Alabama Tracks

 We are officially on the move!  Two days ago, you could see a leg move an inch, yesterday was a combat crawl, and today is more of combat crawl / real crawl - more real crawl than anything but ocassionally she does take a nose dive.  So now begins our efforts to keep her from chewing cords, eating ash from the fireplace, and chewing on the cat toys.  Gates will be purchased before too long to help block off some areas of the house and vacuuming will be done more frequently to keep all my hair from her mouth as well.

Speaking of hair, I got mine cut.  Last night I got 8 inches whacked off.  It is rather short right now and I’m not sure that I like it too much, but it will grow back.  It always does.  I don’t have a picture of it yet.  I look pretty tired and I feel not too attractive tonight so I’m not taking a picture yet.  Maybe this weekend.

We had family pictures done on Saturday.  This is one of the ones that we took of Ruthie.  I should have the others that I have selected back to me in a few days and will try to get them out.

Saturday was the first time we’ve taken Ruthie to the pool. She seemed to really like it, after all, it was just a bit tubbie time for her.  It was really crowded there and we didn’t have a floatie thing for her (but I spotted one I’m going to get) so we didn’t stay for but 30 - 45 minutes worth.  No one got burned and we all had a great time.

There are changes everyday around here and I’m so glad that I am home to see each and every one of them.  For starters, we now have two toofies.  I have yet to be able to get a non-blurry picture of them yet but they are there.  Its the two bottom front ones.  Secondly, we “rev our engines” several times a day now for quite a period of time so crawling or at least lurching will be coming shortly.  She still drools immensly and is talking quite a bit now.  We think we’ve heard what might be “daddy” but we’re not sure.

I took her out to the clubhouse this morning for a mini photo shoot.  I thought I went early enough to get in a good shady spot but I really fought against it.  I needed another person there to help keep her into it.  As such, I don’t have much where she is smiling, just really intrigued by everything. Over 100 pictures later, the following is what I got; or at least a few cute ones anyways.

She has Auntie’s tongue,  so I had to use this one.

Week 1 at home is just about complete. I must say that it has been a crazy week but that has mainly been due to the holiday being smack in the middle of the week.

There have been times that I have wondered if I can do this all day, every day, and then she smiles at me and I forget my lamenting. As I type, she is lying on the floor on her blanket playing with her toys and spitting up. Spitting up has been horrible the past two days. The only thing that I can attribute it to is using her stomach muscles more and maybe teething. Speaking of, we should have a tooth in just a few days. Her gum is just as white and puffy. Her disposition changes on a whim as well.

I have managed to clean the oven, vacuum while cleaning baseboards and ceiling fans, washed clothes and toys, pulled out the walker and cleaned it up, made dinner a few nights, went to a play group (which was a little lacking but still something that I’ll do again), and to a well baby visit.

Her six month appt. yielded a 16 1/2 lb weight measurement and 26 1/2 inches in length. He was very pleased with her progress and said that I need not feel the need to start solid foods at breakfast and lunch. So, I’m not going to. She will continue to get dinner but other than that, I’m not going to do it unless she goes through a growth spurt requiring more food. I found out that Dr. Simon is also into Nourishing Traditions and organic farming. I was very encouraged. More so by hearing that it had taken him 15 years to get to where he is now in his style of eating. After being encouraged by him, I decided I was going to try to make my first loaf of bread from a Nourishing Traditions recipe.

I soaked my flour, did everything except process my dough in a food processor (mine isn’t powerful enough) and it turned out like a giant brick of lead. Ugly, hard, solid, no air, and just basically, yuck! I am now going to do a yeast wheat bread recipe next week and give bread another whirl. I would like to broaden my culinary ability since I am home now. Bread, cheesecake, and general entrees are the areas that need work. I’ve never made a cheesecake, bread, and I just generally am lacking in the general entree department.

I was told this week that Walmart will match the prices of other stores on items if you have the competitor sales flyer. I fully intend to use this to my advantage. I will watch the sales flyers and coupon more than I have before. I’m debating joining up on a coupon train to share coupons with others. I’ve found a new board called www.mommysavers.com. It seems to be a pretty good forum about saving money, being frugal, and general stuff like that.

Peanut will be crawling any day now. From the previous pictures, you can see she is up on her hands and knees now. She does it so much more frequently now. We’ve already determined that she likes to stand up rather than just sitting. Sitting, until Wednesday, was still lacking. She is so much better now but still falls over on ocassion. So when she does crawl, look out! The cat food bowls, the cat litter, the fire place ash, you name it. I’m sure it will be game. We have the plug covers out already and wait. She just started to eat the wood bin.

Well, my little one calls. I know this has been all over the place and for that I am sorry. I hope to write more consistently but I don’t make any promises. Until next time.

She can’t quite get the hang of it yet.  She does a backwards scoot more than anything.  But here is proof that she’ll be on the move in a matter of days.

We went to the Hook’s house for the 4th.