The haps...

That always reminds me of my dear friend Mark. He was a police officer and I had the opportunity to go on a ride-along with him. Every time we pulled someone over, he'd ask the driver, "What's the haps?" I can't imagine what they thought. I love saying it every now and again. It's my little shout out to Mark in heaven (He was tragically killed during a horrific shoot-out with a couple of brothers when a traffic stop went horribly wrong. He was only 29 years old and left behind a sweet wife and two beautiful girls. The next time you're bugged at a police officer who pulls you over for "nothing" remember how hard they work to protect you and what they put on the line every single day.) Anyway...
Our cute little Elisabeth will be 6 months old tomorrow. Wow. Was it really half a year ago that she came into our lives? I've said it before but it seems like she's been with us forever. We LOVE this little girl! She's increasingly demanding--crying hysterically when she's not being held or talked to (then immediately switching to laughter when we talk to her and ask her what's wrong.) Oh the drama. And it's just beginning. She's really very happy (when she's getting her way) and there is nothing sweeter than to hear her laugh when we're playing with her. So tonight we started solids. We started with Oatmeal Cereal because I didn't think she'd like the lemon chicken I made for dinner. Well, as it turns out, she's not crazy for the Oatmeal cereal either. I made it really thin but she kept gagging on it. Tomorrow night I'll try thinning it with apple juice instead of formula and we'll see if she likes it better. She doesn't sit on her own yet, which is so crazy to me. She rolls all over the place, she gets up on her knees and rocks so I know crawling will start sooner rather than later but she just refuses to sit up on her own. Hmmm..Anyway, so as I'm feeding her she's leaning to one side and ended up getting oatmeal all over her face. So here she is during her very first meal:

The problem, you see, is that she prefers eating.....her toes. Weird little girl. Look at all that chub. My heck I just love her.
In other news, Jack said pretty much one of the sweetest things ever today. It just reminded me how precious these little ones are--that they really DO listen to these things we teach them and it really DOES sink it. So we were sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch and he asked me to read him the book I made about Scott's dad. (He calls it the Grandpa Gary book.) I read it to him and every now and then would just get a little choked up. At one point he said, "You don't have to cry, Mom, he died a long time ago." I said, "Yeah, but you know I still miss him a whole lot." He said, "It's okay to miss him but you know that he'll be all better when Jesus comes." Wow. Sweet little peanut. I have the greatest kids!
Okay, that's all for now. I have a bunch of stuff to get done tonight, including trying to decide which project to show you next for Christmas Gift Idea Wednesday. Is this helpful to you at all? Does it give you good ideas? Should I keep doing it until Christmas or do you not care? Your opinion counts.