Christie And Her Thumb-Sucking Brother

Watching Barney.

First avocado.

First Foods

You could say a lot has happened since I last blogged.  Christina is no longer on a liquid only diet, though milk will be her primary source of nutrition for many more months.  Let me take you through her exciting journey of the last few weeks: 

Brown Rice Cereal - April 20
She does not love cereal, which surprises me. Dominic loved it from day one.  We have done it almost daily since April 20, but still make tiny servings because she rarely finishes and just isn't very interested.  I think we need to try oatmeal instead of brown rice.  I think it may taste a lot better.



Sweet Potatoes - May 5
I was very pleased that she seemed to love sweet potatoes the first time she had them.  (The cereal experience had me worried that she would resist solids).  She grabbed the spoon a lot and always opened her mouth when offered a bite.  She finished two blobs of them  - we are very scientific around here.  They tell you to give babies the same food for about a week when first introduced, so you can identify the source of any allergic reactions.  So she had sweet potatoes daily for awhile, and her excitement for them seemed to diminish a bit with each serving.

Look how bored she looks. No doubt she assumes it's more brown rice.

She was grabbing the spoon before the first bite. I wonder if she could smell or see that it was something new.

Butternut Squash - May 11
Finally it was time to try something new so I made butternut squash.  The orange veggies are just so easy to make and they puree well.  I think we'll be buying baby food jars for the green veggies.  I learned my lesson with Dominic when I made my own pea puree.  I slowly strained the skins out and had very little to show for my work when all was said and done. 

So anyway, she did ok with the squash today. She definitely showed less enthusiasm compared to day one of sweet potato.

Squash mustache.

I don't know how to explain what this reminds me of.

In other news, I thought I'd give you a two year update on Gardenias.  They are blooming more than I've seen in the almost-six years in this house.  As a wise woman once said, "Eat your heart out, HOA!"

Our weather has been amazing. I wish it could stay like this all summer.

I also wanted to show you a picture of Dominic being potty trained last weekend. We didn't make a whole lot of progress.  We only trained a few hours each on Sat and Sun.

Church-Going Man

I recently took Dominic to church for the first time.  I never took him in the past because I didn't want to drop him off at the nursery where he didn't know anyone, and I didn't think he could make it through the service.  Finally, I decided he's old enough that we should give the service a try.  The worst thing likely to happen would be that we'd have to leave before it was over.  I can think of a lot of worse things that might happen (puking on the person in front of us, knocking down old ladies, shouting "Where's baby Jesus?" at the top of his lungs, etc), but luckily none of them did.

Dominic seemed kind of excited when I told him we were going to church that morning.  I told him it is a building with a lot of people, and there's singing and a lot of listening.  He asked if there were any trains, and I said no, but there are cars in the parking lot.  I think he was happy to have an outing with his Mama.

He did a really good job and we made it through the whole service.  He played with the folding chairs a little bit, looked around, flipped through a few books I brought for him.  I know he was listening too.  At one point the pastor was making a point about the importance of church relationships, and said something like "Church is not a building. Church is people."  Dominic immediately said, "Church is a building!"  Our neighbors did not hear, but it cracked me up.

About 30 minutes in, Dominic climbed into my lap and sat still sucking his thumb for a long time.  Before I knew it, with a slip slip slip, he was asleep sleep sleep, just like that.

After the service, he was quite happy to enjoy a cup of lemonade before we headed home.

I thought the lemonade would have him eager to go back.  That night before bed, however, he suddenly stated, "I don't want to go to church in the morning.  That man talks A LOT."

She Makes This Too Easy

Bluebonnets!!

The bluebonnets this year were not as abundant as last year when we had a crazy amount of rain right before their arrival.  We did get a little rain about a week ago, and I think it helped them look pretty lush and green.  I just had to try a little harder to find a big patch.  Thanks to google, we ended up going to Brushy Creek Lake Park.  I think it's really nice to have the lake as a backdrop.

Here are a couple of native Texans surrounded by their state flower:

I am pretty happy with the pictures this year and cannot choose a favorite.  Can you?  Poor Christie is probably at her baldest right now and her cradle cap (dandruff-y scalp) is here in full force.  Dominic had equally bad cradle cap his first year.  I hope this doesn't mean she will suffer from the allergy and eczema thing too.