Just like mama

I LOVE grapefruit and apparently so does this little lady. She wasn't happy with me when I took it to eat myself.

Six Months

This little gal turned half a year old on Saturday. We still cannot believe we have had this little girl six whole months! She is growing and changing everyday. I still think she looks a lot more like Jeff than me, but she is starting to get her own Heidi look and we seriously could not love her more. I will be taking her into the doctor for her 6 month checkup either this week or next and I am anxious to see her stats. She seems to be putting on weight like crazy now so I am guessing somewhere between 12 and 13 pounds.

*Her favorite sound is still "Chubaca"
*Still not a night owl. Sleeps in her crib from about 7-5:30. Then she eats and sleeps another 1-2 hours.
*Kicks, kicks, kicks her legs like a crazy person...quite a handy tool when fighting sleep.
*Not a napper. She will usually only nap for about 30 min. If she is in the swing I can sometimes get her to stretch it a little longer or fall back asleep after the 30 minute wake up, but not if she is anywhere else.
*Becoming more mobile. Rolls from her back to tummy ALL the time...it's the tummy to back she can't seem to master. Sometimes she gets stuck on her tummy in the middle of the night and needs me to go in and flip her over.
*Squeals at increasingly higher octaves everyday.
*Everything goes into the mouth.
*We have all sorts of nicknames for her. Some make sense...some, well, who knows? A few she has been known to be called are: Heids, Heidi Spidey Pumpkin Piedy, cutie bug, magnet hands, kicky pants, grabby pants.
*Likes to grab faces and collars. Grabs our face and pulls it right smack next to hers.
*She nurses in the morning, but gets a mix of formula and pumped milk during the day.
*Her poor hair looks a little more sparse and a little thinner every day. We are dying for the new hair to arrive! I used to be able to get it to curl when it was wet, but not anymore.
*Clasps her hands and holds them in front of her face while twisting them. So funny. She stares and concentrates on her moving hands.
*Always grabs objects with her feet.
*Raises her eyebrows--so funny.
*Getting closer to sitting on her own. Will do okay for a couple of seconds before toppling over.
*Always the happiest when it is just mom and dad around in her own house. Doesn't tend to show her best self to others!
*Prefers oatmeal over rice cereal. Eats it before bed. We tried squash, but it didn't go over so well. So funny. We are going to attempt again in a couple of weeks.

Overall, we are just enjoying watching our little girl grow! Every day we love her more and seriously can't imagine how we ever got along without her!

Happy Heart Day!

Instead of watching 20 hyper eight year-olds open their Valentine cards with glee, I will be watching one sweet baby girl sporting her Valentine pjs. I'm pretty sure she has already won our hearts.








I am so looking forward to the day I am helping her fill out her Valentine cards and watching her excitement, but for now, we are more than content just to watch her roll and spin around, play with her toes and clasp her hands, and of course, squeal and giggle with delight. We could not be more in love with our little valentine!

Happy Birthday, Daddy

Dear Daddy,

Happy Birthday! I love you so much! You are the best dad in the world. Here are just a few reasons why I love you.
*You get so excited to come home and see me.
*You are disappointed if I am asleep when you get home.
*When you put me in my crib, you slept on my floor because you were worried about me being all alone.
*You always tell me how cute I am.
*When I get fussy you walk around and sing funny chinese sounding songs.
*You call me your little Chubaca since I make those sounds perfectly.
*When mom tries to give me some time on the floor to play by myself, you always "rescue" me.
*Snuggling me is your favorite thing to do.
*You can give me blessings and you read me scriptures every night.
*You are so excited to show me off.
*You aren't afraid to change poopy diapers.
*You get just as excited as mom to try out my new clothes.
*You give the best baths.
*You read me stories.
*You are always worried about me.
*You like being there when I have to get my shots.
*You are concerned about my thinning hair and love to brush what little I have left.

I can't wait to take a ride on your four wheeler and go camping with our family. Someday soon I will be anxiously looking out the window for you to come home from work. You take such good care of me and mommy. I am pretty sure I already have you wrapped around my little finger, but it looks like I will most definitely be a daddy's girl. I hope you have the best birthday ever.

Love, Heidi

An Eventful Day

My mother-in-law convinced me to post about today and after giving it some thought, I decided it would be fun to read about later.

So...here we go. It has been cold, cold, cold around here lately. Last night -16. Brrrr. It is times like these that I am so grateful to have a wood burning stove...there is seriously nothing like that kind of heat. At first Jeff would start the fire before he left for work, but then I was getting annoyed because it was way too hot to run (our treadmill is downstairs). I felt like I was running in the dead heat of summer. So we came up with a new plan. He would bring in wood and I would light it when I was done running. That was working great, but then I started having a hard time getting the fire going. New plan. Jeff would now build the fire, bring in the wood, and then all I would have to do is light it. Now this was really perfect...until this morning.

Heidi and I went downstairs and I had a great run...probably felt the best I have since she came into our lives. I was feeling great. I fed her, we played a little while, and then I realized I hadn't started the fire. I figured I would go ahead and do that so it would be nice and warm after my shower. I did what I always do...I lit the newspaper, opened the air intake, and held the door open a little bit until it got going. But today was different...instead of lighting, massive amounts of smoke started pouring out the door. I closed it a little more in hopes of stopping this, but it just got worse and started pouring out the back of the fireplace. Crap. I quickly called Jeff about 8 times, but he wasn't in his office. Now the fire alarms were going off because there was soooo much smoke. I quickly took Heidi upstairs and went back down to try to figure out what to do but the smoke was so thick, I couldn't breathe and now it was quickly creeping up the stairs and into the kitchen. I was sure I had started the whole house on fire. So, I did the only thing I could think of...I called 911.

I was glad I had someone to talk to while I waited for someone to come figure out what to do, but some of the things she asked me made me wonder what kind of an idiot she thought I was. Here is my favorite part of the conversation.

Her: You need to leave the house.
Me: I am getting my keys right now.
Her: Is there anyone else in the house?
Me: Yes, my baby.
Her: Are you out of the house now?
Me: Yes, I am in my car.
Her: Where is the baby?

Really? I felt like saying, "Oh, the baby? Well, she was taking a nap and I didn't want to disturb her." Honestly.

Anywho, so before long the first policeman arrives. He tells me that he will take the car out and park in the street running to get it warm. In the meantime he tells me to go and get in his police car where it is warm. So there I am with little bundled up Heidi in the back seat of the cop car crying thinking about how my house is probably ruined. (Heidi, by the way, thought it was great. She was talking and squealing the entire time.) Then, just to make sure everyone knows I'm having a bad day, 4 more cops arrive, 2 or 3 fire engines, and an ambulance. They then put cones out on the street to prevent traffic and that is when all the neighbors begin to emerge. Oh hooray. Now everyone can see me sitting in the back of the cop car crying and I'm sure they had all sorts of scenarios worked up in their head. I hate, hate, hate to be the center of attention and well, this was just perfect.

Anyway...so while I am sitting there thinking and wondering what was ruined and how bad the damage is, the officer asks if I have been able to get in touch with Jeff. I told him that he must be in a meeting or something and he promptly calls the police dept. and has someone find Jeff. I found out later that two security guards came and pulled him out of a meeting of about 20 people...perfect. Now Jeff is the center of attention--which, he hates being even more than I do!

Anyway, after a little while the fire chief comes over and tells me great news...no fire, just smoke. What happened was that because it has been sooo cold, the fireplace pipe was too cold and the smoke was drafting backwards in the house. So the firefighters spent about an hour or so getting the smoke out of the house and making it safe so we could go back inside. I felt like a total idiot, but looking back, I'm not sure I would have done much different other than have Jeff light the fire. Jeff told me that even if I had closed the air intake, it would have been really smokey and would have still had smoke coming out the back, which would have still been bad enough that I wouldn't have known what to do and the house would still have filled with lots of smoke. Surprisingly, I haven't had to clean too much up except for where the firemen walked and touched the walls with their sooty hands. No damage. Phew. What a day. So while I am grateful to have a warm wood burning stove, I am also grateful to have a husband who will be lighting it from here on out!