Still no teeth!

Look at those gums. And those beautiful perfect lips. 2 weeks shy of 8 months and I see no sign of a tooth on the horizon. I'm really in no hurry for teeth to be honest. I just LOVE big empty, smiling baby mouths. 

Especially this one.

Baby food time- Peas!

Adam is now 7 months old. SEVEN MONTHS. ::sigh:: Hard to think hes already that old. Well, around 4 months I started to introduce solids (rice cereal) in high hopes that it would keep him full and help him sleep for a few hours at a time, if not all night.
At 4 months he really was not interested in the food at all. He would just spit it out. I was persistent and I offered it to him everyday, usually in the morning when he was happiest. It took about a month of this before he started to actually eat any of it. And once he got the hang of it, hes been on a roll eating! I cant honestly say that its helped any with his sleeping, like Ive said before, he just isn't a great sleeper.

One thing I really wanted to do with Adam was to make his baby food. This isn't something I really thought I  had the "time" to do when Savanna was a baby. Now that I'm making 95% of his food I realize that I DID have the time. It really takes such a minimal amount of time. Bummer. But really Savanna only ate "baby" food for 2 months, she had teeth early and really like to eat food she could chew.

Once Adam mastered rice cereal, I started introducing a new food every few days, At this time I did use store bought organic baby food. The main reason was that I didn't want to make a huge batch of something only to find out he was allergic. He tolerated everything like a champ! Then I started making small batches here and there, but this was the part that was really time consuming. So a few weeks ago I spent a day making several large batches of Adams favorites at the moment.

I made peas, apple/pears sauce, yellow squash, and carrots. It was really fun, and even though it seems like I spent the "whole day" making baby food I really didn't, I made it in between the normal goings on here. My children don't leave me large blocks of time to get anything done let alone an entire day! :)

My friend Marni is a baby-food maker too and she has great tutorials! Ive definitely been using her as a guide!


My first order of business this day was the peas. Adam really likes peas, and I had tried and *failed* at peas a few days earlier.


FAILED? At peas? YES! I had read online somewhere an easy way to make peas. I was so excited especially as it didn't involve shucking a 10 pound pile of fresh peas in order to get an ice cube tray full! and its not really pea season anyway! I won't link you to the post as I don't honestly think the *fail* was on me, it just wasn't something that worked in general.
But I will tell you what I did,
Take 1 bag split peas
grind to a fine powder
mix with boiling water to the desired consistency
place in trays.
freeze/serve/store

Sounded easy and almost effortless. I did everything and I even have a blender/emulsifier that is more than capable of grinding to fine powder. The end result of this was horrible, bland, dirt flavored, mealy, peas.

They went to the garbage. I could NOT serve them to Adam.

My next attempt, of similar process, just in a different order!

I started with about a pound and a half of organic split peas.

Make sure that you wash these very thoroughly  

Add them to your crock pot and cover with water. I wasn't sure how much water at first so I did equal amounts of water and peas but I ended up adding more and more water threw out the day. So next time I will just pretty much fill the crockpot. 

They soak up a lot of water

Let them cook for hours! I would say like 5 on high until they are tender enough that you can mash one in between your fingers.Mine cooked longer but I had them on low, and at one point on warm because I had to leave and didn't want them to soak up all the water in my absence and burn.

Once they reach the point of being done strain the peas and reserve the water. 

Place the peas in the blender/emulsifier  (my mom recently bought a vita mix so we have a very powerful blender) But this should work just as well in any blender or food processor, and if you are having trouble I would just try smaller batches. I was able to put my entire crock pot of peas in at once, as it mixed I added some of the reserved water to thin them a bit. ( you can also use breastmilk or formula to thin and for extra nutrients and calories, I use the water because I have been throwing some misc pureed veggies into our meals)

Once you reach your desired Constancy you can spoon the peas into ice cube trays and freeze. (these are the ice cube trays from IKEA. They are NOT ideal for a batch of this size, but they are cute! Once they are frozen I pop them out on a clean surface and bag them in quart size zip-locks, and place several of those into a larger zip-lock and store them in our large garage freezer. I keep 1 quart sized bag of each variety of food in my inside freezer, about a weeks worth give or take a few days.

This batch made about 6 regular size ice cube trays and 4 IKEA trays. I think I will add more water and make them a much thinner consistency resulting in a few more trays yielded out of that batch. During the freezing and reheating I think they loose a little too much moisture and I end up adding a tablespoon of water per 2 cubes when I make them for Adam.

The blending and pouring into trays takes less than 10 minutes,I spent about 15 minutes threwout the day adding water and stirring, and then about another 10 to bag and label the frozen peas. 35 total minutes of my time is well worth the savings and nutritional value.  Adam will eat about 3-4 ounces of food at any givin sitting, 3-4 sittings a day.
Organic baby food is between $1-$1.50 per 3oz jar. I spent $2 on the bag of organic split peas. That is a HUGE savings.

One other thing, I do not like peas. I despise them. I will not eat them and pick them out of anything they may be in. As I was testing for the done-ness of them, and as I was blending them I did try them. I have to say the flavor of these vs. the flavor of canned or even fresh peas is amazing. They had a very rich, almost meaty flavor!

The best bath ever!

I think its truly amazing just how different my babies have proven to be from each other thus far.

ONE of the most notable differences in these two is bath time! Savanna loved the water from day one, Adam, not so much. 

bath time is something that I DREAD.  At the beginning I figured oh he will get used to it and like it like a 'normal' baby. Well attempting night after night , baby bath, sink, shower, bathing with me....nothing was getting better its gotten to the point where Ill be honest I bath him as little as I can possibly get away with because he literally screams at the top of his little lungs the ENTIRE time, he is much more content to be wiped down with a cold baby wipe than to enjoy a nice warm, relaxing bath. Its miserable to say the least. He does however sleep well after because hes so exhausted from screaming.

Tonight, after a loooong afternoon of him fighting his nap I fed him a good amount of avocado and banana and decided that I really wanted to take a bath and since he was still awake he was coming with me.

Something just told me tonight was the night....And it wasn't the avocado in his neck rolls! :)

 He did this most of the time, laying on his back on my legs eating his feet. I'm sure they tasted much better since they were freshly washed!

 He even let me give him a "bubble hawk"

 Loved playing in the water, splashing with his feet, grabbing the bubbles and trying to eat them. He was so relaxed and happy. He even let me float him on his back just holding onto my fingertips.

 He really has a thing for his feet right now!

 we must have played for a solid 45 min, and he even let me dunk the back of his head to rinse the soap off his hair. Then he nursed, that was probably the most relaxing thing, he started to doze off so we got out!

 he was making faces in the mirror

 he is such a little ham!

after lotion and jammies he was out within five minutes!!

This bath made up for the loooong afternoon and the hour of crying and nap fighting.

Oh the similarities...

This picture was taken on Savanna's first Christmas at my Auntie Claudias house.

Savanna - Christmas 2008 - 2 months old

We went there on Christmas again this year, and I thought to get a "similar" photo of Adam.

Adam - Christmas 2010 - 4 months old

As I was just looking for the photo of Savanna, I was blown away a how much they look alike! 

Man, Look at those CHEEKS!  I LOVE IT! 

Photos with Santa!

 On Monday I took the little ones to see Santa. My friend Lucy is an amazing photographer and she also works for Raleys, she was taking the photos again this year. I never miss an opportunity to have her snap a shot of my kids!

Adam did great, he actually sat there for about 10 minutes while my brother and I tried to bribe Savanna to sit on his lap

 

We had no luck, so Lucy did what she did last year and put Savanna in a shopping cart with Santa and Adam in the background!

 

 It of course turned out great!

Here is last years shot! 

 

Fun with letters project!

I was looking for a cool wall piece that I could create for Adams wall. It needed to be inexpensive, but it needed to be something that stood out, as well as something that I could see staying in his room for a long time, not just threw babyhood!

I love all the Ideas I have seen where people take pictures of architecture that resembles letters and so that is what I set out to do. But after a month or so of never leaving home with out my camera and still only obtaining one OK letter I was starting to get discouraged.

Then I found the *perfect* frames for my project

They look like they just have black matting in them, but its not its the glass that is painted black. They were on clearance at Michael's for $.75 each. and there were ONLY 4 left. It was definitely a sign! They were meant to be part of my project!

Well once I got home I was so antsy to get this project on the wall I started scouring the web for images of letters. I finally stumbled upon a FLICKR site that I regrettably didn't bookmark :( and found some awesome letters! I then did the unthinkable and saved them to my computer and had them printed at my local target!! (actually this person gave you permission to use there images as long as you don't take credit for them!)

The colors really go well with the room, and I love the rustic-ness ( is that a word?) of each letter.

here is a better shot of them, ( oh look theres my tiny tornado)I think they look great on the wall, and I really think that this will be something that will be able to stay in his room with him as he grows!

This project cost me $3 for the frames and $.40 for the prints. And is SO FAR my favorite frugal design! This one will be hard to beat!


be sure to check out THESE link parties and all there great ideas!

Dresser Re-do for Adams Nursery!

When I had Savanna we lived in a tiny 2 bedroom condo and There was only a tiny loft type space off of my master bedroom for her, so needless to say I didn't get to do the whole baby nursery nesting thing, so this time I was so excited that we had the space and I had the time to create a wonderful space for my little man! This was my first project for his room!

I was on a search for a long short dresser, and a friends mom just happened to have one in her garage that had been shoved in the back for the last 15 years, she said that if my husband could drag it out it was all mine!

I had no idea what it looked like, but I didn't care. I had a vision and I was determined!

And In all my excitement to start sanding, I forgot to take a "before" picture, at the time I was on blogging hiatus! So just imagine a whole dresser that looks like this drawer! :)

And then I sanded, sanded and sanded!

until it was soft and smooth beautiful naked wood!

Then I started Painting it a beautiful blue with red accent!

Dont mind the Nosy little dog, or the pile of laundry on top! This was when I was trying to fill this dresser!

This project Cost an estamated $40, for paint and sanding sheets. Not bad! But now that I have learned a few things about painting furniture my next piece will cost a lot less!

18weeks today!!

This pregnancy seems to be going a lot faster than the last! I'm sure its because I don't have a lot of time to think about it! In all honestly I often FORGET that I'm pregnant!! I never thought that was possible! But I'm grateful to be busy chasing around my little ball of energy, she keeps me on my toes for sure!

In just 11 days we will find out (hopefully) what little baby Scout is! I'm so excited to see this baby on the ultrasound. I have had 3 Dr appts where we have been able to hear a very healthy heartbeat, and 1 ultrasound at 7 weeks....there is not much to see at 7 week except a little flutter that is the heartbeat! So I'm so excited to see little scout and all its features! We are hoping for a boy, but we will be grateful for a healthy baby no matter the sex!

So far with the exception of a few weeks of being nauseous Its been great! I'm hoping it continues this way!

announcing baby scout!

"It's never the right time to have kids, but it's always the right time for screwing. God's not a dumbshit. He knows how it works."- shitmydadsays twitter! 


I know its a little vulgar, but HILARIOUS and so true in our life right now! 


We just found out Monday that we are expecting baby #2. CRAZY. 


Timing is horrible, I'm out of work, fighting with unemployment, worried about paying bills, and now we are faced with the wonderfully scary situation of figuring out how to clothe and feed another child, how we will squeeze 3 children into our car since we cant afford a bigger car. and now im kicking myself for not keeping all of the bigger things like swings and such.


But at the same time, its probably the BEST time, I'm out of work and focusing on our children, unemployment will eventually start and we wont be as strapped, we will live within our means and provide for our family, we wont be rich but I know that there are many people out there struggling with less, I'm blessed to have a wonderful, hardworking husband that supports me and our family, he works for an amazing company that is family run and has embraced us as part of theirs. We live in a beautiful house, we both drive new cars, our children are HEALTHY, we love each other, and we really have everything we NEED. There will always be food on our table and gas in our cars even if we shop at the good will and dont wear designer clothes our house will always be filled with love.

I will learn to be more FRUGAL with our hard earned money, I will learn how to stretch every dollar to its fullest, be less wasteful, and learn to feed my husband leftovers! This will not be easy but it will have great rewards! I will have lots of time to spend with savanna and brynn before or little bundle of joy arrives, and Hopefully in the next seven months we will have a plan as to what comes next. 


At first we were both very overwhelmed, But every baby is a blessing, So we will embrace this baby and this pregnancy with as much love and joy as the the last. And yes we are very much hoping for a boy, but as long as its healthy that is all that really matters!



We Find out next Wednesday just how far along we are, since we were definitely not trying I wasn't keeping track and cant honestly remember when my last period was. Im hoping im about 8 weeks, that way they will be able to see a heartbeat and give me great estimation of a due date at my appointment!