Thursday and so much to say!

I have been really busy with being sick and having family visiting. My oldest sister Kathy visited us from San Diego. All 3 of my sisters and my mom were here- so fun! I also hosted a big brunch on saturday and invited other relatives to come and see Kathy. It was a huge success, I thought, and in the future I will be hosting brunches instead of dinners! Way easier and less of me running around the kitchen stressing while everyone else is visiting! Here was the menu:

Fruit Danishes
Noah's Bagels (and 3 kinds of cream cheese)
Stumptown Coffee
Chai tea lattes (soy or regular)
Pastries my aunt Paula picked up from a french bakery)
Fruit Salad (made by my mother in law)
Sausage/Egg Casserole (also made by my wonderful mother in law- yes, I think my MIL is wonderful)
Ham/egg/cheese/hashbrown casserole
And of course- Memosas! (or just OJ if preferred)

Set out the bagels and pastries while working on casseroles, which took about an hour each to bake. Drinks were self- serve. I am totally doing this again!

There has been a nasty bug going around- Ross, me, Maddy, two of my sisters, my mother in law, and several of my patients have had its. Its worse than your usual common cold for some reason- its just aweful! Maddy survived it with nothing more than a low grade fever for one day and a continual stuffy nose (don't get me started on the frustrations of trying to get boogers out of a tiny nose on a stubborn girl). I can't take any decongestants or meds because of breastfeeding, so I have been doing this:



and this:



I'm going on 3 weeks with this thing, but its slowly getting better, thank goodness.

I need to do my official Maddy update- I am so behind! But I will say this:

I decided to start solids based on her cues and my instincts. I was going to wait until 6 months, but there are actually new studies out saying that maybe its not the best idea to wait, afterall (re: allergies, picky eaters, etc.) I got this information from the AAP, which is the most reliable source, in my opinion. Also, it got to the point where the only reason I was waiting was because so many people said I should. Thats not a good enough reason. I learned a while back that its best to trust my instincts, and I was right! Maddy took right to the rice ceral, no problemo. Last night we introduced her to avocado, and she did awesome with that too!


Other milestone:

She "crawled" backwards. It wasn't really crawling, so much, but she did move herself backwards half-way across the living room. She is growing up so fast!