Cookie Monster!

I let Melanie try her first cookie today - one of those Gerber Graduates Arrowroot cookies (I'm as surprised as you are to find out there is such a thing as a cookie without chocolate in it!). The first one I broke up into pieces she could pick up, and she gobbled it right up. I went ahead and let her have a second one (I'm such a softie!) but this time I showed her how to take a bite out of it, and she was all over that! She thought she was pretty big stuff. I've been trying to gradually introduce more textures into her diet, to mixed reviews. Last night I fed her some chicken and stars baby food and she was not happy about that. I was alternating it with small cubes of pears and some applesauce/cherry baby food. Every time I put the chicken and stars in her mouth she'd get a really offended look on her face and act like she was gagging while putting her fist in her mouth and crying (just the noise, no tears), sometimes scraping the food out, other times going ahead and chewing and swallowing. I felt bad, but it was still pretty funny. I had given up on the chicken until Matt got home from confession. I just had to show him what our little stinker was doing. And we laughed. Parents-of-the-Year, here we come! "C" is for "Cookie" that's good enough for me!

I bought Melanie one pair of 9 month jeans (apparently nobody sells baby jeans after February, so selection was sparse) but they are still too big. Apparently pants around the ankles doesn't bother her too much, seeing as she walked around like this for quite a while. I guess I'm going to learn how to put tucks into her pants so they'll actually stay on her.

The cake I "made" but didn't get to try. The recipe called for a frozen pound cake, but I had every intention of making a pound cake on my own for Monday nights reconciliation service for RCIA, but Melanie and I were really tired after all of Sunday's running around and slept until 11:00, and I had to be at church at 5:00, so I had to go against every baking intuition I had and actually bought the frozen pound cake. I did make the filling and glaze though, and I was told by several people that it was very good, so I guess "cheating" is ok once in a while.

Just a few pictures

Melanie has switched from scarves to belts as the neckwear of choice. I think it's mostly the noise the buckle makes that draws her attention, but I'm not 100% sure.
For Matt's mom's birthday we decided to let Melanie "sign" her card to Grams. She was pretty disappointed when we took the pen away from her.
The almost "M" at the bottom was where I started to try and guide her to spell her name, but she quickly acquired the standard "I can do it myself" attitude that children have when their parents try to help, so that effort was quickly abandoned.

I Finished the Hat!

This hat wasn't hard to do, I just don't find a lot of time to knit on a regular basis. But it's done, so I can move on. It is a bit big on Melanie, which is good. I was going to be a bit irritated if I had spent all that time on the hat only to have it be too small for her to wear. Hopefully her head won't grow too much before next winter, and she can get some real use out of it.

Trying the hat on for the first time. Not too impressed.

Amy trying to help me get a picture before Melanie can pull it off. No luck.

Finally, someone that doesn't object to my knitting!

Michelle's Visit and Matt's California Look (Pictures)

So it's been a couple weeks since Michelle and Charles had their whirlwind visit to Wichita and Matt got home from California, but I'm just now posting the pictures. Most of them were taken on my "diaper bag camera", the small one I carry around with me so I don't miss anything. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the pictures from the memory card onto the computer via regular methods. So yesterday, being the super genius that I am, I decided to see if I could put the memory card in the printer and figure out how to get the pictures from there to the computer. As is obvious from this post, the pictures were indeed transferred to the computer (thank you, Matt), but here is where my genius comes in - the memory card is stuck in the printer. No real hope of getting it out either. I managed to put it into a slot that it is much too small for, yet by some technological mystery, the printer still read the pictures just fine. In my attempts to remove the card I managed to push it even farther into the card slot, so I don't believe it will be coming out any time soon. Like ever. Oh well. I've learned my lesson. Don't try anything new with the computer without first running it by Matt to be sure it's O.K., and then if it's not, at least it won't be my fault!

Anyway, without further ado, here are the much anticipated pictures.

Michelle and I managed to dress alike the first day we saw each other (pink wide neck shirt, dark wash jeans, black shoes). While not on purpose, I suppose it was most likely unavoidable. We do share a brain, after all. Here we are trying to get Melanie to camouflage our fab abs from the critical view of the camera. Family picture time! My daughter and son, with their very short mom.

(If you don't already know the back story to this one, ask me another time.

It takes a little while to explain.)

Melanie - what big feet you have!

Up to our old tricks again. This time we figured out the best way to maximize the coverage provided by Melanie. She seemed O.K. with it, as long as she had her maraca to chew on.

Last time Matt came home from California, he had a beard (or at least his attempt at one) and I had the news that we were having a baby. This time we settled for just the beard.

Thank you to our sponsors...

With the Easter Vigil nearly upon us, the RCIA director was reflecting on what a great group of sponsors we have been blessed with this year. As a special thanks, she asked me to make some cookies for a little treat bag to give them as a small token of our appreciation (after all, their real reward for their gift of self will be in heaven).
The goodies are: Ravioli Dolce (the cross cookies - I did a batch shaped the way the recipe called for, and I didn't like how they looked, and it took more time than I wanted to give it and the filling didn't stay in anyway, so I changed them to cut-out cookies with a cross window instead) Peanut Butter Temptations and Oreo Truffles. There were other recipes on the list of things I wanted to give, but the bags are only so big, and I only had so much time. It was fun getting to mess up the kitchen and not have to eat all the fruits of my labor (and wear it around my waist later!)