent reason and we wonder if life will ever get back to normal or if this is life for three months and we will have to do some major retraining in the end. It is the most surreal experience. One I wish I wasn't having. But reminiscing about her being a newborn is the silver lining. Plus we feel more confident as a parent this time and it is taking us less time to figure it out. I think life will be much better once we are all sleeping better, hopefully.

Day... I don't know I'm so tired I hardly know my name

Today is Friday. That much I remember. So if Cecilia got her cast on on Tuesday this must be day 4. Yeah ok, brain a little slow but it is still there. I remember today is Friday because we took Cecilia back to Primary's to get a CT scan of her hip to make sure it is in the right place. That went well. Everything looks good and we were able to convince the doctor to cut off some of the top of her cast. It came up so high that it dug into her armpits and she could lick the front of it when she sat. He agreed that it was too high and thankfully cut off about an inch and a half (like Shaun said in his post). I joked with the doctor that he does this to all the parents so they feel better about the cast they have in the end. It was very traumatizing for Cecilia, but worth it to get another inch of her cute body.

So on to the reason my brain is so fried. I think Cecilia must have had some muscle spasms last night because she woke up several times crying between 10:30 and 2. We kept going in and rocking her to sleep, then put her down and 10-20 minutes later screaming again. Finally at 2 am I gave her some more Motrin (after Tylenol at 10:30) and rocked her to sleep and and stayed there holding her for about an hour. She would occasionally jump and start crying, which is what many say the signs of muscle spasms are. Poor thing! Finally I think the combination of pure exhaustion and the medicine worked and she slept until 6:30. Shaun and I are running on fumes after three nights in a row of little sleep. But we are tapping into our reserves and hope tonight will be better.

Minor victory

Today Cecilia got her cast off! Well, about an inch and a half of it
anyway. The surgeon agreed with us that it was way too high on her
body so he let the nurse cut off a bit of it. Too bad they could hear
the little one scream from two miles away.

Surgery Day

Well our journey has begun. Cecilia is now in a full body cast. It is much larger than I expected and we all hate it. It also has a bar across the legs which the doctor and nurses say makes it easier to pick her up. Which may be true but dressing her is more difficult and we can't get as close to her.

Anyway her surgery was on Tuesday and it was honestly one of the hardest days of my life. I don't know a mom out there that won't cry uncontrollably when her perfect little baby is taken from her to go into surgery (and continues to cry every time she thinks about it). But thankfully they were able to do the closed reduction and just cut a tendon to loosen the leg to get the perfect fit. The doctor said it sat really well and there was no question as to the open reduction. This is good because the recovery time is a lot less and we were able to bring her home same day. She cried that day more than I think she ever has in her entire life combined. She was mad, and I'm sure in pain, when she woke up. Thankfully they called me back quickly and I was able to nurse her, which calmed her considerably. It was so hard to see her screaming at the top of her lungs and in this HUGE cast and with dilated eyes from the anesthesia. Of course I cried too. Had a hard time stopping since too. But everyone who has gone through this says the first 2 weeks are the hardest. We just have to make it through these two weeks and everything will get better. I just can't help feeling so sorry for my little girl who keeps trying to pull the cast away from her and whom I can't cuddle and comfort. I can't help wishing we found this sooner so we could do the harness which would be so much easier to deal with. I can't keep from crying when I give her a sponge bath on her head and feet remembering when she loved to take baths.

But I'm also grateful that we found it before she was mobile because I know it would be so much harder on her if she knew how to move and couldn't. I'm grateful for her spica chair which will allow her to sit up and play and where we can feed her. I'm grateful for the online group where I can hear others stories and be grateful she will only have this for 3 months and hopefully never again. I'm also so very grateful that Cecilia is an otherwise normal, perfect baby.

At the hospital we had to wait with other families whose children were having surgery. How grateful I am that Cecilia doesn't have a feeding tube and tracheotomy and who is going through her 4th surgery and she is only a year old. How grateful I am that I'm not the mother of the teenager who has a severely scarred face. Or the mother of the 6 year old so skinny that I can carry her in my arms. How grateful I am that Cecilia has a curable condition and after these next 3 months we can look back and never have to worry again.

So day two and we are sad and grateful.

Wicked in San Francisco

This weekend we traveled to San Francisco with Cecilia's Hadley grandparents. We took them to see Wicked, the broadway musical and to give them a bit of grandparent time with the baby.

It's getting more difficult to call her the baby, even though she's not even 8 months old. I've attached a picture of her standing on the chair, something she has been able to do for a few months already. She loves to stand but hates to crawl. Well, she hasn't ever crawled but she just recently figured out how to roll over. And only after prodding does she even do that. She grabs our fingers from a sitting or even laying position and she wants to stand by stretching her legs out straight and lifting her head. When she's standing she even puts one foot in front of another and tries to walk.

Back to our San Francisco trip. We have some friends who used to live in the city who know people living there now who get a great baby sitter a few times a week. They put us in contact with her and we had her watch Ceci on Friday night so we could all go see the show together. Saturday was filled with visiting the ferry building farmers market, lunch at Fishermans Wharf and shops in North Beach and Pacific Heights. How can you not love San Francisco?

DDH

Cecilia has been diagnosed with a condition called Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip or DDH. Essentially what it means is she was so squished in the womb that the ball of her left femur couldn't fit into the right place in her hip when it was forming and so is not in the right place now. We need to get them together and keep them there so they will stay and grow around each other properly. If we had caught this before she was 6 months old they would have just put her into a harness for up to 3 months and her hip would have grown over the ball. But now that she is older she is too strong for the harness and there is a possibility that tissue has grown between the socket and the ball. This means she will have to have a surgery. They put her under anesthesia and try to place the ball in the socket. They then inject a dye and take an X-ray to see if it "sits" well. If it does then they put a cast on her and they are done. If it doesn't they snip a tendon that can cause the area to be tight and see if they can get a good fit. If still not then they give her an epidural and make an incision and clean out the fatty tissue that is in the way. The first two possibilities are called a closed reduction and the third, more invasive, is called an open reduction. Either way she will have to be in a cast from her belly to her ankles for three months with a cast change at 6 weeks (because she will grow out of the cast).
Shaun and I are obviously upset by this news. A million thoughts go through my head at the same time, so many that I can't express them here. This is a fairly common condition (1 in 1000 births) so there is a lot of information online and a support group for "Hip baby" moms. These resources have been so helpful for us as we come to grips with life over the next three months. The symptoms are pretty clear and the treatment is very standard. Both of these facts comfort us that Cecilia has been correctly diagnosed and will be treated properly. I feel the Spirit has confirmed this to us and put our minds at rest that this is the best for our daughter. Additionally through the support group I can talk with other moms and get advice from them on how to diaper, clothe, clean, feed and entertain Cecilia while she is in a cast.
I'm most concerned with two things. First, sleeping. Many moms say this is the hardest part because it is difficult to keep them comfortable (understandably so). Additionally as you know Cecilia is in love with her swing, which she will not fit into with a cast on. I have renewed and doubled my efforts on that front and we are finally making significant progress. Thank Heavens! But we won't know the position of her legs in the cast until the surgery. They may be straight out, or bent up like an M shape or anywhere in between. This makes it hard to prepare for sleeping positions . We just pray the Lord will help us when the time comes. My second major concern is the number of blowouts Cecilia has on a regular basis. She poops up a storm during her morning nap and frequently the diaper can't hold it all. Regular blowouts in a cast is going to be a nightmare. It isn't like I can take out the cotton lining and wash it. I have done a lot of research on this and hope I found some good pointers for keeping the cast clean. Let's just say feminine products and Depends are used as well as double diapers. I think Heavenly Father is helping me out here too because since we started to feed her more cereal her poop has gotten thicker and says in the diaper better.

Entertainment is going to be tricky, as will taking her anywhere. The vain side me thinks about how many comments we get about how cute she is and knows these will turn into "what happened to her?" But like I said, that is the vain side of me and probably needs to be humbled anyway. Besides she will still be adorable. We bought a chair specifically designed for spica kids (that is the name of the type of cast) and hope she likes it. At least she can sit up and play in it. I recently posted about how she loves to walk now. That will be impossible and will probably frustrate her. We probably never should have done it with her. We'll try to underemphasis it now. Cecilia loves walks outside so we will just have to figure out a way to bundle her up and take lots of walks. Maybe I'll get in shape :)

Everyday we think of another aspect that will change or be more difficult. But we just remember this is what is best for our daughter and 3 months isn't that long. The long term outlook is really good if we get it taken care of. She shouldn't have any problems as she grows up and her hip should grow to be normal. Both of those facts are very encouraging and will sustain us during the hard days. I'm just so grateful we found it now before she is really walking or crawling as it would be much harder. This is the main reason we decided to move forward ASAP. So her surgery will be December 8th at Primary Children's Hospital here in SLC. If she just needs the closed surgery we can take her home same day, if they have to do the open she will come home next day. Please let us know if you know someone who has gone through this as I love to get as much advice as I can. And pray for Cecilia that the surgery will go well and she will adjust quickly to being in a cast.

Walking

We have mentioned several times how Cecilia loves to stand. Every once in a while I'll try to get her to walk. The first several times I had to physically bend her legs for her. She wasn't ready yet. So I kinda forgot about it. The other day I tried it again and she did better. I tried swinging her body back and forth to get her to take the steps. But Shaun learned the trick and now she loves to walk. Just a little bit of pressure under her armpit and it is like a string tied to her leg, she will raise it and put it forward. I caught a video of it. Amazingly enough this was the same day she rolled over. She went through a mental growth spurt or something.



She has gotten so much better in the three days since this was made. Yesterday she had a ball and every time it rolled away from her we would stand up and walk over to it and I would sit her down so she could play with it. She loved it so much that ever time I helped her stand up she would do this super cute jig, dancing with her legs like YEAH I love this! then she would start walking toward the ball. Anyway, enjoy the video!

She finally rolled over!

I have been working with Cecilia to roll over for months now. Everyone says not to compare your child to others, but sometimes it is hard. There are several babies in our ward that were born around the same time as she. They have all been rolling over for months now and one is doing an army crawl. I know that she enjoys doing different things than they do, like she sat up pretty early and she stands really well (she loves to stand). But she isn't really mobile (which is nice for a couple of reasons). Anyway recently she has been getting really close. I just have to touch her head to give her the idea and she does the rest. But Shaun says that doesn't count. So we worked and worked. She did the physical work and I did the emotional (listening to her fuss and scream about it). Last Wednesday she finally did it! We worked together on it for a while and then she did it all by herself! I called Shaun so excited! That night when he came home I tried to show him but she wouldn't do it without just that finger of reminder. He says "doesn't count." I say "she totally did it earlier!" He looks at me like MmmHum. Then Friday I had her on our bed working on it again and she totally rolled over all by herself. This time Shaun came home just in time. He even grabbed the video recorder to capture it for all of you. YEAH FOR CECILIA!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I bought Cecilia this turkey costume before I found the cute bear costume for Halloween. I meant to take it back, but of course forgot so now we have a choice of costumes for the next baby :) Shaun and I volunteered to bring the turkey for Thanksgiving to my families "party" at the church (about 50 people come, it is a party). Of course we were late (surprise, surprise) so I got to walk in with the "turkey" and say here it is! Cecilia was a good sport and smiled at everybody. It was fun. Then Shaun walked in with the real one. I took a couple of pictures in her turkey costume with pumpkins my parents grew on their farm for those of you who missed the real thing. Happy Thanksgiving!

Tongue

Cecilia recently discovered her tongue in a whole new way. She loves to stick it out and curl it up and down. I try to imitate her and I can't do some of the moves she does. She is talented. It has been difficult to get a good picture of it because she moves so quickly. This is the best I've been able to get so far. If I can manage a better shot later I'll add it.

Hair

I think the number one comment we get about Cecilia is how much hair she has "Look at all that hair!" is usually how it is said. She has so much hair in fact that I discovered I can pull it up in a ponytail. Here are a few shots of it.

Fall Produce

So as you all know Shaun and I sometimes go overboard with certain things. This year we went overboard on canning/bottling. We started with the pear sauce. It took me all day to peal, core, cook, mash, bottle, and seal 7 pint size bottles. But it is so sweet! Cecilia is going to love it. Next came the grape juice. We first did 11 from our neighbors vines, then got another 46 quart size bottles from a neighbor of my parents. I know, overboard. But as my mom says, if we don't drink it this year, it will keep to next and then we won't have to do any then. Let me also insert that Shaun loves homemade grape juice and all of its healthiness. He drank a ton in the last year. Plus Cecilia will drink some this year too. But because it stains like nothing else, it may be a sippy cup only drink :)


We also did a bunch of applesauce this year. About 15 pint size jars. See what I mean about being busy and not posting? I have already given a little bit of applesauce to Cecilia in her cereal, she won't eat it any other way. So it was well worth the many hours spent doing all of this :)

Happy Halloween!

The hardest part about this Halloween was deciding what to dress Cecilia up as. The bear won out in the end because I thought it would make her eyes really pop. It was a little big for her, but super cute nonetheless!

Cereal

We had our 6 mo checkup recently and the Doctor said we could start feeding Cecilia cereal. To be honest she didn't really like it much at first.


Ok didn't like it at all the first couple of times.


But perseverance. That and a trick I learned at church, mix a little applesauce in. Conveniently we just made a ton of applesauce and had some in the fridge. So next time went much better and I think she ate more than what she wore :)

Then and Now

So I know it has been a while since we posted, but I'll do another blog about why later. First, I've been meaning to do this one for a couple of weeks and want to get it done. The idea came from looking at some friends blogs who did the same. The baby turned 6 months in October. You don't realize how much they grow until you compare photos of them in the same thing. I was also really excited about a few outfits when she was first born and put her in them before they fit. They are now bursting at the seams, so you can really see the difference. Anyway here it goes.
Then:

and Now:
Huge difference huh?!
Ok here is another one.

Then:

And Now:

Let me just say trying to get a 6 mo old baby to put her head down in your hand is no easy feat. But you get the idea.
OK one more and then my favorite ones.

Then:


You can't tell from this picture, but her legs are about straight and her feet are barely poking out.
And now:Notice her legs are bent and the dress comes to about her knees.
OK now to the most applicable comparison.
Then:
And:


And: (I know lots of pictures in this series, remember this has always been her favorite place. If you need a refresher go back to the swing war posts)
This one is my favorite of the series because I forgot she used to raise her hand in the air when she slept, until we figured out how to swaddle her better and she didn't get her arm out. Isn't it so cute?

On to the Nows:

And:

I have to add that I had to wait for a day when she took a very long nap so I didn't feel guilty waking her up taking her picture. This day she was so out of it I got two before it woke her up. See what I mean about getting her out of this thing? Look at how far her feet poke out. To think, when we first started using it I stuffed a blanket around her head. Boy does time fly...

Fall- apples and pumpkins

I was really excited to take Cecilia to a U-pick apple farm and pick apples to make applesauce for when she can eat it. Well the farm was a little disappointing as all of the apples had terrible hail damage and the pumpkins were just in a pile on the grass. Cecilia was more interested in the leaves on the trees than the fruit and the grass than the pumpkins.
But we still had a good time with our friends the Brubakers who came with us. Maybe this weekend we can do a better photo shoot at my parents house. Need a good fall pumpkin shot to send to the grandparents.

Puerto Penasco- The Beach

The three of us took some friends down to Shaun's parents beach house in Puerto Penasco this weekend. We had a great time. Everyone said it was very relaxing and fun. I'll let Shaun post about the details of the weekend but I was really excited to post about Cecilia's first experience with the ocean.
The first day we took her out there and the waves were a little noisy well we all know how she hates noise. So it wasn't too surprising to me that she didn't like it. Here is a video of her being wimpy with her cute sunglasses on.

I tried to carry her farther into the water past the noise but she kept fussing. It was the first time (of many I'm sure) that I saw her afraid. You could totally tell she was afraid of it. She had a death grip on me and kept turning her face away from it and burying it in me. It was kinda funny.

But the next day the ocean was really calm and she liked it better. I was able to get all the way in with her and let her play in it a little. She kept doing her fish face and it reminded me of when we called her a fish when I was pregnant. Well the fish swam in the ocean this weekend! Here is another video and pictures.



The next day I took her out and let her play in the sand. I don't have a video of it but do have a bunch of pictures. She liked to run her fingers through the sand. I don't think you can see but she has a little on her face too. Maybe next time I'll let her play longer and let her eat some of the sand :)


It was so much fun to take her to the ocean and let her experience another new thing. The first of many trips I'm sure :)

The swing war-Conclusion

The sleep book says to try something new for 5 days to see if you baby will like it and handle it. Well the 5 days are up. I know they have been up for a while. I've been dreading making this post because guess who won? Cecilia. It is a little embarrassing to tell the world my 6 month old daughter won. But I just couldn't take her not napping anymore. She was tired and cranky and so was I. So on day 6 I put her in the swing. I told myself that if she didn't nap well then I would keep trying in the crib longer. But I woke her up after a 2.5 hour morning nap and Shaun got her after an almost 3 hour afternoon nap. She was so tired and so happy to be in her favorite place that I said ok fine your obviously not ready to make the switch. Hopefully she will let me know when she is and hopefully the transition will be smoother. Until then I'm happy the war is over. If anyone has any suggestions for me I'm all ears!!!

Baby C standing on the sofa

Cecilia loves to stand, I recently discovered that she like to stand on the couch and look out the window. Enjoy.

The Swing War- Day 4-update

The baby fell asleep for her afternoon nap!!! I was totally shocked and amazed. I left her in there for about 20 minutes and she talked and then fell asleep for an hour. This is the first time she has taken two naps all week. Could this possibly be the turning point? Do I dare hope?

Swiss Family Robinson

I once read that it is really good to sing to your baby. So I sing to her as we are getting ready for bed and most naps. It is part of the calming down routine. Most times I just make up a song, but I'm not very creative so they usually end up to be about the same. But the other day I was humming along and stumbled across the "Oh Christmas Tree" song that is sung in Swiss Family Robinson. I'm sure it is a typical English song, but my only association with it is the movie. That really made me want to see it again. I decided it would be a good one to add to our children's video library so I bought it. When it came in the mail I was so excited to rewatch it. What a classic. There are a few scary parts so we may save it for when our kids are older. I'm sure PETA hates it for some of the scenes as there are a lot of animals stressed, not hurt I'm sure, but stressed. But I digress. There was one part of the movie that I laughed so hard my stomach hurt and I wanted to share it with all of you. I can't figure out how to take a clip from YouTube and modify it. So you'll just have to fast forward this one to 6:33 to get to the scene I'm talking about. If anyone knows how to modify this clip let me know. Enjoy!

The Swing War- Day 4

Cecilia took over a two hour nap in her crib this morning!!!! I was so excited! I finally won a battle! Maybe this is the turning point of the war. We had one interruption where I went in and soothed her back to a drowsy state and put her down and she fell asleep. I was so surprised! Afternoon nap... not so great. But it is partially my fault because I was running errands and messed up her timing. At that point it is kinda like attacking a city that has huge walls, sometimes it will work but it takes a lot longer. At this point I think I will retreat and try again tomorrow. One more day to try to get two naps back. Tomorrow decides the outcome of the war, only two last great battles left!!! I can't wait for peace one way or the other.

The Swing War- Day 3

I had to call in reinforcements. Cecilia woke up early, and took a one hour nap in the morning. I was about to loose the war so I needed some fresh troops. If I knew history well I could make some analogy about the US coming to the rescue of France in WWII or something. But history has never been my strong suit. So Shaun took a turn for what was supposed to be the afternoon nap. Early to bed again. Two more days and then she has killed too many of my citizens (nerves) and I wave my white flag and try again when she is 2 years old :) There has to be a better way...

Why do we love food?

In the midst of Katie's battles at home with her worthy, non-sleeping opponent, I've decided to jump in with a slightly more colorful fare: some recent foods we've been more than pleased with. We've decided to start taking close up pictures of our food, which makes it way more pleasant to look at. But for now, our amateur photography skills will have to suffice.

First, we have our bowl of peeled tomatoes. My mouth starts watering just by looking at these amazing beauties. We crushed most of them up to make a modified version of this eggplant parmesan recipe.

This is the eggplant parmesan. It tasted fantastic but the picture is really lacking...

The other thing we did with our tomatoes is throw them down with some fresh mozzarella, basil and some olive oil. Dash some sea salt and cracked pepper on there and you have one of the greatest things on earth: caprese.

We had a few friends over last week for a limon-roasted chicken Mexican dinner.

Finally, we needed to document some of our favorite things to do with summer's fresh peaches. Katie likes to snack with peanut butter on toast topped with sliced peaches.

Shaun, however, prefers to go straight peaches and cream. (The crappy Quaker oatmeal packet is definitely not what I'm talking about here). I'm talking about peaches so ripe the skin peels off in one tug. I'm talking about peaches so juicy you don't even realize it's already dripping from your elbow when you finish peeling them. I'm talking about peaches so sweet the only way to make them better is to pour a little half and half (you're just asking for trouble if you start actually eating them with real cream) in a bowl and eat them a slice at a time.

The Swing War- Day 2

Where has my sweet happy baby gone who didn't cry and would put herself back to sleep when she woke up in the middle of a nap? I left her behind in the swing with her sane mom.

The Swing

Cecilia has always taken better naps in her swing. Which is why we have so many pictures and videos of her in it. It has gotten to the point where she will only sleep in it or in her car seat. We think it is something about the incline that she likes. We hardly ever have to turn it on to get her asleep. The odd thing is she will go down in her crib for bedtime no problem. I have been trying to wean her off it and get her to take a nap in her crib for a while now. She has won every battle so far. I have tried to do the morning nap in the crib, since that is the more stable one, but it didn't work, Cecilia -1, Mommy-0. Then I tried to do it if she was slightly awake after I finished nursing her, so she wouldn't wake up surprised and upset, Cecilia-2, Mommy-0. Then I tried to strap her in the bather (which is slightly inclined) and put it in her crib, Cecilia-3, Mommy-0. One day I made a concerted effort and put her in the crib and let her cry for a while. After 10 minutes I went in to soothe her, I know it doesn't sound like long, but when your baby is crying it is an eternity. I picked her up and she burped a huge one and I said that must have been the problem. But I caved and put her in the swing, not a peep. Then said, no I'm stronger than this and put her back in the crib. SCREAM!!! Caved again, put her back in the swing, quiet, head turned, and eyes closed before I could leave the room, Cecilia-4, Mommy-0. I kinda gave up after that for a while. Until this weekend. She decided she didn't want to sleep in her swing either. Every nap we had to turn it on to get her to sleep. That was the turning point. No more. I am emboldened from talking to a neighbor yesterday who had a similar problem and said she just went cold turkey, put her son in the crib and after a week he was over it. Cecilia may have won the battles, but I am going to win the war!
So how is it going today? This morning she took an hour nap in the crib, not her usual 2 to 2.5 hour nap, but pretty good I felt. But I was sure she was just strategizing for her next battle. Afternoon nap? Well let's just say blogging is helping me keep my mind off my worthy opponent who is putting forth a serious fight.

Cute as a button

Tell me this isn't the cutest baby you have ever seen? Summer is almost over, but not before I got this shot! I love the shoes! As you can tell, she loves to stand. I think she is going to be able to stand by herself before she can sit up by herself :)

Stolen Peaches Continued...

I know you have all been waiting, dying to find out what happened with the peaches in our neighbors yard. But if for some reason you have amnesia refresh your memory here, and then come back to find out the rest of the story.
A few days after my last post we saw the owner in his yard again. Shaun drove by and noticed all the peaches were gone. I ran over to be neighborly and say Hi. Ok really I went to check out the trees. They were stripped. I was so sad, but talked to him anyway. He said his friends had come and taken most of them and he had a bucket with the rest. There really weren't that many in the bucket so I told myself the trees were deceiving and didn't have as many as we thought. He said I could have the nectarines and the peaches hanging over from his neighbors yard. They weren't ripe yet (which is why they hadn't take them). I was so depressed. We waited too long. Why didn't we go over the night before after the baby went to bed. So what if we had company over. We still should have gone at 10 o'clock and picked in the dark! Shaun said at least we were beaten out this year by the owner. But it doesn't console me much.
We went over and got a bunch of nectarines later. Honestly they were really good. I'm not just saying that to sooth my soul. I made jam (turned out to be syrup even though I followed the directions). And we ate a bunch. They tasted a lot like peaches. Just as good in cereal. Once those were about done we started checking the peach tree again. The last tree, our only hope. The peaches on the top were ripe, and they were really big. But you need a ladder to get to them and we kinda had to reach over the fence. We hadn't really looked at this tree very closely before because we had our sights on the vacent lots trees. But there were a ton of peaches on it, which is why it took longer to ripen. So every few days we would go over and get a few that were ripe and wait for the rest. It was taller so we had to be more sneaky with the ladder and all. No one is out at 7 am or right at dusk. We found ways to go at those times.
Then one day after we had taken most off of the few branches that were hanging into the vacent yard, and we noticed a lot had fallen on the ground in the yard that owned the tree. It occured to us she wasn't using them and probably didn't want them. Novel idea to us which is why it took so long to come to the conclusion. We wanted the peaches in her yard. But we couldn't sneak in and get them. It is one thing to do it where nobody lives, it is another to do it where people do. We aren't that bad! So we devised a plan... bribery. We picked a bunch of things from our garden, put them in a cute box and took them over to ask her if we could have some of her peaches.


She said yes we could have all we wanted! Next day, bright and early with our ladder in our hands, empty grocery bags, and heads held high we went over and picked them all. Based on the amount on the ground we figured she had taken what she wanted. Dogs barked, we don't care. Neighbors saw, we don't care. This time we have permission! We were daring anybody to come up to us and ask what we were doing. lessons learned: always trust your instincts, and it is always better to ask, who knows what will happen.

Spoons

We recently went to dinner at my parents house. While there we handed Ceci a plastic spoon to see what she would do. She immediately stuck it in her mouth and played and played and played. She held it and hit my arm with it until it was sore. We were amazed at how long she gripped it. My mom says the grand kids always do new things when they come to visit and I'm sure this is the first of many things that she will do for the first time there. Spoons are now definitely her favorite toy. Good thing too because I got a ton of them at a baby shower so we have multi colored spoons all over the house. We usually stick her in the bumbo in the morning, hand her a spoon, and make breakfast. These are a couple of morning shots. Notice which hand is holding the spoon. I think we have a righty on our hands.

The Beast

Shaun and I have an Armenian cucumber plant in our garden this year. It grew and grew and grew, and no cucumbers. Flower after flower after flower and no cucumbers. I was getting frustrated, but if only I had known what was coming. All of the sudden one day it decided it had grown enough and wanted to grow cucumbers and watch out! I went out once and it had tons of cucs about two inches long at the tips of each of the runners. I thought wow that is going to be a lot of cucs! Next day Shaun goes out and finds all of these big cucumbers hiding. If the cucs on the ends were two inches long you can only imagine hw big the ones on the inside were. I keep wondering how they hide so well. It isn't that big of a plant and doesn't have that big of leaves. I'm convinced they grow a foot overnight. They say "hey they just came and checked me which means I have 24 hours to become A Beast. Let's do it!" Then they grow so much they stand on end by the next day and we go "Where did that come from?!" The biggest beast below measures a whopping 16 inches long. We had another bigger one that was at least 18 inches if not 20. Maybe we should just start going for the biggest cucumber ribbon at the State Fair. Anyone know what to do with Beastly cucumbers?

Island Park

We went to Island Park in Idaho over Labor Day with Shaun's parents and brother. We had a great time, despite the person sawing logs all night who shall remain anonymous but knows who he is :) Shaun's grandparents have a cabin up there and we enjoy spending some time up there every summer. This year was a new adventure with a baby that needs to sleep a lot. We were nervous because the baby can't sleep if it isn't quiet and the cabin doesn't have doors between the living space and the sleeping space upstairs. But we took a fan and told everybody, no slamming the screen door. They were all so kind to be quiet and the baby slept pretty well.

While there we took several walks between naps. This one was along Big Springs. The baby was more interested in my water bottle than the pretty scenery, but what can you do.
It was still nice to get out and she loves to be carried. Isn't she just so cute in that hat?

Cecilia had a great time with the grandparents. She loved to smile and talk to them. As you can see from this picture.
We had a great time, thanks Ritchie's for inviting us! Sorry again we didn't help clean up. But the baby took a really long nap in the car, which was really nice.

Peru

May of 2008 Shaun and I went to Peru with his family. We had a great time. Machu Picchu was incredible. Highly recommend it, the many hours of travel on planes, trains, and automobiles (buses really but that doesn't fit) are totally worth the effort.



Plus many other amazing ruins. Look at the size of these rocks the ancient people moved and shaped.


We got to feed and pet Llama's and Alpaca's.


And there was this adorable girl there singing to them.


We also saw these adorable children getting their picture taken. (It is one of my favorite pictures from the trip so I had to stick it in.)


But I digress. On our way we hit this market.

Shaun and I are suckers for local markets. Every time we travel we try to find one and it is usually a highlight of the trip. This trip we found two, one more for the tourists (this one) and one more for the locals with a million different types of corn. At this market they had a stall with little children's clothing. The cutest little outfits for boys and adorable dresses for girls. I walked by this stall more than once secretivly looking at the goodies. There was one dress that caught my eye and I couldn't leave it. Shaun and I had been trying to get pregnant for a couple of months by then, but we weren't telling anyone. I couldn't help but thinking how much fun it would be to put a Peruvian dress on our child someday and reminisce about our trip. But I was afraid of the message it would send to Shaun's family when they saw it. So I tried to sneak away from them to buy it. The package on the other hand was difficult to hide. They saw it and Chris (Shaun's mom) asked me what I purchased. I lied (sorry Chris) and told her it was for a niece. I made myslef feel better about it by convincing myself that if we never had a girl I would give it to a niece (although it was too small for any I had).
Well today is the day to dress up my little girl and reminisce about that trip. Boy am I glad I wasn't pregnant for it, would have totally ruined it. Instead I got great memories of a beautiful place and people and got to see one of the seven wonders of the world. And now I have my own wonder of the world.