First Food!

Happy February! With the various wintertime illnesses making their rounds, we've been doing our best to stay close to home. So far, we've been lucky with cold and flu bugs - I hesitate to even type this lest I jinx us - but pinkeye seems to be this year's bug of choice. Norah had her fun on Christmas, with Dan and then me following in the new year. We're not sure where Dan picked his case up (he can't blame Norah since his was viral and hers bacterial), but I'm pretty sure I know where my (viral) pinkeye was from. In any case, we've given the washing machine quite a workout.

Dan and I have been taking advantage of the nice weather the past couple of weeks by trying to get our garden under control. We have big plans for how we would like the yard to look, but our progress is slow (though steady). As usual, Dan gets to do most of the heavy lifting, while I do the weeding and pruning. The girls were helping me outside one afternoon, and Norah was doing her best to keep Maddie entertained so I could finish just one more rose bush...

Maddie sure loves her big sissy! (And don't you like Norah's outfit? She likes to pick out her own clothes now! If we're just staying around the house, I don't press the issue.)

It's hard to believe, but Maddie is already six months old!

She's happy to be sitting on her own and is getting very good at picking things up, (putting them in her mouth), banging them on the floor, (putting them in her mouth), picking up something new, (putting it in her mouth), etc., etc., etc. We waited until the six month mark to introduce solid foods, so we just started her on rice cereal this past Saturday. She was a little wary of the taste/texture/delivery, and the whole process was very messy. We're pretty sure she didn't actually swallow any of the food. As soon as she gets the hang of it, we'll move on to veggies - yummy!