Government Mandate

I did it. I got the government mandated mother haircut.

My newest haircut really has nothing to do with motherhood. I was just ready for a change. This happens at least every couple of years and sometimes more. And each time I get it cut short, I end up deciding I want to grow it long almost immediately. We'll see what happens this time around.

You can't really see much from these photos (why is our house always so dark in photos?). Today was my first day to fix it which was really fast. I can't complain about that!

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Not as much as Max. At least, I think Max would give him a run for his money.




Do you remember this wood pile? This has been Max's new pile of adventure. When Max got out of our yard by chewing through the fence, the vet suggested dousing it with a solution of water and cayenne pepper. He said most dogs will stop chewing because they don't like the cayenne. Max is not one of those dogs. It doesn't seem to bother him at all.

Max got a new toy for his birthday. It was 10 minutes before it turned from a fun toy to a pile of stuffing and string. 10 minutes!! Crazy dog.

Max is 2

Max is 2 today!

Here are a couple of pictures from today and a couple of pictures from the day we brought him home (October 2007).

3 Months

Canaan turned 3 months old today. We headed to Target again for portraits. Today was by far the best experience we've had getting her picture made. She did great! The obvious trick is to make sure she has had a nap and is well fed. We had a great time and had a hard time choosing pictures today. This is absolutely my favorite outfit that Canaan can wear. I LOVE yellow and pink. I have been waiting to have her picture made in this dress. I am going to hate it when she outgrows this one. I'm not sure if that will happen before the cold weather gets here. Either way, we'll have to put it away.

Here are some of my favorites. You can see the rest here. You just have to type in my first and last name to view the photos.











The other photos are my first attempt to take a picture of Canaan and me, some of Canaan's cute socks from a family friend, Canaan trying to put her whole hand in her mouth, and her cute stretch.

Allergy Friendly Recipes

I thought I would post this in case anyone else is trying to avoid any particular food in their diet. My friend Angie posted these two sites in a comment a while back. I just got a chance to look at the sites today. They are awesome! This will make cooking much easier while I am on this elimination diet.

http://www.spewdfree.com/recipes/

http://www.cookingallergyfree.com/

I found out today that when Canaan turns 4 months old I can try adding wheat to my diet. If that goes well, I can add tree nuts back when she turns 5 months old.

12 Weeks

I got to introduce another friend to Canaan this week. One of my college roommates was in town part of this week for her sister's wedding. I hadn't seen Kimberly in ten years. I can't believe it's been that long! She has three girls of her own that I had not met before. They were so cute and the sweetest girls. The oldest is seven and the youngest is four. I cannot imagine having three so close together. I, of course, waited until the end of the evening to bring out my camera so I only got a picture with Kimberly. I wish I had gotten one of her whole family. I went to Kimberly's hotel Thursday after work. Canaan did not get her afternoon nap that day so she was pretty fussy that evening. Once I got to the hotel room, Canaan started crying and didn't stop until we left the hotel room. Kimberly's husband told us later that night that when we left the hotel room, their 7 year old said, "I'm glad they left. I thought that baby was going to be sweet!" She apparently did not appreciate the crying. Isn't that cute?


More about Canaan...

• She is starting to suck her thumb more and is getting better at finding it. She still has issues keeping it in her mouth sometimes.
• A couple of friends have noticed two places on her bottom gum where it looks like she'll have some teeth. She is starting to slobber more. Surely she is not teething yet (I hope).
• Matthew likes to call Canaan stretch. She is a champion stretcher.
• When she coughs, she sticks her tongue out which is pretty cute.
• She is still sleeping well and sleeping through the night. This has been wonderful since I've gone back to work.
• She has had a couple of blow outs recently. We have found the Pampers Swaddlers to be really great diapers. We just started using a package of Luvs recently. They just do not work well with Canaan. I think we'll finish the package this week and be able to go back to the Pampers.
• Andy and Amy brought Canaan this really cute camo pillowcase dress when they stopped by a couple of weeks ago. I finally got a picture of her wearing it. It is really cute! Thank you Amy!
• It is pretty difficult to get a picture of Canaan smiling. I can get her to smile, but once the camera is in front of my face she gets a serious or puzzled look on her face. I'm just not quick enough.

Matthew is doing really well staying home with Canaan while I'm at work. He has gotten Canaan on a good schedule during the day with feedings and naps. Being at work hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be, but I discovered something this week I wasn't expecting. I don't like that Matthew knows more about Canaan's schedule than I do. It makes sense that he would since he is at home with her, but it is hard nonetheless. On the other hand, it is nice that he is so involved in her day-to-day care. For that, I am thankful.

Neighborhood Kids

This evening I walked over to a neighbor's house to give her some coupons I had received in the mail for the formula she uses. I was crossing the cul-de-sac when a young girl said something like, "Ooh, a baby. Do you live around here?" I told her I did and pointed to my house. She then replied, "Oh, I remember. You have Max." So she didn't remember me, but she remembered that I belonged to Max. If Max is outside when this girl walks by our fence, she will call him over and pet him through the fence.

I also have a quick story about a little boy that lives across the cul-de-sac. His father was deployed to Iraq for about a year. While he was gone, Matthew threw a football for him one day. Ever since then, he will come ring our doorbell every once in a while to ask if Matthew will come out to play with him. It is the cutest thing, but Matthew feels a little weird about it now that his dad is home.

11 weeks

Canaan got to meet one of my closest friends over the weekend. We had a great time with Kristen here. She said it was nice to spend a weekend where it was about 20 degrees cooler than at home. Isn't that nuts? It was so great to spend time with Kristen and to have a close girlfriend to talk with. I really miss her.

What's new with Canaan?

Canaan has got to be one of the slowest eaters. Last Sunday I was in the nursing room feeding Canaan. I was in there about 45 minutes. A girl from my Sunday school class came in to nurse her baby who is around 8 months old. She was in there a maximum of 15 minutes.

One day last week while I was at work, Matthew called me. He held the phone to Canaan's ears so I could talk to her. He said she smiled. She talked to me a little bit. It made me want to go home immediately to see her.

As far as I know, she sucked her thumb for the first time. I have seen her trying to get her fist into her mouth several times. I know that I took a picture of her sucking her thumb, but now I don’t have it. I’m not sure how it got deleted, but I was really disappointed to find that I no longer have the picture. It was the cutest thing!

Matthew is working on getting Canaan on more of a schedule during the day. It is next to impossible to get anything done during the day when you’re in charge of Canaan, especially when she doesn't take a good nap. He has got her taking better naps which allows him to get some work done.

While reading books in the past week, Canaan seems to be interested in looking at the pages. I’m not sure if that’s what she’s doing, but it sure seems that way.

She's been doing this for a while, but I think it is so cute how Canaan will wrinkle her forehead when you're talking to her or she's looking around.

When you have her laying down, it seems like she tries to use her abdominal muscles to sit up. Obviously, those muscles are not strong enough at this point to accomplish her goal.

It was so cute to watch Canaan try to copy what Kristen was doing with her mouth as she made some clicking noises to entertain Canaan. She was looking quite intently at Kristen's mouth and moving her tongue around. She's a smart girl!

10 weeks

Canaan is doing well. I started nursing her again a little over a week ago now and it seems to be going well. She has been spitting up more than she was on formula, but the other issues have not returned. Due to a friend's recommendation, I purchased the Breastflow bottles which have worked well. These bottles are good for babies that go back and forth between the bottle and their mother. I think they were a great purchase!


Some other recent facts about Canaan

Her hands and feet are the same size as her 6 month old friend. We are not sure if his hands and feet are small or hers are big. She has got some long fingers and toes.

She has outgrown some of her 0 to 3 month clothes. She is too long for both the short outfits and the outfits with footies. Not all brands are the same size.

Canaan is noticing the toys hanging from the bar on her bouncy seat and the bar on her floor mat. She also likes to watch the lights that go on and off on her bouncy seat.

Canaan likes to have her hands up by her face or under her chin while eating. They often get in the way of feeding her. It is so cute when she holds her own hands.

She is growing so big so quickly!

We have a web cam that we have been using so Grandma and Grandpa can see Canaan. She met two of her cousins over the web cam.

She is still enjoying bath time. She generally hangs one of her feet over the side of the sling in her bathtub. She is very calm during bath time.

She is continuing to smile and coo more.

Canaan is still sleeping well. Most nights she sleeps through the night. Every once in a while she will wake up around 4 am.

It is taking its own sweet time, but her hair is starting to grow in more. It is hard to see in pictures though.

She often crosses her ankles when she's sitting/laying down.

Being on her mother's milk rather than formula definitely makes her smell better.

She is getting better at holding a pacifier in her mouth but still loses it often.

The Diet

The diet is going much better than I anticipated. I have now been on it for two and a half weeks. I have definitely been eating healthier.

I have a couple of great cookbooks I haven’t used much (The New American Plate, Vegetables, and Food to Live By) that I cracked open recently. I already found several recipes I would like to try. I have also been using a Weight Watchers cookbook (My Turnaround Program). I have started to read labels at the grocery store like crazy. It seems like most processed food has either flour for thickening purposes, some kind of milk protein, or some kind of soy. You would be surprised some of the items that have these ingredients in them…some lunch meat, brats, chewing gum, bbq sauce, canned chili, taco seasoning, soups, etc.

As most of you know, I work at a grocery store. The other day I walked in the back room from being outside and almost went weak in the knees. What I smelled reminded me of the sopapillas at our favorite Mexican restaurant here. My mouth started to water. It was a beautiful smell! I didn’t even attempt to find out where the pleasant aroma was coming from. That would have just been too dangerous.

I expect that I will be trying some new things on this diet as I am completely tired of eating oatmeal for breakfast every morning. I found several items at the store to try from Enjoy Life. They have cereals, snack bars, cookies, etc. Check out the label on their products below. Isn't that awesome? I have enjoyed the caramel apple snack bars and the ginger snap cookies. I am not sure about the granola yet. I tried it with some hemp milk. It was not as good as "normal" cereal, but I think that was mostly due to the milk. It tasted quite chalky. I'll have to try rice milk in hopes that it tastes much better.

Numbers

200,000 - the number of miles my car passed last week

1996 - the year of my green Saturn SL2

10 ½ - the number of years I have had the green planet (affectionately named by a dear friend)

36 - the number of miles per gallon I can still get on the highway

32 - the number of miles per gallon I can still get in the city

Who would have thought I would still have the car I purchased during my last year of college? I had no idea I would still have it 10 years later. It is disappointing the Saturn division of GM is closing. I'm not sure Matthew would be interested in buying a Saturn, but I would definitely consider it after my experience with this car.

It has been my goal to keep this car until it reached 200,000 miles. I made it!! Now is not a good time for us to purchase a car since we are currently down to one income so I hope it will keep going for a while.

Back in the Saddle Again

…or in my case, back in the swivel chair.

I started back to work last Monday. I worked half days last week which was my husband’s brilliant idea. It was a great idea to ease back into the work day. I wasn’t sure how it would go since many days during my maternity leave I was still in my pjs around lunch time.

I was dreading going back to work. I would much rather be home with Canaan. Sunday before I returned to work on Monday was an emotionally rough day. But Monday was not bad at all. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as hard to be at work as I had imagined. I think it has been easier knowing that Canaan is at home with her Dad. Even though it would be great for Matthew to be working right now, it is nice that Canaan doesn’t have to be in daycare at the moment. I am sure that day will come, but for now she’s at home.