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I am so proud to say that I spent 2 hours today pureeing fruits, veggies, and meats! When I was pregnant I vowed that my baby would eat healthier than I do. I love my heat ’em and eat ’ems and strongly dislike fruits/veggies!  I know that isn’t good eating habits and I promise to role model better eating when we are all eating table foods. Until then I’ll skip the veggies and take some fries! Anyway, we started Kayden on solids about a month or so ago and I knew I wanted to make her food, but I thought it was going to be a lot of work and I kind of just said I’ll look into pureeing later. Well Santa brought me a Baeba baby food maker so now it’s the time to get on it! This morning Kayden and I headed to the store to get some fresh fruits and veggies! Boy did we have some fun!! Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to really get started until after her lunch, so we’ll see tomorrow if she loves what mommy made! So far we have sweat peas, apple sauce, and turkey! I am so excited to get creative and expose her to the world of eating!!

I started off with a cup of peas. Sweet, it made 2 servings!!

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Kayden helped mommy, but she did NOT like the sound of the blender!

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After I put her down for her nap I moved on to apple sauce. This was a lot more work than the peas, but I think it came out well!

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Finally we made some pureed turkey. Looks kind of gross, but it can’t be any worse than the jarred turkey she’s been eating! That stuff stinks and tastes horrible!After nap time Kayden needed a wardrobe change because she was wearing her lunch and I couldn’t stand looking at the spatter stains from her raspberries!

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After all my cooking I even managed to do some light cleaning… okay okay I just vaccummed the rug, but it still counts! What a great day we had!

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On Friday morning Kayden woke up with a cough. This is our first experience with a cold and of course it comes right before Christmas. I was a little concerned so I called the doctor. I spoke with the nurse on duty and basically she told me that love was the only medicine I could give my baby unless she had a fever! She is a true Hatcher baby and consistently had a body temp of 96 degreese. Scotty assured me that his ‘normal’ body temp has always been below 98.6 degrees too. So for the past few days Kayden’s naps have been irregular, but she’s been taking at least one three hour nap each day when we are at home. She is probably recovering from her two night stay in Orange County visiting and playing with family. Luckily, we have the whole week to get back into our routine and really fight this bug!

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I remember opening presents on Christmas morning while my mom sat close by admiring and my dad manned the video camera. As I got older I never understood their enthusiasm for waking up before the sun to watch me and my brothers open up our presents from Santa. How could they be so excited to see our gifts when it seemed they only received a gift I made in class using paints and ceramics? I know that Kayden is too young to understand what Christmas represents or what it means to hear Santa’s sleigh bells ringing, but this Christmas I began to understand the joy in watching my child experience Christmas. No longer do I look forward to receiving gifts. No longer do I dread fighting the mall crowds. No longer do I wonder what gift I might receive. I now look forward to seeing Christmas through my daughter’s eyes. What a gift I have been blessed with. There is no joy, no gift, no love more greater than the gift of my child. We hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful Christmas doing what you love with the ones you love! 🙂

On our Christmas, we started off the holiday festivities with Auntie Kelly, Uncle Will, and Kayden’s super cool cousins Jake and Ian :). We had some good laughs and then opened presents while Nam watched on iChat. You know technology can be confusing and frustrating, but in our family with bicostal residents we find it to be the link that keeps us all close! Merry Christmas Nam, Papa, and Auntie Jen. We missed you so much but are so lucky to be able to click and chat at any time!! Kayden loves ya!!

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After a Christmas Eve visit with the Spahrs we headed up to Orange County to visit with my family. We spent time with Mimi (of course), Grampy, Uncle Jer, Auntie Katrina, Uncle Nick, and my mom’s side of the family. What fun we had with Kayden’s great grandma and great grandpa. Poor Kayden was fighting a cold and the emergence of her first TWO teeth! She was wearing her holiday dress and entertaining the whole group! My aunt Colleen and her girls came too and we were loving the opportunity to show Kayden off! What a fun day!

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Since it’s Kayden’s first Christmas we figured we could get away with just about anything. In fact, for her first Christmas she got a new flat screen TV for her nursery! We look forward to the traditions we will be establishing for our family, but figured since Kayden is 6 months old she probably won’t remember what we do this year anyway! We knew we had some long travels for our 6 month old so we decided to stay in a local (local to Mims) hotel on Christmas Eve. This was a tough sell for me,  but I figured Kayden probably wouldn’t mind Santa visiting Mimi’s place this year ;). We had a great day at Mimi and Grampy’s with a late nap and an afternoon of opening presents. Let me just say that Mimi and Nam gave Kayden a brand new wardrobe and Auntie Katrina (& Uncle Jer) provided Kayden with all new toys. Wow, little Miss Kayden you are so loved!!

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Now that I have mentioned how Christmas is primarily for my child, let me explain how Grampy made Christmas just a little bit about the boys. Grampy bought two remote control helicopters for the boys to play with while the girls gushed about the baby and slaved over the stove all day!

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Kim and Kevin stopped by with their adorable girls, Addison and Reese. I love to check in on Kim’s blog (joneskjfam.blogspot.com) to see the many faces of Addison as well as to see how little Reese is growing and changing! I love to see where Kayden has been (Reese, 3 months) and where  Kayden is going (Addison, 21 months). It’s weird (or maybe not), Addison was only interested in kissing Kayden on this visit. She didn’t care about the singing Barney that I searched far and wide for. She didn’t care about her little sister (although she was sure okay with picking up and sucking on her binky!), and she sure didn’t care about the 6 dogs running around! Addie you are a sweet sweet girl who makes the most adorable faces in the world! Reese you are the most patient and well-mannered baby that I have ever seen. Kayden and I look forward to the days you three are running the cul-de-sac reeking havok on all the neighbors! I love you all!!

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We had the most special and love-filled Christmases of all times this year. Never will Christmas be the same. For I will never look forward to what I shall receive, but in turn enjoy the gifts and good memories I will share with my first born, Kayden!

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Okay so this new ‘trick’ that Kayden has learned has got to go! I know I have mentioned the cute raspberries Kayden does when she’s feeling a little feisty, but now it has escalated! She doesn’t do her raspberries when she is mad any more, she does them to let mommy know that she is done eating. I get no warning. No turn of the cheek. No closed lips. We go straight from a wide mouth to raspberries, which directly results in mommy wearing her meal on her face and clothes. I have gotten to the point where I wipe my face but I don’t change my shirt. Here is a great video of Kayden using the raspberry to signal to mommy that she is so over eating! Click the image to view the video.

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Kayden is quickly outgrowing her outfits. My mom was smart and bought her Christmas outfits a bit bigger than she was at the time (one month ago!). Low and behold she is growing up and out of her outfits. I know I joke about her chubs, but she is growing in length too. Here is Kayden looking so cute in her Santa tu-tu! Thanks Mims for taking such good care of her today! She loves playing dress up and eating mommy’s jewelry with you!

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