The Zoo

Yesterday, Tenley, Annie, and I went to the zoo. We had a lot of fun. I took a few pictures of Tenley's favorite animals to look at. We went in the morning when it was cooler, which I think was the best time to go because the animals seemed very active. We even got "chased" by a peacock. That was funny. He really didn't want us in his territory.








Also yesterday, Tenley ate the first fruit that she enjoyed! She ate a whole jar of mango. We had tried almost everything else - I even tried mashing up my own fruit to give to her. I think the texture of the mashed fruit was a little too much for her at this point, though. Today she ate prunes, and loved those as well. And she is still eating her veggies like a champ. Good job, little girl!

Ice Cream, A Tooth, and Laundry Soap

Tenley has been doing SO much better eating her "real" food. It took a couple of rough days of her screaming and me making her eat anyway, but we made it through. She still doesn't eat full servings of anything, but that's okay with me. Slow and steady does it. I'm just happy she's eating it at all. I give her oatmeal (she likes it runny still) and veggies once a day. It takes her a pretty long time to get used to a different flavor, so we stay on the same veggie for almost a week before starting something new. Oh - there is one food it didn't take her much time at all to get used to though...ice cream! Sunday we were at Easton's 1/2 birthday party and we had homemade strawberry and chocolate ice cream. I wasn't going to give Tenley any, but I wanted to, so I did. :) I gave her a VERY small bite, and she just kept crawling on me for more! She didn't get very much, but the little she got, she loved. This girl has a sweet tooth like her Mama!

Speaking of teeth, Tenley just got her first tooth! This could explain why we had a very rough Sunday night and she didn't nap at all on Monday. When we went swimming Monday afternoon, Aunt Jessica discovered her first tooth - it's a bottom one. I was a little worried it would continue to bother her, but last night she slept 13 hours straight, and she's already down for her first nap, so I think we're good. Yay!

Another fun thing Tenley and I have been able to do this summer is spend a lot of time with my niece, Annie. We get to hang out with her while my sister works a couple of days a week for a few hours at a time. We do crafts, play games, read books, run errands, take walks, go swimming, etc. Yesterday Annie helped me with something new for her, and I think she had some fun with it. We made laundry soap! The last time I made laundry detergent, it was early February. So 1 batch lasts me a little over 4 months. I didn't have to buy any more ingredients either, so that was nice. I spent under $10 the first time, so, so far $10 has bought me 8+ months of cloth diaper safe laundry detergent, which I use on everything. Annie did such a good job helping grate, stir (making some wild whirlpools :) ), and measure. There are some pictures below of our adventure.

A Food Success...Almost

So yesterday I decided to try food again with Tenley. She's about 8 1/2 months old. Since she didn't like rice cereal before, I tried oatmeal instead. I know I'd rather have oatmeal than mushy rice. I was preparing for funny faces and pursed lips, but she loved it! I was so excited. "Stephen, get the camera!!!! She actually LIKES food!" She opened wide every time I put the spoon to her mouth and would even get a little impatient if I didn't feed her fast enough. This was exciting for me, since we ended our 2-3 week food trial with lots of tears and screaming and definitely no eating.


Since she loved the oatmeal for lunch, I tried it again for dinner. Totally different story. Closed mouth, funny faces, and fussing. Well, maybe that was just too much to ask for one day. We'll try again tomorrow...

So it's tomorrow, and we just tried more cereal, and this time there was crying, pursed lips, and not a whole lot of eating. Sigh. I will probably try again tomorrow. If she doesn't like it at lunch, I may try a tolerable veggie for dinner to see if she likes that. If not, we may take another break. I'm not quite sure. Stephen and I were planning on taking a little trip by ourselves in late June, and I was hoping we could supplement her well by then with table foods, because I have just been too tired/lazy to stay up and pump at night. Oh well, such is life. Maybe she's just not ready yet. Silly, beautiful, fun, crazy girl!

First Swim of the Summer

Today Tenley went swimming for the very first time. She really enjoyed it. She loves splashing and kicking in the bathtub, and this was like a giant bathtub - so much fun!




This is a video of her very first dip in the pool.

Tenley looked super cute in her pink bathing suit. Thanks, Aunt Gretchen!

Catching some rays with Mommy --

She wouldn't wear her sunglasses, but she loved to play with them and chew on them.

She had fun kicking around in her motor boat float next to her cousin, Navy. We are going to have a fun summer full of swimming on these hot, hot days!

Backyard Garden 2011

Last summer, Jessica, Rebecca, and I had an off-site garden. It was a huge project for beginners (especially since 2 of us were pregnant), but we had some help and it turned out really well. This year I decided to have a much smaller garden in my backyard. It has been harder to grow things, unfortunately, but it is much easier to manage.

Last year's garden - it felt like a whole farm sometimes


Digging out this year's garden - much smaller

I started a lot of seeds inside, but that ended up being a lot more trouble than it was worth. The day after I transplanted most of the plants outside, our crazy April storms hit. Almost everything either drowned or got smashed by hail. The things I started from seed outside have done MUCH better than my transplants. After the storms let up, something (I think a rabbit) ate all of my marigolds, some carrots, green onion, 2 tomato plants, 1 1/2 pepper plants, and snacked on my zucchini plant. Ugh! I put up some chicken wire and finally, I feel like my garden is beginning to grow. I just cut our third huge helping of lettuce and the lettuce plants are still so big! It's nice to be able to get something out of our hard work. I will be really excited when our squash, zucchini, and bell peppers begin to grow fruit. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll have any tomatoes this year, but I'm sure we will be able to bum some off of Jessica. :)






Our 3rd large helping of lettuce this month

Basil, parsley, marigolds, and carrots
in a pot on our patio

Our garden today (from left to right):

squash, zucchini, bell peppers, tomato, green onion, lettuce, carrots, and more lettuce
We also have a raspberry bush around the corner and
sunflowers at our gate entrance - all from seed.
This picture was taken after I cut that huge portion of lettuce,
and you can see we still have a lot -

I had no idea it would grow into so much!

You're what?!

This ultrasound picture was taken today, at 8 weeks.
Baby's head and the yolk sac are labeled.

Yep, it's true. I'm pregnant. There, I said it. 8 weeks today! I had a 2nd ultrasound today and Tenley and I got to hear little brother or sister's heartbeat for the first time: a strong 165. The tech says baby is about the size of a peanut, and I think baby looks more like a peanut than a baby right now anyway! My projected due date is the first week of January 2012. I've been experiencing all-day queasiness for a couple weeks now and I've been super tired as well. Thankfully, Tenley loves to sleep too, so I just nap when she does! Overall I've been feeling great, and we're very excited and thankful for God's blessing of another child. This is why I've been trying to start Tenley on solid foods! I was going to wait until 9 months or so, but now I would like her to be completely weaned by 12 months. We have taken a break for now, and we'll start back in a week or two. Thank you for your prayers as our little family starts to expand!

This ultrasound picture was at 5 weeks 6 days.
That little circle is the yolk sac - can't see baby yet.

Yucky green beans, yucky...pears?

I started giving Tenley "solid" food on May 9, 2011, at 7 months old. We started with rice cereal, which she still doesn't like much. She'll eat a few bites and never spits it out, but she's done with it pretty quickly.

Then, after a couple weeks, we moved on to green beans...yuck! She made the worst face every time she took a bite, but my good girl still never spit them out. It was pretty cute. I don't blame her, though; I still hate plain green beans.




Sweet peas was next, and those were much better than green beans. Still not her favorite, but no crazy faces. Yesterday and today we finally tried fruit! Yum!...right? Well, she hates pears for now. The faces she made were worse than the green bean faces! She gagged and I actually thought she might throw up twice. It was the first food she actually spit out, but I don't think it was on purpose - she couldn't help it! She's such a trooper and really tries to eat what I give her, but for now, Tenley hates every food she's tried.

In other news, Tenley now loves bath time and splashing Mommy. She also has a favorite book about colors - it might be her favorite toy too. She's becoming very clingy, which is cute sometimes, and frustrating at times as well. If I leave the room or step out of sight, her world comes to an end and she just sobs. Thankfully, she is still easily distracted, so if we are leaving her with someone, she quickly forgets we have gone.


Another new thing she really enjoys is swinging! She went swinging for the first time last week with Aunt Jessica and cousins Navy, Easton, and Kenan. Now every time we go for a stroll at Wesselman Park, we stop by the swings for some extra fun. One of these days we'll have to convince Daddy to get her a swing set for our back yard.


Tenley is also learning to get around on her own. She hasn't figured out how to crawl forward yet, but she gets pretty much anywhere she wants by rolling and scooting backwards and sideways. She has fun practicing standing with Mom and Dad, but is still way too wobbly to walk! Soon she'll be pulling up on her own - Daddy will have to learn quickly how to baby proof his TV!

Tenley is growing up so fast! I'm so proud of our baby girl and feel so blessed to be her Mommy. We enjoy watching her grow and move and learn new things. She's so full of joy and loves life. We love our Tenley Grace!