Try, Try Again

It's impossibly hard to catch a smile of a 6 week old on camera. But here I've come pretty close. Here's how I got this photo. Tuesday night around midnight when I was finally crawling into bed, I had a sudden realization that I hadn't eaten anything all day long. I'd had a sausage biscuit around 10 am and some chips and salsa around 6:30 pm. Amazingly I wasn't even hungry. I figured though that it wasn't the best idea to go without food all day long, so I decided I should make a more valiant effort to eat. Wednesday was the first day I tried this out, and when Kennady finally fell asleep around 2:45 I decided to make a sandwich. Well, since I didn't hear her crying, I decided to do some dishes and some laundry. Then I thought I would take a picture of her all sweet and sleeping. When I went in, she was wide awake, just staring at the walls. As soon as she saw me she starting smiling, and with camera in hand and already on, I was able to snap the tail end of the smile.

Here's another successful story. Last night Kennady went to bed around 9:30, instead of midnight, which gave Ben and I a chance to spend some time together without entertaining a baby and without regretting a lack of sleep in the morning. I have to give credit to Ben for this one. He suggested we give her bedtime meal of milk spiked with rice cereal around 7 p.m. The more amazing part? She slept in her crib, all night long. In fact she slept until 6:30. Then she ate, and ate, and ate, and fell back asleep from 8-10. For anyone who is concerned that she is not getting enough to eat by sleeping so long, I shall give you all the facts. During the day she's been eating every 1 1/2 hours, for 30-45 minutes. I believe the name for her is "cluster feeder" or monster...whatever suits you. And she's gained 1 1/2 pounds and 3 inches in the past 2 weeks.

Since I'm in the mood for explaining myself, I think I shall clarify our plans, since there seems to be some confusion. We'll be in Rexburg for two more weeks while Ben finishes up the semester. Then we are going to pack all of our stuff into storage (minus a few clothes and baby necessities), load the car and drive to Missouri, where we will spend the next 4 months. Ben doesn't have school in the winter, he goes in the summer and fall. Thank-you BYU-Idaho for your "brilliant" inflexible 3-track system, which "allows" students to go to school in the summer when there are plenty of jobs gives them a nice break in the dead of winter. We will return to Rexburg sometime in April and Ben will finish up his remaining 3 semesters. And that's where our plans run out.

Just for laughs- I was pooped on this morning. We will be switching to the next bigger size diaper soon.