Green Beans?

At our last check-up Christine's pediatrician encouraged us to start introducing solid foods to Christine. Apparently the "thicker stuff" stays down better and will help with the GERD. So we started with rice cereal. Christine was very excited for the new experience and now LOVES her daily rice cereal. Once we got used to rice cereal (and waited the appropriate amount of time to ensure she was not allergic) we pulled out the good stuff... vegetables!

When I was standing in the grocery aisle looking at the enormous selection of food available to feed "supported sitters" trying to decide which ones to start with, I remembered hearing somewhere that you should start with the gross vegetables first before introducing sweet foods like peaches. So I thought to myself, which is the worst tasting vegetable? easy! green beans!

I'm sure my family is all laughing right now, but for those of you who do not know me very well, I do not enjoy green beans. When I was a child I protested green beans at the dinner table with "I hate green beans" stickers that I created. When Jeff and I were newlyweds and combining our pantry items into our new apartment somehow all of Jeff's cans of green beans ended up being donated to the local food shelter. Poor Jeff hasn't had green beans since (nor has he had hot dogs, but that's another story).

We wanted to document her first experience with green beans:

Spoonful of green beans is approaching

the spoon enters her mouth

WOA! that's not rice cereal!

"I don't know if I like that..."

Don't worry Christine, it only gets better from here. There is nothing worse than green beans.

4 Months

We had Christine's 4-month check up at the beginning of the month. Christine weighed 13 lbs 9 oz and measured 25 inches long.

Christine has always been 50th percentile in everything (perfectly average). But now our average baby is finally breaking out of the mold. She's still 50th percentile for head circumference and weight, but she's a getting tall! She's in the 75th percentile for length.

We are doing much better. After the screaming didn't disappear after 3 months like it was supposed to, we went to the doctors and were diagnosed with GERD (gastric reflux). Christine was prescribed Prevacid, and ever since we started giving it to her she has turned into a new baby! SOOOO much less crying and screaming. She is actually HAPPY. She eats and naps much better, and her "grumpy time" has disappeared!

When we came home from to Utah after Christmas, Christine started sleeping terribly! She'd wake up 4-5 times a night! AHHHH I seriously cannot do that! So next up... sleep training! We've just barely started, we'll let you know how it goes. Let me know if you have any recommendations for how to get your baby to sleep through the night. Baby Wise was thrown out in the trash (sorry if you like that book, it didn't work for us) I've since moved on to Ferber's book (seems better for sleep training toddlers), and Mindell's (very similar to Ferber's but more appropriate for infants- in my opinion). Right now we are going to go with Mindell's approach and see how it goes.

Christmas in Utah

I was worried all December how Christine was going to do on the airplane. Trapped in one spot for 3 hours... were the people who had the unfortunate luck of being seated by us going to throw their complementary pretzels at me? Fortunately I was nervous for no reason. Christine did great and hardly cried. I had only one snide comment made by an older woman sitting in front of us on the way home. Luckily the airplane was FULL of kids so Christine wasn't the only one crying, so I wasn't too embarrassed.

On the way to Utah while waiting to board the plane, someone ran into the plane with their car (luggage car perhaps?) and dented the plane. So the mechanics had to check the plane out to make sure it wouldn't affect the aerodynamics delaying our flight by an hour.

We packed our suitcases full and so we didn't have room enough for my DSLR camera so I had to instead pack my point-and-shoot. So sorry about the crummy picture quality.

I'm sharing this picture even though it's super blurry. This is the moment when Christine met her cousins. They were so sweet and adored Christine... well, except for when Trevor's mom and dad held Christine, Trevor did NOT like that!

Doesn't Jeff look so cold? It was nice to see the pretty snow while we were in Utah, but it sure made me appreciate the warm weather in TX. It's "cold" this week, but it's in the low 60's.

If you are thinking "wow Angela needs a hair cut! she looks terrible" it's okay because I finally got my hair cut last Saturday.

Despite the cold weather, we had a great time in Utah. It was so much fun to see my family. We miss you guys!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Kingwood

This year we celebrated Christmas twice! Once in Kingwood a few days early, and again in Utah on Christmas day.

Dressed in our Christmas best

 This picture was going to be our Christmas card picture... that didn't happen! I didn't even get a "Merry Christmas" posted on our blog.

 Christine's favorite new toy, a doll from her Great Grandma

 For Christmas I got a Silhouette. Christine hasn't given me much time to play with it yet, but I am very excited  to start some new projects!

First Thanksgiving

This is Christine's Thanksgiving outfit. She looks like a little Pocahontas! Christine's first Thanksgiving was fun. We spent the day at our Aunt Joy's and Christine met her Dad's cousins. I even found enough time to make 3 pies! Although, the apple pie turned out TERRIBLE I have no idea what I did wrong, but the crust was gross. From now on I will just stick with chocolate cream and banana cream pies.

Christine's Blessing

We blessed Christine on November 7, 2010. We were so lucky that my mom flew down to visit us that week and got to be there for the blessing along with Jeff's parents who drove down to be with us too.

 My mom sewed Christine's beautiful blessing dress.

For those of you who aren't members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints let me explain what a blessing is: in our church babies are given their name and a preisthood blessing at church.  The blessing is usually given by the father if he holds the Melchezidic preisthood. The blessing is like a prayer and the child's name is put on the records of the church. We do not baptize babies, members are not baptized until they can understand the difference between good and evil at the age of 8. We believe that all children under the age of 8 are innocent and saved through the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Catching Up

We are a bit behind on the blog. We've been busy playing with Christine, celbrating Christmas, and taking a trip to Utah. But now that Jeff is starting his rotations at the hospital it's just me a Christine here at home. So hopefully I can get caught up on the happenings around here.