1 year old!!!! Party, and disturbing news

WooHoo!!! Jessica has turned one! We've had her for a whole year!. Its exciting to me. We had a big birthday party for her on Saturday (her birthday). But I think I'll let pictures speak for themselves on this.

As I said, large fun party. Jessica got quite the haul, and I was so grateful to everyone.
So, as I said, pictures speak for themselves.
     The Monday following, I had her 1 year well-baby check up. I went in not really expecting anything out of the ordinary. I figured she'd cry when she got her vaccines, I figured the doctor would be a little worried because of how thin Jessica is and how low her weight percentile is, but I figured that since she was eating, and was happy, things were okay.
     Imagine my surprise when I read the scale at 15 pounds 4 ounces. I didn't remember the exact weight from 9 months, but I knew it was above 15 pounds. I had them look it up. At 9 months she weighed 15 pounds 10 ounces. *shock, worry, shame, etc* My baby has lost weight. Now, I tend to be the kind of person that takes what doctors say with a grain of salt. I do my research and I do not do something just because a doctor says. I've always been skeptical of some chart telling me if my baby was normal or not. I always said as long as she is gaining some weight, no matter how little, I think she's fine. Well, now she's not gaining weight anymore. She has also slowed down on her height growth as well, (related???)  She is 29 1/2 inches tall, which puts her in the 50th %, as opposed to the 75th % like last time, or the 95% like at birth, and up through 6 months.
     So, now we get to figure out why she is losing weight. The doctor mentioned 2 or 3 times doing blood work to see is something may be wrong with her metabolism, making it so that she cannot process food as she should. He finally decided that as a family doctor, he didn't have the know-how to deal with "failure-to-thrive" as her "condition" is called. So he referred me to the Follow-Up-Nutrition (FUN) clinic at Primary Children's Hospital. In the meantime, we are feeding her as much high-calorie, high-nutrient food as we can, just in case I was wrong about her getting enough food.
     I called the clinic, and apparently I cannot even set up an appointment until next Wednesday (the 3rd) but I will be getting that for as soon as possible.
     It just hit like a smack in the face. I'm not sure what to think. She's always been happy, so I figured I was feeding her enough, but I worry that maybe I wasn't. Or maybe I was filling her up, but there were not enough nutrients. Or maybe she does have a metabolic insufficiency of some sort. We shall see.
     As much as I would feel bad, I hope it is that she wasn't getting enough food, because that is the easiest to fix.

     Anyway, moving on to happy times. I got Jessica's one year and Halloween pictures taken. The Halloween ones were way cuter, but I just got them done today, so I don't have them yet to post, but here are the one-year pictures.

Mornings

I love my daughter. She is seriously the most adorable thing in the world. Yes, I know, your child is cuter. No, I don't believe you, sorry. Yes, I am biased. (What parent isn't?) I think one of my favorite things is listening to her wake up in the morning. Not the random early morning wake-up when I'm still in bed. But her 7am start-to-wake-up time.
What is so cute about it? Well, for about 5 minutes she'll be making little mewling noises. These are quiet and a little higher in pitch. It seriously sounds like a little kitten mewling. We might even get some bubble blowing in there as well. This normally seems more like a "I'm awake, but I don't know if I want to be" type of period. Then she'll start getting louder. She'll "talk" to me (through the monitor) for a bit, saying things like"ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba", and then be quiet. (Still not quite sure she wants to be up). In between, I can hear her kicking the sides of her crib and talking to herself. SO ADORABLE
Generally she is quite content to remain in her crib playing until she gets herself standing up. She has recently (within the past week or so) figured out how to pull herself up to standing and walk along things like the couch, ottoman, chair, crib, me, etc. Well, she hasn't quite figured out the getting down part yet. So she'll be talking and playing and blowing bubbles in her crib until she gets up, and then when she realizes she can't get down, she'll start yelling for me. Okay, yes, this sounds more like crying, but give the kid a break, she's only 1 (in 3 days). I open the door, and find her standing and she just brightens up immensely. It is the cutest thing in the world. She is just so happy to see me there, even though I have yet to pick her up. (I can't get over how tall she is either).  I just thought I would share some of my moments of joy with you. Mornings are great!

Bountiful Baskets

     So, I've had a few friends recently start talking about this "bountiful baskets" thing, where you pay for a basket of fruit and vegetables on Monday night for a really good price, and then the following Saturday you go pick it up. We thought about it and talked about it for a few weeks, and then decided that it was worth it. 
     Neither Nathaniel nor I do very well with eating fruits and vegetables, and I have a hard time picking out vegetables and fruit to eat, so we just don't have enough. We figured this would be a good way to get more fruit and vegetables in our diet, as well as get more variety in our meals, because I would have to find some to use the "unusual" (at least for us) produce.
     So, I went online to Bountiful Baskets on Thursday (a week and a half ago) and signed up. Then, Monday night at 8 (when they start for Utah) I went online and picked which location I wanted to pick up my produce at, and I gave my "donation" of $19.50 ($15 for basket, $1 handling, $3 first-timer (for the baskets they use). It sure felt like a chunk out of my wallet, (I know, I know, to most of you it probably doesn't sound like much, but when your grocery budget including toiletries and diapers is $200/month, it feels like a lot more) but I knew that I would be getting more for my money than if I went to the store.
     I waited (not so patiently) for Saturday morning to arrive so that I could go get my first basket. You do have to arrive at the slightly early (for most people) time of 7:30 in the morning. They also only have a 20 minute window that you can get your basket, if you show up late and they're gone, too bad. So, I got Jessica and myself all ready, and loaded my laundry basket into my car and headed over there.
    I wasn't quite expecting what happened. I guess I had this picture in my head of showing up, loading my basket, and putting it straight into my car, so I didn't think much of bringing Jessica, and no one to help carry. So, we go there, and had to park a small distance away (no problem normally, just with Jessica with me). So I put Jessica in her stroller and grabbed my laundry basket and walked over there... only to find a line. Apparently they hadn't had enough volunteers to get the truck unloaded by the time they needed. So we got in line, and I hoped they'd be done soon so Jessica wouldn't freeze too much. We probably waited a good 20 minutes. After 5 I pulled Jessica out of the stroller and held her wrapped in her blanket, hoping that my body heat would keep her a little warmer. She has no meat on her bones to keep herself warm. Once the line did start moving it went really quickly. I got there and got my baskets, and had to load them into my basket (instead of theirs).
     Then came the tricky part. Somehow I had to get a laundry basket full of produce, myself, and my 1-year-old daughter in her stroller back to the car. I had brought the umbrella stroller, so it was too flimsy to rest the basket on top of. (Though I don't know if the jogging stroller would have helped much.) I was making it, slowly, and with difficulty, when I passed the couple that had been behind me in the line. The gentleman came over and took the basket so that I could push Jessica and we walked much more quickly back to the car. I got Jessica in the car and turned on the heater, and then I reorganized my basket. I had just put them in it in the order I pulled them out, so I had lettuce on bottom. I had tried to do well about not putting too much stuff on top of squishy things, but I needed to fix it before driving home.

     After getting home and feeding Jessica I brought it in, and then came the fun part! Seeing what all I got, and finding out what to do with it. Here is what I got: (and as is referenced by the picture, they're good produce too)  7 apples, 1 bushel green grapes, 7 bananas, 6 oranges, 3 pomegranates, 4 cucumbers, 3 mexican zucchinis, 2 bunches green onions, 1 bunch carrots, 1 cantaloupe, 2 "heads" of romaine lettuce, and 3 tomatoes. Wow! all for $19.50! That's pretty crazy if you ask me. I actually had to ask what the Mexican zucchini's were, I wasn't sure. They told me, and said that they could be used just like regular zucchinis. Then came the task of deciding what to make with them. Some of the fruit (apples and oranges for example) will last longer, so I don't worry so much about them, but I was a little worried about how much lettuce we had. Yes, we needed to eat more veggies, but I didn't think I'd be able to manage making that much salad. Not unless I had more to put on it. That was really the only thing I couldn't figure something out for. (That and the tomatoes, but only because I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes) 
     So, bananas, oranges, cantaloupe and grapes we're just going to eat. Maybe use 1 or 2 of the apples and make a fruit salad. Carley gave me some recipes for some apple-pomegranate pie and crisp, so I'm going to be trying those as well (and hopefully I'll post about it once I do). I'll be making chocolate zucchini bread with the Mexican zucchinis. The broccoli can get blanched and frozen for eating at a later date (when I don't have so much produce to worry about) The onions and carrots can go in stew, the carrots can also just be eaten (or cooked and mashed a bit for Jessica), and the onions can also be used for flavoring. The lettuce cucumbers and tomatoes were still escaping me though. So I texted my Mom. She and my Dad bought 2 of the 4 cucumbers and 1 head of lettuce from me. We can get use out of the 1 head of lettuce, I think I can manage that one. 2 cucumbers is also much more manageable. And! I just found a website that gave directions on freezing the tomatoes for use in something like spaghetti sauce! YAY!!! Now I don't have to worry so much about any of my produce going bad. 
    So yeah. I am way excited about my bountiful basket. I will probably be buying them only every other week (payday) for now, but we'll see how things go. If we end up with basically all of it either frozen or used by the end of the week, I may see about trying to manage a way to get one every week.

Oops and sewing

Wow!!! I'm a slacker. I didn't realize its been over 2 months since I wrote in here. And oh my heavens the things that have happened in that 2 months.
-I decided to go back to school. (hoping to major in Art Illustration, but have to submit a portfolio and be accepted)
-School started.
-Nathaniel got switched to the graveyard shift (so I could go to classes)
-Jessica started pulling herself up on things (to knees first, and now to standing)
-Jessica finally will hands-and-knees crawl
-We got a tooth!!!
-Jessica has said her first word. "Hi". Based on her timing, and how often we say hi to her, we feel it is a word rather than just sounds.
-We figured out that my daily headaches were caused by dehydration. I thought I had been drinking enough water, but apparently not. Now that I am, the headaches are pretty much gone. YAY!!!!


So what with school projects and papers that have already started coming due, and with all the normal everyday cleaning and shopping, and taking care of Jessica, I've been a bit busy. Of course, me being me, it just wasn't enough. *wink* I had to add my crafts. So I'm making a tatted table runner, and I'm making some various Christmas gifts, and I've been sewing clothes for Jessica and for myself. I have made 2 wrap-around skirts for myself (one pink, one blue) but I realized I hadn't actually taken any pictures of those. I was working on a red dress for myself as well, but Jessica has far fewer clothes than I do, so I decided I really needed to work on hers first. Those I have taken pictures of. So, first we have...

The pink overalls. They are a little wide, but only slightly long. Go figure. Jessica is still very thin. This pictures is obviously loaded for Jessica, not for me. The things parents will put up with for their babies. *wink*

Okay, next we have the skirt and leggings. I bought the onesie, but the skirt was one of the easiest patterns I have every found. The leggings actually aren't finished yet, but they work. I just bought little girl knee high socks, and cut off the feet. works like a charm.

 And here is her dress. I think its adorable, even though its wide enough I could probably fit 2 of her in it. Luckily it ties in the back, so it can appear smaller from the front. I was quite proud of myself for this one. The only thing I didn't do on this one is the zipper. I've never put in a zipper before, so I asked mom to help me.

Last but not least, we have her Halloween costume that is still in the works. She is being one of the Disney fairies. (Tinkerbell isn't the only one anymore) So that is my current project for now, then I've got Christmas gifts, which obviously wouldn't be posted until after Christmas (if I remember then) and then a Christmas dress for Jessica, and then I can get back to random whenever clothes for both Jessica and me.