Teeth

Guess what we learned on Saturday? Cassidy is getting TWO teeth. Both her bottom front teeth are starting to poke up. She doesn't often show her gums, usually the tongue comes out, but she did at one point Saturday night and I noticed the little white dot on the right side. Upon further examination I noticed another one on the left side, only a little less developed. Crazy, huh? The 11 month old doesn't even have teeth yet. So I'm not all that excited about the prospect of teeth because of the past incidents of clamping down during nursing. Today there was much biting down during feeding time, so I would press on her check in an attempt to get her to loosen her grip on me. Does anyone have any suggestions for the biting and how to best deal with the emergence of teeth in a nursing baby? Any thoughts would be great.

Our Weekend in the SNOW

This past weekend we spent with the Stemmons family in the snow at our parents' cabin near Truckee. It was a very fun weekend! We were sad to leave and come back to reality.
Joe and I learned a lot about kids and relationships during the 4 days. There are 4 kids in the Stemmons family which is twice as many as either of us have in our families. There was a 5 month old, an 11 month old, a 3 year old, a 5/6 year old and a 7 year old. I babysat my 5 cousins for 8 days straight back before my mission so I had some previous experience with lots of kids for a few day but that was when I was a greenie and not a wife or mom and when I thought I knew everything, oh wait I still do, just kidding, sort of. We were all packed into a 3 bedroom "cabin." but when each family gets it's own floor I guess you can't use the term "packed". We had a few meltdowns (kid and adult) but for the most part everyone got along great. Even Cassidy did really well. The other time we took her up there was not the greatest experience. You can read about it in the October post. This time she slept like a dream and didn't need to be held all night long. Oh thank goodness we figured out that a nice fuzzy blanket under her head she can nuzzle helps her to fall asleep quick. Can I say how grateful I was to be up there with people who know and understand about naps and sleep schedules and don't pressure you to go do stuff when you know that it's nap time.

There was rain the first full day and then snow the second day. The kids had seen snow on the ground before but this was their first time seeing the snow fall from the sky. So to say they enjoyed it is an understatement. Joe and Danny (Stemmons) built a super sled run for the kids. It ran through the whole front yard and almost into the neighbors' yard. I loved watching the kids go down the run but the 3 year old was the cutest. She was perfectly balanced on the dish and had the biggest smile on her face as she went down the hill and when she went up the little bump she caught the most air. The little pompom on her hat would hang in the air just a little longer and I can't describe it adequately. I wish I had that on tape but of course my batteries died. Here are some photos of the kids mostly. It's all for the kids, right?

there are no accidents

Joe and I watched KunFu Panda the other night, so cute. There are no accidents is a line from the movie. I had a great little experience yesterday that I wanted to share just because it made me think about all the little things that some take as accidents or coincidences that really aren't.
So yesterday I had a HUGE desire to make a bread recipe I had been thinking about doing for weeks now, Glazed Lemon Poppyseed Bread. I even bought poppyseeds to make it, something I have never done before. Well I decided to just have the bread machine make the dough and then I'd split it up into small loaves, bake them in my oven, glaze them, then take one over to a lady in our ward who had a baby on Sunday morning, her fifth but first girl. So I did. Can I tell you how good it turned out? I HAD to taste one loaf before I could give the others away. Oh my oh my. The bread wasn't super lemony or sweet but with the glaze it was tart yet sweet enough and so good. I wrapped up two of the loaves and headed off the her house.
I hoped that she would be there just so that I could say hi. When I got there, she answered the door holding her new little Sarah. She invited me in and let me hold her little girl. She handed her to me and I felt like she had put an empty blanket in my arms. Her little girl was 5lbs7oz at birth and had weighed in at 5lbs even at her color check the day before. Then she told me that earlier in the day she had gone to Costco with her husband. As she was walking around she saw Lemon Cakes. She was sorely tempted to get one because she really likes Lemon cake but didn't really want to get a whole one because she's the only one in her family that really likes them. So she didn't get one. Then I show up with Lemon Poppy seed Bread. Who'd have known? I felt good that I could do something for her that was something that she'd like without even knowing. Little promptings to take actions don't have the have any real long lasting impact, sometimes they are just because it'll make someone happy even for only a short time. Plus I got to hold Sarah. My reward for doing something nice. Lemony warm fuzzies for me today. :)

humm

Unfortunately I can't say I didn't expect this. Just to make it clear, my position is to fight for those voices who are NEVER heard, the babies. Read the article that was written in the Ensign, so good. Then in this month's magazine is an article on adoption from the points of view of birth parents, birth grandparents and an adult who was adopted. Made me cry, espeically because I was adopted and had a birth mother who fought the birth father's parents so that she could give me to a family she knew could give me what she wanted most for me. Adoption is so much about love for a child as opposed to love of self. I know that it is not the right answer every time, but when it is the right answer, it shows great love and courage.

FOOD!!!!

So Miss Cassidy got her first taste of rice cereal last week. She did surprisingly well. She made the cutest faces, like she'd eaten something sour, but swallowed it down, no gagging or choking or spitting out. I had mixed in the liquid vitamins with it the first couple of times, I think that accounted for the faces. The vitamins smell yucky, I can only imagine how it tastes. Today I just used water. She made the faces a couple of times than started grabbing my arm to pull the spoon into her mouth. SO CUTE!! She even got upset when she was all done with the little cup of cereal. I'll post a photo tomorrow.
She also started doing raspberries yesterday. Oh my goodness, is it adorable. It almost seems like she moves the saliva to her lips just to make more noise. Our little doll is so much fun!

Crazy

Wow. The holidays are over. Can I say that I am glad? I am. Having two weeks of messed up schedules really put us back in terms of Cassidy’s sleeping, and ours as well. But to be fair, Christmas was wonderful with our little family. We partied with my dad’s family Christmas Eve and then spent Christmas morning and afternoon with “the parents” (Joe’s parents) and my dad. The siblings were not able to come down so we, well Cassidy, had the spotlight. We then spent the evening with some friends, playing a little Guitar Hero and Settlers. It was a nice. I don’t remember ever spending any part of Christmas with friends. NYE was uneventful and that was nice.
I was on my way to the store today to buy her some long sleeve onesies since it’s so cold and she just out grew her 3-6 month ones. About two blocks from the house I thought, “We have 3 boxes of 6-9 and 6-12 month cloths in the closet, I wonder if there are any in there. I should check before I go buy some.” You see, as the last of our family to have kids we have been the recipient of a TON of clothes. Cassidy has more clothes than I know what to do with. I have given some away because, come on, she doesn’t go through them that fast. But anyway, I go back home and get into the boxes. Holy smokes!!! About a dozen long sleeve onesies, plus short sleeve onesies, pants, pajamas, sweaters, dresses, and shirts. All I can say is, THANK YOU for all the clothes. We don’t want for anything, that’s for sure. I can’t wait to dress her up in all the clothes. I can’t wait till it’s warm enough to wear them without having to bundle up over the top.
Cassidy has had an eventful week, developmentally speaking. She started transferring objects from one hand to the other. The last week or so she has been very interested in what we are doing when we eat. She started to reach out for our cups and silverware. So I thought I would see if she would feed herself. I gave her her bottle and she held it really well, so today we gave her a cup. I put in about an ounce of water and gave it to her. Most went down her clothes but she held it and brought it to her mouth all by herself. Tonight she was trying to attack Joe’s pizza while he was eating so to keep Joe from giving her a bite of that, I handed her a quarter of a graham cracker. She LOVED it. She gummed it up, got it all over her face, cried when Joe took it away until he gave it back, and thoroughly enjoyed it. And she did it all by herself. I think it’s time for cereal on a daily basis.