This stuff is bananas!

We've officially moved on from cereals to the good stuff!  Fruits and Veggies!  As I previously stated, Matt chose the first fruit that Arwyn would have.  One of his favorites (mine too) are bananas.  So it was bananas that we went with.

I'm happy to say that they were a hit!  I wish I could've gotten a photo of Arwyn's first mouthful.  It was the look of "Wait... what is this?  This is new....  Mmmm.... Mmmm....  Yep, I like it!"

Arwyn definitely prefers freshly mashed bananas to the Gerber bananas.  

She likes them so much she constantly grabs the spoon from my hand to attempt to put it in her mouth. 

Bananas are great but sticky!  Hopefully the next food we try will be less sticky.  We've already let Matt choose that one too.  Next up (in a few days) will be sweet potatoes!  We can't wait!  

Eating like a champ! (and a family update)

Arwyn had her 4 month appointment last week.  She weighs 13 lbs, 15 ozs., and was 26.25 inches long.  She's growing well and was given the ok to start eating solid foods.

We are on day 3 of Organic Brown Rice Cereal.  She LOVES it! (As evidenced by the picture)  She even had two bowls today!  She kept grabbing my hand to get the food in her mouth quicker than I could get it on the spoon.  We're excited to try bananas (which Daddy chose for us to eat) next week!

Right now Matt is deployed on the USS Carl Vinson.  The ship is currently providing relief to Haiti and hopefully will stick to their original time line and arrive in San Diego in April.  Arwyn and I have been missing Matt like crazy.  We're lucky enough to be able to email everyday and even get a phone call from him occasionally.  He is even able to receive a picture or two from my iPhone, so he's been able to see pictures of Arwyn.

Arwyn is still working very hard on her rolling.  She's enjoying being on her tummy more and more each day!

Arwyn has also started an interesting habit.  She loves to cover her face when she takes a nap or falls asleep in her bouncy seat.  I was able to snap a few pictures of this.  It's too cute!

Starting the solids

Today was an exciting day!  Arwyn started eating solids today.  As recommended, we started with rice cereal.  I went with an organic brown rice cereal.  She liked it! 

I first started off with putting some on her pacifier, but quickly moved to using the spoon.  The spoon I got is by Nuk and it is a soft texture, similar to pacifier texture.  She ate almost all of cereal.

Since today was her first time trying this, I wanted to make sure she was comfy, so I left her in her bouncy seat.  Tomorrow, I will try feeding her in her high chair.  Wish me luck!

We've made sure to include Matt in her new developments.  He has chosen the next food that she will try - Bananas!  Thankfully, I'm able to send Matt a few pictures, so was able to share these with him.  We don't want him to feel like he's missing out.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'...

Over the last couple of weeks Arwyn has been working on her rolling skills.  Around this age (4 months) babies typically can roll from their stomach to the back.  Around 6 months babies usually can roll from their back to their stomach.

Arwyn decided to do things differently.  She isn't crazy about spending time on her stomach, so she has yet to roll from her stomach to her back.  She has, however, rolled from her back to her stomach.  Ahhh..... my little girl.  Not only is she growing super fast, she's hitting milestones early.

Arwyn preparing to work on her rolling.  Legs up and tucked.

This is her rolling technique.  Face first!

Whew, this rolling practice is tiring.  

Guess I'll take a nap.

On a side note-  I'm working on my baking little by little.  Most recently I made some meringues.  Instead of putting vanilla extract in them, I sprinkle them before baking with some different Jell-O flavors.

I'm still working on perfecting my baking of them, but I'm close.  Only about 1/4 of them were chewy on the inside, rather than being dry and crunchy.

Deployment cookies

So after seeing the movie Julie & Julia, I've decided to do my own baking experiment.  I plan on trying to work my way through Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions.  I'm excited to try new recipes and cookies I would have never thought of making before!

Aside from my love of baking, I'm doing this to keep busy while Matt is away.
He has just left for a few months on deployment.  Matt has just begun his new job as a Communications Officer with Carrier Strike Group One aboard the USS Carl Vinson.  I'm not entirely sure what he'll be doing in this role, but I'm sure I'll learn soon enough.  We're stoked to be back with the actual Navy (Matt's last job was working mostly with Gov't Civilians and Gov't Contractors).

While he's gone, I'll be taking care of Arwyn and trying to keep busy.  Keeping busy entails baking cookies, working on my Villanova coursework, job hunting, spending as much time as I can with my East coasters, and looking for a place to live in San Diego.  I am just trying to keep busy enough to make these next few months fly by.

So what do I plan to do with all these cookies?  Some I plan on putting some in care packages to Matt.  Enough for him to eat and have plenty to share with his shipmates.  Some I plan on sending out to family and friends.  (Thank you USPS flat rate boxes!)  The rest I plan on eating until I'm sick.  Ok, so not really.  I will eat some, but within reason.

Email me if you want me to send you some of the cookies.  I'm more than happy to bake them and then get them out of my house!

Work In Progess

As you may see, my blog is a little off.  I'm attempting to tweak some of the fonts on here to be more personalized.  In doing so, I reverted my template back to a default.  So this means weird color combinations and ugly fonts.

I plan on getting everything perfect next week, once I have plenty of time on my hands.  That's both a good and bad thing. 

So bear with me until then.  Hopefully you'll enjoy the finished product!

On the market

Well, it's official.  Our house is on the market.  We've really enjoyed living in this house these last few years, but it's time to part.  We just hope that it doesn't take too long to sell.  We've actually already had it shown once.  I'm thinking that that's a good sign.  I mean our house hasn't even been on the market for 2 days and it's already being shown.

Once this is done, it's on to San Diego.  Well, we're headed to San Diego in April regardless.  I'm headed out West in March to try to find a house to rent and maybe get some leads on some jobs.

I'm getting more and more excited about moving to San Diego every day!  I can't wait to take Arwyn to the beach.  I've already been looking at infant swim classes to take out there.  I want to get her in the water as soon as possible!  Who knows... We might like it out there so much that we try to stay there for a few more tours with the Navy.  Like I've said all along, there are worse places to be stationed than San Diego, so I'm not complaining!  :-)

In other news...
Arwyn did excellent on her first plane trip!  We flew to Buffalo visit her Aunt Dina and family.

She loved meeting her auntie, uncle and her three awesome cousins!  We both had a great time and wish we could see them all more often.  Hopefully they'll come visit us in sunny San Diego.  Quite a big difference from the snowy Buffalo area!

 Aunt Dina, Mommy and Arwyn

Arwyn playing with her cousins, Bryce and Rhees 






Uncle Scott, Arwyn and Bryce