A picky eater?!

The only kind of cereal baby girl will eat right now.

She requests cereal multiple times a day. Honey actually got her some Sesame Street cereal a week or so ago because it had Elmo on the box.

Elmo will not do. Neither will any of the delicious sugared cereal options. Only nature's path organic flax plus pumpkin flax granola. Sadly, she just finished this box tonight and will be without until our next trip to Costco. Should've known. It was love at first sample. Dangit those Costco samples get us every time!

technology troubles solved!

technology creates and solves so many of my problems.

we got a video monitor for abigail about two months ago.  i'm one of those people that reads reviews obsessively.  it's not enough for me to read a hundred reviews on amazon.  nooo, i'm the person that will find that same product listed online at bed bath and beyond, target, and walmart so i can read those online reviews too.*  so of course i did that when shopping for our video monitor.  and i ended up getting a monitor for 70% off and it's working great and i love it but there's just one thing about it...

it messes with our wireless.  when i have the monitor on, my internet is super slow.  like my blog page could take minutes to load.  the text would be there but the pictures would gradually load from top to bottom and it was impossible to do stuff online.  luckily, i remembered that one of the reviews mentioned that the monitor interfered with their wireless.  i think their problem was that it kicked them off the network but i decided to experiment and see if it would help.  i turned off the monitor, clicked refresh, and all my pages were instantly loaded.  YEAY!  what an easy fix!  this would be more annoying that what it is if 1. i had paid more for the monitor (they're typically a few hundred dollars!) and 2. if i needed it on all the time.  luckily i only need it on occasionally.  i put baby girl down for nap and then turn on the monitor after 30 minutes or so to make sure she's still asleep.  in the morning i just click it on every fifteen minutes or so to see if she's awake yet or what she's up to or if she's taken her diaper off again.  it's not like i need to sit there and watch her every move... although that is fun sometimes.

yesterday i was trying desperately to put pictures from my phone to picasa on my computer.  i have over a thousand pictures on my phone and at least 10-15 minutes of video and i'm almost out of memory.  unfortunately though, picasa was retrieving the pictures soooo slowly.  like maybe 20 pictures over the course of an hour.  which won't work for 1000 pictures.  and i kept closing and opening picasa, checking for updates, unplugging and replugging in my phone... nothing was working and then this morning i tried again and picasa wasn't even recognizing my phone as a device to retrieve pictures from.  enter google.  there are a million forums on this and what worked and what didn't.  a lot of people said to just plug the cord into a different usb.  or to try a different cord.  i tried both... about fifteen times.  they mentioned to turn your phone off and on again.  still didn't work.  and then i started noticing a pattern where people said their printer was the culprit and once they unplugged the printer it was fine.  i thought this for sure couldn't be the problem because our printer doesn't plug into my computer.  it's wireless.  ohhh hmmm let me check and see if i turned it off after i used it the other day.  oh yes, i did.  it's off.  hmmm.  and then i stood there thinking, "should i unplug it?" which i thought was really silly since it was already off... why would unplugging it make a difference?  but what did i have to lose?  so i unplugged it, came back to my computer, clicked the import button in picasa and...

BAM!  not only did it now recognize my phone again, i had over 1000 pictures instantly.  hallelujah!  that's crazy, right?  how on earth would i have figured this out without google?  i mean, that's got to be one of the most random things ever, right?  picasa on your laptop won't recognize your iphone as a camera device unless you manually unplug your printer (on the other side of your house) from the wall.

technology is a tricky, tricky thing.

Jack of all trades

*this post is so disjointed because i wrote it over the course of multiple days... who has time to write a whole post in one sitting?  not me.*

i know this is old news for people.  people that have had an iphone for more than 2 months.  but it is wonderful and special news for me because i am still taking the time daily to bask in the amazingness of not still having one of the many crappy cell phones i've sported before.

i'm continually realizing just how much easier it is makes life to have so much condensed and simplified to one device.  and i know it's great that my phone also replaces a calculator, but most phones do.  and who carries a calculator with them anyways?  so what i'm loving is the lack of clutter in my purse when i go places and not having to carry four things around the house with me. here's my list of things that are now just backups...

my trusty camera is still much better for taking video but as far as spur of the moment pictures go, my phone is way easier because it's most likely already by my side and i can text/email/blog those pictures instantly.

i literally dusted off my book of mormon yesterday.  i'm still keeping it by my bedside, but truth is, when we're reading scriptures together at night, it's easier on the eyes, to use the scriptures on my phone.

which means my phone also replaces this little reading flashlight that i used to keep on top of my scriptures.  see the dust?!

my grocery list.  it's still in its place on top of the microwave, but when i run out of something, i enter it in my running list on my phone so i'm guaranteed to never find myself in the grocery store parking lot having forgotten my list at home.

my trusty itzbeen!  i use the free ibabylog app and it's great.  and it keeps record of everything and i can make notes on it and if i forget to press the button when i put brady down for nap and remember 30 minutes later, i can manually enter the correct time.  and now i don't have to carry my phone, camera, and itzbeen to every room of the house.  i only have so many hands and pockets.

that nifty little app also keeps track of medications.  so i should probably take these two papers off my fridge now...

the google maps app does this for me and i never have to worry that i won't have a gps with me when i need one.

okay, it doesn't completely replace my laptop, but i spend much less time on my computer these days because of my phone.  if i just need to see if someone has emailed me back, i can press a button on my phone (i made my settings so that i manually have to retrieve it... i don't like all those dings for every crappy email) instead of pulling out my computer, waiting for it to start up, and then most likely getting distracted on there with other things. also, i used to drag my laptop around the house when i wanted to listen to pandora or when i was cooking with an online recipe.  not anymore!  pandora and recipes can come with me anywhere! 

and because i hate spending money and paying the extra money each month for a data package was tough to swallow (i think my honey did everything with verizon, right down to activating my phone, before giving it to me, so that there was no way i could turn back) i'm loving that it's actually saving me money in other ways.  

1. my camera up there with the rubberband?  it's kind of a pain to deal with since the rubber band is necessary to keep the broken battery compartment closed but it makes getting to some of the buttons more difficult and it makes zooming in and out a huge, huge pain.  new camera would be over $100.  and if i was using this camera as much as i used to, a replacement would be necessary. since i don't use it as often anymore, this one is okay to stay!

2. my laptop battery has been near death for about ten months.  if i unplug it, it's good for maaaaybe 30 minutes and will shut off with no "your battery is running low, find a power source to plug in" notice.  which is painfully annoying when you're using it in the kitchen to cook something and have to run it back to your bedroom and wait ten minutes for it to restart and reopen everything to find your recipe again.  according to the customer service guy i talked to on the phone, a new battery is about $90... plus shipping.  which, is that really worth it for a three year old laptop?  probably not.  not needing to unplug my computer pretty much ever, the short battery life is pretty much a non issue.  as is the fact that my laptop cord died and i had to steal honey's.  which he doesn't ever use because his laptop is crap and he relies almost entirely on his work ipad... but that would be his blog post, not mine.  so let's throw in another $25 of savings for that cord.

3. for christmas a year ago, my parents gave me a gps.  i actually already had one that i got as a college graduation gift but sometimes honey would take it with him on business trips and then it wouldn't be in my car when i needed it.  it happened enough times that it was worth it to me to ask for a second gps for christmas so we had one in each of our cars.  well, the charger for the gps broke but since it was from costco, i just took it back for a full refund.  i was going to buy a replacement that day but the other gps options they had were $170 to $200 which is a bit much when it's your family's second gps and you really don't use it all that often.

my phone has also saved me money by being able to pull up internet coupons (like how hobby lobby has the show and save coupons online) and saved me time by being able to pull up an email on my phone instead of having to go home to check that information, and saved my butt when i've been in sticky situations (the one i'm thinking of was 100% not my fault) and i've been able to pull up information that's saved online.  

also, the "reminders" thing that it has, has made me much more productive.  always having that to do list available so that i don't forget something before i can write it down.  and that i can set times and locations that i can be reminded of certain things.

other honorable mentions go out to... 

the "clock" which is not only my alarm clock when i need one but it was also an awesome stopwatch when i was timing contractions.

the "weather" button, which i'm sure many people find convenient, is something that makes me giddy.  i'm someone that keeps the weather for my area on my toolbar so it's always only a click away.  now that i have it at my fingertips 24/7, i couldn't be happier.  

the lds tools app.  because i used to keep a copies of our updated relief society directory in my purses and all over the house.  heaven forbid should i need to stop by someone's house or give them a call and not have their address or phone number on hand.  now i always have it!

so when i write it all out... the iphone is still a chunk of money but it feels like pennies with how worth it it is.  how did i live without this thing?!  and what a shame that it took me five years to jump on this bandwagon.

No relation

yesterday i left my phone in baby girls room when i put her down for nap.  when i realized it 30 minutes later i went in there to grab it.  and on my way out, couldn't resist snapping a few pictures.  i love that she sleeps with that dog on her head.

from when she was nine months.  she's grown up a bit huh?

she picked out her whole outfit.

this picture shows it better.  she chose her thomas shirt (of course) and purple leggings (she'll now tell you purple is her favorite color), jeans to go on top, and a skirt to go on top of that.  and a bow.

sibling love

we took the yw to the temple tonight to talk about this year's theme, stand in holy places. it was lightly snowing and the temple looked GORGEOUS.

like way more breathtaking than usual.

A million pictures

somehow blogger on my phone erased all of the writing i'd done on my computer.  sooo, let's try to recreate it.

i've been taking way more pictures lately than what i can keep up with.  here are a few to remember and some shortcut captions that will hopefully be sufficient to jog my memory when i come back to look at these.

i told baby girl she needed to finish her last few bites of banana.  two seconds later when i turned around she exclaimed that she was "all done!"  

a quick investigation revealed that she was, in fact, not all done, but had conveniently slid her banana off of her tray and into her nifty bib catcher.  nice move baby girl.

while i was waiting for her to finish the banana, i'd told her i was going to change brady's diaper and come right back. to which she replied, "i want to come change brady's diaper too!"  so i waited for her to finish eating and when she got out of her chair she RAN to my bedroom.  by the time i got there she'd pulled out a wipe (and even closed the lid again!), a diaper, and a burp cloth (i normally use a blanket of some kind) to lay him on.  what a great helper!  i was impressed.

baby girl is our official photographer of brady's diaper changes.  this is one of the few non blurry, non x rated pictures she took.

what a precious sneaking hand.  when i'm too lazy to do a quality swaddle (i HAVE to straightjacket his arms down) then he always manages to pull this little hand up.

the ipad, the potty, the thomas undies, the pink silky pj's, the elmo potty book, those fingers ready and perched to play any game possible... there are too many things i'm loving about this picture.

i got this picture text the other day.  it was taken at one of the birthday parties baby girl went to last weekend.

back in the day, i used to worry that baby girl would need to be swaddled til she went to college. so when she told me she wanted to be wrapped up like brady, i couldn't resist.  if i thought she looked like a big kid before, that was nothing compared to how she looked swaddled.  she's HUGE!  seriously, biggest swaddle ever.

i wonder the oldest age any kid has needed to be swaddled.  she was almost too big for the blanket!

and then she insisted that i hold her.  standing up.  while she remained wrapped in her swaddle. she does this with her bunny bath towel after baths too.  "i want mommy hold you!"  "i want mommy stand up!"  ha. whatever you say, baby girl.

sometimes she'll just put a hand flat down on her plate of food or place her fist in her cup of milk. and then keep it there. like eat the whole rest of her meal like that.

1.27.13, after church

puzzles were on sale at big lots so honey got a million.  sesame street, thomas, and minnie mouse all came in four packs. most of them are put away in the closet upstairs but we surprised baby girl with four of the new puzzles.  she is in love with them.  and i expected it to take her a while to learn them but that thomas one she could do on her own that same night.  

hugs

while i was nursing brady today, baby girl decided to wear this carseat cover thing.  ps- my room is no longer a disaster like you see here.  it is spotless now.  and there is no "low hanging fruit" anymore for baby girl to make a mess of.

looks like some sort of project runway bubble dress something or other.

how do sandwiches never ever ever occur to me when i'm thinking of lunch for baby girl? i smeared some peanut butter on a slice of wheat bread and she devoured it.

while we listened to sweet baby james seven times in a row.

her shirt got messy with peanut butter so she went shirtless for a bit. luckily she had enough layers on her bottom half to keep her covered.  also, baby girl's newest phrase is "a bit" as in "i want to watch thomas a bit."  the voice intonation is the best.

honey was the last one to play play dough with baby girl.  so when i opened this green container tonight i enjoyed this pleasant surprise.  i won't lie, it freaked me out a little bit.

oh hello there!  brady is sporting the onesie honey and i picked up when we found out i was pregnant with baby girl. now someone actually gets to wear it.

this headband fell down when i grabbed something from the top shelf of baby's closet. and she insisted o n wearing it for the rest of the night.  when we had a thomas music dance party in the kitchen while making dinner, her whole outfit together made her look like she was straight out of an 80's workout video.  reminded me of jesse from saved by the bell.  y'know that "i'm so excited" caffeine overdose episode?

"it's stapped!"  or something like that.  i can't remember... but i'm pretty sure she wasn't saying "stacked" correctly. and it was cute.  also, i love that she is so precise when she cleans up her play dough.  correct colors in correct containers with the correct lids.  and i don't even have to ask her to clean up... she thinks it's part of the fun!  AND IT IS!

i made this A and she got soooo excited.  

although maybe she's had too much exposure to sesame street because she kept pointing to it and calling it "the letter A" as in "it's the letter A!  that's the letter A right there!"

and there you have it.

Peekaboo

happy 100th grandma!

things to know: my grandma's favorite color was yellow... and requested everyone wear it at her funeral even!  also, she was a lifelong lover of swimming (and even won several olympic medals!) and being physically fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

like my cousin elise (her name elise and my middle name elise, and abigail's middle name elise are all after my grandma whose middle name was elise), i ate dessert before my meals today too.  although i will admit i didn't do it specifically to celebrate grandma's birthday today.  but i think it was more special this way.  it proves that her legacy lives on, that she has successfully passed the "desserts should be eaten before and after meals" tradition through my father to me.  

happy 100th birthday grandma!  we all love you so so much!