She Finally Grew Some Taste Buds

I finally cooked up one of our eggs so that Daphne could be the recipient of some home grown goodness.

She wasn't too thrilled.



















Up until the past 2 days, she's eaten everything I've given her. 'Everything' includes whatever fruit/vegetable that is ripe at the little farm down the road where I buy all our produce. How wonderful it has been to cook up scores of vegetables that I would never eat myself and making an unsuspecting, innocent baby eat them instead. She's been great with it. Even when she's full she'll keep eating, just with a few grunts voicing her displeasure at having food forced down her throat.

Now she's actually clamping her lips shut when she doesn't want to eat. Her eyes just say, "uh, uh, no way. You can't make me." But in the sweetest way imaginable, of course.













And she looks longingly at the box of her new favorite thing, Joe's O's.













It's all she wants, every meal.

Who let her in on the secret that mashed cauliflower isn't the most delicious thing imaginable?














OK, baby, you can have some O's.

So Many Things

I haven't let the world know that our chickens have started pulling their weight around here. It's like a little Easter egg hunt every morning! I'm sure the novelty will wear off one of these days, but for now we have an unspoken rule that neither David nor I will go check without the other present. We both have to be there for the excitement of seeing if there are eggs in the nesting box. And for any of you who doubted that Blanche was female, I will have you know that she laid us a nice, brown egg this morning. So take that.



















We're done with the chicken updates, now we have to move on to the newest trick Daphne has up her sleeve. I will warn you that this may only be hilarious and interesting to David and me, so it's OK if this is boring to you.

But if you don't smile even a little, I may have to come see what is wrong with you.

Anyways, just the other day she started doing this funny thing where she puts her chin down on her chest and then looks up at you with just her eyes. I don't know why, and I don't know what it means, but I laugh and laugh every time she does it. She's catching onto that, therefore doing it more often.


























Oh, I love her.

Nine

David has found a creative way to change our nine-month old daughter's diapers.













He's a little bit wimpy.

Our nine-month old daughter has found how fun -and difficult- it can be to feed herself.













She's a little bit confused.

She also is starting to think that the summer squash her mom makes her eat while at Starbucks might not be as tasty as the Chonga bagel her dad gets to eat.













But she is liking that cute little baby she keeps seeing in the mirrors. She used to be kind of scared of that baby; now she wants to be that baby's friend.













She's working hard on her crawling skills (almost there!).













And her dancing/gymnastics.













She's still not sleeping through the night, but she has almost 4 teeth.

She reaches her arms to ask you to hold her. She sits all by herself. She eats anything I feed her. She's really fun to go shopping with (for about 10 minutes).

She's basically a pretty great nine-month old baby.

Happy Face

Can it be true?













Does she really smile?













This is a sight rarely seen on camera.













But your eyes are not fooling you.














There are no unhappy Daphne pictures for today.














Just a happy face.














Even Daphne herself is a little surprised.

Scary Baby

I am a person who is easily startled. David takes great delight in walking stealthily through the house, and without having to do much, getting me to jump out of my skin.

He found a new way to freak me out recently. I'm busy working on something, and then I turn around to see this:



















A very small person who looks very tall. And when you're not expecting to see such a sight, it can be very disturbing.

Dedicated

Today was one of my favorite Daphne days so far.

I imagine that everyone wants to know that their kids are loved. So when you have a day where people are there because they want to be, not because they have to fulfill an obligation; when you physically watch as a support system develops for your baby...well, you see love.

It makes for a really great day.

We had Daphne's baby dedication at church this morning, and Daphne packed the house with people who love her. We missed the many out of towners who couldn't make it, but had everyone shown up we may have had to rent that big new Cowboys stadium to hold them all. That would have been very inconvenient and far away, although Daphne would have looked great with her face plastered on their video screen.



























We had a roaring party at our house afterward, which Daphne slept through. She woke up just in time to open a few gifts.



















She LOVED this Bible Prayers book from the Bubna's. Seriously, she was bouncing up and down in my lap while looking at it.



















So thank you to everyone who loves our little girl. It means a lot.

Today

Unhappy Daphne picture-of-the-day:



















Cool hair picture-of-the-day:














Not sure:



















Saying howdy:

Out and About

Daphne had a nice, relaxing trip to Target today.













I also had a nice, relaxing trip to Target. So relaxing that I had to be paged mid-shopping because I left the passenger side door of the car wide open in the middle of the parking lot. Nice. And the weird thing is, this has been happening a lot lately, David just usually catches it for me. Sheesh, David, you need to pay more attention.

But I'm off the subject.

Daphne gets a kick out of sitting in the cart at the store and sitting in high chairs at restaurants. Unfortunately, she's still just tipsy enough that it's not uncommon for her to topple right over in spite of me thinking she had complete control over her upper body. So it was very handy that we found some outdoor pillows for our yard furniture on clearance for $3.24, as we were able to provide her the comfy ride you see here.




















At Red Robin, David used his belt to manufacture some sort of harness to keep her upright in the high chair. It was very amazing to me.

Doesn't she look so little in that great big chair?



















The high chair provides the perfect location for Daphne to play her favorite game of Throw My Toy on the Ground and Watch as People Get it for Me. She really loves that game.



















It's always so sad to go home.

Baby Talk

I wanted you all to see the puff headband my mom made me wear today.













It's to help me look more like a girl, she tells me.

Well, I gotta go, because my parents are eating something called Caprese pizza along with some fresh pesto and olive oil bread sticks (my mom's been slaving away in the kitchen). Sounds like a basil overload to me, but I'm still going to go see what I can steal off their plates. Especially now that I suddenly have THREE teeth to eat with.

Don't tell, but I found myself a bread stick. So yummy.

Early Birds

Since David doesn't get off work until 2 A.M., it's my job to get up in the morning with Daphne the Early Riser. It's amazing how I used to think I needed lots of sleep in order to make it through the day with a smile on my face. Now with the baby around I find I can survive on way fewer hours than I previously thought possible. Granted, 6 hours per night broken into 3 2-hour chunks are not ideal, but I think I'm handling it quite well.

On at least one day a week, on David's weekend, he will take pity on me and get up with Daphne so that I can sleep in. It's become their tradition to go on an early morning walk to the park.

I'm not there so of course I don't know everything that happens. But I did upload pictures today to find a hint of the fun.














Well, David looks like he's enjoying himself. Daphne looks nervous.

But stay tuned for a "What Not To Wear" exclusive: When the Dad Dresses the Baby, and How the Mom's Shocking Reactions Can Affect Family Dynamics.

You won't want to miss it.

What To Do On a (Not) Windy Day

David found a kite for 80% off. He's been talking forever about getting one, so it's like hitting jackpot when one of his favorite stores (Bi-Mart, where he goes without me because I think it's kind of creepy) is selling them for $1.75.

Daphne liked watching it fly directly over her head, other than that she was more interested in snacking on the kite wrapper.



















After David got tired of running around the park trying to find a breeze where there just really wasn't one, he gave up and came over to start singing "Let's Go Fly a Daphne."



















But alas, you know it's time to go home when your baby starts signing 'milk' (fingers of hand opening and closing, like you're milking a cow)...



















...and her sneezes cause carrots to shoot out her nose.
(If you click on the picture you'll get a great visual.)

In a Mood

Unhappy Daphne pictures-of-the-day.







































Fake smile picture-of-the-day.

Chompers

Just this morning I was telling Emily (we met through blogland and our common bond of spending time at St.V's) that Daphne has no teeth yet. Despite months of drooling and gnawing on anything she could get in her mouth and me trying to blame her fussiness on teething, nothing. I said this gave me a bit of a worry. Maybe dear little Daphne has no teeth in those gums of hers?

This afternoon we were at a function where people were supposed to be quiet. Daphne was being a baby so David took her out so she could be loud without disturbing the peace. When I went out to meet them afterward David said..."guess who has a tooth!!!" Sure enough, she has a sharp little something sticking out of her lower gum.

We couldn't see anything, partly because when we try to open her mouth she sticks her tongue out, and partly because the tooth is minuscule and I need a magnifying glass to get a better look. I can't tell by feel which lower tooth it is because the sharpness is right in the middle of her gum.

So now I have a new worry: does Daphne only have one tooth, right in the middle of her mouth?

I don't even know if braces can fix that one.