Grateful for Carrots!

I've been a little frustrated lately with my attempts at feeding Penny. I've tried a lot of things, turned to doctors and books for advice, and still been only mildly successful at getting this little girl to eat. I get frustrated, but it's hard because Penny is even more clueless than I am about what she wants.

If I caught her at exactly the right moment (where she's hungry but happy enough to eat... it's a fine line), I could sometimes get her to eat a bite or two of something. Sometimes she'd feed herself, and about two bites' worth would make it into her mouth. I've been "feeding" her "solids" like this for almost two months, and nothing has really worked.

Until today's carrots!

I'm very grateful for carrots! She gobbles them up! Now maybe she'll not be so hungry all the time (she is a big girl, after all).

My NERDINESS!!!

Hello blog folks, I am joining the ranks of OFFICIAL NERD.

• I watch Star Trek. In fact, I own the whole Next Generation on DVD. I just watched the new Star Trek movie and LOVED it. However, I have never dressed up as any character from any of the Star Treks, and so this did not make me a complete nerd.
• I have no fashion sense. It wasn't until high school that I started using conditioner on my hair, and I didn't blowdry my hair until the end of high school. I wore tapered jeans up through my first year of college. I even wore sweatpants to a Girls' Night Out this week. But the fact that I'm even aware that this is a problem shows that I'm no true nerd.
• I put bullets on this list. But bullets are cool, and at least this is not a top ten list. That would be nerdy.
• I love watching that Youtube video, White and Nerdy. I think it's even funnier in the version done with Legos. But that part's true.
• I learned Chinese in college by holing up in my dorm and studying for hours on end. I didn't have any friends that semester, and I got really awesome grades. But the next semester I made friends and got worse grades. Therefore, a recovered dork.
• And speaking of recovered dorks, Kevin used to play Dungeons and Dragons. I used to have a few Magic cards. We both absolutely love to read. Penny has no hope.
• I sew. I crochet. I make people gifts and give them even if they didn't turn out great (Sorry, John and Elisa). I hem and mend my own clothes. I even make elastic-band skirts for myself (see the second bulleted point). But I don't insist on decorating my entire house with crafty things I've sewn that didn't turn out quite right. So there's still hope for me there. (Ouch! Ha ha ha!)

In fact, I am actually kind of cool. I never took Calculus. I've never ridden a Segway. I don't even know how those things stay up. Penny wears cute hair bows that I pick out for her. I shower every day and smell quite sweet.

But today's final addition to the list is hopelessly, shamefully nerdy. There is no retreat from this venture into the realms of geekhood.

You'll notice my new blog layout and how it has 3 columns.

It took me a while to do, and don't ask me how I figured it out. It took me like 3 tries over the course of 2 days.

• I edited the HTML on my blog.

(Hides face in shame)

Pantaloons

I have three pairs of jeans that fit me now. Two of them I had from before pregnancy, and one I got since. All three are ripped. I have no problem mending ripped jeans, but still, mended jeans are pretty grubby. So I needed some new pants.

I went to the Gap yesterday (after trying on tons of pants at cheaper places to no avail) and found some that fit me. Yay! They were on sale, too.... for $43.

Now, I have trouble justifying spending that much on a pair of pants. These were especially hard to justify, since they were super long and I'd need to hem them. Why should I pay that much for a pair of pants that needed alterations?

The pants on the regular rack ranged from $60-65, and so I eventually talked myself into buying the "sale" jeans.

When they rang up, the cashier told me they were even further discounted, and they wound up being only $27!

Oh happy day!

I'm not allowed to write about Penny having good sleeping nights ever again. Kevin said if I did, he'd pinch me.

Yeah, she is still having ups and downs. ;)

Sleeping update

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts on sleeping. I am so glad to hear that people have done quite a wide variety of things with their kids, and it helped to hear what worked and what didn't.

Basically, what spurred this discussion was a particularly horrible night last Saturday. Penny woke up every 1.5-2 hours to eat. I'd nurse her and put her back to bed, but then she'd just wake up to spit up everything I'd just fed her. And then she'd be hungry again, I guess. Repeat this cycle several times through the night, and then picture us arriving at church. Not a pretty sight. ;)

I realized something needed to change.

For a couple nights I picked her up and got her to go back to sleep without nursing for a few of her nighttime wakings.

For a few nights, whenever she'd wake up, Kevin would give her a pacifier and wait with her until she went back to sleep. On those nights, I slept upstairs where I couldn't hear her and enjoyed night after night of uninterrupted sleep. It was like manna from heaven.

We started noticing that while she had no problem sleeping without waking to nurse (and you can tell by looking she has the capacity to go a while without nursing), she still woke up every 2 hours just by habit. And so did we.

So we decided to just bite the bullet and let her cry. Not even giving her a pacifier.

After the first night, Kevin brought her to me and told me she'd woken up 3 times and to guess how long she'd cried every time. I gritted my teeth and guessed, "2 hours?" Nope! She'd cried 5-10 minutes each time and then gone to sleep. Woo hoo!!

Last night I stayed with her, and she woke up once at 3 AM, when she cried for about 5 minutes and went back to sleep.

It's working!

Thank you, everyone, for your helpful comments. You can see that we didn't do EXACTLY what someone else had done, but rather took helpful bits from everyone and made them our own. Which is EXACTLY what many of you said. :)

Keep things interesting

Our house growing up had a lot of quilts made by my grandma. A lot of them were heavy-duty utilitarian wool quilts. If we needed to line the bottom of our tent camping, we lined it with one of those. If we needed to cover something in the back of the truck, it was usually covered with one of those. The wool quilts kind of look like the one above. They were made out of cut-up old wool clothing: slacks, skirts, jackets, you name it.

Grandma also makes a lot of beautiful quilts. My parents have a "Grandmother's flower garden" quilt that they used to always have on their bed. When we were little and would go hop on my parents' bed on Saturday mornings, I remember looking at the quilt and finding my favorite fabric patterns. There was one with a kitten on it, and that was usually it. I think there's another flower that's made out of fabric that my dad also has a shirt made from. It's a good quilt.

But one thing that always bothered me about these quilts and others is that there was always a flaw in the pattern. Most of the flowers were bordered in white, but one or two of them were bordered in off-white. Or maybe the heavy-duty wool one would have a diagonal stripe of blue blocks, but then one of them would be green.

It really bothered me.

But that's the beauty of scrap quilts: you use what you have. I guess back in the day, people made quilts in order to use up what they had leftover from making clothes and other items. And sometimes you had enough scraps of one color to make a pattern, but other times you didn't. So you improvised.

It still sort of bothers the obsessive-compulsive side of me (the side that uses hyphens and corrects spelling).

But I'm making a scrap quilt. For most of the blocks, I have enough scraps of one color to complete the pattern. But for some I don't. And the fabric is just too cute to leave out, and so I improvise. Maybe I have a gold pattern for 3/4 of what I need. So I just fill in with some yellow for the last 1/4. I try to make it hard to notice, but when you look carefully, it shows.

I hope someday someone will hop onto my bed (or look at their baby quilt-- I'm not THAT ambitious) and try to decide which is their favorite star. They'll look at the designs and notice that, hey, that corner isn't the same as the rest. Hey, that white background has flowers on it. What's going on?

It's good to keep things interesting.

Moving into town

From age 3 to 18 I lived in the same little town where I comfortably knew just about everyone (it seems), but I've done a lot of moving since then. It's taken some practice, but I've gotten fairly good at meeting new people. Most of the time when I move to a new place (whether it's a new ward or just a new class at school), I talk to the people around me and learn a few names that way. I volunteer for things and attend book clubs even when I haven't read the book. I pretend I'm comfortable, and then people are more comfortable talking to me. It usually works pretty well.

I've found that in most areas, people are eager to get to know you back. Many times the people you're trying to meet are new themselves. In this case, they're wanting to meet people the same way you are. Often the people are long-timers, and since you're new, you stand out to them and they harbor some curiosity. Where are you from? What brings you here? That sort of thing.

Moving in to my in-laws' ward, though, is a unique experience. Kevin grew up in this ward, and so a lot of people have known him since he was a child. So when they (well, many of them) talk to us, they don't bother introducing themselves, because they know Kevin, and I'm Kevin's wife. Another category is the group that knows Kevin's parents. This is almost everyone else in the ward. They already know who I belong with, and so I'm not a newbie or a stranger. After all, they came to my wedding reception, and they've seen me several times when I've come to visit over the last four years. Um, I wish I could return the favor and remember them, but I just simply don't. It's a weird situation.

Don't get me wrong, I don't feel snubbed or unwelcome. In fact, I feel very welcome, because everyone is very friendly and often comes to talk to me. Plus, I have a cute baby, so people want to talk to her all the time too! I'm just having to rethink my strategy of learning people's names.

I'm also realizing that I've done the same thing to people in the past. A lot of people I grew up with are returning to live in White Rock, and I know that many of them I've only ever met as So-and-so's wife, or One of the So-and-sos.

In the future, I'm going to make a more concerted effort to meet people as individuals, even if I already know them as a family. And for now, I'm going to do better at introducing myself and ALWAYS ask other people's names.

Happy half-birthday!

Penny turns 6 months old today! She's pretty wonderful and amazing, so please indulge me while I explain.

Penny can sit up by herself. She's actually been able to do this for a while. It's awesome to be able to set her down to play with toys. She used to get really frustrated with only being able to lie on her back, and then I'd have to constantly help her play. But now she can sit and reach for her toys, and it makes her so happy. I've started to let her sit up in the tub during baths, and she loves how much it lets her splash.

Once we arrived here in Washington, she learned a couple new tricks right away. When she wants to be picked up, she'll hold out both her arms for me. I love that she's able to communicate that with us. Her other trick is that when we set her on the wood floor with bare feet, she ootches herself around the kitchen. I was surprised one time when I set her down in the middle of the floor in a pile of toys, did some cooking for a couple minutes, then looked back to see her hugging the table leg and looking up at me gleefully. She's very proud of herself for her accomplishments.

Her favorite sounds to make, besides her growling which you can see in the video, include saying, "Ttthhhhh." It sounds like saying tooth or teeth, but without the vowel. She used to blow raspberries, but now she only likes to say, "Ttthhhhh." I can tell she likes the feeling in her mouth. Or maybe she just wishes she had teeth.

Occasionally when we sing, Penny will sing along. I love hearing the sounds she makes, giving me a glimpse of what her voice will be like.

She's started to smack things with her hands. It's really cute, right up until she smacks you upside the head right by your eye, giving you a flash of light in the otherwise darkened stairway. She smacks things, and then she doesn't yet know that she can run her hand along them, so she just reaches up and smacks them in another part. She's starting to use her fingers more, too.

It's amazing to watch her learn these tiny skills every day. Watching her learn these, I'm amazed at the complexity of our capabilities as humans. When we feel uncoordinated or unskilled, it's because we take for granted the abilities that we've all mastered as babies and children. All of us are adept, adroit, and agile, having the ability to move, balance, grasp, and even walk. It reminds me of just what an amazing gift God gave us when He gave us bodies.

Sleeping

Sleep, how I miss you.

I'd like some advice. (I can hear some of you gasping in excitement already: Here is someone actually asking!!!)

Penny is 6 months old. She does not sleep through the night. She does not even sleep for extended periods of time. In fact, she likes to wake up every 2-3 hours. Her longest she's ever gone at night is sleeping for 5-6 hours. I'd be happy if that were her regular pattern, but she only does this maybe once every week or two. Her general pattern is waking up every couple hours.

I don't like it. I can't keep doing this indefinitely.

Have any of you had to overcome this? I'm not asking if your kids just magically started sleeping. (Although if they did, wanna swap?) I'm wondering if any of you had this problem and then did something to change it.

I've read advice that ranges the whole spectrum: pick them up when they cry and then comfort and put them back-- ranging all the way to just let them cry for a while.

Penny does go back to sleep pretty easily. I generally pick her up when she cries, nurse her into oblivion, and then put her back in bed. I've tried letting her cry, but after 5-10 minutes, its usually pretty apparent if she's going to go back to sleep or not, and in her case, at night, she is not.

So let's hear it, folks. What has helped you? Which methods do you believe in? What did your parents do? Do you believe them?

And watch for a following post about eating... but for now: sleeping through the night-- or at least for 5 hours at a time-- how does it happen?

Cats

I guess I forgot to update on the cat quandary.

On Christmas morning, Kevin told me that for Christmas he'd talk to his mom for a long time and come to a temporary solution: the cats could live in the downstairs garage while she was out of town until February.

I was overjoyed!

But that still left us the problem of what to do with them after February. Also, I knew they would hate it in the windowless garage and spend most of their days and nights meowing to come inside or to go outside. They wouldn't be terribly happy, but at least it was a step in the right direction.

Then Kevin's brother's wife's mom, Kim Marks, stepped in and offered to let them live at their house until we have a place of our own that could allow cats.

I was torn. I love my kitties, and I want to have them with me. But I also want them to be happy, which they wouldn't be in the garage. And then I'm still not sure what we'd do with them after February. So I decided to send the kitties to live with the Markses. There would be just the one transition for them, and once they got settled, they would be happier than cooped up here in the garage and the rain.

They're still transitioning, and we'll see if this is a solution for them. But I hope it works out.

I really miss them already. I was unpacking some boxes and tossed some string into a basket. It was sad to see it just fall into the basket and sit there. Howie would not have let that happen.

I folded some sheets, and it was remarkably easy, since no one decided to sit IN them as I tried to fold. But I miss the challenge.

I took out a baby quilt and noticed all the fuzzy white cat hair all over it. Well, I guess I don't miss everything.

Upheavals

The snow globe that is my life has had a few good shakes lately. I'm hoping it will settle.

And while it does, please enjoy the following pictures. :)

Penny flew on a plane for the first time.

See, she even got her own boarding pass!

Three days before Christmas, my little brother Daniel had his wisdom teeth out. Penny was overjoyed at having someone whose cheeks matched hers.

Daniel was overjoyed as well.

The morning before my grandpa's funeral, Penny rolled over for the first time. (Yes, she's almost six month old. And yes, she's a late roller.) She has yet to repeat this trick.I caught this picture the moment just after her roll had landed.

And we moved from here:To here:
Yes, this is the view from our porch. Today was a beautifully cloudy day (as opposed to dreary, drippy, and dismal), and this is what the sunset became.

Oh, and on the way here, this happened to my car:

It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Thank goodness for insurance!