So Many Fun Things

Just in case anyone wanted to know, I'm feeling quite mushy around the middle lately. But I'm only 11 weeks! There is no way I'm going to give up on sucking it in yet!
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Anyways, some fun stories from around here. A couple of days ago Carrie and I were eating cereal for breakfast. So far, I pretty much just pour extra in my bowl, stir it around for a minute to help it get a little soggy and then spoon cereal pieces onto her tray. When all the cereal was gone, she acted like she still wanted more, so I started spoon-feeding her some of the flavored milk from the bowl. She whined and grabbed at the bowl and spoon, which I carefully let her half-hold on her tray. She pulled the spoon from my hand, set it down on her tray and pulled the bowl up to her mouth to finish the milk. I know I didn't teach her how to drink cereal milk from the bowl, but she sure knew how! She finished it all off!
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My only regret is it wasn't her milk: whole milk, full of fat and calories that my skinny mini really really needs. As of today, she is 17 months old and weighs exactly 20 pounds (4th percentile) and is 31.5 inches tall (55th percentile). She's healthy and active and learning like crazy, she's just filled with marshmallow fluff!
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Fun story #2: Carrie's dancing is very fun to watch, but pretty interesting.... I'm not sure where she learned her dance moves, but she has a lot of fun listening to music, commercials, whatever... and dancing by leaning her head side to side and holding her arms in a chicken-wing pose. Like I said, I'm not sure where she learned that... (I tried posting a video but after almost an hour and a half of waiting for it to "process", I gave up....)
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She's also decided that she's too much of a big girl to crawl up and down the stairs now. She goes up walking, holding on to the side rails or walls, and comes down scootching step by step on her bum, facing forward. I'm pretty used to it by now, but it still scares Justin a little to watch her do it like that.
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Justin had another basketball reffing camp last weekend so Carrie and I spent more time at my parents house in Mesa. I also played a "gig" with my mom and a lady from her ward for a local wedding reception. It was fun, but holy cow! I need to play the cello more often. I sounded just fine, but my fingers were dead by the end of an hour and a half straight. I didn't realize that several certain places on my left hand fingers were calloused from playing... and are NOT calloused now. It hurt. But it was fun :)
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We've been noticing some yucky dead bugs hanging around in our garage lately, so today I stuck out the heat and swept the garage. Among other things, I counted 7 cockroaches, 1 black widow and 1 spidion (Our name for a mix between a spider and a scorpion. I don't know if it's a real thing, but that's what it looks like, and it's gross). Yuck. I'm done telling that story now. It's reminding me and making me feel creepy-crawly.
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How about a much brighter, happier note?! Last week at my doctor's appointment we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! Even though I was only 10 weeks then, the doctor said I was "super-thin" so we should be able to find it with the abdominal doppler "no problem". **Insert Rebecca smiling about being called "super-thin" HERE** I know I'm being prideful, but it was a moment of happiness in my day.
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I was going to post the video Justin took of the heartbeat, but posting is taking toooo long. The baby got a little camera shy after a few seconds anyways and after what seemed like a very long 45 seconds, the doctor "found" it again. Beating strong and steady at 165.
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Carrie has finally discovered her building blocks my parents got her for Christmas. She hasn't been quite coordinated enough to figure out real stacking until just recently. Now, it's allllll about towers! I have to build a little base for her to start on, otherwise it tips over after 3 or 4 blocks and she gets frustrated.
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That way she can make it taller than she can even reach!
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She got so into building with her blocks that even while we were at my parents' house (where there are no blocks), she still found something to make towers out of.
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A random picture of Carrie's ridiculously cheesy grin. She saw me pull out the camera and ran over as close as she could get to me to have her picture taken.
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Here is Justin's Father's Day Present; a new tool box. None of the tools are new, but last week the handle on our crummy old tool box totally broke, so he asked for a new one. This one is much better and hopefully should serve us well :)
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