Fruits??

Most babies you start with vegetables because every baby LOVES fruit and vegetables can be more of a challenge...well once again Mary Alice is doing things her own way! She loves carrots, sweet potatoes and squash. We have had no problems with any of them. Since she has exhausted the coumadin friendly vegetables I thought I would polish off the meal with some bananas...

Since that didn't seem to work I tried peaches...

I guess vegetables it is!!

Helping...

We all know how great of a helper Mary Alice is. Her latest assists have been making a larger size swaddle blanket. Her great-cousin Sarah got her an over sized receiving blanket and when she soils that one we have to quickly wash it and dry before the next nap...not my favorite. So I decided it couldn't be that hard and went ahead and made her a second...with her help of course.


Then our holiday craft of the week was the construction of a gingerbread house. It has been a LONG while since I have done one of these and lets just say I was a bit out of practice. Since, it was Mary Alice's first ever, she was no better than I was!


But here is our completed project!

Ben's Birthday

Well, Ben was sick on his birthday which was NO FUN. His one birthday request was that the three of us spend a quiet day at home together. Well, it didn't really start out quiet! Ben got Mary Alice up and after some squealing, some giggles, some gags, and a naked baby on her way to the shower I rounded the corner to find this gift to clean up!!

After they cleaned up, we started the Christmas decorating. Ben was making fun of how many things around the house end up in the tree. So he thought he would go ahead and get a jump start by putting the skis in the tree, next up the sled. Thankfully, this is my area...

Mary Alice in true form assisted with the decorating. She really liked all the Christmas music...she LOVES music!!

This one looks a little like "Where's Waldo..."

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was up at Grandma and Grandpa Kunz's cabin. We had a super fun time! Aunt Bekah, Uncle Joe, and Alexander were able to fly in from Idaho and we always have a good time with them!

Mary Alice got to sleep her nights away in the cradle built by her Grandpa Kunz!



Mary Alice decided for Thanksgiving dinner that she needed to join the adults and start using adult silverware!

Because we will be missing Aunt Bekah, Uncle Joe, and Alexander for Christmas we did a small celebration with them at Thanksgiving. In Uncle Joe's family, one of their traditions is that the kids get their pictures taken in all of the wrapping paper.

It was all going well until...

Of course an event is not event unless there is headgear involved!

Teaching story

It has been a LONG while since I have shared a teaching story. Mostly because I haven't taught in a LONG while, and also because I only teach one class with only eight students! My department chair was the one that was filling in for me in my AP Bio class and as of last week he has started to take back his own chemistry class. So he came back at the end of the hour on Friday and said, "Did you ever think that having a kid would consume so much of your life?" Not really sure where that question came from but...ummm...NO, I had NO IDEA!! It is funny that he would say that on the day that I dropped Mary Alice off at the baby sitter with a semi-bleeding lip, that she woke up from her nap from and took me 30 mins and two tries (mostly because of a sneeze) to get to "stop" bleeding! Therefore, I just spent the last hour trying to teaching about the evolution of mitosis and alternation of generation all the while more concerned about a bloody lip!! On top of that we were talking about advantages and disadvantages of asexual and sexual reproduction. One of the disadvantages of sexual reproduction is that the combination of genetic information from two parents MAY result in a genetically inferior offspring, not an improvement over the parents...hittin' a little close to home there! Fear not, I laughed, she may not be genetically improved but we are sure she will do greater things than either one of us has or will ever do... Though, she is definitely cuter than either one of us...we can blame that one on genetics + God!

Cooking, Carrots, and Christmas

Mary Alice has become well known for her "helpfulness." At only 7 months of age she already believes herself to be about 12 years old... at least! (Taking after her dad on that one). So the other night she helped me make lasagna for dinner. Though, we had a teachable moment about the spinach...she told me that when she has enough teeth I will have to leave that step out. We were in agreement.

Mary Alice has gotten so used to doing things for the time that she can now multi-task her "firsts." So not only was it the first time she had ever made lasagna, but it was her first time eating vegetables. She decided to start with carrots. We were unsure at first, but turns out she likes them better than oatmeal and cereal!

We will be celebrating Christmas with Aunt Bekah, Uncle Joe, and Alexander at Thanksgiving time and so Mary Alice was getting a jump start on her wrapping. She had to improvise since she doesn't have a wrapping hat...the crafty girl that she is, she made due with what was around her.

MAK picked out the wrapping paper for each person and then mom did the honors of the actual wrapping!

New Buffalo,MI

This weekend the RVCF staff had a retreat to New Buffalo, MI and the spouses/Mary Alice got to come with. It was MAK's first overnight since we have been home. It was practice for Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Kunz's cabin!


This was also the same day that Mary Alice cut her first tooth!! There are no pictures of this since her tongue will almost NEVER let you see it! This was also the beginning of Mary Alice and her FEET!!




On Saturday before we left we took a walk down to the Lake Michigan beach. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! Mary Alice enjoys riding in her carrier with her Daddy!!


Still those feet are more interesting than anything else on the beach!


Come on Mom, strike a pose!!


Family shot!


Mom is there a reason you are so close to my face??