Jaiden Didn't Like Family Pictures

Last night we went to get family pictures taken. Jaiden was not cooperative at all! He didn't seem to grasp that we wanted him to stay in one place and smile. I guess I should've anticipated this, but I was kind of caught off guard and was not expecting it.

Jaiden Eating Oatmeal!

Jaiden can eat with a spoon but he still puts the spoon into his mouth upside down. That's why we need something sticky for him to eat, like oatmeal!

Jaiden saying "Beep Beep"

Jaiden likes to push the little toy bus around and say "beep beep".

Jaiden learning how to pray

Jaiden has watched us pray at meal time and he has started to imitate us by "folding" his arms and bowing his head.

Jaiden Saying "Daddy" and Spinning

One day when I dropped Jaiden off at nursery at church, I started walking around the perimeter of the room to try to help him detach himself from me. He kept rotating to face me as I walked around the room, and then he discovered that rotating in place is a lot of fun! Now he and I both spin around together, as seen in this video. Great fun!

It's a girl!

Jaiden eating with a fork

It's been a while since the last update. There's lots of good stuff that's happened, all of it filmed. Some of it may end up on here :)

My China Trip

I was in Beijing, China this past week. I have uploaded all my photos and you can view them all here.

Jaiden Sliding and Walking

Jaiden saying uh-oh and laughing

Jaiden's Wispies Clipped and Mother's Day

Jaiden got his wispies clipped a while ago and here are the pics.
1 - about to get wispies clipped.

2 - Clipped wispies!

3 - Eating paper on Mother's Day.

4 - Eating mommy on Mother's Day!

Jaiden stood unassisted!

He's been a little late, but Jaiden was just standing against my hand and I took my hand away and he stood unassisted for 3-4 seconds before his knees buckled and he sat down. It was exciting to see! I'm still not excited for him to be running through the house wreaking havoc though :)

Front Yard Project!

Yesterday, Heather somehow convinced me to finally tackle the problem of having an ugly patch of weeds in our front yard.
First, a little background. The original owners of this house put a huge boulder in the front yard. The second owners of the house removed the boulder, but left an ugly patch where the boulder used to be. We've had weeds growing in this patch for the two summers that we've lived in this house, and I guess Heather didn't want to deal with that for a third summer, so she decided to do something about it. I was reluctant at first, but now that the project is finished, I'm glad that we worked on it. I took some pictures of our journey.
Pictures!

Jaiden laughing and drinking milk

Jaiden saying "AHHHHH" and "E I E I"

Jaiden can say "AHHHHH".

He can also say "Ee-ii-ee-ii-oooo"... or.. almost.

I guess that some plates aren't microwave safe.

This little chunk of charred chicken just wasn't worth it.

Jaiden has discovered oranges

Tonight Heather, Jaiden, and I went to Mimi's Cafe. Right before we got there, I handed Jaiden an orange that I found in the car. I expected him to just play with it. When he started sucking on it, I thought it was cute.
Then I smelled that distinct "orange" smell that permeates the air when an orange is being peeled. I grabbed the orange away from him and found that he had taken a big bite out of the bottom of it, peel and all! After I took it away, he chewed what was in his mouth and swallowed it.
Heather and I thought it was hilarious. When we got in the restaurant, the waitress brought him a little "kid's plate" which included an orange slice with the peel still attached. When it was in range, he grabbed it and proceeded to devourer it, peel and all!

Little Grunter (Dec 2007)

Jaiden can get out of a chair and clap his hands

Jaiden's Driving Me Crazy!

I'm home sick today and Jaiden is driving me crazy.
First, he has found the stack of bibs and burp cloths (aka spit rags) and likes to pull the stack down and make a huge mess.
Second, he has figured out how to work the Diaper Champ. He just barely "flushed" a small yellow toy into the Diaper Champ where it fell on top of other diapers. Now we're going to have to figure out another location for that thing.

Recent Happenings

We recently journeyed to Boise, Idaho in order to attend Heather's grandmother's funeral. While in Boise, we went over to Dallin and Maren's apartment and hung out with them and little Noah. Then we came home. Despite my previous "snow picture" postings, I have to mention the incredible storm that we had last week. It took me probably two hours to get home, and when I made it home, I could only make it to the base of our driveway. We then spent that evening (until 1 AM) shoveling our driveway. The next morning, the driveway had to be shoveled again and I was sure to take some pictures so we can remember just how bad the snow was.

Jaiden Bouncing!

Jaiden's in the big tub now!

My Grandma

My grandma passed away on January 29th. I miss her very much. She was an extraordinary women. I felt like we were a lot alike. I got my red hair from her along with her gentle and loving personality. The talks we shared were invaluable. Her advice was something I cherished. I was also taught to say yes instead of ya, to sit up straight, to say thank you and please, to hold my head up high, to be positive, to be modest, to be respectful, to wash my face before bed, and to love everyone. She was a hard worker and loved her family very much. She was dignified in all she said and did. Some of my favorite memories with her were getting "pronto pups" with her in downtown Boise, hearing about her trips to places like Russia and San Francisco; playing Racko, trouble, rummy, and Sequence, her homemade chicken noodle soup, dinners in her fancy living room with her fancy dishes, getting to ride in her big blue car and using the automatic window buttons for the first time, playing my clarinet for her and bringing tears to her eyes, hearing her stories of Grandpa and my mom when she was younger, seeing a movie we wanted to see, getting ice cream at Baskin Robbins, always having candies in the bottom of her purse, getting to pick out Easter dresses, watching movies like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, An affair to Remember, and Miss Congeniality. I am very glad she got to spend some time with Jaiden. I hope that I can be the type of person she was.

Jaiden eats broccoli for the first time, laughs!

Tonight we tried giving Jaiden broccoli. He didn't like it very much and he got it all over his face, including his forehead! Just before I cleaned him up, I tried to make him laugh and he rewarded me with a really cute laugh. I happened to have the video camera handy so I captured the moment.

Update on snow and cake

It was actually raining last night! RAINING! We could hear the wind and rain pounding our house as we slept. I said "That's odd that it would be raining in January. I bet it snows." Sure enough, when I looked out the window, our cars, driveway, and the street in general are covered, deeper than it's been this year so far. Ugh, I really wish we had a snow blower.

After having made two cakes, I decide to make a smaller version of the cake (without frosting) to try to improve the taste. I decided that the foul taste I was detecting in the cake was not due to the whole wheat flour, but due to the olive oil (after tasting some plain olive oil by itself). So I replaced the olive oil with canola oil and remade the cake, using whole wheat flour, and half Splenda, half sugar. It actually tastes pretty good. In fact, Heather didn't even realize that I had used whole wheat flour!
So at this point, I would still like to eliminate as much of the sugar as possible so I thought as a possible compromise, I could replace half of the whole wheat flour with white flour, and add some Benefiber to offset the effects of the white flour. The problem is, I don't know how much fiber to add to make the white flour have as much fiber as whole wheat flour.