i know, i know...so i promised pictures/video of the first day of rice cereal, and i completely slacked. so i am finally getting some up today! no video yet (i need to edit it still!!), but at least i have photos up! and am in the process of taking more. rice cereal day one went pretty well. she made quite a mess of it and i think that more went on her than in her little belly! but she seemed to like it. and everyday since then has gotten so much better at eating off her little spoon and swallowing it down! we started another food yesterday...avocado...and she really seemed to like it! in a few days, i will introduce another food and we'll see how she does! the past few weeks, i've been having some issues with her not sleeping as well and being much fussier than usual. at first, i thought that she was just going through a growth spurt, but after more than three weeks of this and conferring with the pediatrician, we figured out that she wasn't getting enough to eat. so i have started supplementing with formula. we started this on friday and she has been so much happier since then. and has even been sleeping mostly through the night again (thank goodness...the past three weeks, she had been getting up 3-4 times to eat, which was totally unlike her...and making a tired mama!!!) she has also finally figured out how to roll from her back to her tummy. she hasn't perfected it yet, but has done it a few times in the past two days. pretty soon she'll be rolling all over the place...and then...crawling...yikes!!!

i was so blessed to get a phone call from max last week! it was fantastic and i can't wait to talk to him again! it was the first i had heard from him in three weeks, so it was great to hear his voice and get an update on what he is up to! his unit is at their destination, which i knew from the unit website. he had been doing guard duty for the past three weeks, at night, which he really enjoyed. he said it gets very hot during the day, so he really liked being able to work at night and sleep during the day. he says it is very sandy/dusty (which we knew going in), but that things are going well. he also mentioned that he will switching jobs...i'll keep you posted as i learn more about what he means by this!

day one of rice cereal...it was ALL over her face/hands!!