Rice cereal

Tonight was Lucy's first go at rice cereal. She loved it and did a pretty good job getting it down. I forgot how messy the whole feeding procedure is. Rice cereal was all over her face, even up her nose. She is just growing up too fast.

Big bite

Why is my face starting to feel so stiff?

Trying to get the cereal out of her nose before it turned into paste
Finger-lickin' good

4 months old

Lucy turned 4 months old on Friday. She had her well check today. She is a healthy little girl. Here are the stats.
Weight-12 lbs. 10 ozs. (a little less than the 50th percentile).

Height-23.5 inches (25th percentile)

Head-41 cm (50th percentile)

She is a bit on the midget side, but that is how it is with all of my girls. She got the green light to start eating rice cereal. She had to get 4 shots, but she handled them like a champ. She is so fun and we are enjoying her immensely.

Pedicure

Last night I got out the nail polish to do manicures and pedicures on Leah and Annie. They love to have their nails polished. I decided to do Lucy's toes too. They turned out super cute and I was glad that the polish I used dried in 60 seconds because she was kicking like crazy. I am looking forward to the day when we can all go to the spa and have pedicures done together. Brian will have to go hunting or something to offset all that girliness.

Leah, Lucy, and Annie toes

Pretty little piggys

Valentine's Party

Our playgroup had a Valentine's party on Friday. The kids passed out Valentines, decorated cookies, and we had a delicious potluck lunch. It was a great little celebration of love.

Annie frosting a cookie Annie decorating her bag to collect her Valentine's Lucy hanging out and feeling the love Leah with her bag of Valentine's to pass out

Haircut

So Leah has wanted her hair cut for sometime. She wanted it like her friend Maddi's. We went today and here is the result. I love it. My brother said she looked like she is ten. She does look more grown up. My baby girl is getting too big too fast.

cookies and milk

I just realized that my last two posts have been regarding cookies and milk. That was not intentional, but somewhat comical.

Valentine cookies

We decided to decorate Valentine cookies for family night. It was quite the adventure. I gave each girl a bowl of frosting, a knife and a couple cookies to decorate. They turned out quite interesting. Annie's each had one little blob of frosting and about 25 pieces of candy that wouldn't stay on (due to the lack of frosting) she she would just eat them when they fell off. Leah actually did a pretty good job frosting hers and had pretty good control when adding the sprinkles and candies. All in all, it was pretty fun.

Leah going for the sprinkles

Yum, frosting!

Tasting her handiworkLucy during the decorating
Annie and her tiny blobs of frosting

Trying to cram as much candy on as possible
Brian supervising the sprinkles

Got Milk?

Breast milk that is. Well, I have plenty. In fact, I have enough to share. Due to this abundance, I have become involved with an organization call the International Breast Milk Project (IBMP). It is quite a magnificent program. I donated breast milk that will either be sent to infants in South Africa who have been orphaned due to AIDS or it will be used for critically ill infants here in the United States. It was quite the procedure to be apporved as a donor. I applied before Lucy was born and I just sent my first shipment out today. My application was screened and both my doctor and Lucy's doctor had to be in support of me donating milk. Once I got past that stage, my freezer temperature had to be validated. I then completed a DNA test and had blood drawn. It was quite the process, but I am thrilled to be able to help out a baby in need.

My stockpile

I have another ode to breast milk. Many of you know that Lucy has suffered with a clogged tear duct since she was born. Her poor eye was always all gunked up, especially in the morning. Well, my friend Natalie asked me about Lucy's eye at playgroup. I told her what was wrong with it and how I was massaging it and hoping that it would clear up, so she wouldn't have to have surgery. She told me that one of her kids had had the same thing and she just squirted some breast milk in the eye and it cleared it right up. I was willing to try anything. I got home and the next time I fed Lucy, I put a couple drops in her eye and waited to see what would happen. It was amazing. There was improvement in just a few hours. I continued to put a couple drops in her eye for the rest of the night. I figured the real test would be over night, because her eye was always the worst in the morning. The next morning her eye was gunk free. Incredible! I was just sad that I hadn't tried it sooner.

Gunk free eye(her right one)

So glad her mom decided to do use her as a guinea pig for a science project