Thursday, April 25th, Camile and Charlie came to play with us at the pool.  Charlie and Camile went swimming, I took a soak in the hot tub, and Henlie hung out in her rocking chair poolside.  We had a good time.  Afterward, Camile went to pick up some Little Caesars for lunch (we still had some money on a gift card from one of my baby showers) and I watched the two little ones.  Having Charlie there for 30 minutes made me realize just how not child-proof our home is :)

Anyway, while Camile was gone, we were playing with the puppy in the hallway.  Charlie and Mocha were interacting so cute (Charlie had Mocha's gecko and sometimes Mocha would try to take it back :)) that I started videoing.  I've excerpted the cutest and most tender moment in the video below.

Charlie got Henlie to laugh! and so easily!  It made me pause to think just how well they can still communicate, how close they still are to the veil that they can share an understanding like this.  Definitely one of those moments I'm glad I was taking the time out to experience with them :) Love them both!

(And happy birthday to Camile! I'm so glad we got together to play yesterday!)

Matt is having fun in the sun without us.  He is with his pipe band in Vegas for the Scottish festival. (He took a 1st and 3rd in his solos today!)  I have been left while he has gone on a band trip before (Enumclaw last year :p), but this time, I have a small human to care for. 

I was off of work yesterday because Carrie had to pick up Michelle in Ephraim - and that's a long time for a baby to be in a car.  I got to see Matt in the morning, so that was nice.  By 11am, he was on the road.  Henlie and I hung out most of the day.  She discovered plastic bags are fun.  Too bad I can't just let her play with one on her own, eh?  She and I spent a lot of the day watching the news going down in Boston.  Then we went to  Walmart, came home, and put her to bed.

Today, I had to work.  I packed up Henlie and Mocha to take to Matt's mom's house while I was gone all day.  Then I ran some errands on the way home and picked the baby up.  Left after her bedtime (oops! 8pm is early...)  Walked the dog and put the baby back to bed.  Hung out on Facebook (it's rather boring, really.  Also, I'm a wee sad my facebook game, Sims Social, is being discontinued come June.)  Matt did just call, so that was nice.  Every time I see one of our friends post a pic on FB, I get a little sad.  Wish we could afford to make every band trip a family vacation :)  Because really, those are the only vacations we ever take.  (Okay, 95% of them, anyway.)

Also, I eat like crap.  I already knew this, but it is so much harder when there is only one of me to worry about.  AND I have to make whatever it is I eat (as opposed to having someone else who may be so inclined to do the cooking that evening).  Yeah, it's been a day and a half, and I'm already over this single parenting business.  I can't imagine how it must be for those who have this as their life always.  Or who have a military spouse and do this way more often for long stretches.  And multiple kids? ugh! (At least then there is more than one person to feed...)

Anyway, rant over.  At least he did call tonight. :)  Can't wait to see him tomorrow night!

Sadly, I missed most of the Easter festivities this year because I had to work :p  When I got home, I met up with Matt at his parents' house.  Then we headed to Spanish Fork to see my mom's side of the family.  We got there just as Karen's family was loading up to leave.  We also missed Kim and Traci entirely.  Sad day.  But we did get some food and got to chat with others.  We played hula hoop and skip it.  It didn't take me too long to remember how to hula hoop lol.  Surprisingly, the bigger hoop was easier.  As for the skip it?  Well, I'd never done it before, and I didn't do too well attempting it.  But I had lots of fun.  And hey - exercise! :)

After that, we headed back to Matt's parents' house (we'd left Matt's car there) and visited with the remaining family.  We also watched the Young Women's broadcast.  Good times.

Easter Sunday, I had sharing time.  We had gotten off schedule and already completed all of March's sharing time lessons in the manual.  Denise asked if I could come up with an Easter sharing time instead.  Good job on the church - all month long we pretty much talked about the events surrounding Easter.  So instead, we watched the He is Risen Bible video the church produced and talked just a little bit about what happened. 


I bore my testimony (while crying, naturally), and that was that.  It worked out very well, if I do say so myself.

Umm, can you believe my baby girl is already five months old? I kind of have a hard time believing it myself.  It seems like we've had even more new and exciting things happen this month.  

Henlie is still wearing her 0-3 month clothes (and the one 3-6 month onesie that's on the small side), but most of them are seeming to fill out.  I did retire one small onesie of the 0-3 collection, but everything else still fits for the time being.


She has gotten much more interactive.  She reaches for toys and grabs at stuff (including hair if you give her enough time to latch onto it).  The other day, I had her in her play pen while I gathered up stuff to leave.  She rolled to her side and grabbed at one of her toys and was playing with it.  Naturally, I just had to give that toy to her in her carseat while we went to Grandma's house.


Along with hair, she has also started grabbing at noses, lips, and mommy's bowl of food.  (We discovered that recently while having dinner at Grandma's house.  She was fussing, so I picked her up and stood up.  However, I was trying to eat dessert and had to keep switching hands in order to eat and then keep the bowl out of her reach.)


She still isn't a huge fan of being on her tummy, but she seems more content there than she used to.  Lazy, almost.  She rarely will roll on her own now, but just lay there until she gets upset enough we roll her over instead.  Although, if she is going to roll, it's pretty instantaneous from the moment you put her on her stomach.  So it's either roll immediately or hang out.  She still hasn't made it from her back to her tummy, but she will roll to her side.  Usually it's because there's an interesting toy she wants to check out :)


Getting to this curiosity stage, she is enthralled by the puppy.  Sometimes she'll watch the bird, too, but the puppy is the one usually around (lonely and saddened that she doesn't get the attention she wants). 


She still jabbers sometimes, and she has added a few new sounds to the repertoire.  She still isn't really using any consonant sounds, though. 


This month, we were treated with her first laugh! She and I were playing peek-a-boo, and she gave me three "heh" noises in a row.  Before then, we would ocassionally get one "heh," but I consider those practice laughs.  Three in a row, though, is legit laughter :)  Since then, we have even gotten her sort of giggling.  It's fun to hear how her laugh has developed already.


Other new discoveries - her tongue.  She has stuck out her tongue before, but it was always within the confines of her lower lip.  This month, her tongue broke free.  I think she realized it is its own appendage.  This has entertained me quite a bit.

She is still fascinated with her hands and feet, too.  But now, we have taken it one step further (no pun intended).  She can grab her toes.  Even more recently, she managed to get those toes up to her mouth and suck on her big toe.  So funny.  I wish I were that flexible :)


Lately she has become seemingly super hungry.  She is enthralled with people eating.  She even surprised me one night by sitting up in her Bumbo seat instead of falling forward in it.  I guess my little girl is trying to tell me to let her have a go at solids.  We have given her a couple of things on a one-time basis so far, but nothing really to say, "Here, Henlie. Let's see if you can actually eat this.  If not, that's okay.  We'll practice again tomorrow."  More like, "You keep staring and reaching.... okay, here's a little bit of mashed potato you can attempt to suck on."  (I got so messy....)  So, next week I'm thinking we'll venture into the realm of solids.  Wish me luck.  Maybe little girl will be more pleasant after that ;)

As is our standard, we went in for a weight check today.  She is exactly 10 pounds.  The doctor said she's doing fine, even though she will probably end up following the curve, but below it.  (Apparently his daughter is the same way, so explain to me why we needed to have extra calorie bottles....)  And as for her height, I determined it to be 23.75 inches.  Nearly two feet tall already! :)