Wednesday, November 19, 2008

What's been cookin'

anna_preston.jpg

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Little Bunny FuFu...

So, when I was little (and still to this day) I have a security blanket.  I don't carry it around with me anymore but when I use it it sure is great!  In fact I wrapped Anna up in it in the Hospital.  It has held up quite nicely.  I am sure my mother didn't train me to get attached to the blanket, I know it just happened.  Well, for Anna, its a little bit of a different story.

Someone gave us an adorable pink bunny that has a small blanket attached.  They actually make these things to become Lovey's or security animal/blankets!  Anyway, Anna has grown quite accustomed to falling asleep while nursing, which I think is just fine by the way.  She knows how to fall asleep well in her pram, the carseat, and while nursing.  So this week I started to teach her how to go to sleep without nursing.  It started yesterday at nap time (2nd nap, nap time happens often at our house).  I stayed with her while she cried herself to sleep, just a sleepy cry nothing too distressing (we are not into the Ferber method, It just doesn't match our parenting style) plus, I was with her the whole time.  Our goal is to teach her that sleep is a peaceful and restful time, not a scary thing that separates her from her parents.   Anyway, it took her a half hour to fall asleep without nursing.  So then I wondered how long it would take her to learn this new skill.  Well that night, while I was nursing her to sleep, I had the idea of giving her this toy to hold while nursing.  Well, she loved it.  She took her evening nap holding it, and fell asleep for the night holding onto it.  I even caught her sucking her thumb and putting herself back to sleep with it at one point.  So, today (nap 1) I tried to channel this sleep association to putting herself to sleep without nursing and tada...she was asleep in 10 minutes, with minimal crying!  I am not going to let her use her Bunny (who BTW is not named FuFu, but it just reminded me of the song, so far her name is Bunny) outside of falling asleep.  She can have other daytime toys for outings etc.  This way, washing the little gal won't be too tough, I will just do it while she is awake!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Splish, Splash..

So, another exciting thing.  Anna and I just got back from ....her first trip to the pool!  It was great.  She seemed to enjoy it, or at least not to be scared.  She played with a ball.  Floated in a baby ring.  I even got her to lay flat (with her head resting on my shoulder).  I wasn' t sure how she would do because she often seems to get nervous in the bath, but she stayed in for like 30 minutes!  Who knows maybe one day she will follow the family legacy and become a lifeguard!

Its been a long time...

Well, sorry its been so long.   I have been supper busy!  But I figure with mom laid up I would write to give her something to read.  Well, and just to update everyone.

Here goes.  This week has been huge in our house!  Anna started sitting (propped on her arms, with occassionally sitting straight up) grabbing things, found her feet, and rolled over from her tummy to her back!  Who knew she would do everything at once.  She has been playing in her exersaucer, which I set up 2 weeks ago.  She took to it the first time she was in it and even though her feet don't reach the ground, she loves it!  We put something under them so she can stand on it while playing.  Who knows maybe that is what helped her gain some muscle strangth.  She also had her first bout of stranger anxiety.  And when I left her at grandma's house for my drawing class, she cried the whole time, she is really advanced, at least in her anxiety.  What can I say, I always got sick whenever my parents left!

We had our first dinner guest from the neighborhood.  Alice came over last night and we had our typical Mudgett suprise meal.  Which last night consisted of chicken, vegetables, coconut milk, and a little bit of spice.  It was great to have her over.  We ended up breaking out the wedding album to show her pictures of everyone we talked about.  She is great.  She really gets a kick out of Anna and Anna seems to really take to her.

Drew has been supper busy!  He is in a masters program at UMUC, he works fulltime on base, and is the ward clerk!  He still spends plenty of time with us though.  He is amazing!  He has been working on a midterm this week and still has made time for our dinner guest and tomorrow night we are going to someones house for dinner so he can fix their computer.  They called last night saying their internet was down.  Drew hates it when people are offline and said its a little late right now, how about tomorrow.  I don't think they meant for him to come right over, last time he fixed their computer they asked him and it had been broken for several weeks.  If he had known about it right away it would have been fixed in a jiffy!

We put our house on the market a few weeks ago.  Thanks to some very big help from the wheelers.  We have already had 13 people look at the place!  We had one with a second showing!  We are really praying it will sell quickly.  Please keep us in our prayers!

We went to the temple first time while since we have been here.  It is about 1.5 hours from here.  It is beautiful!  We did a child swap with a woman in our ward.  We went and she watched Anna, when we were done, we took her boys.  It worked out very well.  It was great to be there.

I have been really focused on getting the house clean and organized.  I realize I need to start baby proofing and it is making me a little nervous.  In a few months, Anna is going to moble and that is going to add some challenges to our life.  But, it should be pretty fun!

My sister is getting married!  We are very excited about it!  We are very happy for her and Cliff!  We hope that he likes us and that he doesn't get too overwhelmed meeting a lot of his new family on his wedding day, then spending Christmas with us.  I would feel a bit overwhelmed, in that situation, but we really arn't that scary, a bit neurotic, but I think we are pretty fun!

We went on our first official date, just the two of us, without Anna.  (we did have a mini date, without Anna when my folks were here, but really we were just taking Drew's brother to meet his friends).  This was a date when we went out to dinner, it was Drew's day off.  That was my gift to him.  I didn't have any chores that I needed help with, he finished his work early, and we spend the day as a family.  Then for dinner we went to a crepe restaurant, It was great!  Thanks Mudgetts, for watching Anna!

Speaking of the Mudgetts (Joan and Fred) they left yesturday on Holiday.  They went to the US.  The will going on a cruise!  A long time dream of Fred's.  They are going to be boarding on Sunday for a western carribean trip.  We hope they have a great time!

Thats all I have time for Anna just woke up and is calling me.  Hope everyone is doing well!  We are very glad the election is finally over, 2 years is way to long to have to listen to compaigning!