Just when I was starting to feel like milestones were slowing down, baby girl decides to pick up the pace.  This month has seen lots of new and exciting things in terms of Henlie's development.  I sure love that girl :)

We branched out to a second meal and sometimes a third (although we're not very consistent in getting it, and numbers two and three are much smaller than her morning oatmeal).  New meals means new foods!  Since I had decided to introduce new foods to her starting at 6 months, I let Grandma give her watermelon on May 5th at Sunday dinner.  Henlie thought that was the best thing ever.  After dinner, we let her suck on the rinds of our slices, and she went to town.


Shortly thereafter (waiting a couple days for allergy purposes, of course), we started on bananas.  She did okay at the very beginning, but soon decided they weren't that great. We put bananas on hold, and we moved onto sweet peas.  She loved peas.  Since peas ran out, we went back to bananas.  She still pulled faces and wouldn't eat much.  They say it can take a baby like 12 times of trying a new food to decide if they're going to like it or not.  Crazy.  When 'nanas were a no-go, we broke out peaches.  She started pulling the same face as with the bananas, and I was a little worried she wasn't going to eat peaches either.  However, on day two, she decided they were worth it and ate three times as much as I had initially gotten out for her.  She still pulls faces on occasion, but at least she'll eat them!  A few weeks later, Grandma gave her some fresh banana mashed up. After that, she was okay with the stuff in the jar, too.  We've also had squash, which she loves.  This makes me happy, as it is something I enjoy as well. :) 

 
Grandma Biggs has also been slipping her new foods in my absence.  I came home one night to find Henlie's onesie had two dark spots on it.  I asked Matt if he'd spilled on her again (because we've both done that :)).  He informed me Grandma gave her treats.... apparently there were root beer covered ice cream goodies.  Grandma did inform me that she didn't let her have any ice cream, just the root beer part.  And so it begins :)

Grandma was also the first to feed her bread.  Now, if I'm grabbing a slice because I have no time, or if I'm making a sandwich, I'll give Henlie some of my bread.  She's a fan.  The first day of peaches when she was less than enthused about them, I pulled out some bread to give her along with the peaches.  It worked for a minute.  I've also let Henlie try out feeding herself with small pieces of bread.  She managed to lick one.  She even got another in her mouth.  Mom had to help her with the rest, though.


This whole feeding thing has been interesting as I try to figure out nursing around real food.  I moved up her oatmeal (it was after her second nursing session of the day, but sometimes she wants a nap then.)  Now we nurse while I pump in the morning.  After that is my window to get anything done (shower, breakfast, whatever) while she is content.  About two hours after her first session, we have oatmeal.  She is eating quite a bit of oatmeal now, plus the remaining formula in her bottle, and then usually still nursing 1 to 1 1/2 hours after that.  Most days, she even naps after her second or third nursing session.  It's wonderful!  Sometime in the afternoon (mostly on days I don't work, although depending on times, she may get some before I go to work) or sometimes in the evening, we'll have lunch (dinner) of some fruit or veggie.  


I've been holding her off til at least 3, maybe even 4, hours between nursing sessions.  Real food has come in handy by letting me be able to do that without having a screaming baby.  Before, she was nursing every two hours.  When I'd go to work, it would be 3 to 4 hours since I fed her before I would go pump, and then another 3 to 3 1/2 hours before I'd pump again.  I was getting virtually nothing.  I still don't get as much as she eats in a feeding, but at least my supply during pumping at work has gone up now.  My body is more used to stockpiling more milk over a longer period of time.  Henlie is still nursing at regular intervals.  Also in order to keep my supply up, I'm nursing and then feeding her 1 to 2 hours afterward.  I still have no idea when we'll start cutting out sessions, but for now, this is working for us.


This month, she has also pretty much mastered sitting on her own.  Although, if she tries to reach for something a little too far away or turn to look at something too far behind her, she still falls over.  She had been getting better at sitting up for longer periods of time for a little while, but since I really noticed when I had her in bed with me, I thought maybe the increased time she stayed sitting was in part due to the bed being soft and supporting her more than the floor.  However, we went outside to play on May 21st, and she was just sitting in the grass, forever.  That was the day I realized she was an unsupported sitter now.  Craziness.


As for crawling, she's not there yet.  She's getting a little bit closer, though.  However, she would much prefer to stand.  She has tried pulling herself up too.  Now we're working on her arm strength.  She has pulled herself up in my lap using my hands.  I guess we'll see what happens next month!


Another milestone I'm not excited about has been separation anxiety.  Not so much with other people. . . . more when I want to put her down to do anything (like use the restroom.... sigh).  She has learned that her rocking chair and playpen are places she gets left, so as soon as she's in them, she starts crying.  In fact, she has started doing this when she'd rather be napping.  I'll lay her down in her crib, and she'll start screaming!  I like days she'll nap somewhere other than in my arms.  I hope those come back soon!


Another fun "milestone" was on May 23rd.  I went to the store with the baby and left the car seat in the car!  We've tried this once before (at Payson Market, even, where the carts are smaller than at Walmart), but they put the seatbelt so high up it didn't do much good.  However, since she can sit on her own, and since she was still awake when we got to the store, we tried again.  I'm so excited she can sit in the little child seat now!  Being safe and putting the car seat in the cart doesn't leave much room for any groceries..... Now we no longer have to worry about that!


Henlie also developed a bit of a rash on her trunk, so we asked Dr. Fullmer about that.  Apparently it was two rashes - some heat rash and then some very mild eczema.  You know, for as bad as eczema and cradle cap can be, Henlie looks pretty good.  This makes me happy.


Speaking of looking good, her hair keeps getting longer!  Her bald spot in the back is starting to grow back some hair, too!  If she held still long enough and I weren't such a chicken, I would be able to stick a little palm tree ponytail on top of her head.  Alas, it hasn't worked out. lol

Saturday, May 18th, we got to hang out as a family.  It was fun, even if it was rainy and chilly.  First we headed to West Jordan for my cousin Lindsay's baby shower.  At that point, she had 2 weeks, 6 days.  I told her by this time, I'd already had my baby lol.  Since I had Matt, we didn't stay too long, but I did get to see my aunt Mary Ann (Lindsay's mom) and her sister Anna, as well as my aunt Tricia, cousin Angie, and Angie's daughter Olivia.  After the shower, we headed to Thanksgiving Point for the UVU Auto Expo.

Since Matt works for UVU, we were able to get wristbands for free.  That was nice.  When we got to Electric Park, there were cars everywhere.  We did find parking in a parking lot, though, and not too far from a gate, so that was nice.

We pulled out the stroller and let Henlie sit in it without the car seat.  It was still fully reclined, and she kept trying to sit up.  The straps still don't hold her in over her shoulders, but since she can sit up now, I figured it was less of a big deal.  We sat it upright and put a blanket over her, and we were good to go.

We wandered around a bit, but I really needed to nurse Henlie. (She was fine as she had her oatmeal and a bottle before we left, but it was going on five hours since I'd nursed her....) We went to the pavilion and got burritos from South of the Border while I nursed Henlie.  Then, since it was cold, I made Matt get me a hot cocoa.  It was actually good cocoa too.  That's always a plus :)  We put Henlie's coat on her since it had gotten colder and wandered around some more.  I'm pretty sure we saw everything at least twice lol

This Mother's Day was my first as a mother.  Matt had a pipe band clinic that weekend as that was when they scheduled to have Bob Worrall come.  Matt really enjoyed the clinic, so that's good.  Earlier in the week, he asked if I wanted to go to dinner on Saturday.  I thought there was some function or group thing he was seeing if I wanted to attend, so I asked why.  He told me, "Because it's Mother's Day and you'll be mad because I'll be gone all day." lol Nice of him to remember it was Mother's Day :)

Come Saturday, though, nothing really sounded good.  Then Henlie didn't go to bed until 8:30pm.  We ordered cheese sticks and pizza from Fat Jacks. (Because their cheese sticks did sound good, and a coke.... but they have pepsi products.  It was okay though.  Mostly I think I wanted a soda as I haven't had one in awhile and this was a special occasion, after all.)  So we stayed up eating Fat Jacks and watching a whole disc of House (four episodes).

Sunday, Matt went off to band when Henlie and I went to church.  We made it in time for the prayer.  Go us for making it to church!  (It's hard to do.)  The bishopric spoke.  Of course, the primary sang.  It was funny, Leah tried to get her little boy Xander (a sunbeam) to go up, but he really didn't want to.  She was going to lift him over the railing to stick him in with the other kids, but he kicked and wasn't going to have it.  The congregation got a laugh out of it.  After sacrament, Sherry Wilkinson gave us a gift she'd gotten for Henlie.  It's a little tummy time playmat with a bolster pillow and a couple of toys.  She is so sweet to think of us.  (Apparently she has always been fond of me because I was one of her first young women :)  Perks to moving into your old ward from childhood, eh?)

The ward got us truffle candy bars.  This was super nice as I didn't have time for breakfast.  Also, when I got to primary, I found that Whitney's pseudo efforts to have the priesthood take care of primary so the women could attend Relief Society actually worked. :)  Chip (Connie's husband - she's the song lady) really did do the music.  Also, Brother Draper really sort of set it up to have the men help in primary.  Although, he didn't call Whitney until Saturday afternoon lol. 

We ended up having all of the kids go to class first and then had a combined sharing time for the elders to come in and sit with the kids.  So, we got an hour of hanging out.  That was nice.  When some of the ladies found out Chip was doing the music, they decided to stick around.  It was kind of fun to have all of the kids together.  We're a smaller primary, so it was fun to have so many people there.  Whitney did a fun matching game for sharing time, and then Chip did the music. 

That was the most active singing time ever!  We got our workout in, for sure!  Chip started off with Popcorn Popping, and had all of the guys come up to do the actions.  I don't know if it's breaking any rules or not, but I totally videoed it. 



Oh yeah, other bonus?  Henlie napped for the last bit of church.  I'd fed her during the last part of sacrament meeting, so I didn't really want to feed her again.  (I'm having supply issues with her eating real food and nursing too often - when I go to pump at work, I get nothing.)  She found my arm instead and sucked on that for quite awhile before falling asleed.  At least I called it right and she wasn't really hungry, just sleepy.  Needless to say, I have a hickey on my arm from her :)  I handed her off to Denise to grab my phone to video the song, and she stayed asleep.  Afterward, Denise handed her back, and she was still asleep.  She woke up just in time for me to put her in her car seat to go home.  Craziness. 

Anyway, we also sang Do As I'm Doing and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.  Seriously - so much moving!  Carson made the comment to Chip, "You're sweating!"  Chip replied, "It's because I'm so nervous being up here in front of you guys.  It has nothing to do with the fact I'm fat."  lol Oh Chip.  He's a funny man :)

After church, Henlie and I came home and hung out.  We tried out her new playmat.  My dad called and I talked to him and Gloria for a little bit.  Henlie and I went outside and played in the shade of a tree and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.  She eventually took another nap, and so did I.  Matt came home and I woke up, and we headed over to his mom's house to visit and return her knives.  (Matt decided to sharpen them for her since he can't afford to buy her a new set.)



Probably just the fact it was Mother's Day and I'm actually a mother now got me thinking about my mom a lot.  I don't really sit and think about her a whole lot anymore, except for maybe around Christmastime (her birthday and death are in December).  So my mom was on my mind a lot Sunday.  Then in sacrament, we either sang or it was referrenced (yeah, I can't remember - pregnancy apparently really does kill off brain cells...) the song Oh My Father.  That reminded me of my mom because we sang it at her funeral.  I wanted to take Henlie over to my mom's grave, but I didn't know when Matt would be home.  I didn't end up going over in the afternoon, so we left Carrie's house to head to Springville before it was too late (both in terms of sunlight and Henlie's bedtime.  She didn't get to bed on time, but it was okay.  She was down by 9pm.)  I think it was only the second time I've taken Matt to my mom's grave.  I don't really go ever because she's not there.  I don't really see a point to it.  Although, I think that may change a bit now that we have Henlie.  It will maybe give her a way to be in touch with her grandmother and give us occasions to talk about her.





We had an enjoyable time.  Mocha had to stay in the car at the cemetery, and she got herself up on the back dash.  It was amusing to me.  Henlie also managed to bring an ant home with her, which we found on her dress when we got out of the car at home.


For my first Mother's Day, it was a great day.  Matt didn't even complain when I asked him to change a couple of diapers.  We watched some more House after the baby fell asleep.  I love my little family and am so grateful I get to be a mother.  It's still kind of weird to think about - that little girl is mine.  I brought her into the world.  I get to raise her.  I'm a mom. Yet, it seems so natural.  I do love being a mom.  It's kind of funny to think for awhile in my life, I didn't want kids.  I obviously changed my mind, and then when we decided to have kids, it took 3 1/2 years for us to get pregnant.  I know it was on the Lord's timeline, and I apparently had some learning and growing to do beforehand.  Even though some days are hard, I wouldn't trade it.  Being a mom is the best and what I was meant to do and be.  It's amazing how my priorities in life have changed since having Henlie.  I love her and am so glad I get to call her mine.

Devan and Kayla were sealed in the Provo, Utah temple on Saturday, May 4, 2013. (Unfortunately for us, this sealing was taking place at 9:30am.  More unfortunately was Henlie waking up at 3:15am and not going back to bed until 4am :p)

We did manage to get up, ready, and out the door on time.  We had to leave even earlier in case we ran into traffic with the Provo marathon happening that day.  However, we avoided all marathon traffic and got to the temple with plenty of time to hang out.  We gave the baby to Michelle and Jennifer and went to the waiting room.  It's fun to see and visit with family.


The sealing was beautiful, as they all are :)  Weddings always bring back memories of our wedding.  For example, when they reminded everyone to turn off their cell phones, I remembered how we had a cell phone ring in our sealing lol.  The sealer told us he was going to talk to the couple, even though they wouldn't hear any of it.  I tried to remember anything our sealer told us five years ago.... he was right, I don't remember any of it :)

As Devan and Kayla knelt at the altar, I looked at Mom and tried to put myself in her shoes.  Here was her fourth little boy all grown up and being sealed to his bride, getting ready to start their own family.  She's watched this happen three other times.  Now four children are married and she's a grandma to two little girls and soon to be a little boy!
 

I just really like this picture of the dads looking confused :)

 

The girls

Camile, Charlie, Jennifer, Michelle, Kayla, Jackie, Henlie, Me

 

Then I thought about my little girl.  One day, I'll be where Carrie was sitting, watching my little girl get sealed to the man of her dreams and ready to start a new chapter in her life with her eternal companion by her side.  That's a crazy thought.  One day, my cute little six month old will be all grown up and getting married.  Some day after that, she'll be a mother.  And one day after that, she'll watch her baby get married.  It's crazy to think about this circle of life.  Obviously it happens, but I don't think most people take the time to step back and see it as this huge cycle they're a part of.  It's a tender thing to realize.

After the sealing, I collected the baby and changed her into her dress.  And then we waited outside, and waited, and Henlie nursed.  (That's right, I nursed outside the temple while talking with people and no cover! I was wearing a nursing shirt, though.  I love nursing shirts.  So much easier to stay modest when you don't have to lift the whole thing up :))  Eventually, it was time for pictures!



 
Henlie got her first sunburn.  Fortunately, she wasn't badly burned.  She was a little pink on Sunday, but then it was gone.  It really was a nice day, though.  After pictures, we went to Golden Corral for the luncheon.  I was amazed by myself - I didn't get any meat...or pizza lol.  Nothing was looking terribly tasty until I found some red potatoes and squash and zucchini.  Somehow, that looked tasty (this is not all that normal for me lol), and we went from there.  (They were tasty, btw.)  I do enjoy Golden Corral :)


After the luncheon, we headed home for a few hours.  I was able to get Henlie's six month pictures taken and rest for awhile.  Then it was off to Salem for the reception.  Henlie was asleep for a good portion of it, until Charlie woke her up :)  Good thing Henlie had Grandma.  I didn't have to pay much attention to her at all lol  Yay for more visiting with friends and family, too!  At the end of the night, Camile even got pizza for us to have dinner.  Good times.  (I'm glad Camile is so thoughtful about these kinds of things.  She's always thinking of details that wouldn't ever cross my mind.)  Matt was a little sad Camile wasn't around when we got married because we didn't get any of our reception food lol


All in all, it was a beautiful day.  We're so excited that Kayla is officially a part of our family now and wish her and Devan the best!