26 Weeks

This was a busy week.

• Canaan had an appointment with her gastroenterologist. He gave her the ok to start rice cereal. I, however, cannot add anything to my diet until her next appointment which will be when she is 8 months old.
• So we gave her rice cereal this week. She did not know what to think of that.
• We put up her high chair this week.
• Canaan has started waking up a couple of times each night. I hope eating solids will change this. I got spoiled with her sleeping through the night so early.
• When you suction Canaan's nose with the aspirator, she will generally smile at you.
• When she is on her tummy, she is getting her knees under her belly.
• She has started sticking her tongue out all the way.
• Canaan has one hair at the crown of her head that is 2 to 3 times longer than all her other hair.

Matthew had his ACL repaired on Friday of this week so Grandma and Grandpa came to stay with us and take care of Canaan. You can see in one of these pictures that they had Matthew working on his knee the day after his surgery. I couldn't believe how quickly they started that.

25 Weeks

This week Canaan started rolling onto her tummy in bed. Sometimes this makes her upset because she cannot roll back onto her back from her tummy. And other times she just decides to sleep on her tummy. It seems that most of the time she rolls over onto her tummy after she wakes up in the morning.

While she is not even close to crawling at this point, you can see that Canaan can move around. She started on her play mat in the middle on her back and ended up on her tummy on the carpet.

Matthew attended a job fair this week so Canaan spent 4 days at 4 different houses.

• Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday she stayed with ladies from our Sunday school class. Each of them have other children. I think Canaan enjoys watching older children and came home tired each night. One morning I had to wake her up in order to get her to someone's house before work. It was a bigger task than I expected to get her up and ready in the morning and to someone's house before work. I am thankful that I generally get to leave her at home with Daddy.
• Friday she stayed with a couple that Matthew used to work with.

We are thankful for so many people who were willing to help us out and take care of our sweet girl.

24 Weeks

Canaan is getting more fun all the time.

I have the hardest time trimming her fingernails. No matter how tightly I think I am holding her fingers, she can always wiggle them.

She has been splashing more in the bathtub. One night this week she splashed soap on Max's nose.

She likes looking in the mirror but mostly looks at who is holding her rather than noticing herself.

She gets excited when she sees her bottle.

She is really entertained by other kids.

I forgot to mention that I started eating nuts when Canaan turned 5 months old. I have really enjoyed being able to eat peanut butter. Thankfully, she has not had any reaction to the nuts.

This week I got some pictures of Matthew reading to her, Canaan playing on her play gym/mat, the day we thought she was getting a cold that thankfully only lasted one day(wearing the green polka-dot pjs, doesn't her nose just look stuffy?), what happens when Max wants to be included in floor playtime, and Canaan with her bunny. I just can't get enough of this girl.

23 Weeks

We had Canaan's 5 month pictures taken on Thursday. I have to say I have been disappointed the last two times we've been to Target to get her pictures taken. Both times we have waited around 30 minutes past our appointment time for pictures. That is rough on a baby girl who doesn't like to just wait around. I decided to get her 5 month pictures taken in her Halloween costume. I guess it's a good thing I did because she didn't even end up wearing it on Saturday. She was not a fan of the hood around her head. She's the cutest little ladybug I've ever seen! I am going to try to get some more pictures of her at home wearing her costume since this is the only time she'll be able to wear it.






Canaan won this cute pillowcase dress from Wendy. It should fit her really well next year, but I couldn't resist putting it on her Halloween. Thank you Wendy for making the dress and Melinda for signing Canaan up to win it!

Canaan has been better about riding in the car, but she still does not enjoy being in the car seat for long.

When you carry her facing your body, she will turn to see where you are going.

She is very entertained by the tv and computer monitor. I'm afraid she gets way too much exposure to both of these.

She still sucks her thumb if she is sleepy.

She likes doing the Hokey-Pokey with Mom.

We sing songs like "Jesus Loves Me", "My God is so Big", "The Hokey-Pokey", "I've Got so Much...to be Thankful for", and "Jesus Loves the Little Children".

As much as I hate to admit it, Matthew is right when he says Canaan likes blankets over her face. I don't like blankets to be over her face because I worry about her breathing (rather not breathing).

When she is on the changing table, she has started putting her hand on the wall to feel it.

Matthew scared/startled Canaan while we were on the couch in the basement one night. After she jumped, she just laughed. I am in trouble if she likes to be scared. It will then be two again little ole me. I hate being scared!

We spent Halloween at some friends' house watching UT and OSU. So rather than wear her costume, Canaan wore her UT dress/cheer leading outfit that Grandma sent her. I'll have to get another picture of her so you can see the whole outfit. She's a cutie!

One of Us

Two years ago today, Max became part of our family. At the time, I have to admit I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had only had one dog in my lifetime which was a completely different experience.

I think Max is doing well with Canaan. He is definitely curious about her and likes to sniff and lick her. When I give her a bath each night, he stands by the tub and tries to lick water out of it. 99.4% of the time I am feeding Canaan in the nursery, Max follows us in there and lays there while I feed her. He goes into her room at night after she's in bed or in the morning while she's still in bed to check on her. He has been really good about leaving her toys alone. He will not know what to do when she starts crawling and chasing him around. I hope he will learn soon not to be afraid. I keep telling him that one day he and Canaan will be the best of friends.

Since Canaan's arrival, he has not gotten as much exercise as before. It is more difficult to get to the park or pond now days, and frankly, it just hasn't been a priority for us. He still gets a lot of attention and love; however, he knows something is different.

One strange thing he's been doing (other than bringing the wood pile one log at a time into the yard) is spending time laying in our closet. We have no idea why he's doing this.

Max still thinks he's a lap dog. He loves to lay on Matthew and this week alone he has sat on my lap twice when I've been sitting on the floor.

You can see from at least one of these pictures that this dog knows how to relax. He is allowed on our bed and generally has his head on a pillow. While we would both like to be rid of the dog hair on the bed, we both enjoy Max's cuddling...especially when it's cold outside. On a sad note, I just realized tonight I've only taken a handful of pictures of Max since Canaan came along. Poor Max.

5 Months

Canaan had a good week. She stayed with two new people this week while Matthew had appointments. One of the mentor ladies from Sunday School kept her for a bit one day and a friend who has a 5 week old baby kept her during another appointment. I think she did well with both of them.

She's still wearing Pampers Swaddlers size 1 although she'll be in size 2 very soon.

Matthew says she discovered her feet this week and started playing with them. I haven't seen this yet.

She has started putting her hand out to touch Max. He won't let her touch him though because he wants to lick her hand. I am certain that one of these days she will win.

Yesterday we were at some friends' house. Their 8 1/2 month old started doing his fake cough. Canaan thought this was funny. They went back and forth several times - S doing his cough and Canaan laughing at him. He got her to laugh more than we have in the past 5 months. It was really sweet. I wish we had a video of the interaction.

We went with these same friends to Whole Foods to get pictures of the babies with pumpkins. We wanted to go to a pumpkin patch but got a late start. All we really wanted were the pictures anyway.

Matthew was prescribed 6 weeks of physical therapy for his shoulder. He was supposed to go two times each week. He went for his third appointment this week. The guy told him he didn't need to come back. Yeah! He will have to go back in a couple of weeks for an evaluation but doesn't have to go two times each week between now and then. I told you he's a quick healer!

Birthday Celebration

I don't have any pictures to prove it, but we did celebrate Matthew's birthday on Friday. He and I went to dinner at Carrabas which is one of our favorite restaurants. (I will have to go back once I am completely off the elimination diet so I can have a few of the goodies I had to stay away from this time.)

A former co-worker of Matthew watched Canaan for us so we could have a dinner for two. It was really nice and special. Marc and Lindsay had their hands full with their own 4 kiddos and Canaan. Canaan was crying when we left her at their house, but they said that didn't last long.

I had the camera in my purse but forgot to ask someone to take our picture. I have got to stop doing that!

I finally got Matthew's red velvet cake made Saturday night. He finished frosting it on Sunday. We tried substituting the shortening with butter as someone suggested this might keep it from being so dry. According to Matthew, it is more moist, but there is also something that tastes weird about it. I can't try it so I guess next year we may need to try something else. I also have got to figure out a better way to get the individual layers out of the pans without making a mess. If you have any suggestions for me, I'd love to hear them. Thank goodness I doubled the icing recipe. Icing covers a multitude of errors!