My own little Pidget

We call my little sister, Lucy, our little pidget because she's just so little compared to the rest of us. I rather like it because it still feels like I'm the "big" sister and she's the "little" sister like when we were younger. Bea went for her 7 month appointment the other day and she was surprisingly small in both height and weight. She is only in the 25th percentile for height and weight but her head has jumped up to the 40th percentile(woo hoo!). I thought she was going to weigh more than that but I guess she just looks so chubby to me because she's so small. I'm actually glad she's still so tiny because it's just so much easier to carry her when she weighs so little. I'm glad to have my own little Pidget at home since I never see my sister anymore! I miss you Lucy! Have fun in Japan this spring!

City or Country girl?

Henry, Bea and I decided to take a trip (while Justin was gone on his conference that was just an excuse to go snowboarding) to Connecticut, New York City and Philadelphia. We were gone for 8 days and we had a blast. Bea was especially good in the car and didn't cry at all for the entire almost 9 hours it took to get to CT and 7 hours back from Philly. It wouldn't have taken as long except we had to drop Justin off and pick him up at the airport at the beginning and end of our trip. We spent some quality time with Grandma and Gammie Hohl as well as our good friends the Smocks who also have a baby girl, Elizabeth (lily or li'l E), who is two weeks younger than Bea. They had fun together fighting over squishy blocks. It was so funny to see them ripping it out of each others' hands. They were seriously fighting over it and I hope it's not a sign of things to come! I'm sure they'll be great friends. After we spent the first half of our trip amongst the gorgeous farms and countryside of Connecticut we spent some time in New York City and then moved on to Philly. In New York we ate my favorite food (Bea ate some pear and apple gelato at GROM) and hung out with my dear friend Emilie. We spent the day in Washington Square park in the above 70 degree weather. We couldn't have picked a better day to go into the city. Bea did so well just sleeping when she got a chance in the car or in my baby wrap and hardly put up much of a fuss. We drove late into the night to Philly where we met up with my step sister, Ruth, and her darling family and tried to lift their spirits as her little angel boy, Jeffrey, began his chemo treatment for retinoblastoma or cancer of the eye. I'm going to do a special post on him soon. We might be traveling to Philly a few more times to meet up with whomever accompanies Jeffrey during his treatment. We're all fasting and praying that his eye and vision will be spared. We just love the Bryans! We went to the Children's Museum in Philly and to Valley Forge with them as well as ate really great sandwiches at one of the best cheesesteak joints in town, then ate hamburgers at 5 Guys and topped it off with free Ritas. That was a crazy long day! The next morning we spent with the Shimer's who we bumped into at the Children's Museum the day before and we got to eat breakfast and play at the park before the long drive home. We had such a great time in Philly and I hope we go there for fellowship! I would love living there for a year.

I do have to admit that I almost cried as I walked down the streets of New York because I missed it so much. I was so happy to be back and I felt that I was supposed to be there and I was missing so much by being away. I miss my old friend, the city. My children will know you somehow, even if we have to travel across the country to visit you. What an enchanting place.

First tooth!

I was letting Bea chew and suck on my chin like I usually do when I felt something poking me and it was a little tooth coming in! I'm a little worried because this is when I stopped breastfeeding Henry because he started biting me but now I don't have the luxury of choosing to bottlefeed since she doesn't take a bottle. I really hope she's not a biter! I can't believe my baby is already growing up:) She's also sitting up pretty well and is enjoying the freedom to play with all her toys. She still hasn't even attempted to roll over and I hope she doesn't crawl until my tomato plants are too big to pull out of my garden which would be about July. I don't think I'll be so lucky:)

My little piglet

Bea is a food maniac. About a month ago she started reaching for what I was eating and watching me put every bit of food into my mouth and would look at me with a longing stare, I'm sure just imagining how yummy whatever it was I was putting into my mouth. So, I decided to give her some food and she literally went nuts. I read online to feed your baby however much they will eat so I just started letting her eat. I always feed her after she's nursed, but I don't think she knows when to stop eating. I tried feeding her rice cereal and oat cereal and she really hated it. Then I read the ingredients on the box and I decided that it was WAY too processed to be good for a baby so I just started feeding her organic baby food in jars. She'll eat jar after jar of squash, pears, apricots, applesauce, etc. I also grind up fruit and oats in my grinder and she eats that like a champ. Even after she's done eating two jars of baby food she wants more. She bangs both hands down on the tray and lets out a desperate grunt/cry to tell me she's still hungry. Tonight she ate two full graham crackers for dessert. Is this bad? I feel like she eats a ton! The weird thing is that I don't feel like she's nursing any less than a month ago but she's just eating twice as much as she did before. Everything I read says to just feed them whatever they will eat and that they won't ingest more than they need or not nurse as much as they need to because they're eating food. What do you think?