Everyone Needs a Vacation

Hamming it up for her Great-grandparents

Puppies!

Peek-a-boo with Aaron and Elise

Tulips!

Look, friends!

Making eyes at Grandpa and Leetsy-Boy

Stewart Falls hike

Four-generation photo

Fun with Grandpa

Little James was all over that tractor

Kora had a birthday!
Check out the beast of burden at the airport!!

Squeak was pretty excited about the younger (but bigger) baby

HypnoBirthing Mommas!

Auntie Maggie with La Squeak

Yes, we all need a vacation from something. In my case, I needed a respite from loneliness. So at the end of April, I went to see family in Utah, where it was unseasonably warm. It got cold again after I left (good thing, since I had only packed a fleece). It was lovely--I spent time with D's family and my family and even some friends. The reminder that I do, indeed, have friends was splendid. Squeak really enjoyed bonding with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. I really enjoyed the adult companionship and teaching my first HypnoBirthing class.

Great News!

There she is, expending energy like she always does

Squeak eating her favorite thing--cheese!
(I mean, her favorite thing besides breastmilk)

Squeak hoping for a bird lunch

Failure to Thrive. "That's a funny way to put it, isn't it?" was what D said when we looked at what the doc had written about Squeak after her check-up at 10 months. She weighed 15 pounds. Now, that may not sound so bad unless you know that she weighed 8'12" at birth and 16 pounds at 4 months. Needless to say, I was a bit stressed because I had been working pretty hard to get her to gain weight since two months before when she was tall but on the thin side. So two months of effort and the result was failure to thrive. I decided to really dedicate myself to Squeak's new diet, so D looked up all the high-calorie foods appropriate for babies, and the low-calorie foods so I'd know what to avoid, and we put her on a strict weight-gaining diet. Lots of avocados, cheese, yams, bananas, and full fat cottage cheese and yogurt. No more peas, carrots, green beans, or squash (unless they were served as a small side dish). I started feeding her six times a day, three meals of solids and three of breast milk (breast milk is one of the best on the high-calorie list). And we prayed that she'd start sleeping more hours so she'd spend less time awake expending all that energy. Our prayers were answered. The doc ordered some tests (urinalysis, cystic fibrosis) which came out negative. We think she's just so busy-body that she burns everything she eats. I mean, I'm almost failing to thrive trying to keep up with her! Anyway, so I've been weighing her about once a week to see if I'm working hard enough. Well, she broke 18 pounds!! She actually weighed 18.4 pounds yesterday. My goal is to get her to 20 pounds by her first birthday on the 22nd. We'll see! I'm just thrilled to report her weight because it's what I spend most of my time on.

Makes me feel a little bit better about not bringing home the bacon anymore

Here's a cute little article about what a mom is worth. D's comment was, "I really couldn't pay you enough for what you do." Awwww... My favorite job description is "laundry machine operator." But they forgot about wet nurse! I think that's worth at least $25K more per year, since I spent around 8 hours per day doing it in the early months.