6 Month Pictures at last

I'm a bit behind on posting pictures from Adalyn's 6 month photo shoot with Jes Meeker Photography.  Here are a few of my favorites.

 

Ok, so there were more than a few pictures. I just couldn't narrow my favorite pictures down any further. I'm so thankful for Jes and that we have a built in photographer for Adalyn's little life. She is awesome! If you're in Lexington you should schedule an appointment with her. She's the best:)

Yum! Baby Food!

I have been making Adalyn's baby food so I decided to write a post to show how easy it is. We started off our food journey with Billie making Adalyn's food. (I'm pretty sure I had a sweet deal!!) Billie told me that I could borrow her Beaba (that she had gotten at a consignment sale and believe me I had scoured the sales and no luck) once Adalyn started foods.  Well Billie was still using it for Eli at 18 months (seriously you can get some long term use out of these things!) so she made a few foods for Adalyn and brought them to us frozen. 

I started to feel guilty that she was taking the time and effort to make MY child's food so Jonathan found our very own Beaba on Craig's List (my first CL purchase) and when I met up with the girl she said she had only used it once and I believed her. It was brand spankin new! So Billie gave me a crash course in baby food making and also let me borrow her Cooking For Baby book.  The book has great ideas for what foods to start when and it also has recipes! I know there are tons of ways to make baby food and lots more to learn but I thought I'd show you how I'm currently making Adalyn's food.

I decided to make A LOT of food this weekend. I wanted to try three new items (zucchini, cauliflower and blueberries) and I needed to replace her three favorite foods in our freezer (sweet potatoes, acorn squash and apples).  I will admit that blueberries, according to the book, get made differently and by the time I was finished with the other 5 items I was too tired to figure out how to make them. But I will try them soon!

 First, fill up the correct amount of water into the machine for the steaming process. Second, don't move the crap off of the counter in the background of your picture.

 I peel all of the fruits/veggies. I'm not sure if every fruit/veggie needs to be peeled but I'm not willing to chance it.  Then I chop them into really small pieces. (Easier to steam and puree that way.)

 Pile as much as you possibly can into the steaming basket. (I fit all 3 zucchini into the basket.)

 Turn it on to the steam mode. (Like the formula in the background? I'm fancy like that.)

 While your first round is steaming, chop up your next round of food and put it into a bowl for later. (Cauliflower was really messy and she doesn't love it but hopefully we'll try it enough that she learns to like it.)

 Depending on what you cook and how much water you use, it takes different amounts of time. It's usually around 20 minutes and then the light will go off.

 It is H.O.T. So don't burn yourself. The spatula also doubles as a handle to pull basket out.

 When the basket is out, pour the water from steaming into a glass for later. Then dump the steamed veggies into the processor.

 Turn the dial to blend.  The zucchini did not need the cooking water to be added, but there are many veggies/fruits (sweet potatoes, apples, pears) that some or all of the water will need to be poured back in while blending to get a good consistency.  Keep blending until desired smoothness.

 A lot of people use ice cube trays but I didn't have any lying around and lots of people use the Beaba freezer trays which are made of silicone. They are all fancy and also $20 *cough*cough* ouch. And actually I borrowed one at one point and the food is actually pretty tough to get out once it's frozen. Our solution for now is that we use about 3 packs of the small Glad disposable containers.  I fill those up and they work just fine. New foods are much better in ice cube trays because Adalyn eats a smaller portion of new foods. So you can see that I didn't fill much into each cup of these zucchini portions. Oh, and feel free to dribble your zucchini on the counter and make a mess.  The fruits and veggies that she gobbles up get filled all the way up for a larger portion.

 While your next food is steaming, go on to chop more food. Since you chop them while raw, some of the veggies are really hard. So you may have to get your hunky husband with his bulging biceps to slice open your sweet potatoes and squash so that you're able to chop the smaller pieces. You know, hypothetically.

 Chop chop chop. Small pieces are better. And if you're as awesome as me, you might even get a blister on your finger from so much chopping. I'm such a wimp! (In hindsight maybe 5 foods was too much to do back to back.)

 Once the containers are frozen but not too frozen - there is a happy medium so that they are not rock hard but not soft - pop them on out of the containers and into a labeled bag. This is what I ended up with (plus one more cauliflower and one more apple that were already being "used"). That's a lot of food!! Then I stand up the bags in the freezer so that I can easily flip through to find which foods to pull and put back into a Glad container (it's nice that they fit perfectly since they froze in that shape) to take to the sitter with her!

 Added bonus: the leftover juices from the steamer that aren't needed for the food are a great natural juice for Adalyn.  Look how much apple juice was left over from those 5 apples (13 oz)!

Again, I know there are tons of ways to make baby food, but this is what is working for us so far! I hope it helps other people see how easy it really is! I can't wait to try so many more foods!! Oh, and I read on twitter (and you know that is ultimate authority) that if a 6-12 month baby doesn't like a food to try 6-10 introductions and the baby should learn to learn to like it. Supposedly at that age they don't have preconceived taste buds so you can shape them with enough patience. So I'm hoping that is true since I would like to expand Adalyn's tastebuds and also have her eat the green beans and cauliflower that are already made and in the freezer! So don't fear if you take the time to make a food and your baby doesn't like it...just keep trying to introduce it and supposedly your baby will learn to like it! {I wish I knew from experience that that was true!} :)

Happy Father's Day!

I am so blessed to be married to a man who is such an amazing daddy! He is so hands-on and loves our baby so very much. He adores his little girl! I love him so much!

Dakota had to get in the picture with his daddy.

Today is a day for my dad too! He's been such a wonderful father to my brothers and me. And a wonderful dad to Jonathan. I'm so thankful for their relationship.  I love how he loves Adalyn.

Fun in the SUN!

After Adalyn's nap today we went out to our lower deck out back and played in her new pool. It was only $10 which would explain why the "shade" doesn't actually shade her body and also doesn't keep air in it. But Adalyn seems to love it and I love that the floor of it is also blown up so it's soft for her to sit (and possibly fall - not that we would know anything about that).  Today she was way too busy to take pictures. She has figured out how to splash and loves it! I had to keep my phone under a towel because she was going to town! Such a fun time with my baby! I can't wait to take her to a big pool and see what she does.

Splashing!!

 This picture cracks me up. After swimming Adalyn got a bath so I just put a onesie on her for the evening. I am so not a fan of screen printed clothes for babies (just my opinion - it's ok if you don't agree) but we got this onesie before she was born and I thought it was cute. Once I put it on her I didn't like it because I don't like her wearing black. (Silly I know). But anyway, I put her in it today and then while I was putting my (31) beach bag away I found her sunglasses that I thought we had lost on our trip to Toledo. When I saw how cute the glasses would be with the onesie I had to put them on to get a picture. Well right as I was snapping the picture she reached up to rip them off her head so it looks like she was posing. LOVE it!!

7 Months!!

Last Thursday Adalyn turned 7 months old! We did pictures on Sunday evening after playing in her pool and having a bath so Adalyn was a bit tired. (read: cranky) She wasn't very smiley so I kept having to sing a phrase of a children's song that makes her laugh in order to get her to smile.  The pictures turned out pretty funny.

Sweet baby!

 I have such a hard life!

 Stop taking my picture, mom!! I'm getting mad!

 {Giggle giggle} Oh, that's a funny song mom! I like it!

 I'm so over this!

 2 seconds later...

OOOh! I love that song. Let me try to sing it too!

 We tried a new pose since she's a "sitter" now. How is my baby so old. ::sniff sniff::

 Let me at this thing, mom. I want to play with it!

 Waiting for mommy to put props away. When this picture is blown up, you can see her teeth!!

She's such a big girl!! Last Wednesday we were home from daycare and work because Adalyn had pink eye. Poor thing.  Since we had to go to the doctor she got weighed and is now 15.5 lbs! She was a little champ with the eye drops. She got so good that she wouldn't even cry when we would put them in.  Her eyes are all better now! (And hopefully that junk will stay far away from our house!)

Adalyn's two teeth have come through and are very visible now. And she continues to chew on everything so she is definitely still teething. And drooling!

Her new skill this month is that she can sit up without assistance for long periods of time. She just plays away. It is so sweet.  Every once in a while she either gets tired or reaches too far for a toy and slowly tips on over. I can't believe we don't even need the boppy around her for her to sit. 

She rolls over when she feels like it but it's not anything that is consistent.  If she sees something on the floor that she wants, she will somehow get to it but not usually by rolling. But she can if she has to.  Mostly she just hangs out in the general area that we sit or lay her.

She is in size 3 diapers and her clothes are 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes depending on the brand.  A few of her outfits are still too big because she is so skinny but overall we're set on clothes. (Summer clothes are just so much fun to dress her up in! I love all the sundresses.) Her onesies are still 3-6 months.

The foods that Adalyn has tried are: oatmeal, rice, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, pears, apples, peaches, bananas, avocado and green beans.  She has been a good little eater until we got to avocados and green beans.  Oh the gagging and spitting. It was bad. I'm going to try both again but am a little scared. She loves all of the other foods so I'm looking through my Baby food cookbook for some new fruits and veggies to try!  My Craig's List Beaba (baby food maker) has been awesome and so far we've had a great experience with homemade baby food. I'll have to do a post about it next time I have a day of baby food making.

Adalyn has now moved up to a convertible car seat (which I already posted about)! She's a big girl!! I love not carrying her around in the infant carrier. But now it just seems like she is too old too fast. But the infant carrier seat is now "permanently" (as in not using it as a carrier) in Jonathan's car until she's 30 lbs so we can still see her in her baby seat.

Adalyn babbles all the time! She is constantly saying ra-ra-ra or da-da-da or ma-ma-ma or ie-ie-ie. I'm convinced that she is calls Dakota bra-ra (brother). I know I'm crazy and she isn't but it has been such a coincidence that we've laughed about it. She's always moving her little lips and mouth when we talk to her like she's trying to figure it out.  She loves to squeal all the time and hear herself make noise. I just know that she will never stop talking once she starts!

We are continually blessed with our sweet baby girl and so thankful to have the gift of being her parents.  I keep not wanting her to grow older but each stage we reach is my absolute favorite!

When did shopping become not fun? (part 2)

I'll tell you when. When someone decided that it would be a good idea to stretch a piece of spandex around their body and call it a swimming suit and that everyone should have to wear one. Swim suit shopping is the WORST. I don't care who you are, how much you weigh, or what size you are. No one likes shopping for swim suits. Especially when you don't feel "good" about yourself.  Last year I was in a maternity bathing suit and the year before I was wearing a (very cute) two piece suit so I decided that neither of those options would be viable for this summer. You're welcome.

It's not a secret that I gained A.LOT. of weight during my pregnancy. If you need to be reminded of what the *real* Abby looks like, just look at my header (yes, I know I need to change that header to a family picture but that would require hiring someone to do it and that just starts feeling overwhelming.) The picture in the header was taken ONE month before I was pregnant. ONE. Yeah. That. One day... And even though I would like to go bury my head in the sand right now and ignore the fact that summer = less clothes, I can't. It's too stinkin hot. And I don't want to miss all these fun memories of Adalyn's first summer just because I don't want to be seen in public in a swim suit.

So off I schlepped to the mall.  I started at Sears. Yeah, I know. Sears. I don't shop there either. But they do carry Lands' End and from what everyone says, Lands' End has a great selection of "Women's" bathing suits that suck everything all in. Well, I searched and searched and found about 2 options to try on and they were a big fat 0 for a big fat wad of cash. So we walked ourselves to Macy's. Now, Macy's has a large selection of suits but it always seems way disorganized. Of course I was drawn to the "cute" bathing suits and then realized that there was no way that this nursing mama could never wear those suits if-you-know-what-i-mean. So I veered myself towards the women's sizes. Why don't they just label it plus-size? We all know what that means. It means that I'm endowed on top people!

**Aside: Why can't bathing suit companies all make suits in bra sizes??!! It would be so much easier! There were a few brands that were in cup sizes but they were ugly.**

So I have an armload of spandex and I take the "walk of shame" to the fitting room knowing that I would come out feeling like I had been through an emotional boxing match. Some suits you don't even have to get on all the way to know that it just isn't going to work. And some you try to rationalize that they could be ok if you could look past the ugly fabric. Or the ugly straps. Or the ugly indentions it makes. You know what I'm saying. Don't act like you don't. So it came down to two... well actually the one fabric would have been wrong on a size 2 so then we were down to 1 option. Of course I peeked out of my dressing room because you HAVE to have a second opinion when suit shopping.  It was a long hall (ok, maybe only 3 other rooms) to walk down to get to Jonathan who was waiting so patiently with my sweet baby who made me this way who was being perfectly behaved and getting tons of attention from other shoppers. He agreed it was better than any of the Lands' End ones.

So I ran went back to the dressing room to get dressed and then looked at the price tag. OUCH! When we were walking up to the cash register I told J I had some bad news. He of course knew what I was talking about. How does this much fabric = $111?? He said that it's probably my most expensive bathing suit. Well, usually when you drop a wad of cash on a swim suit, you figure that you can use it for at least another two seasons. (That way you don't have to go through the agony that is bathing suit shopping next year.) So you can amortize the price of the suit over three years and then it feels like you got a great deal. Um, I HOPE I'm not wearing this suit for three years. If I am, then someone needs to come have an intervention and FORCE me to start running against my will. I hope and pray that this suit will be baggy by the time we take our trip to Florida at the end of the summer.  But $111 is worth it when I think of all the fun memories with Adalyn this summer. Oh and also when I think about the fact that I won't need to go swim suit shopping again till next summer.

When did shopping become not fun? (part 1)

Seriously. It used to be my favorite hobby...now it's another task that must be completed. Jonathan had some vacation to burn before the end of this month so he took the afternoon off yesterday on my half day. I was all excited to get to spend a weekday afternoon with my favorite people...then I realized the mountain of errands that needed to be completed. Can anyone else relate? I had visions of running into the mall, finding a bathing suit and having the afternoon ahead of us to go to the city pool as a family.  HA!

I promise I won't give you a minute by minute recap of our day but I do want to highlight a few of our errands.

We started off (after getting some Christian Chicken aka Chick-fil-a for lunch) at Buy Buy Baby.  I know this store is not in a lot of cities and actually our store here didn't open until right before Adalyn was born so we didn't have the opportunity to buy most of her baby stuff here.  But I have got to just say that this store is AWESOME!  First of all it is owned by Bed Bath and Beyond and although I'm not a fan of shopping there (because of the seemingly lack of organization it stresses me out), I appreciate their coupons and their large selections of items.  Buy Buy Baby has those same qualities and, at least to me, does not feel overwhelming even though the store is set up the same way.  It actually feels like it is laid out waaay better then Babies R Us. And they take Bed Bath and Beyond and also Babies R Us coupons! Score!!

We have been researching convertible car seats.  After talking with some girls at work I realized that we need to get a bigger seat before we try to drive to Florida later this summer so that Adalyn can be more comfortable.  She only weighs 15 lbs but lugging around the baby car seat was becoming cumbersome so we were mainly leaving the car eat in the car anyway. At BBB they have workers specifically trained to work in the HUGE car seat and stroller section. The employee that helped us was awesome. She took covers off car seats, showed us how each one reclined (and how BIG they get when they are rear-facing), let us strap Adalyn in to them to see how she fit in them, and gave us her recommendations.  That sealed the deal for us.  We ended up getting the Britax Marathon, which hurt the checkbook but thankfully we had coupons. There were so many great features.  Including but not limited to the size when it is rear facing, not rethreading the straps when she grows, the foam under the fabric lining, the ease of use, of course the amazing safety standards, and Jonathan's favorite - velcro on the sides to keep the straps open while trying to put the child in the seat.

All of that to say... Yay! We have a new car seat. How in the world is my daughter in the next stage car seat?? ::sniff sniff:: And also? The Buy Buy Baby employees are awesome and that store ROCKS. Well, except for the fact that they don't carry the diapers we like so we had to go to BRU for diapers. Seriously? You're a baby store. Shouldn't you have every kind of diaper made by Pampers??

Have I just written 613 words of a post all about a car seat??  We haven't even gotten to the "good" or should I say "bad" part of our shopping experience. Another story for another post...