Da-Da-Da-Daniel

GDaddy is Number One TN Forester

January 29, 2008
Our Granddaddy is in Murfreesboro, TN today to receive a special award for being the best person in Tennessee to care for his forest lands. G.G. went with him to get his award. They will spend the night in Murfreesboro to attend a special dinner and award presentation.

We are so proud of him! We wish we could be there to see him get his award.
We love you, GDaddy!

New Play Area at the Mall

New play area at the mall

We have a nice mall about five minutes from our house. They just built a new children's play area. We visited it for the first time today with our friends from church R and H. Daniel enjoyed the things to climb, but mostly he liked to look at the other children. It was a rainy morning, so the play area was packed.

One little girl really liked Daniel, and she hugged, patted, and kissed him. Another boy was a little rowdy with him, but Daniel didn't seem to mind.

There was a lighthouse with a slide and a tunnel. Daniel crawled into the tunnel all by himself and went back and forth through it several times. He didn't seem afraid at all.

He stood up on his own for a few seconds again. He just hovers away until he realizes that he's not hanging on to anything; then he sits down. It really startles me every time he does it.

H is about two and half years old. He could run and play everywhere. Daniel is not really old enough to play "with" H, but he loved to watch him. They also spend time together in the church nursery, so I hope they can be good friends when Daniel gets more mobile (but not too soon with the mobility!).

8 Months Old January 25th

Yesterday Daniel was 8 months old. He had a great day at church playing with Cady and getting admired by all of our new friends. In the afternoon, he napped with his mother while Daddy worked for a few hours, and then he watched Mother and Daddy exercise while he jumped in his jumperoo. He played under the computer table with an old briefcase covered in zippers. Zippers are one of his favorite things these days. He played with his boxes and music cube. He chewed on his wooden puzzle pieces from Uncle David, and he loved on his GG duck. He spent ten intense minutes touching all the surfaces of the step stool. (This morning he figured out how to turn it over, so we had to put it in another room.) He and Daddy watched the ceiling fans while Mother took a shower. Daniel went to sleep peacefully around 8 pm. It was a lovely day.

On his 8 month birthday, Daniel ate oatmeal and bananas for breakfast. He ate oatmeal, bananas, avocado, and Cheerios for lunch. He ate oatmeal, bananas, whole wheat bread, and Cheerios for dinner. Daniel LOVES oatmeal. We can barely get it in the spoon fast enough for him. He didn't like avocado at first, but he loves it now.

In the picture, Daniel is wearing a green sweater vest from Alex, our sweet friend who is back in Indonesia now. We have good memories of helping Alex get ready for church at Woodmont by dressing him in that sweater. Daniel is proud to wear it these days!

Cloth Diapers Work

Last week I started using cloth diapers again with Daniel. I used them in Nashville after he was born for about two and half months. I had a service, Smile Mommy Diaper Service, and they were great. I didn’t have to wash anything. They picked up the dirties and delivered the cleans. It was a bit expensive, but just right thing for us at that time. Now that I’m an official stay-at-home mom, I couldn’t really justify using a service here in North Carolina. So, I dragged my feet for awhile and used disposables. We made a great friend here in NC who has a seven-year-old son. She has been passing on safety items (plug covers, etc) and odds and ends that they don’t need any more. We were talking one day and she said she wished she could find someone who needed cloth diapers. I said, “We do!” I had been looking at a local consignment/baby store and the new cloth diapers (very nice all-in-ones) were $18.00 a piece. My friend had three dozen flannel diapers that her mother had made for her to use with her son. She gave them to me with five plastic covers. She also gave me their plastic pail. I am so grateful! They are working out well. I went back to the consignment/baby store and bought some more used covers, liners, and a couple of all-in-one diapers to use when we go out. Daniel and I are getting the hang of using them. So far, no major problems. They are much easier to deal with than I thought. I just use regular detergent and wash them in hot water. I run a load every other day. We are using about 8-9 a day. I am still sleeping him in a disposable diaper, but I think I will phase that out soon. Cloth diapers aren’t as hard as you might think. More people should give them a try. Thanks to Stacy, my comfy neighbor, for encouraging me to try them!

Sweet Potatoes Make Babies Poop

Disclaimer: Please don’t read this post if you are uncomfortable reading about baby poop.
Last week one of Daniel’s new foods was sweet potatoes. I have loved sweet potatoes since I ate them for the first time in college, so I was hoping that Daniel would get excited about them. In grad school, I went through phases where I would eat them at both lunch and dinner for weeks. Once, even, I had a spell where I ate them with toast for breakfast. I never had any negative effects.

Last week I bought four medium-sized sweet potatoes and baked one in the oven for him. I baked it for about an hour until it was completely soft and spoonable from the peel. Daniel LOVED it! He ate half of the sweet potato as fast as I could feed him. I was so pleased. So, I baked the other three potatoes and over the course of the next two days, he ate ALL of them (about half a sweet potato per meal). I thought all was well. I was thrilled that he liked sweet potatoes so that we could add them to our food repertoire. Then, he started pooping. Thank goodness they were just regular normal poops and not crazy strange poops, but he just couldn’t stop! He had five poops one day, five poops the next day, and four poops the day after that. I felt like I was checking and changing his diaper every 30 minutes. And we just switched to cloth diapers last week, too, so I got lots of practice (cloth diapers take a little longer to put on, and you have to put the poop in the toilet before you put the diaper in the pail). The funniest thing is that several of my friends who are moms said that sweet potatoes were known for doing that. I can’t believe I never heard that or read it anywhere. Well, I know now. At the last grocery shopping, I bought ONE sweet potato, and I will spread it out over s-e-v-e-r-a-l meals. Look at all the great things I am learning being a mom!

Snow Pictures

Snow Pictures

Snow Pictures

Snow Pictures

Our snow has finally melted. We had a wonderful time playing. Here are some pictures of us playing in our yard and with our neighbors.

Daniel's first snow

We think we had 3-5 inches of snow today. Here is a video of Daniel getting hit with snowballs!

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Daniel's first Christmas 2008 in Tennessee. Daniel got too many presents, of course. Here are some pictures of Daniel loving on everyone and enjoying himself.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008

Christmas pictures 2008

Yogurt Jan 8

Daniel's solid food eating is progressing well. He eats apples, bananas, whole wheat bread, oatmeal, green beans, carrots, pears, and baked potato. Today we tried vanilla yogurt. (We also tried celery, but that was a bad idea. I don't know what I was thinking.) He liked the yogurt a lot, but he wouldn't eat any off of a spoon unless he was also holding a spoon. It was a little messy, but not too bad. Next we will give avocado one more try, now that he understands more about eating. He ate solid food for the first time during Fellowship dinner at church last night. He ate apples, bananas, and whole wheat bread. Everyone was very excited about his progress.