first foods

such a big girl!

cereal day 1....seems to be a success!

caught!

oh, hey!

caught red handed eating and driving!!

and look at that.  the steering wheel makes a great cup holder.

makin' ice cream!

grampa is definitely spoiling these kiddos!

homemade chocolate ice cream!!!  

and man was it tasty!  

it's a pizza party!

order up!

i'll take a slice of cheese with a side of dude!

sweetwater

grady and i both took the day off of work, so we all decided we would take a night off of cooking to enjoy a nice dinner out.  hadn't been to sweetwater in awhile, and since it's right down the street we decided to head on down.  there was a little bit of a wait (since it was a friday night), but luckily there was a fountain to keep the dude interested.  i was worried he was going to slip and get soaked before dinner, but we were lucky and he only got his feet wet!

yeah for no meltdowns.  and just like his mommy...the dude LOVES the round rolls with butter!  

cheers*

bacon spoon

yes, that would be my son who is using a piece of bacon to scoop up cheerios!!  

genius!

this could be our next millions.  bacon spons!!

video recap

so as most of you have noticed, i've been a little delinquent in updating my blog recently.  disclaimer, it's been busy at work, busy at home, busy going to doctors appointments, busy with derby, etc.  all in life has been a little hectic lately.  throw in the the holidays and WOAH, i need a vacation!!!  

soooo, what being delinquent in postings means is being delinquent in taking pictures as well.  luckily we were able to capture some fun moments in the dudes life on video.  enjoy this video recap!

(as another disclaimer, please note that you can change the resolution of each video to 1080p for more clarity, and please ignore.....ME!)

showing off his dancin moves!

ants in our pants

using a spoon

our little daredevil

playing with our favorite pink ball

spoon

look ma,  no hands!!

well, he might not be getting food in his mouth, but we're trying to get the dude used to using a spoon.  he likes to just hold it while he eats, and then to bite down and make funny faces with it in his mouth (as you can see in his photo).  

he had already eaten most of the yogurt in this video, so i figured it wouldn't hurt to let him practice putting the spoon in and out of the container.  of course after i stopped the video he put the right end of the spoon in his mouth!  we're getting there!

spaghetti!!!

good thing it's bath night tonight!!!

black bean & sweet potato hash

here's another one of graham's recent favs!  and i must say...i could eat a serving of this as well.  just might bring some into work with me for a snack!

black bean & sweet potato hash

1 large onion

3 teaspoons dried tyhyme leaves

3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

1 sweet red pepper (optional)

4 cups peeled, cubed sweet potatoes (1/2" cubes)

2 15-oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

pepper to taste

in large skillet, saute onion and thyme in oil until onion is tender, about 5 mins.  add red pepper and sweet potatoes; saute until potatoes begin to soften, about 8 mins.  stir in black beans and cook until potatoes are tender, about 5 mins.  season to taste with pepper.  

makes a GREAT finger food meal packed with protein and iron!

Baby Chicken Fingers with Apple

i made these for the dude and he devoured them!!


Baby Chicken Fingers with Apple (7/8+ months)

8oz (1 C) ground chicken/turkey
1 medium carrot
1 medium apple
1/2 garlic clove
1/2 small onion
1 small egg yolk, beaten
1 oz (1/4 C) breadcrumbs
pinch of dried thyme
ground black pepper to taste

Peel and grate the carrot, apple, garlic and onion.
Place into a mixing bowl, along with the ground chicken/turkey.
Add the beaten egg yolk, breadcrumbs, thyme and black pepper.  Mix well.
Take small balls of the mixture and roll into 8 little sausages.
Place on a grill pan (broiler) and heat under the grill for 10 mins on each side.
Allow to cool.
Serve, or store some in the freezer for future use.

ummmm, pancakes

disclaimer...he did not eat all 6 pancakes.  the dude did however, down 2 of them!  pancakes are yummy!!

finger foods

we've entered the wonderful world of finger foods!!! aka, puffs and cheerios!! :) the little dude couldn't be more proud of himself when he actually gets the food in his mouth. our mealtime rituals have changed so that he can feed himself in the beginning, then we give him whatever food he's getting at that time of day (cereal, fruit, veggies, etc) and then he feeds himself a few more puffs/cheerios at the end.

big boy

i had been hearing from school how all the teachers were impressed that the little dude held his bottle by himself (not propped up on a blanket or anything), but i had never seen it until...today! having him reclined in his high chair he was able to easily hold onto his bottle and feed himself. my goodness...where did my helpless little baby go?! :)

such a big boy now!

sweet potatoes

today was the dude's first taste of 'real food!' we decided to start with sweet potatoes. i mean who doesn't love sweet potatoes (besides grady!)!! seems like the dude loves them just as much as mommy!

and thank you thank you thank you to miss meena and mrs. khalili for the AWESOME babycook steamer/blender! it was SO easy to make these sweet potatoes for the dude and i felt so good giving it to him knowing that there was nothing but good ol veggies in there.

bwwwwwwwwwwwap

someone has a new trick!

recent developments

over the past week the little dude has definitely made some major developments:

crib circles (no, not crop circles!)

we have been leaving the little dude either swaddled from the armpits down, or in a sleep sack and he loves the freedom to move his arms. when it's bedtime, we'll place him in the crib so that his head is under his mobile. normally when i would go into his room when he woke up, he would be in pretty much the same position that i left him in. not anymore!!! more often than not he has made a full 180 degree circle and his feet are where his head was when i left him! it cracks me up. i'll also wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and look over at the monitor and he's done a 90 degree move. little dude is a mover!!

steady neck

(disclaimer...we're still very safe about this) before we had to always be careful to have a hand under the dudes neck when lifting him up or laying him down somewhere, but now he has it all on his own! now, even if he's laying propped on our legs, he'll start to lean his head forward and act like he's trying to sit himself up using his neck muscles.

elbow resting

the dude has finally figured out that when he's on his tummy that resting propped up on his elbows is pretty nice! you can see a lot more that way, compared to when he would be lazy and just rest his head on the mat. hmmm, he does have a pretty big head though...so maybe it was just too heavy up until now! :) those neck muscles are stronger and able to hold his head up i guess.

half roll

grady said he witnessed a full roll, but i haven't yet. we have a little overachiever on our hands though, because he's been almost rolling over from his back to his stomach more than from his stomach to his back. usually that one pesky arm gets in the way and he can't quite figure out how to move it to roll over all the way. i wouldn't doubt in the next week or so he figures it out! to go along with the 'being unswaddled' development, the dude also likes to sleep on his left side. he contorts the rest of his body to make a backwards 'c' too. it's very funny to see. doesn't look too comfortable to me, but hey, if he sleeps 9 hours that way i'm completely fine with it!

SLEEP!

i'm probably jinxing myself right now, but for the past week the little dude has been sleeping between 8 and 9.5 hours a night!! he's usually in bed by 830pm and gets up between 5 and 6am. not too shabby! and i'm hoping when he starts back up at daycare again, he'll be tuckered out even more from playing with all of his teachers and friends. we'll see though!

cereal!

maybe the dude likes oatmeal cereal better than rice cereal (we had done rice for 2 weeks and have been doing oatmeal for a week now), or maybe he's just got the hang of eating by a spoon down...but man 'o man...3 tablespoons of cereal goes down with a quickness now! i get the whiney cry if i don't give it to him fast enough. well and maybe because the cereal is thicker now (unlike when we first started with the rice cereal which was basically milk with a little but of cereal!) it's easier to take off the spoon and actually swallow. he likes to put his fingers in his mouth after he has a bite in his mouth, which i'm trying to discourage since it makes things VERY messy. i'll get the spoon ready and almost to his mouth and his hands come up. i pause and repeat "hands down please" and 9 times out of 10, he actually puts his hands down. he probably doesn't know he's 'listening' to me...but i like to think so! grady and i also think he's hit the 15 pound mark! growing boy!!

it's amazing what can happen in just one week. i'm sure next week i'll have a whole new list of things the dude can do!

cereal!

we got the go ahead from dr. bill to start giving graham cereal once or twice a day. woo hoo!! i think we'll be sticking to once a day at dinner time until he gets the hang of it.

here was our day one experience!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtLeluMzgnM&hd=1