Fun With Food

To spare her poor hands from being eaten alive, we have been offering Kendall a variety of things to help her gums through the teething process.  While there are no signs of teeth yet, the process really can take quite some time....fortunately, she hasn't been too horribly fussy.  Don't get me wrong - we have had some crummy days....but it could be worse, I know that.

She has tons of teething toys, but on our last trip to the store, we got her some Baby Mum Mums, which are basically rice crackers for babies who are teething.  Carter had these when he was a baby and they were a huge hit.  They are easily dissolved in the baby's mouth, so there is no choking hazard. And it also gives them practice "chewing".  Kendall has really taken to them.

 But boy are they sure messy!  They pretty much go from cracker to soggy mess in about 2.5 seconds.  But it's sure fun watching her manipulate the cracker and get it to her mouth.

 In fact, not much misses that mouth, lol!  The girl takes her food quite seriously.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy

So towards the end of dinner tonight, I left Carter to finish his food while I put a load of laundry in the washer. When I came back, he was done so I put him down and forgot to wash his face. So my dirty-faced child went running by me and I said "child, come here."

Why is your pocket wet? He, of course, didn't know....or didn't care to offer up some explainin'

So I took his shirt off and thought of the possibilities of what exactly could be in that pocket.....and whether or not I wanted to touch it. I do have a boy child afterall - the possibilities are endless, and gross.


So I peeked into the pocket and there was green stuff. Not good. This can't end well. And I didn't have the patience to take a decent picture of the inside of the pocket, so pardon the above picture.

So I finally got brave and dumped the contents of the pocket into my hand. What was in there?

The celery from his dinner that he apparently doesn't like! The little turd!! And while it is funny, it's not something I care to have happen on a regular basis. So this is where he stands right now:

Muahahahahaha

Spaghetti is Not My Friend

It would appear, however, that it's quite close with my son.

Which is why any night featuring pasta for dinner....is bath night.

I think he does it on purpose....bath lover and all.

Dining Out

I have two loves in my life.

(1) Mexican food.

(2) My child.

Ok. So I love a lot more than that. But these two things? They rank at the tip-top of my list in life. And tonight? I got to mix them both together to see if they get along. I will let you be the judge. (blackberry pics.....sorry for the quality)

(chips and bean dip)

(That plate is the kid's meal. Yeah. Seriously. Maybe for a 12 year old.)

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

This is what happens to my child when pasta is involved. For some reason, pasta inspires him to lather up in the sauce.

He continues to amuse himself. Until....................I tell him that I'm going to dunk him in the sink to rinse him off. He doesn't appreciate my threats.

But he sure does look cute when the clean-up process is done!

Time for Some Change

As we get older (the child, not me. Because I don't age) and reach the milestone of one year old, it's time to make some changes in our diet.

Last night, the hubby (hee hee) and I grilled up some steaks (ok, so he prepped them and grilled them), baked some potatoes (ok, so he did that too) and had corn on the cob (geez, he prepared that too.............at least I went to the store and bought all the stuff!!! "A" for effort, thank you very much) for dinner. It was de-lish. And of course, the child wanted some samples of ALL of it. So I gave him some corn. Loved it. Gave him some baked potato (which he has had numerous times before....cuz he has 8 teeth and all). Loved that too. He pretty much devoured my whole plate, which is an accomplishment for ME folks, because I just don't share food.

So we decided last night that the child's diet is going to change. We are ditching the baby cereal. He can have real cereal now.....Cheerios, etc. (Daycare informs me that he has been eating Life, Cheerios, etc. with the "big" kids at their breakfast time. So we will do the same. I'm all for conformity.) So, last night, for his (second) dinner, he had his baby food, which was Gerber spaghetti and meat, no cereal, and real milk. He also devoured that. And he slept ALL night long. I was concerned that without the baby cereal to fill up his tummy, he would wake up hungry. Alas, I was wrong. As I'm sure all parents experience once or twice (wink).

So I think we are going to wean out the baby food altogether. He has shown that he can eat anything we eat (with obvious exceptions) and if we chop it down for him. He has had chicken, real spaghetti, any other form of pasta we have, peas, grean beans......basically any veggie we eat. So the transition will begin. We will use up the remainder of the baby food supply in our house, and leave some for back-up on those nights we just want pizza, or grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. And we'll see how he does with the real food and drink. Wish us luck!

My Way is Better

So I have not been having the best of luck with some of the slow cooker meals I have cooked lately. So last night, I made dinner from a recipe I am familiar with: chicken pasta parmesan.

First, I seasoned and cooked the chicken in 2 tbs. of veg. oil.

Once that was done, I set the chicken aside and cooked the onions in the drippings from the chicken. Once the onions were tender and brown, I added the cream of chicken soup and parmesan cheese (and a little bit of milk). I let that thicken up a bit and put the chicken back in to simmer while the noodles were cooking.

Someone felt the need to take a picture of me cooking, as proof, or something like that. Whatever!

Once the noodles were done, I drained them and then added the topping. Delish!!

The Finished Product

Here is the finished product.

We also had cucumbers and onions in vinegar, that had soaked for several hours. They were delish! And for dessert, I made strawberry/vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Yum!

Contrary to Popular Belief......

....well, just Eric's....I CAN cook. And I can cook well when I want to. And when I'm not being harassed by those who think they are better cooks than me.

Eric's mom got us a slow-cooker for Christmas and we have cooked in it a couple times. Eric made a delicious chili last week and today, it's my turn. I decided to make pork chops. Honey cinnamon pork chops with carrots, to be exact.

First, I chopped carrots and added those to the slow-cooker.

Then I seasoned the pork chops.

Then it was time to add the tomato soup, honey, and cinnamon.

Then Eric came in and added his ingredient he adds to everything......even cereal. Just kidding.

Then I mixed it all together and dumped it into the slow cooker. Set the time for four hours. Check back later to see the final result!

Please Explain This.....Part Two

Seriously?

No explanation is needed.

Keep laughing at me.

I demand to know.......

....what has happened to my child? What happened to my quiet little reserved Carter? Who played quietly, cried quietly, and would say "mama and dada" in soft, oh-so-cute tones. Where did this child go? I now have a child who screams while he plays (in delight, not distress), cries "loud" (though I am still told by others that he doesn't know how to "really" cry), and now yells "DADA!!!!" all through the house, with every crawling movement....all....day....long. (are you laughing at me yet?)

Here are some pictures from snack time over the last couple days. Please note in these pictures his organizational skills. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking back to my previous post where I mention that I, myself, could possibly display a very tiny symptom of OCD. And now I wonder if my son is now displaying these symptoms. (in all reality, I AM just joking....I'm not the type of parent to diagnose her child with various "diseases". it's all in good fun) Please note that all the "fishes" have been moved off to the side, in the silverware portion of his tray. All by themselves, to play with those that look like them. He does this every time at snack time. It's like he organizes his food into like colors, like textures, etc. Do I have a boy genius on my hands?

In these snack pictures, I would like you to note the messiness of his hands, which he has chosen to lather into his fine, blonde hair. Look, ma! I'm sure that's what he is saying to me as I snap these pictures. It was not a scheduled bath night.....however, it quickly turned into one. I let him marinate in the juices of his pineapple and "fishes" before tossing (not really) him into the tub.

And finally, here is a display of nap time. We have moved his crib all the way to the bottom level because he has threatened to crawl/climb out. And I believe him. My child tells no lies (yet). So now, every time I go in to check on him, he is in this position.....standing against the bars that prevent his freedom, wailing for me to free him from his comfy prison. It's a fight we have. I choose to just let him lay in there and chat himself to sleep. He always seems to talk himself into it. :-]

Snack Time

Every evening, Carter has snack time. He receives an assortment of rice crackers, little Gerber Graduates that look like Cheetos, though Eric assures me they are more bland, and dried strawberries, bananas, and apples......all washed down with some juice. Lately, the goal for Carter has not been so much to eat the snacks as it is to see how far he can scatter them. It's fun for him, not so much fun for mom, a/k/a the clean-up crew. Here Carter is last night enjoying snack time while we cooked up some steaks and baked potatoes. Notice the flying snacks in the second picture.

Wedding Update

Let's do an update on where we are with the wedding.

We have selected a DJ. We interviewed three different places. I think we found one that fits what we are looking for. Eric was really wanting to do a live band, but I think you are so limited with your options. Not my preference.

The guys' tuxes have been selected and reserved. I think Eric picked out something that is going to look really good, so I'm excited about that.

All the girls' have their dresses. It's up to them to find shoes and have their dresses altered. They are going with silver shoes - we all agreed that silver matches the dress the best.

I have my shoes - I ordered them from a place that will dye them. I received the shoes and a color swatch of the ivory I want, took the swatch over to where my dress is to make sure it was going to match. It did. So the shoes have been shipped back to the company, with the swatch, to be dyed. Hopefully this doesn't take longer than a couple weeks.

Our cruise is booked. Our excursions have been booked as well - those are bridal shower/wedding presents. All I know is that they have been booked - I have no clue who is giving them to us. And my parents upgraded our room on the cruise to a room higher up, with a big window. We were originally on the very bottom floor, with no window. And, as someone who gets motion sickness, I was quite worried about that. As was my family - knowing that I truly do live up to me "hurl girl" nickname. Now I'm just freaking out because we still need to get passports and plane tickets and I have no clue how we are going to afford that. It's three months until the wedding - I can't put these things off anymore. I wish we could just ask for money for bridal shower/wedding presents. That's really all we need. Making a registry was just like going through the motions because we already have a house with all the stuff we need. So we did the registry feeling like we were doing it just to do it. Not really needing anything, but of course, Eric wants it all. He doesn't want to ask for money. So I guess we continue to stress about how we are going to get our passports, pay for plane tickets, and have spending money for the honeymoon. Guess that's something I get to freak out about. Yikes

My mom and I are meeting with a florist this Saturday to see what can be done about the bouquets and other flowers needed. I picked something relatively simple, so I'm not worried. Hopefully we can get some good prices.

My bridal shower is July 12th and my friend, Jenny, will be hosting it at her house. I'm very excited for it.

My bachelorette party will be Sunday, August 31st. The next day is Labor Day, so no one should have to work.

I will be working half days the week of the wedding - Tues., Wed., and Thurs. Thursday, after I get off work, the girls and I will go get manicures and pedicures. The rehearsal will be in the evening, with the rehearsal dinner immediately following at Old Chicago - downtown. I'm sure the wedding party will stay downtown and bar hop. Friday - no one is working. Well, at least the bride, groom, and girls aren't. I don't know about Eric's groomsmen. And I have no clue when the bachelor party is. That's their deal - they can figure it out. Guys never plan like girls do.

So that's basically where we are at. Things are coming together quite well. We still need to finish up on the centerpieces - I have about half the flowers that I need. So we'll be having another spray paint project in the garage soon. And the invitations are all ready to be put together - I just need to get together with Eric's mom and get those all done. The guest list is pretty much finalized. We tried our best to keep it to 100 people and I think we did all right.

The food menu is pretty much finalized as well and I'm happy with the selection that we will have. We are getting two or three kegs of beer, and will have lots of wine. We decided to not pay for hard alcohol for everyone as that would get really expensive. So we will have a private stash for those VIPs - a/k/a the BRIDE, who loves her vodka and rum, and the grandmother who must have her vodka tonics.

So - that's where we are. Freaked out about money, but everything is coming together.

6 months old

Where does the time go?

"You're gonna miss this.

You're gonna want this back.

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.

These are some good times.

So take a good look around.

You may not know it now,

but you're gonna miss this."

~~Trace Adkins~~

So far, he has tried the following foods for one week at a time:

pears, squash, bananas, sweet potatoes, peaches, peas, applesauce

Bananas are by far his favorite. He absolutely mows through the bananas - I can’t shovel it in fast enough. He wasn’t too fond of sweet potatoes. He ate them, but it was a battle with the spoon. Everything else, he has done very well with. He’s still on the rice cereal.....we have done the flavored stuff, first banana flavored, then the mixed fruit flavored, now he’s on to just plain oatmeal cereal. He gets the cereal and a bottle right before bed.

He’s doing great at daycare. I am very comfortable with the people he’s going to. I had some issues at first, but we seem to have gotten over those. (I guess it’s only me with the issues, of course)

We had a long battle with a very runny/stuffy nose, which later turned into a double ear infection. That was miserable for everyone in the house. He was up to a 102.4 fever, at which point, I called the doctor. We got him on some meds, and he’s all better. Back to his playful self.

He can roll over.....belly to back, back to belly. We caught that on video.

He responds to his name.....MOST of the time. He loves the TV. Doesn’t matter what is on. We have tried some of the Baby Einstein DVDs (I got a 25 DVD set on e-bay for $62 - sweet!!) and he seems to like those.

He loves his floor toys. The one for his feet....he cracks me up, he lifts the darn thing OFF the floor. He’s a strong little fella! He reaches out for toys and swings them around wildly - sometimes hitting himself in the head or stomach. He doesn’t seem to mind.

He’s becoming so much fun. He’s more and more interactive as time goes on and I love it. He’s so fun to play with now because he’s constantly laughing and squealing with delight. We roll around on the floor and play. We are still working on the sitting up unassisted. He does ok, but still falls to the side or backwards.

We are going to get into swimming lessons in probably a month or so. How exciting!

Happy 6 months of life baby!!

Here is my friend, Jenny, giving Carter a mohawk for his birthday. Too cute!!

Food!

So at Carter's four month doctor appointment, the doc cleared us to go ahead and start solid foods with Carter. To date, he has had:

Pears
Squash
Bananas (by far is favorite)
Sweet Potatoes (by far NOT his favorite)
Peaches
Peas
Applesauce

He also has had rice cereal and oatmeal with his night time bottle. This helps him sleep through the night. There are days that he will sleep until after 8:00, and even last weekend, he made it until 9:00 before getting up! Way to go buddy! Mama loves her sleep, lol!

Here are some pictures of the food adventure.