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! :)

We had another Friday off together, and since the weather was pretty nice, we decided to head to the zoo.  It has been awhile since we've been (we hadn't seen Rocky Shores yet, and that opened like last year....), and of course, Henlie had never been.  So, we headed up to Salt Lake.  Apparently there were some spring breaks going on, that and being the first really nice weekend in awhile - the zoo was packed! We ended up parking on the south side.  After waiting in line for about an eternity, we made it to the window and picked up a membership again.  It has been years since we had one, but we have about 3 years before we have to start paying for Henlie, so I figure it's going to be an even better deal now!

We used the stroller, and I'm loving this plan.  Although, there were so many strollers! No lie when I say the place was packed.  It's crazy how much time has passed since we were regular zoo-goers.  The baby Orangutan, Acara, has gotten so big! (Also, in my not remembering if the baby was Eve or Acara, I looked on the zoo's web site - the history page is fascinating! Acara was born in 2005, so of course she is so big now :)  Another interesting fact, she was born via C-section on Mother's Day, May 8th.)

The whole East side of the zoo is under construction now.  Apparently a new African Savannah is going in to be opening next year.  Once we rounded the large primates and walked through the small primates, Henlie was getting fussy, so we stopped into the new Beastro (so much improved!) and had some lunch, and then fed Henlie.  After a diaper change, we were off to see the elephants.  I don't know what happened to the two other female adults, but Christie and her baby Zuri were out and about, as were a couple Canada Geese.  We also ran into Matt Hansen and his wife and baby.  Small world, eh?


Rocky shores was pretty awesome.  I love the underwater viewing capabilities.  The seals were way more active than the sea lions.  They'd swim past like underwater bullets!  One of the sea lions did actually take a dip while we were at the underwater viewing.  He kept going around in circles in the same area.  At Rocky Shores, we ran into some more friends, Kristen Emery and her family.  Really small world :)



We headed to the small animals building, parked our stroller, and took Henlie in.  My thousands (okay, they didn't have thousands, but they used to have way more of them) meerkats were gone.  They did have, I think two, on display.  On our way out of the free flight section in the middle, Henlie and I were almost taken out by a passing bird!  By the end of the building, Henlie was getting tired and hungry again, so we started rushing through Asian Highlands.  By the time we neared the end, she was out, though, so it worked out quite well for us :)


I'm so excited to have a membership again and to be able to take Henlie lots, especially as she gets older and more interested in watching the animals :)  I'm also excited for the World of Flight show this summer.  It's one of our favorite things to do at the zoo.  It was strange, though.  We finished the zoo in a few hours, and a good chunk of that time was sitting in the Beastro.  But with no bird show, half of the zoo (seemingly) under construction, and a fussy baby through part of it, I guess it can be done much quicker than I'm used to :)

On Friday, March 1st, Matt decided to take the day off of work.  I also had the day off because I was working Saturday instead.  The weather was starting to warm up (like mid-40s lol), and I decided I wanted to get out and play.  I first thought zoo, but it was still too chilly, and the zoo is an all-day adventure.  So instead, we went aviary, because you can do that in half of a day, and it's cheaper!  Plus, we haven't been to the aviary since the Owl Forest was put in :)

It was super fun to see the new entrance and exhibits.  There are even more on the way! It gave us another excuse to use the stroller, too.  Henlie was so good while we wandered around looking at birdies.  I don't know if she saw many, but she was a good sport. 

Inside the South American Pavilion, we pulled Henlie out because she needed a change and to eat.  Then we showed her the birdies in there too :)  It's nice they have a warm spot and that Henlie got a chance to stretch and watch the birds.

It was a successful outing.  I love family trips, as well as getting to use our stroller!

Our little girl is getting more and more fun as time goes on.  This month, she has further explored her feet and legs.  She loves interacting with the world around her.  She still grins at her flower on the toy bar of her rocking chair (which plays music).  She even smiles at people she doesn't know. (Like the hygienist at my dentist's office :))  She hasn't quite started reaching for toys just yet, but I'm sure that's just around the corner.  Although we don't practice tummy time like we should, she has been on her tummy and lifted her head and chest.  Just before her 4 month birthday, she even surprised us by rolling from her front to her back. She hasn't gone the other way just yet, but she will roll from tummy to back a couple times before she gets too upset to try it again until the next day.  She seems to have a quota of two rolls per day :)

This month, we also packed away the rest of her newborn clothes.  I even found some 0-3 month things that were on the small side already, so, while she has mostly been wearing 0-3 month clothes, I did go through the 3-6 month to see if there were any things there she could wear....you know, since she had turned 3 months old and all :)


Little girl likes to fly. I'll lift her above my head, bring her down and kiss her on the forehead, then shoot her right back up - and she gets the biggest grins!  I know she's really upset when flying doesn't cheer her up :)


Speaking of grins, this girl gets some pretty large colon-capital-"d" grins.  A couple times, she has even tried her hand at laughing.  She's not quite there, but she has tried on at least two ocassions to laugh.  Pretty cute :)


Also this month, we've started trying to get her to nap in her crib.  She doesn't sleep in her bassinet like ever. (We bedshare at night, and half the time, she'll nap in my arms or in her rocking chair.) Her bassinet also says you should discontinue using it when baby can lift herself on arms and knees or she reaches 5 months.  So, since she'll be 5 months soon, I figure we may as well try to get her to sleep in her crib, at least during the day.  She has successfully napped in there since.  Although, she won't sleep for as long in it, and sometimes, it's a challenge to get her to stay asleep when we transfer her.  She's getting more used to it, though.


Her 4 month check went great.  She got her shots again, less the Hep B shot.  The nurse let me give her the oral vaccine.  She did great with it.  Like last time, she slept afteward.  This time, I think I only gave her Tylenol twice, though.  She seemed much less bothered by it overall.  Finally, the doctor is okay with her weight gain.  He said she was doing great and we didn't have to worry (I wasn't anyway).  The added formula to her bottle feedings seems to have helped a bit.  This month, she weighed in at 9 lbs. 2 oz. (0.03%)  She is tall and skinny with a big head.  Her height is 23.25 inches (9%), and her head circumference is 15.4 inches (14%).

Typically, Matt and I don't do much for Valentine's Day.  Except last year, but that was mostly because that's when the Mat Kearney concert happened to fall.  It wasn't exactly planned as a Valentine's thing.  We also are more likely to do something rather than get something for V-Day.  

This year, I thought it may be nice to do a little something.  This worked for me, being on a Thursday.  I don't work Thursdays.  However, I don't work Thursdays because Matt works and then has class in the evening..... 

I've been trying my hand at being more homemaker-y and actually learning to cook some stuff.  I normally do this at least once a week on one of my off days.  Well, Matt likes steak, and we rarely have steak.  (I'm less than a fan.)  But, I thought I'd give it a go.  What better for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner than a) cooking dinner for your hubby, b) cooking something you rarely have, and c) cooking something he really likes?  Yeah, that's what I thought :)

Just to be safe, though, I asked him a day or two before what he'd like for dinner on Valentine's.  He said steak.  Win on that front.  So I read up on steaks and cooking steaks, because it can be hard to make a steak taste good.  This can be especially hard when he likes medium rare, and I like well done :)

As an added surprise to make it even more special, I cleaned off our kitchen table. (This, my friends, is impressive.  Our poor table has been buried for awhile.  All surfaces in our house suffer this same disease....)  So the table got clean, and I made steak. (Matt helped when he got home and checked them, then put them back in the oven.  They were pink and tender enough for him, but not so pink I couldn't stand to eat them. Win!) I also used up the rest of our red potatoes by boiling them. (Should have started them earlier.  Cooking is hard.  Cooking multiple things and trying to have them all ready at the same time is even harder :p Oh, and using a whole 5 pound bag of potatoes before it goes bad? Win!) Matt then made them into yummy mashed potatoes.  And we had peas ... from a steamable bag.  Matt has recently told me our dinners would be better with some green stuff on the plate :)  We eat less than balanced, but I figure I'm less likely to overeat that way, right? :D

So for Valentine's, we ate steak, mashed potatoes, peas, and mango Tropicana juice left over from the blessing by candlelight while the baby slept in her rocker.  Score for us!  We also enjoyed a little couples time after dinner while Henlie still slept ;)  As an added bonus, Matt complimented me by saying I was turning into a real cook (or something along those lines) because I'd seared the stake and then baked it.  The only other time he'd seen steak cooked that way was on cooking shows :)  I'd say this was one of the most successful and enjoyable Valentine's Days yet. :)