breaking out the recipe books

Before I left Missouri, one of the moms from our local group mentioned to me that down here in Texas is a grocery store called "Central Market." She said it's like Whole Foods except bigger and better. (I'd never been to a Whole Foods either). So today was hubby's day off, and we went to check out this store. Mostly to look at the prices, since it's hard to find the right balance of easy to prepare food, healthy food, and economical food. I wasn't disappointed with the prices.

WOW oh WOW was I impressed with the store though. Every corner I turned, I was amazed. I don't know if any of you know what an asian pear is, but usually I see them the size of peaches. The ones here were the size of grapefruits. And in the produce section, there were so many things that just aren't in your typical grocery store. Everything was beautiful and undamaged and fresh. The other departments in the store impressed me just as much.

Now, though, I feel like I need to go through my recipe books again and make better plans of what to eat. More vegetables, better snacks, etc. For a while I've been heavy on the "easy to prepare" leg of the food stool, with "economical" a close second. It's really time to make a change. Now all I need is time. Anyone have any they can spare? :)

a sideways falling crawl

I was videoing Lydia, and she was motivated to come towards me and try to get the camera. (Otherwise I don't think she would have had any forward motion at all. :P) But she did it weird... I'd describe it in words, but here, just watch the video instead. :)

yummy solid foods

I'm now giving Lydia 2 meals of solids each day. Little meals, though, so she still gets most of her nutrition from me. In the morning I give her a little fruit and cereal, and in the afternoon I give her some meat and veggies. She loves it so far. I also give her a puff every now and then, too. She's so funny with these, because she'll investigate it, then carefully use her cute little pincer grasp to get a hold of it. But when she tries to put it in her mouth, it takes her a couple of tries before she figures out how to let it go. Then she eats it. :) I only give her one at a time for now because if there's more than one available, she'll get overwhelmed and lose interest in it all together.

I haven't heard anything back yet about getting back into transcription, but Monday is a slow day, so hopefully I'll hear something tomorrow. If I don't get back into this, then hopefully I'll be able to get on with another company, now that I have some transcription experience. I also still need to dye up my diapers that are all tied and ready, and try to get those up for sale soon. I'm all unpacked so I really don't have any excuse for delay.

sleep, baby, sleep

There's nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby, so I thought it would be fun to do a sleeping-baby slideshow, starting from when she was tiny up to now. Hope you like it. :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

babbling moving baby

First off, WOOHOOO my home internet is finally back up. It arrived on Tuesday. So glad I don't have to traipse out to the library anymore. :)

I had a nice visit with my family, even though it was a little hectic. Both my sisters work, so my mom watches all 3 of my nephews, and they're all 3 and under. It wouldn't be so bad, but the 3.5 yr old and the 13-month old are... "lively" shall we say. I honestly don't know how my mom does it, or how much longer she'll be able to do it. The situation is wearing on her emotionally and physically. Lydia was of course a hit. Her cousins interacted a little more with her on this visit than last time, now that she'll interact back a little.

While I was out of town we went to my mom's parents for a couple of days too. Mom asked me if there was anything in Granny's kitchen that I wanted, and mentioned that my sister was taking the green glasses. I thought about it for a moment, then made my decision. I told Mom that I wanted her wheat grinder if she still had it. She did. :) I was excited. Grandpa even gave me a big container of wheat too (straight off of his farm). I need to fashion some sort of filter for it though b/c the filter is missing, but the instruction book still exists. :) I can hardly wait to try it out, but first I need to get settled after being gone for so long.

Here's a new video of Lydia. I took this a few days after she learned how to babble. Of course for the video she only says "Ba. . . . . . ba" instead of "babababababa", but oh well.



Poor thing has been sick off and on this week, with a stomach bug. She had it on Tuesday and then I thought she was better and then today she got sick again, so I don't know what's going on. I did take her to the dr today just to make sure it wasn't anything more serious. He gave me a bottle of pedialyte and had me feed an ounce to her to "see if she'd keep it down." Well she did, but when she gets sick it's way after she eats, not right after. Anyway she is acting like her normal self, and the dr said that she looks nice and hydrated, so that's good. I just hope she kicks this thing soon.

still at the library, and going out of town

Well, I guess my DSL isn't going to be hooked up today after all. Hubby and I were out and about today since it was his day off, and I thought that I would come home to either a missing dial tone (indicating that my line was in the process of "being prepared" for DSL), or a dial tone that was already returned and a working DSL line. Well, the dial tone was working so I optimistically plugged in my DSL line and.... nothing. I'm so bummed. I have SO many pictures that I've taken in the past few weeks, and a few videos, and I have no means to share them. :( Part of the pictures and videos are updates on Lydia's newest "things" and I want to wait and share them when I have a visual aid to go with the stories.

And on Monday morning, early, I'm going out of town for 10 days and won't have internet then, either. But at least I can look forward to coming back home and SURELY it will be hooked up by then. :P And at least today I was able to leave the house while she was napping since her daddy was at home.

Guess I'll write when I get back. I'll be visiting my side of the family. Last time they saw Lydia, she was 3 months old and not doing a whole lot. I think they will be surprised how much she's grown. Not in size, but in abilities. I can hardly wait. :)

internet coming this weekend... maybe

So the other day I got a message on my answering machine, saying that on Friday, August 10th, my dial tone would be temporarily disconnected while they prepare my line for my new high-speed internet service, and that my dial tone would be restored by 6:00 pm. The message didn't say I'd have internet at that time, but since I already have the modem, I'm definitely going to try it out as soon as the dial tone comes back. Fingers crossed. Not that I don't like the library, but with Lydia it's such a hassle to try and come up every few days, and then hope that she doesn't cry too much or talk to much or otherwise disturb the other library people. It's just too bad that my home internet isn't coming in time for me to do any transcription at all, since on Monday I'm driving up to Amarillo and will be there for about 9-10 days.

Lydia and I are finally getting over our cold that we had all weekend while hubby's family was in town. They were so helpful though, putting dishes and food away for me and trying hard to let me get the rest I needed so I could heal up. But even with all the help, it was amazing what a difference a day by myself made w/ regard to healing, etc. By yesterday evening, I felt SO much better. I still had a ways to go, though. But Sunday I was so sick that I stayed home from church that morning. I'm definitely glad to be feeling better, and not going through a box of kleenex a day anymore.

well-baby visit turns sick-baby visit

Wednesday Lydia had her 6-month well baby visit (even though she'll be 8 months on Sunday... we're slowly catching up from being behind though). Sunday and Monday she had a fever, but Tuesday it had gone down again. She wasn't really having any other symptoms and we had already scheduled her well-visit before she got her fever, so I wasn't overly concerned. Then Wednesday she woke up with a cold, which she later gave to me. So nice of her to share. lol. And at our appointment we found out that she also has a little ear infection too. Poor baby really looked miserable on Thursday. I took some pictures but will have to share them later, since I STILL don't have home internet yet.

Anyway, I LOVE her new dr. Once again, I got lucky by just picking a random one off of the insurance list. (The other time was when I got a natural-birth-supportive dr for my prenatal appointments back in Missouri.) At only 13 lbs and 13 oz at 8 months, Lydia has "fallen off" the growth charts now. But her doctor made the comment that "these charts were made in the '60s based on a bunch of Caucasian formula-fed babies" and that she's not worried that Lydia's no longer on it. She also told me that it's totally fine that she hasn't had any solids yet and that if I wanted to exclusively breastfeed until she's 12 months then that was fine (but she did give me a vitamin perscription to give her to help her iron). I was so surprised, since the medical community as a whole generally has the reputation of not being quite so supportive of breastfeeding.

I finished unpacking yesterday, just in time for hubby's sister and her family to come into town today for a few days. I'm excited for their visit. I haven't even met my brother-in-law yet since they've been overseas since before I met hubby. And none of them have met their niece/cousin yet either. There's only one other girl grandbaby on that side of the family and my sister-in-law is so excited to have a niece.