Thursday, December 11, 2008

Introducing...

Shelby, the Yellow-nosed Reindeer

(Click for a closer look)

Yes, I said yellow and no, you don't need to adjust the color of your computer screen. You might have already noticed but Shelby really does have a bit of a yellow-ish tint to her skin, especially her nose.

A few months back,I was a bit perplexed when I started noticing her yellowish nose. At first I only saw it when I viewed pics from our then,new camera. I just figured it was the camera. Then a few days later, while out on a walk with Shelby, an old Scottish lady asked me if Shelby was jaundiced. Shelby had newborn jaundice for a week or so right after she was born and it had been long gone since then,as far as I knew. She then asked me if I fed Shelby a lot of carrots. I answered no pretty quickly feeling confident it wasn't carrots. Before we moved here, I had made sure to buy a wide variety of baby food with all kinds of veggies and fruits. Besides, since we had moved to Vancouver, Shelby had been mostly breastfeed with the exception of a few snacks and jar of various flavors of baby food,IE, Chicken Noodle,Turkey &Veggies, Beef&Veggies,Lasagna,Spaghetti,etc, for dinner each night. She's eaten carrots a few times before, but definately not enough to make her skin turn yellow. Or so I thought...

When I got home, it was really bugging me that I wasn't the only one now who noticed her yellow coloring. So I immediately went to the cupboard and pulled out all her baby food searching the ingredients on every can. Turns out almost every single jar of baby food we had read as follows, "Ingredients: Water, CARROTS,..." then beef, or turkey or chicken and so on. Even the Lasagna and Spaghetti listed carrots as the second ingredient! Carrots must give some good flavor or be pretty dang cheap as a filler. I felt so stupid and pretty guilty for being so oblivious to it. But who could blame me? Not one jar had a picture of carrots on it! To ease my mind and just to make sure the cause of her yellow nose was the carrots, I googled "yellow nose" and found this article on Wikipedia, CLICK--->"Carotenoderma" (I don't know what's up with the black bar across the baby's eyes. I guess her parents didn't want her identity disclosed-lol) Thank goodness for google parenting and Wikipedia! What would I ever do without them?

Thankfully carotenoderma is harmless and only temporary. Hopefully it will go away soon, as we have run out of baby food and are now feeding her what we eat, for the most part.

So long yellow-nose!


And now a brief clip of Shelby's latest accomplishment,

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Birthday Cake

I am no artist and and am definately no cook. However, on occasion, I will bake some cookies or brownies only to satisfy my own selfish craving for something sweet or because I got suckered into bringing something for a potluck. I highly admire anyone who can spend hours in the kitchen preparing anything and enjoy every minute of it. Growing up, I admit I was a bit spoiled being the youngest. Instead of laboring in the kitchen with my mom (heaven bless her!) I was with my brother and dad watching football or whatever sport was on that day. I guess I just always figured I would love cooking once I became a mother....haha, boy was I ever naive. Well my friends, the day has finally come...the tables have turned.

For the first time, I Lindsay Bryson Wells made a cake all by myself...


well almost by myself. I had a little help from my friends, Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines ;) And I even did it knowing I may not get to enjoy any of it. Aren't you proud of me? ;)



I'll be the first to admit it's no work of art and I got a little crazy with the sprinkled dots, but it fufilled its purpose. Turns out baking isn't so hard when you have an easy to please 1year-old. Hopefully I'll get better at this cooking/baking thing with practice. Either way,any effort is totally worth it for this face,

Don't you agree?



Monday, December 1, 2008

To Little Miss Shelby

We can't believe it's already here. Shelby, you are 1 year old! From the moment we found out you were coming we knew our lives would be changed forever, for the better. It's been one heck of a year since you arrived; from sleepless nights, endless feedings, poopy diapers, and crying (by all of us), to the present with more restful nights, less frequent but more stinky diapers, and more grins and giggles. You have really blossomed this past year and are becoming more fun and beautiful everyday. Sometimes we look at you and wonder, "How is it possible? Not only are you a real, living and breathing little human being, but you are healthy, happy, and you are OURS. Shelby, you are our greatest blessing, our joy, our little miracle.




Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!

WE LOVE YOU!!!