>I have been thinking a lot lately about being a mother. Maybe it’s because my birthday is fast approaching and I have never really considered my birthday as anything but my day. Now that I have a child I find myself thinking about Leila’s birthday, and about the day that I was born. As a mother I would think that every birthday would be not only a day to celebrate the growth of your child, but also as the anniversary of the miracle that brought that child into the world. Being a mother has made me appreciate my own mom on a new level, and I hope that she gets a tremendous feeling of satisfaction every October 15th, and June 5th, and March 13th and November 27th, because she did an amazing thing on those days. Way to go Momma! Here are a couple of recent pictures of my little angel. Leila is starting week 3 of solid foods…We started out pretty slowly, as you can see by the look on her face, she didn’t really think much of rice cereal at first. Now we think we have found the magic potion…Rice cereal and applesauce. She really seems to enjoy this. I think she will be sitting up on her own in no time. She loves to sit up with mom or dad behind her to keep her steady…It allows her the best access to her toys. Her favorite toy seems to be her Learning Lion that Great-Great Aunt Shirley sent to her. She spins the lion’s stomach, and Cory and I just can’t get enough of the tune… “I am a lion, I roar all day…” Just wait until you see a picture of Leila in her Halloween Lion costume…it may very well be the cutest thing ever.