Lasagne

Tesla is such a great eater. Tonight we started out with me feeding her some baby food. Now I made all of her baby food with the exception of cereal's. We have been transitioning her away from the mushed items to chewing items for the last couple of weeks. The last two nights Tesla has not been opening her mouth for me. I was thinking that it was because Jason usually feeds her while I'm making dinner so she just wants Papa to feed her. But it seems that she just really wants to feed herself. After about 10 minutes of struggling to get her to open her mouth I put a peice of the lasagne on the tray and she immediately started feeding herself. It's pretty cool to see how much she likes different foods. Once she was done eating her lasagna, and garlic bread (only about an inch of bread total) I gave her some applesauce and yogurt. That she let me feed her. Once dinner was complete I had to hose down the high chair while Jason wiped all the food off. This whole feeding yourself thing is pretty messy!

Thanksgiving 2009

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We celebrated at Amy & Mike Salvatore's house with our friends Greg and Chris Vander Rhodes and Amy & Mike's family. In all there were about 20 of us. It was a lovely time. Tesla enjoyed every minute of it. The kids were running around and there were so many people to sit on, pull on and watch. Amy & Mike have an older house (est. 1750) and it has fireplaces in each room. The one that Tesla really wanted to get to was about 8 feet long and 5 feet high. Big enough to make a meal for crowd. Big enough that Tesla could crawl right in, which she tried to do all night. My back is still toasty from sitting in front of the fire catching Tesla as she drew near.

There was so much food! For the first time we did not bring any baby food for Tesla. She ate Turkey and carrots and corn bread and all kinds of goodies. She was so good! We took some video of Tesla playing on the floor, but we don't have any pictures from this one.

Well time to make dinner, I can hear the family stirring upstairs!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Chillin'!

Have I mentioned how adorable my little girl is lately? Today I went to Stroller Strides. On Wednesdays we workout at a place called the Sportszone in Derry, NH. There's a soccer field that is completely inclosed so we can let the kids out. I was totally anxious to let Tesla out so that she could show everyone how well she crawled. Well at first she sat by me and played with a toy on the ground then she decided to go be social. She crawled over to one friend Amy, then noticed Chris and all the kids around her, who were having snacks. So she crawled on over to Chris, and preceded to sit in her lap and eat Teddy Grahams out of her hand. Never checking back with me, or calling out to me, nothing. Just hanging. I asked Chris if I could take a picture of them together. See how Tesla's right foot is blurry, it's because she's just kicking it back and forth, chillin'. How cute!

How To Baby Proof Your Home

Tesla started crawling last week. This week she has taken off!!! She figured out that you can leave the rug in the living room, and now we are quickly learning what is not baby proofed and what is okay. Since we're moving anyway it's more of a matter of just putting things away and packing them up if they have no place to go, which is easy enough. We did of course already baby proof all of the outlets in the house. It's amazing how she just goes straight for it. Why when you have a million toys surrounding you are you interested in the one thing you can't have?

Certainly makes me think about how to organize the house in Washington. I'll have to really think about this since the kitchen is attached to the great room in a way that it's easily accessible by little feet. I am looking forward to being able to plop her in the high chair and put her up to the island to help me cook! That will be a lot of fun.

Anyway I googled, how to baby proof your home, and found this article:

When you bring your baby home from the hospital, suddenly the fireplace you once thought was so cozy becomes a potential hazard. There are many products marketed to parents to baby-proof their homes, but you don't have to buy every one of them. As with most parenting issues, the best solutions often rely on common sense.

Below are iVillage's 17 most popular and practical ways to make your home safe for your new arrival.

1. Crawl through your house to get a baby's-eye view, and remove anything that is either dangerous to your baby or precious to you.
2. Turn down your hot water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent burns.
3. Secure cupboard doors with childproof locks -- but don't expect them to work all the time (some babies are more wily than other!). Put dangerous items (e.g., cleaning solutions, knives) in high cabinets, far out of reach of children. Leave one easy-to-reach cupboard open and fill it with plastic containers or pots and pans that are safe for baby to play with.
4. Cover all electrical sockets with plastic plugs or, better yet, replace the cover plates with childproof ones.
5. Take the sharp edges off your fireplace or furniture by covering them with throw pillows, quilts, blankets, or foam rubber. Murphy's Law dictates that falls will happen in the worst-possible places.
6. Put a hook-and-eye latch high up on your doors so that baby doesn't end up anywhere he shouldn't be (like the basement or outside).
7. Make sure every area of your house has a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector. If you need help or information, call your local fire station.
8. Remove refrigerator magnets. They frequently fall off the refrigerator when the door is slammed, and they are small enough to pose a choking risk.
9. Program your phone's speed dial with the numbers of your pediatrician, the poison control center, your spouse at work, and your ambulance service (if you don't have 911). Let your baby-sitter know the numbers are there.
10. Keep a bottle of ipecac syrup on hand (up high or in a locked cabinet, of course) in case of poisoning emergency. This syrup is derived from a plant of the same name, and it triggers vomiting (not all poison cases require vomiting, so be sure to check with a doctor before administering it). Call your local poison control center for an emergency reference card. Let your baby-sitter know where the syrup and card are.
11. Keep older siblings' toys separate, either in their room or in a playpen, so that your baby can't get at them.
12. Make sure your baby monitor works and is within range. As a test place a ticking clock near it. If you can hear the tick-tock from the other end of the monitor, you can be sure you'll hear the baby.
13. Keep hot liquids away from baby. Whenever you're drinking coffee, tea, or other hot liquids, be sure to keep the drink far enough away so that if it spills, your baby won't get burned.
14. Never leave your baby alone in the bath. Babies can drown in just inches of water, so always stay next to your baby when you're bathing her (or when you're near a pool, the toilet, or a bucket of water). If the phone rings, let the machine get it -- or buy and use a cordless phone.
15. Don't expose your baby to smoke. Secondhand smoke can cause illness now and serious health problems down the road.
16. Ask a professional. In many areas, professional "baby-proofers" will come to your home, install protectors and locks, and look for hazards you might not notice. Because they are so quick, they can be inexpensive. Ask your pediatrician if there are any reliable, inexpensive baby-proofers in your area.
17. Get a good stain stick to clean anything that your didn't baby-proof.

Read more: http://home.ivillage.com/cleanandorganize/organize/0,,7f92,00.html#ixzz0XjNvPvUt

Portsmouth, NH

Picture of Portsmouth Taken of of Internet

We went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire today. One of my favorite places to visit. It's a very picturesque town with lots of little shops, and eateries. We went to our favorite BBQ joint called Muddy River Smokehouse. My mom had gotten us a gift certificate to it, and we wanted to use it before we moved to Seattle. We also went to a little park and had a bit of a picnic with Tesla. It was so cold though that we tried not to stay outside to long. Her little nose was as red as Rudolph's! After the park we visited a fabric store that has some of the most beautiful fabric. I bought a couple of yards of fabric to make new bibs for T, she's growing out of all of the bibs that came with outfits. We ended up home by 5, but had a lovely day walking around and visiting Portsmouth.