Oh, man, my kid is half a year old!

Six months old!

I just can't wrap my head around how fast time goes when you're watching an infant grow. I will be astonished in another six months when my baby is one. It's so annoyingly cliche, I know, but man!

So, at six months old, Daphne got to try carrots as her first non-breastmilk food. Now, I've heard of kids making cute faces when they try their first food, or being silly, but Daphne seemed angry. She made ugly faces and kept turning her face as far away from the spoon as possible.

Click here to see Daphne eating carrots!

I have read that you are supposed to keep feeding babies the same food for five days, so we kept trying carrots and she kept hating them.

So, I tried bananas. She hated them worse than carrots. I really didn't know what to do. So, we just stopped feeding her food. A couple times, I had to hold her mouth open and try to shove the food in, and that just doesn't seem like a good idea. Hence, a food hiatus for just a couple days. When Jon and I decided to give it another shot, we tried sweet potatoes.

Success!

She actually tolerated them! She didn't seem excited by them, AT ALL, but she let us put the spoon in her mouth and she tasted the food without turning her head quickly away. She also let us put another spoonful in, so that, ladies and gentlemen, is an actual success. :)

Other six month highlights, so far, (we're a week in), Daphne can sit up by herself and she has awesome motor skills. The other day, she palmed a container of Parmesan cheese. I'm pretty sure she is probably going to have a couple more teeth soon, and she is still trying very hard to crawl to no avail. One thing that is adorable is that she tries to say Mama. We've been saying it to her since she was born, and showing her how our lips move when we say it, so now she puts her lips together and whispers, "Bababababa." Very softly. I know it doesn't sound like Mama, but we can tell that's what she is going for. :)

Fill in the Blank Friday!

1.   I am currently obsessed with  whether or not I should quit my job to become a stay-at-home mom. Jon and I have been praying about it obsessively, and I can't get the pros and cons out of my head.

2.  Today I am  happy      because,   it is Friday night and I'm home with my husband and baby!

3.  The age I am is   29    and the age I feel is   30. I keep thinking about how I will be 30 in about a month and I think I'm trying to come to terms with it early.

4.  My favorite place is   This sounds weird, but it's probably my friend Missy's house. Her house is extremely comfortable, always smells so good, and it's where my friends hang out.

5.  Something I have been procrastinating about is    cleaning my house from top to bottom. I mean, it's clean, but it needs to be deep cleaned.

6.  The last thing I purchased was    breakfast with Jon this morning. :)

7.  The thing I love most about my home is   that I can wear pajama pants the whole time I'm here.

 

Link up and play along at this awesome blog!

Orchids!

Today was an amazing Saturday! We went to see the Orchid Show at the incomparable Missouri Botanical Garden! Orchids are just so amazingly diverse. We saw rich reds and purples and lush dripping blossoms but also subtle peaches and greens, teeny little petals and monster jaw buds.

God blessed us so much with this visit. It was exactly what we needed after such a harsh and severe winter. Breathing in the tropical air, smelling the delicious, and even the putrid, flower aromas was so refreshing! Daphne was restless for most of the trip, but she got lots of attention from others at the show and one man even asked if he could photograph her because he thought she was so cute. This is actually the second time a random stranger has done that, weirdly enough. But, anyway, she did pretty well with us, especially when we took her out of the stroller and showed her the pretty flowers.

Also, this is random but worth mentioning, we saw a mouse eating the bird food in the Climatorium. which totally made me squeal with fright and jump onto Jon. It was actually kind of cute, but when it saw us looking at it, it started running really fast and I was so scared it would run up my leg. I know, unlikely, but those little things freak.me.out!

All in all, it was a lovely family day!!

Fun Friday Fill in the Blank!

Fill in the Blank Friday!

 

1.   I am     dedicated to praying for other people. I feel so helpless and ineffective about so many sad situations right now, so I'm going to leave it to Jesus .

2.  The bravest thing I've ever done was   I took a hot-air balloon ride. I was TERRIFIED and felt like I was going to fall out the entire time. But, I DID IT!

3.  I feel prettiest when   This should say "I felt pretty," because then I could say, "when I was 25." Next.

4.  Something that keeps me awake at night is  Daphne. She is pretty much it, because I'm so tired from all the other nights she has kept me awake that I typically sleep great. Well, except for crazy dreams.

5.  My favorite meal in the entire world is  I love lamb shish kabobs, but I haven't had them in years. I pretty much love medium rare steak also. 

6.  The way to my heart is     through attentiveness. I feel special when people remember things I've told them and check in with me to see if all is well. 

7.  I would like to   see the ocean. Today, if possible, which it isn't, but sometime soon. Short of an ocean viewing, I would just like to go on vacation!

 

Play along and link up here! 

 

Super happy joy weekend

It's been an awesome weekend. The sun showed its pretty face and no dastardly low temperatures or *shudder* ice have ruined my life lately. On Saturday, I took Daphne shopping (!), which I never get to do. Fun shopping, I mean. I always 'get' to go grocery shopping, but on Saturday, I bought new shoes and new sunglasses. Yay!

We took a family drive through the country when Jon woke up, and then we shared fajitas at Tequila's for dinner. I tried to feed Daphne a tiny piece of tortilla, but she had no interest. This is the week we are going to start feeding her food. She's been exclusively breastfed until now, and the information about first foods is overwhelming. I think we're going to start with green beans or carrots, but more on that when we actually feed her. I'm sure there will be adorable pictures to come.

Saturday night, we all went to bed pretty early, at 9 p.m. actually. But, we were all up again at 4 a.m. Jon and I entertained Daphne by spinning her in the computer chair.

Then on Sunday, I got baptized! I was baptized as an infant, but since Jesus wooed me into His kingdom several years ago, I have always known that I needed to make a choice to be baptized. So, I finally got over my nerves about being immersed and I did it. Jon made fun of me, but the thing that made me most nervous? Not wearing makeup.

Oh, well, not so bad I guess. I just wish my face wasn't so creepy red. Anyway. After I got baptized, we met my parents, my grandparents, and my uncle and his girlfriend at the local Chinese buffet. My grandpa just turned 80 and my grandparents just celebrated their 60th anniversary, so it was a celebration! Also, my mama got me an adorable elephant valentine. Yay for Valentine's Day!

The candy was actually from me to Jon, but the elephant looked lonely without them.

Sicky Sickerton

Simultaneously, I have contracted the plague, Daphne is seriously pissed off at her teeth (no nice way to say that), and we are in the midst of an ice storm.

I am relying on my friends to pray for me, because I am seriously miserable. Dramatically so. Fortunately, I have amazing friends. Friends who take care of Daphne for me when Cheri is unavailable, friends who do things like this:

Our family is crazy blessed by our awesome friends.

Earlier this week, Daphne and I looked like this:

Ignore our overflowing trash. Ick.

I'm not going to even post what we look like now. Suffice to say, I ran out of tissue and was using Scott Toilet paper to blow my nose all day. Daphne cried every.single.time. I coughed. She was sooo sick of it.

I asked our awesome friends to pray for us, braved the ice storm and went to Walgreens to get some tissue and cough syrup. I actually do feel a teeny bit better, but I can't wait until this is OVAH.