The Heart Walk last weekend was awesome! We had perfect weather once again which is just another reason we think Evan has a little influence up in Heaven! Greg, Cara and I arrived a little after 8 am to meet some of the AHA directors and enjoy the "VIP Breakfast" that we were invited to. Talk about making us feel important! :-) We had a nice turn out...if I remember correctly there were 22 of us all walking in Evan's memory. I thought about my little guy so much as we walked along the river and thanked him over and over again for inspiring us and giving us another beautiful day. So far our team has raised almost $7500, but I think we may hit $8000 once all of the money is in! Another incredibly successful year given the hard economic times we are in. I believe we might just be the top Friends & Family team once again!

In other news, I haven't had a chance to get on here much because Cara is going through a very difficult sleep stage. She was sleeping really well in her crib until we got home from the Spaghetti Dinner benefit we held. She and I both came home sick and it put me out for over a week. In that week she stopped sleeping in her crib and would only sleep in my bed with me. Nowhere else! At the time I was worried I might be encouraging bad habits, but I really didn't have the energy to fight with her about it (plus she felt yucky too, and I wanted to make her feel better!). Now she refuses to sleep anywhere but in my bed. We tried a couple of painstaking nights of letting her cry it out (but checking on her frequently), but she just got madder and madder to the point of losing her voice. I know about the Ferber method and we tried so hard to use it...she just won't give in. Now we are very much trying to stick to the same exact routine every night and hoping that eventually she will learn that the crib isn't so bad! If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I love cuddling with her, but my back is killing me! When she sleeps in my bed, I am on "mommy alert" so I stay in the same position all night long. And it's really taking a toll on my back! (By the way, we do try every night to get her in her crib. We haven't given up, we're just looking for any suggestions!).

So anyway....Cara started babbling last week! She loves making the "b" sound and just says "bb-b--b-b-b--bb-b--bbb-b-b-b" over and over again! And also loves to blow raspberries! She sits on my lap and looks at our kitties and has lengthy conversations with them. It is so cute!

We also starte her on Oatmeal Cereal a couple of days ago. The picture above is her first serving of the goo. She loves it! I was going to wait until 6 months to give her any solids , but she is so hungry and I have also heard it can help her sleep through the night better. So we'll just keep giving her the cereal once a day until she is 6 months old. We might introduce a few fruits and veggies too, but the solids will only occur once a day for another month. I have also decided to make my own baby food! When seeing that jars of food range in price from .60-.92 per jar, I thought it would get pretty expensive once she starts eating more frequently. Last week I made my first batch. Peas and carrots, and it was SO EASY to do! I have to say the Magic Bullet makes it so convenient...I don't have to drag out my big blender or food processor. Frozen veggies were on sale for $1/bag at our grocery store, so I thought peas and carrots would be a good place to start. I just steamed them, put them in the Magic Bullet, added a little bit of water and blended the heck out of it! I scooped the green and orange goo into ice cube trays, covered them with plastic wrap and froze them overnight. Popped them out the next morning and put them in freezer bags! So my $2 turned into 44 servings of veggies! Sure beats .60-.92 per jar! A great website for reference is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. It's actually a lot of fun to do!

Well, this weekend we will be running around again. Today I am getting my hair cut for the first time since April (yay!), and then we head to Monroeville to see our friends Cathy and Rob and eat smores and drink cocoa! Saturday we'll head to Ligonier to spend some time with my dad's family and have dinner at Ross Mountain Country Club. We'll be coming home that night though to once again try to get Cara in her crib. No wonder the poor girl has such bad sleep habits! We drag her around all over the place constantly!

That's it for now. Hopefully the next update will be sooner rather than later! (But I can't promise anything...)