Gratitude!

I don't know if it's the spring weather, Aaron coming home early to surprise us, chatting with a close friend or Sasha having a good day, but I'm feeling especially grateful for all that I have today. With all the chaos of raising an active child, keeping up the house, making the constant improvements that come with a house, working part time, fulfilling church responsibilities and trying to have a social life, life can get pretty fast-paced. So, I'm taking a few minutes today to just slow down and ENJOY! That's right - I'm inefficient for a few minutes to just appreciate what's around me. Here are a few things I love:

• Spring weather when it's warm, but still a little cool and plants are budding
• The tiny little buds that are starting to come up in our garden
• The way Sasha moves all around while she sleeps and ends up in a completely different place and positive by the time she wakes up
• Aaron coming home early so we can go on a hike to enjoy time with each other and the outdoors
• Sasha sleeping peacefully
• The sound of the dryer (I know it's strange, but it must be from my mom always putting me on top of the dryer when I was a colicky baby)
• Conversations with good friends that inspire me to be better

Hope you get the chance to take a few minutes today and just ENJOY!

Easter Updates...

With the approach of Spring, I can almost taste the warm weather (despite the constant barrage of snow storms). We're so excited to get outside and do all the fun outdoor things that come with warmer weather. Talking about fun, I had the opportunity to get together with an amazing group of girls last night. We had an Easter Basket exchange organized by none other than Holly Harris. It was a spectacular event with great company, fabulous food and fun gift baskets exchanged. Pictured below from front left to right: Mindy, Camille, E, Holly, Sarah, Shelly and Amanda. Can you see the candles, fancy place settings and yummy food? Man, it was awesome!

Sasha is growing so quickly and is already 7 months old. I know you really want to see photos so I'll list her most recent stats and accomplishments after the following fun photos.

Sasha in her dress from the Netherlands and cute little bow.

Seriously, could she be any cuter wearing Aaron's hat? She's ready to enjoy sports, just like her mama and papa.

She's learning to crawl (in her own way) and is getting better at staying on her tummy.

Here are the stats:

• Weight is at 16.5 lbs., which puts her in the 45th percentile for weight.
• Height is up to 26.5 inches, which puts her in the 46th percentile for height.
• Her head is now in the 75th percentile.
• She's still eating 5 times a day, but the amount has become a little more sporadic...she's just not as interested in food. Everything else is so much more interesting. She is up to eating solids twice a day and will soon move to 3 times a day.
• Sasha is learning how to eat with her hands and has started feeding herself those dried baby cereals in the shape of a star.
• Sleeping at night is still her forte as she usually sleeps 11 hours a night with 3-4 naps during the day (ranging from 30 minutes -2 hours).
• She still doesn't love baths, but is sort of ambivalent toward them. She does enjoy watching me fill the washcloth with water and trying to "grab" the water as it drips from the washcloth.
• Can't seem to shake the two patches of eczema on her face and one on her knee. We're hoping it's just a phase and will go away on its own soon.
• She loves sweet potatoes and carrots and is still developing a love of fruit.
• She does a modification of crawling which is rolling back and forth as she moves a little bit forward each time. It's not the fastest way to get from point A to point B, but she's learning.
• She has the cutest laugh and the most beautiful smile...what an amazing girl we are blessed to have in our family.

Spread the Sunshine!

I just learned of this great idea from a friend's blog and wanted to continue it...

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! Made with tons of love just for you! It might be a fun project, a sweet letter to you from me, or some yummy goodies, you might be surprised what you get! Give it a try!

The catch? You must re -post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to leave a comment, win a lovely little treat for themselves! Have fun!

If you're far away, just send me your mailing address (becky.henson@hotmail.com).

Ready........Set............Go!

Culinary Experimentation

I've been in a bit of a rut with cooking the same basic things so I tried a little something new. It was a risk because, as you may know, Aaron is not a fan of squash. However, he actually enjoyed the dish so I can officially recommend it. Plus, it's really easy. Just make some spaghetti squash and top it with turkey sausage and peppers that have been cooked in a skillet (you may want to drain off any excess fat if needed). You can add salt and peper if you'd like, but it doesn't really need lots of spices.

The following photos are just additional goodies showing how well Sasha is sitting up now. She occassionally gets really excited and starts flailing her arms, which knocks off her balance so she tips over. For the most part, she does pretty well now and keeps on getting better.

Valentine's Surprise!

We did Valentine's in two shifts this year. On Friday, my parents watched Sasha while we painted the town red. Okay, we went to dinner and actually went to the theater to watch a movie that Aaron has been wanting to see (Taken...good show, but pretty violent). On Saturday, I wanted to go old school with Valentine's so I went with the classics of construction paper and hand-written notes. I cut LOTS of hearts out of construction paper. On some of the hearts, I wrote things that I love about Aaron and hid them all around the house. The best part? He hasn't found all of them yet so it's the gift that keeps on giving. Next, I taped the rest of the hearts all around the house, which almost caused heart overload, but was fun nonetheless.

The final topper of the evening was a version of Aaron's favorite dessert, brownies and ice cream. The brownie is a chocolate recipe with chocolate syrup and then has added chocolate chips - oooh, chocolatey goodness. Next the little white blobs are actually heart-shaped chunks of chocolate cookie dough ice cream (I mashed the ice cream into heart-shaped ice cube holders and then pushed them out onto the plate). Finally, the whole thing was topped with a white chocolate drizzle that had a few drops of red food coloring. The result...a huge, pleased smile on Aaron's face when he saw it, as he ate it and after he was done. What a fun day!

Funny Video

Happy Valentine's Week! We're excited to celebrate this weekend, especially since Aaron also has Monday off - yahoo! I took video of Sasha making some funny noises. Just in the last few days she has rolled over to both sides from belly to back and to her left side from back to belly. She's also been babbling like crazy, making the cutest and funniest sounds. I took the video on my cell phone so the quality isn't good, but you get the gist.

Yeah for the New Year and all the fun we'll have in 2009. We finally had Sasha's 4-month check-up (even though she is actually 4 1/2 months now) so here are some cute photos and all the stats since I last put them up around 2 months:

Sasha and her mama in the living room showing off how well she stands and her cute dress, bow and tights. I know, I'm not a girly girl, but she looks so cute in them that I can't help it every once in a while. Plus, it's tough to find non-pink, non-girly clothes for her.

• She weighs 14 lbs. 14 oz and is in the 68th percentile for weight.
• She is 25 inches tall and is in the 68th percentile for height.
• Her head is in the 50th percentile so she's just right.
• Sasha has starting really laughing in the last few days and it's just pure music to our ears. There is nothing sweeter than the sound of a baby laughing.
• Sasha is like her papa in many ways, especially when it comes to 2 things: observing the world around her and adrenaline highs. She loves to watch everyone around her (which sometimes causes her to focus more on the person so she forgets to smile). It's like she's completely absorbing every little bit of information - it's so amazing. She's also our little adrenaline junky since she especially loves to feel like she's being dropped, but not really. Pretend drops, being tossed in the air - it's like candy for her.
• Patterns are the name of the game. She just can't get enough of vivid patterns, especially her red and white polka dot burp cloth. She cooes at it, talks to it, makes faces at it - it's almost as if it's one of her best buds and has a personality or something.
• Still speaking Russian, but quite a bit of English as well since my Russian isn't as developed and expressive as I'd like it to be. She at least gets the basics so I hope it's something she picks up. I'm excited to order a Russian picture book off of half.ebay.com...we'll see how it goes.
• Sleep has been one of her forte's as she has been snoozing 10-12 hours a night since just before 3 months. Sadly, that streak was broken when she got her immunizations. She got a temperature of 102 and woke up every 2-3 hours. She's gradually been sleeping better and a little longer so let's hope it goes back to that sweet, 10-12 hour goodness soon!
• Her personality is somewhat reserved (and observing), but she's continuing to babble and smile more and more. She's pretty mellow and loves to just sit with us and look around, stand on our laps and watch our facial expressions, or lay on the group and make sounds at the ceiling. We got her a Step and Play Piano that she can stand in (like an exersaucer) and there's piano keys for her hands and feet plus some other toys. She's not super interested in it yet, but I'm sure her Mozart skills are going to come out anytime.
• She was on a pretty great schedule of sleeping 10-12 hours and eating every 4 hours, but the immunizations and her great appetite seemed to join forces. She was eating 6-7 ounces at every feeding and it seemed like it was starting to be too much for her little tummy to handle as she was spitting up a lot more (she's not a very spit-uppy baby). So, we've changed to eating 5 times a day and eating 4-5 ounces. Seems like the spit up is much less. She doesn't seem to care either way as long as she gets her food.
• Aaron's still helping her develop her bottle prodigy skills and encourages her as often as possible to hold her own bottle, which she does quite a bit. She often pulls the bottle to her mouth when she's really hungry.
• Sasha started pulling herself up to sitting and then standing about a month or so ago and is getting better and better. She makes this cute face that looks like she's constipated and focusing - it's hilarious!
• We started swaddling Sasha just before 3 months as well because she wanted to go to sleep with the pacifier, but kept knocking it out of her mouth with her hands. So, I thought we should give it a try...it worked. She has slept better and longer now that her hands/arms aren't waving around like crazy. Now, if we could just get her to stay asleep for longer than an hour without needing her pacifier, that would be great!
• She's definitely got her dad's long, dark eyelashes - watch out when she gets older.

Well, I think that about does it for the list of stats on our cute, little one. Here are some recent photos of Sasha doing what she does best...look adorable.

Sitting up in her high chair. We haven't started her on solids yet, but probably will give the rice cereal a go soon. So, for now, this is just a means to help her sit up and play with toys.

Hope you're all doing great and having a fabulous 2009 so far!