Congratulations Jay and Annie!!

Over last weekend, we spent 4 days in Carmel California for Jay Bernhart and Annie Britton's wedding!!  Jay is Aaron's cousin and they were very close growing up -- its very fun to see him in love with Annie and share their special day.

The wedding was BEAUTIFUL and very casual and fun.  It was small -- just family and close friends -- and held at a beautiful rustic house above Carmel.  You could see the ocean through the trees and it was a lovely spring day.  We enjoyed catching up with family and Elayna was a big star.

Along with the wedding, we also spent a few days exploring Carmel and Monterey.  Elayna had her first trip to the ocean.  Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Carol took her to the aquarium.  We drove down the coast, Aaron and the boys played golf, and we all took good naps.

Aaron’s (er … I mean Elayna’s) new toy

It was only a matter of time before Elayna was introduced to biking!  We've finally purchased a bike trailer and Elayna had her inaugural ride this evening.  We cruised around the neighborhood for about 30-minutes and Aaron's really pleased with the new toy.  The jury's still out for Elayna.  She sat pretty calmly but wasn't overjoyed.  I'm sure she just needs to get used to the thrill of speed and she'll love her new adventure. 

Or maybe she's just waiting for the pink barbie bike of her very own.

WALKING

After weeks of hinting, Elayna took her first steps this week!  We're very excited and proud of her -- and she's very pleased with herself too.

On Wednesday, Alicia spent the afternoon with us and we all enjoyed playing in the park.  Elayna took a step towards me on 2 seperate attempts while we were there.  It's a little borderline -- but I'm declaring it her first steps!  However, she took 3 solid steps with Aaron this evening so it is official.

This picture isn't of her walking obviously but I love it anyway because she's having such a great time.

Don't worry ... we didn't leave her in the dryer.

Elayna had her first camping trip last weekend too -- so she's had a really exciting week.  We spent a night at Lake Pleasant with our friends Mike and Amy Hernandez.  We also visited with our friends Sean and Tammy Hagan on Saturday.  Elayna did great -- she slept through the night in the tent although she had a hard time relaxing and falling asleep initially.  And Mike and Amy have a gorgeous RV that we took advantage of for a nap and warming up in the morning.  It was a fun trip.  But it was hard to relax with a demanding 11-month old.  Aaron and I have both decided we might postpone the next trip until she's a little older.

On the work-side, I should update you on Aaron's job.  He is still unhappy about the current job change but is looking at possibly moving teams to a position that's more suited to him.  It was a hard week for him but I think we're both optimistic -- and we know things could be MUCH worse.

We leave next Wednesday for California for Jay Bernhart's wedding (Aaron's cousin).  This will be Elayna's 7 state in her short life ... she's a busy traveler!!

Finger Food Academy

Elayna is not a lover of finger foods.  She mashes her bananas and pears, she rejects cooked vegetables and cheese, and most of her crackers and puffs go to Clancy.  She has great hand-eye coordination, I think she just doesn't quite realize that food should be eaten and that its ok to get a little messy.

Up until now, I have been perfectly content with this.  At her 9 month appointment, the pediatrician gave the 'every child develops at their own pace' speech and that was good enough for me.  Besides, we had a great baby-food system down ... I knew her likes, her dislikes, her schedule, and I could feed her in about 10 minutes. 

However, I had a wake-up call yesterday when I watched her peers at day-care eat entire meals of chopped peaches and crackers.  The other kids are far ahead of Elayna in their eating habits and I don't think I can continue to ignore this.  Especially since she has a very important cake-eating engagement happening in about a month.

To solicit advice I went where most modern mothers go to figure things out:  internet chat rooms.  Thankfully there were other women with similar issues with their older babies:  food is for playing, no interest in self-feeding, textures yucky, etc.  And the advice ranged from the good ol' "every child develops at their own pace" (which I'll no longer accept as an excuse) to "your child may have developmental issues" (which I wholeheartedly reject). 

I know this is mostly my fault ... I am not good at giving Elayna opportunities to learn how to feed herself.  So we're starting a more vigorous approach:  weaning from the pureed foods, devoting more meal time to trying things, allowing her to get really hungry to 'light a fire' under her.  So far this is kind of working; breakfast was waffles and bananas and she did eat quite a bit.  She also spit quite a bit out, threw quite a bit to Clancy, and I found some bananas later down her jammies.

This might be harder on me than on her.....

Trying sweet potato fries ... not happily.

And our not so good news…

Aaron had some bad news yesterday.  Honeywell has been cutting back and watching costs (just like everyone else these days) and Aaron has been moved to a new team and demoted from a Engineer 4 to an Engineer 3. 

Fortunately, his salary will remain the same although he losses his bonus and one week of vacation.  In this recession, we are thankful he still has a job and we know we are very fortunate.

More than anything, this is hard on Aaron's confidence.  We both agree that his moving to Honeywell was still a good decision, but he is questioning if his new job is what he wants to do long-term.  We'll continue to sit tight and see what happens ...

Beautiful Phoenix

We were reminded again this weekend why we live in Phoenix.  The weather here is gorgeous ... 80's during the day, pleasant at night.  It is a excellent spring and we're enjoying our first day of March!

Yesterday, our little family went to Thunderbird Park (SR101 and 59th Ave) for a hike, picnic, and sun-time.  The 3-mile loop is harder than I remember -- winding up the mountain overlooking the better part of Phoenix.  I have a sunburn today as a memento.  But we also took a lot of pictures.  Clancy probably had the best time; he hasn't left the couch in 24-hours.