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I survived two days of subbing last week! It was at my old school, for a friend I taught with last year. I have to admit, I cried on the way there the first day. I have never left Reece for that long, and it was so hard! I hope we never end up in a position where I have to do that every day! It was kind of surreal being back there. In some ways, I felt like I had never left. But in others, it seemed like a whole different world to me. It was kind of bittersweet - it made me realize that I really do love teaching. I loved my job. But, I also realized how much more I love staying home with Reece and being a mom. It was fun to see some of my old students and parents of old students, but I was so happy to get home to my baby!
For some reason, kids always seem to have difficulty saying Andrus. So, about half of the kids were calling me Mrs. Anderson (it doesn't help that one of the other first grade teachers is Miss Anderson!) and one girl even called me Mrs. Ass! What! I was happy when they finally settled on calling me Mrs. A.
We had a nice weekend. Ben, Sharon, Gray, and Cal are in town visiting, so we had them over, as well as Sam and Nikki. It was so fun to be together and see my nephews! It doesn't happen nearly enough! It is just hard living away from family! Saturday I had the YW Broadcast, so I was pretty much out the door as soon as Josh got home from work.
Josh worked at the hospital yesterday, so I was on my own with Reece, church, and meetings/visits all day. I was a little apprehensive about it because she usually has a more difficult time on Sundays, due to missing her usual nap time while we are at church. But she was such a happy girl yesterday! It was such a great day, and I felt like I didn't want it to end! She was in such a good mood and we just had fun together. Being a mom is just the best!
Reece continues to LOVE eating her rice cereal. She just lunges for the spoon and can't get enough! We are going to try oatmeal today, and then hopefully start veggies later in the week. We're having a lot of fun with this new part of her little life!
This week I am looking forward to:
- Seeing Ben and Sharon again!
- Starting oatmeal and veggies with Reece
- Getting the ward fundraiser over with - hopefully we do well at it!
- Making cupcakes and cards for the fundraiser
- Josh having a day off during the week
- Trying new recipes
- Working out
Happy Monday!
Um....didn't I just barely make Reece's five month post? I cannot even believe it! Reece is half of a year old! (Well, technically she will be tomorrow!) When did that happen? Time is just going by so quickly, and I feel like it's never going to slow down! For her five month post, I was saying that she didn't really seem like a baby anymore. I've decided to call her a boddler. And guess what? There is an actual definition for that word! http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boddler
At six months Reece likes:
- Smiling
- Laughing
- Talking
- Sucking on her hands, fingers, my finger, burp cloths....really, anything that comes anywhere near her mouth is fair game
- Grabbing her toes
- Rolling over
- Toys: pink horse, pink elephant, fish rattle, plastic rings, pink hippo
- Playmat
- Exersaucer
- Watching TV/Baby Einstein
- Bumbo
- Baths
- Being naked
- Squealing
- Getting attention
- Standing in our laps
- Sitting up in front of the mirror
- Reading books
- Cell phones, remotes
- Hearing and making silly sounds - especially when I click my tongue
- Sitting in the cart at the store
At six months Reece doesn't like:
- Getting in her car seat (still)
- Being in her car seat for too long
- Getting dressed (STILL arms through the sleeves!)
Reece had her six month checkup today. Here are the stats:
* Weight: 13 pounds 9 ounces - 10th % (skinny girl!)
* Height: 26 inches long - 63rd %
* Head Circumference: 16 and 3/4 inchs - 56th %
I asked her pediatrician if I should be worried about her weight. She just keeps falling in the percentiles, but he said the important thing is that she is still gaining, however much that it is. He gave us the okay to start solids with her, so I'm hoping that will help with her weight! I'm also hoping that starting food will help with her crabiness that she's had for the past two weeks! Maybe she's just more hungry than what I've got to give her! We'll do a week of rice cereal, a week of oatmeal, and then go on to veggies and fruits. He said that in a couple of weeks, as she gets better at sitting, that we can start finger foods like the Gerber's puffs. I think she will really like sucking on those! Plus, that will give her something to keep her distracted at church! :) She got a clean bill of health! Her shots were not so fun for her, but she's been pretty good since we left the doctor's office.
Reece is not quite sitting on her own yet, still. She's getting stronger, and can do it for small periods of time, especially if she is leaning forward enough, but we still always have to be sitting behind her in case she falls. We'll keep practicing! She's turned into quite the roller, and is starting to figure out how to roll to her right side. Before she could only do her left side. It is funny to watch her on the monitor when she goes to bed at nite, just watching her roll around in her crib. She is getting better at putting herself to sleep after rolling around for awhile. I imagine that will keep getting better and better! Still no teeth, but definitely all the teething symptoms! I'm sure those will make an appearance in the next month or two, but I'm quite fine with her not having them yet! It is really fun to watch her in her exersaucer as well. She is getting so good with her hands, and it's been fun to watch her develop her skills and be able to do things on purpose with her hands, instead of just by chance. She loves to grab the attachments and put them in her mouth, spin the roller things on it, and has figured out how to make the sound play from pushing a button. She's the cutest!
We just love our little Reece's pieces so much!
Okay, so this didn't really require a ton of baking, but there was some involved. I found this idea on a cupcake blog, and decided to try it. We are having a ward auction/fundraiser in a couple of weeks, and we are supposed to bring desserts to auction off. So I wanted to make sure it would work out! The blog I got it off of made everything from scratch. I do not have the patience for this, especially when you can just buy a cake mix and a can of frosting! :) I'm not necessarily lazy, just cheap. My sister did a tutorial of how she made her Easter wreath, so I thought it would be fun to do a tutorial of my cupcakes! The ingredients: Devil's food cake mix, eggs, oil, strawberry frosting, chocolate chips for the coating
Put cupcake liners in your cupcake tin, and fill 2/3 full with the cake batter.
Bake!
My friend Sarah gave me this tip for frosting when you don't have the real frosting bags/tools. Just cut the end off a Ziplock! (I'm sure everyone in the world knew that but me.)
Frost the cupcakes once they are cooled. I put them on a cookie sheet and put them in the fridge so that the frosting would harden.
Melt your chocolate chips in the microwave, and dip the frosting part of the cupcakes in it.
The finished product:
This is what they look like, cut in half. 
VERDICT: They were delicious!
I also made some homemade Thin Mints. You use Ritz crackers, peppermint extract, half of a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips, and half of a bag of milk chocolate chips. Melt the chips in the microwave, add the extract to your liking, and dip your Ritz in them. I haven't tried them yet, but they look tasty!
*Cross posted to the recipe blog.
What I'm looking forward to this week:
- Reece's six month checkup (how is my baby six months old????)
- Reece starting solid food!
- Another practice for the Youth Temple Celebration - it was really fun last week; I learned a Polynesian stick dance
- Getting my craft on some more
- Book club
- Ben, Sharon, Gray, and Cal coming to visit!!!!!!
- Getting some more reading done
- Working out (eventually this baby weight WILL come off)
- Giving Sarah her birthday present
- Trying a new cupcake recipe
- Getting some 2 liter bottles stored with water for our meager food storage
What I'm NOT looking forward to this week:
- Working for two days. We need the money, but the thought of leaving Reece for two days is making me sick to my stomach! :(
My friend Sarah and I always say how Reece and her son are betrothed for later on in life. (Reece's best friend will also be her baby girl who is due this summer!) Dawson is really cute with Reece, always wants to hold her hand and 'pound it', shares toys, and gives her hugs and kisses. He also loves to copy whatever Reece is doing. It is so cute, and it will be even more fun as Reece learns to play with Dawson more. Cute little kids!
Here is what I am looking forward to this week:
- Hanging out with Sarah and Stacy
- Making more girly things for Reece
- Having Britney and Luke over
- Craft nite
- Starting practices for the Youth Temple Celebration (It's going to be so amazing!)
- Playing more Text Twist online
- Finishing up some books so I can return them to the library
- Reading the Shopaholic books I borrowed from Camilla
- Working out at least five days
- Reece getting used to being able to roll over in her crib so that she stops waking up all throughout the nite (Really hoping on this one!)
- Reece being happy again (Really hoping on this one, too! I miss my happy girl!)
- Watching Reece roll all over, and learn new things every day
- Preparing my talk for sacrament meeting and speaking on Sunday (Okay, not looking forward to doing it, just looking forward to having it over with!)
Happy Monday!
Josh ended up having a nice birthday! He got home from work to his gift from Reece and me - a massage! I think he was happy about it, and he didn't even get mad at me for spending money on it! :) I hope he makes time to go use it; he definitely deserves it. We got ready, and then his dad, sister, and brother came over to watch Reece so we could go out. We didn't end up at Red Lobster, but just grabbed some food quick on our way to the movies. We saw Taken - very good! After we got home, we played Boggle - and yes, I lost once again - and just hung out for the rest of the evening. It was nice to be able to spend some time alone together and re-connect! I think sometimes we both get so caught up in what we have going on that we don't make as much time for us alone as we should. So, a great nite! Thanks to everyone who called or texted him happy birthday! And thanks to Gary, Em, and Michael for babysitting!
When we got home that nite, they told us that they had heard a really loud sound from our freezer, and had thought that maybe it was ice. They said it sounded like a gun shot, and we were thinking, how could that be ice. Well......Josh had put a bottled water - in a GLASS bottle - in the freezer, and forgotten about it! So now our freezer is covered in ice and glass pieces. It is a mess, and we haven't had time to get it cleaned up yet! Sooo smart!
And just to show my love of popcorn... when we got home that nite, I unzipped my sweatshirt to start getting ready for bed, and what falls out of it? Two pieces of popcorn! Does that say anything about how fast I must have been shoveling it in my mouth to not even realize it wasn't all making it in? I love popcorn!
Reece is cute as ever. I'm not sure if she is teething, messed up from the time change, or has an ear infection or what! But she has been so soooo fussy this week. Just whiny, and generally not my happy girl. I don't really know what is going on, but I hope we figure it out soon! She is rolling all over the place, and her new thing is rolling around in her crib! It's disrupting her sleep a little bit, but that's to be expected. I was woken up at four in the morning the other nite because she was talking to herself. I look on the monitor, and she has completely flipped herself around - so her feet where where her head was when I had put her down for the nite. Not only that, she had untied the crib bumper, had the ribbon wrapped around her arm, and her cute little head was in between the crib and the crib bumper! I went in to fix it and she was just looking around, happy as can be. She's such a funny girl! It is so much fun every day to see her trying to make sense of her world. I love how she 'senses' everything with her hands and mouth. I love being a mommy!
Today is Josh's birthday! We don't have any real plans right now. We had thought about going to see Taken and eating at Red Lobster, but we're just not sure we can get anyone to watch Reece that late (especially now that today is here!) So it may end up being a quiet evening at home together that will probably involve me losing to him at Boggle. We celebrated this past weekend with his family. Maybe we'll be able to go out this weekend or something. He's going to be mad that I spent money on his gift, but he deserves it!
I'm so grateful for him and how hard he works for our family. He works two jobs, close to 60 hours, every week, just so that I can stay home with our daughter! I think that's an incredible sacrifice to make, and I'm so thankful that he's willing to do that for us. He's so smart, and such a great dad. Reece just lights up with a huge smile whenever he gets home from work each day. He's so supportive of me and us, and I'm just so lucky to be married to my best friend!
I love you Josh!
This is Reece's newest thing. It just makes Josh and I laugh. She's got moves!
Things I am looking forward to this week:
- Date nite with Josh for his birthday (it's on Wednesday!)
- Watching Millie
- Taking Reece to the dermatologist (odd, but I like going to the doctor to have my mommy fears reassured - I'm a worrier!)
- Maybe seeing Britney and Luke
- Working on some crafts!
- Updating Reece's scrapbook
- Making bon bons for young women's activity tomorrow nite
- Seeing Jim, Jules, and Empress for Em's bday party!
- Going to Sarah's to make all things girly on Saturday
- Tara's pampered chef party
- Reading, reading, and more reading!
- Watching Reece roll all over the place
- Season premiere of Dancing With the Stars (especially now that Melissa is in it!)
I just have to say thank you to all of my friends that did the book swap with me! I just keep getting more and more books in the mail for Reece every day! It is so great! You can never have enough books! (Spoken like a true teacher, right?)
So thank you, thank you! I hope you all get returned as well as I have!
I'm a day late on this post because our laptop died on Sunday! Thanks to our friend Adam, we are back in business again.
Here is what I'm looking forward to this week:
- watching Reece roll around - she won't stay on her back for longer than a second now!
- watching Reece in her exersaucer
- working out at least 4 times
- seeing some teacher friends and former students at my old school
- hanging out with Britney
- having my cousin Nat come to stay with us!
- doing our taxes
- watching the Bachelor finale (I already watched it but I would have written this yesterday if I could have!)
- having Josh's family over to celebrate his birthday early
