The Haggard Herald

This is my new best friend, next to Matt.  She and I are very similar and yet very different too; we do pretty much everything together and are inseparable. Matt says her eyebrows and chin look like mine.  I think her nose looks similar to Matt's, and she has dark blue eyes, like Matt.  We'll wait and see if they stay blue or not.  She loves sucking her fingers, or her whole hand if she can't manage to get her fingers into her mouth.  And she gets the hiccups at least 3-4 times a day. Madeleine loves sounds and sleeps better when there are sounds to listen to.  She loves it when I use the hair dryer, vacuum, or laundry machine.  She also loves it when I leave the window open so she can hear the sounds from outside—cars driving by, birds chirping, and the wind.  The social side of her is starting to shine through already too; she likes listening to voices also and is pretty vocal herself.  Although she doesn’t know any words ...

I started learning Jon Schmidt songs on the piano when I was in high school.  When Michael was a missionary one of his companions played Jon Schmidt songs and Mike thought I would like learning them too.  Well, I did.    Thanks Michael! I was watching some of his newer music videos and really liked this one in particular.  I think it's partially because I really miss the beach... :)

Yesterday at dinner Matt's dad was telling me about a speech Mitt Romney gave at Liberty University this past weekend.  It is only 20 minutes long and is worth listening to. Here's the link to the audio stream: Mitt Romney speaks at Liberty University . And here's a link to a photo gallery from the Washington Post on it: Romney's Commencement Address . I'm surprised it didn't get more press coverage than it did and I wish that it had.  It's a great speech.  I am particularly pleased (1) that he defended marriage as being between one man and one woman and (2) that the audience gave so much audible support of it, (3) he states that the family is central to society, (4) he states that what we value is what makes or breaks a civilization and that we need to hold fast to the Judeo-Christian beliefs the country was founded on, and (5) how gracious he was overall as he addressed the graduating class of a university that reportedly refers to Mormonism as a c...

Do you think she's waiting until her room is ready?  If so, I know what I'm going to be working on for the next several days.  The baby room is still a work-in-progress for several reasons:  1.  Matt and I had random boxes and things stored in the spare room, which takes time to go through and find a new home for.  2.  There are so many decisions to make when you're anticipating the arrival of a new permanent family member, including things to buy; and  3.  I've never researched baby stuff before and had no idea what I wanted... bassinet, crib, crib mattress, stroller, car seat, baby bath, baby seat, etc. etc. etc. 4.  I'm a slow buyer.  5.  I like to make my own things, particularly decorations.  So I have the material to make curtains and "little baby buggy bumpers" for the crib, as Matt calls them. End result = an unfinished baby room. Here's what it looked like several weeks ago: Lest you think we are unprepared...

Matt mowed the grass and did some other things around the yard while I weeded all the grass out of our tree rings on the west side of the house.  We took a break for lunch and then sketched out where we want to build planters in the backyard for a vegetable garden.  Unfortunately, we didn't get the planters finished.  When Matt dug up the sprinklers where we want to replace planters for grass he found not one but three pipes.  So we have a little bit more investigative work to do on our watering system before we can put the planters in.  In the mean time, here are a few pictures: This is the face he usually gives me when I'm taking pictures instead of actually working.  :) My lovely weed-free tree ring.  Thankfully, working at the temple grounds taught me to enjoy weeding. Our wheat is growing!  It looks like grass right now.

I've found that I sleep most comfortably if I have a stair case of pillows.  This is what it normally looks like (I've got four pillows, Matt has one). Last night I fell asleep on couch while holding one of the sofa pillows and when I woke up I realized I slept really comfortably with the sofa pillow, so I brought it back to our room with me.  While I was brushing my teeth Matt found a few extra things he thought I might like: These were all stacked on my side of the bed waiting for me.  I tossed them to the ground so I could get into bed and then I took a picture this morning to remember. As a side note, I just clicked on Kimmy's old blog from before her mission and got a great laugh all over again.  Look at her last post before she left on her mission: Kimmy--May 2011 .  I love our family.  With Matt's sense of humor he fits right in.  :)  We're all a little silly either on purpose or by accident.

Last semester I took a nutrition class at BYU for fun.  The topic of the class was the specific nutritional needs and concerns at specific life stages: infants, toddlers and young children, adolescents, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and older adults (we skipped middle-aged people because that what is usually covered in most of the other regular nutrition classes). I learned how to do a nutritional analysis on a pregnant person and preschooler and determine suggestions for improvement.  It was really fun and I learned a lot.  To do the analysis I got a "24-hour recall" (everything that person ate yesterday in 24 hours) and input the info into the USDA choosemyplate.gov's Supertracker.  The Supertracker tool will make reports based on the info you put in.  My teacher wanted us to look at the meal summary (to see overall trends), nutrients distribution report, and the food groups and calories report.  I really like the Supertracker tool; the ch...

Toddlers and preschoolers are acquiring more  dexterity and coordination than in infancy; also their tongue movement is more refined and chewing becomes easier.  As a r ule of thumb, a serving size for a child in this age range (2-4) is about 1 tablespoon of each food group per year of age (e.g. a 2 year old gets several 2 TBSP size servings of vegetables, grains, etc. each day).   Toddlers and preschoolers will want to have more control over their eating and drinking than they have exhibited before.   Tips for parents:  VARIETY: Provide a variety of foods for meals and snacks.  Even if they refuse it, exposing them to a variety of food is one of the best things a parent can do to establish healthy eating habits.   They probably won't be this picky forever.  :)  PROPORTIONS: Remember the rule of thumb for proportion sizes: 1 tablespoon for each food group per year of age.  Give them a small proportion and let them ask for mor...