We've discovered another favorite food: mashed up carrots! Addy tried them today, and boy, she put them away like nobody's business. Apparently she only likes orange colored foods.

Also, I guess we can modify what I wrote yesterday - it looks like Adelyn may decide to start crawling sometime soon! She was pushing up with her arms today and curving her back as if to tuck her knees under. Who knows, it could be just around the corner!

Oh, and we're watching "Planet Earth Extremes: Summit to Abyss" on Discovery HD, and can I just say WOAH. It is amazing. How did we ever live without HD before?? Haha. But seriously, the "Planet Earth" series is breathtaking.

Updates

I wrote a long post two days ago with all sorts of Adelyn updates in it, and for some reason it didn't post. Grrrrr... I couldn't bear typing it all out again right after that, so I'm just coming back to it now. I'll try to remember everything I had written. Here goes!

As I mentioned, Adelyn was sick over Christmas with her first major cold, which was no fun for any of us. We took her to a clinic on new years day and discovered she had an ear infection. She was prescribed amoxicillan and that cleared it up, but she experienced some nasty side effects that made her almost as miserable as before, poor bug. She's all better now, thank goodness.

Being sick definitely changed her eating habits. All she wanted to do was nurse (which is understandable), and she completely lost interest in solids. She's slowly regaining that interest now, but she has a selective palate. Favorites: squash and sweet potato. Least Favorites: everything else. Ha! She hates pears, tolerates peaches, used to like prunes... she still eats rice cereal, particularly the apple flavor. I gave her orange slices a few days ago and she had fun sucking all the juice out of them. Hopefully this means she's regaining an appetite for a variety of foods! Oh, and she drinks out of a cup. No sippy-cup for her, she's a big girl!

No sign of crawling yet. Addy prefers to roll around in order to get where she wants to go. She is getting really good at standing though! She tries to pull up, but gives up before her heiney can get off the ground, funny girl. Gotta build those arm muscles!

Standing like a big girl, chewing on the handle bar of her Pooh Bear train.

We haven't been very good about taking pictures lately, we've been so busy unpacking and getting settled. Here are just a few pics, all taken with our cell phones.

Crazy hairs!

Crouched in a chair while visiting Great-Grandmother and Great-Granddad Dollins in Gladewater, TX.

Adelyn and Great-Grandma Zivney.
Playing on the swings! Addy thinks they are tons of fun :)

woo hoo!

We *finally* have internet in our house. Now I feel reconnected to the outside world, haha!

I'll upload pictures of Addy and our new house soon. For now, it's time to relax on the couch with the hubs. An hour and a fifteen minutes of crying tonight before Adelyn fell asleep... that makes for a tired Momma and a tired Daddy.

Sleep training, day 2

Derek is off at his weekly firefighting training, so it's just me and Adelyn tonight.  Girls night! Although that means I get to listen to the crying all by myself... Yippee.

7:30 Dozed during her last feeding for the night, so I put her in her crib and she fell asleep easily.
7:42 Woke up crying, so Momma went in, comforted Addy with a kiss, pat, and "Momma loves you, goodnight baby!".  Crying begins again as I leave the room.
7:46 Silence.  What?! Seriously???? Woo hoo!
7:50 I can hear her moving around in there, she's not really asleep.
7:55 Sounds like she's working herself up, not really full-out crying, but definitely not happy.
7:59 I think she's asleep right now...
8:29 Still sleeping! She must have been one tired little bug.

Well, tonight hasn't been too bad so far, but Momma needs a cookie. Or a cocktail.

Sleep training

Background: Addy still doesn't sleep through the night yet.  She wakes up 2, 3, 4 times a night: sometimes to eat, sometimes to be held, sometimes it's gas pains.  Sometimes she falls asleep while nursing, othertimes we have to walk her to sleep in the snugli.  Things got worse over Christmas because of her cold, but now that she's better, we've decided that we need our sleep too, so we are going to "sleep train" her to fall asleep on her own.

Y'all, this is probably the hardest thing I've ever done.  Harder than labor, you ask? Well, that's a different kind of "hard"... This is emotionally painful.  It is almost unbearable, listening to your child scream like this, especially when they rarely cry in the first place.  I know all parents go through this, it's a rite of passage, etc., but it doesn't make it any easier...  We are in the process of doing our first night of sleep training, so I'm hoping that blogging about it may distract me and make the crying easier to handle.  Oh please, let blogging make the crying easier to handle!

Here is the play by play so far:
8:50 Adelyn had been asleep for about 2 hours at this point, but decided to wake up (she had a long busy weekend and fell asleep while nursing).  I fed her one last time to make sure her tank was filled, so to speak, and then we decided to start "progressive waiting" (Ferber method - leaving baby for gradually longer periods of time before comforting.  No picking up!)
9:00 Hmmm, maybe we will have to try tomorrow, she's falling asleep again... Opps, no, Nova knocked something over in the next room and definitely woke her up (grrrr... free cat, anyone? I kid.).  And so begins our adventure.  I make sure she is calm, then put Addy down in her crib and leave. Crying ensues.
9:05 Derek goes in to check on her. Put the pacifier back in, quick kiss and a soft pat, "Momma and Daddy love you", and it's right back out the door.  More screaming.
9:10 Momma's turn, same as what Daddy did. Peanut quieted down, thinking I was coming back to feed her.  Sorry babe, no such luck. Momma leaves, screaming continues.  Breaking-the-sound-barrier type screams. Screeches, if you will.
9:20 Daddy goes in, repeat above.
9:30 Momma goes in, repeat above.
9:36 Silence????
9:43 Screams again, Daddy's turn
9:51 Silence again?! Could it be working???
9:52 No. Back to screams.
9:53 Wait for it... She may be winding down here...
9:58 Well, she's not screaming, but it sounds as if she's playing with her Fisher Price sea creatures on her crib?
10:04 More crying.
10:18 Crying continues off and on, like she falls asleep and then has a bad dream and wakes up.  Poor angel. Here's hoping things are drawing to a close...
10:33 I think this is it!  Addy seems to be sleeping :)
10:45 Houston, we have a sleeping child.  Now it's time for sleeping parents.

Derek says he wasn't sure if I was going to be able to handle it, but I'm proud to say that I hung in there! Same thing tomorrow night, and the next night, and the next, until Adelyn has mastered putting herself to sleep.

Oh yes, and I wrote this on my phone again (no internet, remember?)  Talk about using all of my concentration, trying to push the right keys on the keyboard! Ha!

I promise I haven't forgotten about the blog! We don't have internet or TV at our house yet (we have to wait until weds... Grrrr), so I'm updating by phone. It is very difficult using the little keypad, so this will be a short entry.  Things here are going well, we are slowly settling in, unpacking boxes, etc.  Addy is basically all better from her cold and ear infection (fun trip to the doctor on New Years day... More on that later...)  It's freezing freezing freezing here!  Currently 25 degrees, feels like 12.  Brrrr. Perfect weather for staying in and drinking hot chocolate.  I guess that's it for now. Sorry no pics, I guess you will just have to wait until Wednesday! Maybe I'll put up some pics of the house too :)  Sorry, boring entry this time around. I will try to make the next post exciting and upbeat.  Ha!

As 2009 draws to a close...

I wanted to reflect on what a great year it was! An eventful one too...

Adelyn joined our family!
Kim graduated from Texas A&M and got a job in Houston at KBR Engineering.
Dan and Nancy retired and moved to Florida.
I finished my Masters degree in Planetary Geology at Rice.
Derek fulfilled a life goal and started his own oil production company.
We moved to White Oak, TX.
(Side note: my parents have helped my sisters and I move 5 times this year!! 5 times!)

Best wishes to everyone, and may you have a wonderful and exciting 2010. Let's start the new decade off right!

Happy New Year!!