New Job

For the past 3 years I've been the itty bitty dietitian trying to catch up to my well seasoned co-workers. I've tried to learn as much as I can from them, but often feel that I am running to catch up with all that they know.

I got a new job at a small hospital that only employs 1 RD. They have a 4 bed ICU vs 30 bed ICU in Salem. Unlike my job in Salem, I have actually been able to give my new coworker tips and tricks and update her on some clinical information! Can you believe it - I actually have knowledge to give. I guess I have learned something in these 3 years of working..........it wasn't all just running and never catching up........it's good to feel that you know something every once in a while.

But its sad leaving Anna another day a week, after I'm done training it will only be every once in a while at the new job. At least I know she's in good hands while I am gone (thank you Kristin and Brittney!)

Albus Severus

I finished The Deathly Hallows today. I can't believe it is over. I wish Harry and Hermoine and Ron were real people - or at least that the book never ended so I could continue their friendship throughout my whole life........Okay, not really. It will be nice to be free from Harry Potter - but I don't think I'll be totally free until the last movie comes out.....

What was your favorite part if you read it? Can you believe the ending? I couldn't it was crazy! Albus Severus that's all i have to say.... I guess now I can focus on my new job - yeah, i also had my first day at a new hospital today (and it was a good day!) - but man - that harry potter..........

Amazing Story.

It says at the end he can run a mile on crutches under 8 minutes. I can't imagine walking a mile with crutches.
One-Legged Wrestler Wins NCAA Title

8 months older and wiser too

Anna is 8 months old! Time really does fly! She is absolutely hilarious, and is adding new things to her bag of tricks daily.

Anna sleeps through the night and has for a few months now. Her bedtime routine is pretty typical: eat dinner @ 6, bathtime at 6:30, warm milk and bed 7:00. We still swaddle her with her arms free in a receiving blanket, stick in the plug (binky) and walk out, letting anna fall asleep on her own. She's a pretty good sleeper, but for the past week, she's been waking up for milk at 5:00 instead of her usual morning milk at 6:00. We've tried to push back her bed time, but she just can't handle staying up late - just like her mom.

Hooray for a self entertaining baby! Anna gets really interested in things and examines them from all angles, as seen below. She still puts EVERYTHING into her mouth.

Anna now loves reading books. A few months ago, she wouldn't sit and look at a book for more than 5 seconds! Now we can go through our whole collection (about 20 board books) before she gets bored. She also loves turning the pages and points at some of the more interesting pictures. I love reading her books - but hopefully I wont have random lines from "goodnight moon" floating through my head for the rest of my life.....

telling mom how much she likes books.
hmm, this runaway bunny has the right idea - how can i escape my mom?
lets see here, first he turned into a mountain climber..........
Anna should be a pilates teacher. She does some serious plank moves all day long in an attempt to crawl. Sadly, due to her BMI, I don't think she would have a good turnout at classes (: She is still doing the seal scoot and log roll to get around. This week she started to move her legs in a crawling motion, but alas, she hasn't figured out that you must move your front half in sync with your behind or your face ends up on the floor........we're getting there!! I just love watching her learn new tricks - and dad loves trying to get her to practice.
look at that concentration!!
For a few months, she's been taking regular naps at 8am, 11:30-12:00, and 3 or 4 pm. For some reason the past few weeks, she won't take her late afternoon nap ): which is sad - but nice for getting out of the house! Since learning how to scoot and crawl, Anna has hard time going down for naps, she is too excited to practice her new skills and ends up out of her swaddle - on top of her blankets - and chatting to her imaginary friends out the window (as seen in the picture seen below). Oh well, at least she's happy in there when she's not sleeping!
Feeding anna is probably the best and worst time of day. There has never been a better form of entertainment at our house than watching anna attempt to pick up peas and put them in her mouth. This may be more entertaining than her first attempts at rolling! Her pincer grasp is getting better and she's feeding herself an assortment of foods. The only drawback to this stage is my pathological fear of her choking. I don't know why, but I am sorely afraid of someone around me choking to death - so I cut everything really really small. This morning I scooted her booster seat up to the table and cut up my pancakes for her - so loved being part of our breakfast. And I love having a little pea head at the table (as seen in pictures below). Anna also eats a variety of purees. She likes all sorts of flavors and textures now. I ground up the spaghetti stuffed spaghetti squash we ate for dinner last night and she loved it - probably ate a 1/2 cup of the stuff! What a champ. It's nice to think that soon enough I can retire my milk truck duties. It will be interesting to see is anna loses weight on whole milk when she stops drinking mama's cream

pictures from another moms point of view

yes, more pictures of anna. we just can't get enough. my friend kaelie takes tons of pictures with her iphone. i love them because anna's always got this the "duh" look on her face.

anna is actually smiling in this picture! We get together every thursday at my house after baby time for lunch and play. It's good for anna to practice sharing her toys.
baby time toys yum yum.

lately anna does this thing where she breaths between her teeth with her jaw clenched. i think this likes playing with her new top teeth.
baby time. It's like story time at the library, but for babies. we read 1 book and sing rhymes while bouncing the babies on our laps. then the babies play with toys after. anna loves it.
kaelie watched anna for me the other day during my interview (i got a new job at providence newberg). attack of the babies!
kaelie and avrie at target dollar section.
anna's duh face..
anna and avrie at cosco. lov'n the double seated cart!
its tough fitting both babies on the corolla, but we make it work!

spring?

It was like spring today! Hooray!! The cool thing about Portland is that there is tons of snow in the mountains and green green grass in the suburbs. It was definitely more than 40 degrees today, so my friend Shireen and her baby London came over for a visit and we headed out to the park. We pushed the girls on swings at the park and reminisced on the good times we had working out together when we were prego. She says we made until 30 weeks in the boot camp class - that's a pretty intense workout with a bowling ball in your stomach. Pretty sure I couldn't do that workout now, but Anna's definitely worth it...........and lets be honest.........its nice to be at home eating cookies with Richard at night instead of at the gym............although......maybe we should cut out those cookies.

scoocheroo

Probably the the best thing about Anna right now is her scoot. I guess you could call it a crawl, but I think its more of a scoot. She reminds me of a seal sliding on the ice flapping its flippers to help it move along.

anna went snowshoeing

She fell asleep on her second snowshoeing trip (i put the pictures up in opposite order of their occurrence and was too annoyed with blogger to fix it)
this trail was really neat, through the dark and shaded trees.
oh anna. we had to keep stopping to make sure she was still breathing! she would screech and then fall back asleep.

2 richards. one cute and sleeping. one awake and happy (:
kids in a candy shop. i bought some licorice mallow cremes, but these jub jubs reminded me of bry bry!
teaching anna to drive. its not too soon is it?
little pea, this is right after the first snowshoeing trip and she's so happy!
ahhhh so beautiful! i miss the snow (well the kind in the mountains anyways)

proof that it wasn't torture. (the whole time anyways).

this part was torture. she cried from the minute we put the snowsuit on her until we were going on the trail.

portland childrens museum

i like march. its the beginning of spring. we had a good weekend.

On friday Anna's friend zackie invited us to the childrens museum for free night. She and zack had a great time rolling (anna) and crawling (zack) around. They both slept the whole way home (ahhhh).
Anna enjoyed listening to the "alphabaticians" while eating oats and apples baby food.
Zachie and his mommy and daddy.
ahhh rolly polly babies!