I didn't find what I really wanted for Joseph's birthday, so I just got a pair of "twin" babies from Toys'R'Us. I gave them to Joseph, and he promptly gave them kisses, and then began chewing on their heads.
Sigh.
There is certainly a baby boom going on amongst many of my friends this year! I'm doing my best to keep up, but failing so far. I need to get these out before the babies grow too much!
I made this sweater for my friend Jackie's baby, Sophia (surprise if you read the blog, Jackie!). I'm hoping they can use it through the summer since it's short sleeved, and then pair it with a long sleeved onesie in the fall if it still fits. It turned out a lot smaller than I'd anticipated, so we'll see how long it lasts. I'm planning to aggressively block it to try and make it a bit bigger.
Joseph's not only mastered getting down from a standing position, but he's also able to get down off of the bed feet-first now. He is so proud of himself, and we're proud of him, too! This is a very good development, as he's learning to climb *UP* on things as well!
We took Joseph to a local Easter egg hunt yesterday. It was pretty crazy - hundreds of people. We did not actually attempt to hunt eggs. Really, do we need the candy? Not so much. But we met some friends there and had a fun time. It was a beautiful day.
I've been sort of off the wagon on baby food preparation lately. Joseph's been more interested in finger foods, so he's been eating a lot of cooked chicken, hummus on crackers, banana, and yogurt. He is/was teething so he just really wasn't eating very much (but nursing more).
Now things seem to be picking up again, so I decided to do some ice cube trays of food today. I'd cooked and mashed some sweet potato the other day, so I put that up. I had also turned some apples into sauce and froze that into cubes as well. Then I figured I'd try to get some more green veggies in again. We've been seriously lacking on that score, unless you count avocado. I cooked up a bag of frozen peas and gave Joseph a few since he was eating dinner. He gobbled them right up! So I gave him a bunch more, and he ate them all before eating his other food! He didn't really care for whole peas before, so I was seriously impressed.
I also got a tip from my friend Cate that her son, Jackson, loves chicken sausage with apple. I was at Publix yesterday and saw them (Chicken with maple syrup and apple) so I grabbed a package. Oh my goodness those things are GOOD. Joseph liked them, and I have to make myself not eat them all before he gets them!
He's also enjoying mango, melon, oranges, and kiwi as of late. I'm so excited that yummy stuff is showing back up in the stores! I can't wait for strawberry season.
For Joseph's birthday, I wanted to make a more "baby friendly" cake that was low in sugar. None of the recipes I found sounded very appetizing, and I used to make a great pumpkin spice muffin with a boxed spice cake mix and can of pumpkin, so I thought I'd try to duplicate a scratch recipe for that. It still doesn't get as light and puffy as box mix, but it tastes pretty good!
Jen's Pumpkin Spice Patty Cakes
3/4c butter
1/2c sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2c applesauce
15oz can pumpkin
1.5T pumpkin pie spice
2c all purpose flour
1t baking soda
3/4t baking powder
1/2t salt
Combine flour, spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Beat butter for 30 second on high. Add sugar slowly, beat for 3-4 min. Scrape down the bowl, and beat 2 more minutes. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and applesauce and mix together. Alternate adding pumpkin and flour mixture while mixing on low. When it comes together, beat 20 more seconds. Pour batter into cupcake cups, filling almost all the way to the top. Bake at 350 for about 20 min. Makes 18 cupcakes.
Ice with a cream cheese frosting - beat 8 oz of softened cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar slowly until you get the right texture. Add a tsp of vanilla and mix in. I think I used about 4c of sugar. Normal recipes call for 6 or so.
Joseph is getting good at waving! He waves goodbye to Daddy now in the morning. So cute!
Even more adorable is when T.J. gets home from work if Joseph is awake. It just makes my heart explode. He'll hear the key in the lock and stop what he's doing, waiting. When T.J. walks in Joseph starts laughing and speed-crawls over there to be picked up. Oh my word. There is no better time of the week.
Joseph's getting tooth #7. It started breaking through the surface yesterday and is slowly peeping out.
He's also really enjoying starting games of hide and seek. He'll cover his eyes (you know, because that makes him disappear) and then uncover them and I'll comply with a "Peek-a-boo!" He laughs, rinses, and repeats 20 times. It's cute. I got a video of it that I'll upload.
The changes are coming fast, now. I feel like almost every day deserves the "milestone" tag on the blog!
We have a small balcony off of our kitchen. It's about 5' x 5' and has a corner, so we have 2 ledges (nice!). I purchased some railing planters and some flowers to spruce things up a bit around here. T.J. hauled up the 2.5 cu ft of potting soil, and it was beautiful out, so I figured it was time to get down to business.
Since I have a small child that needs supervision, I first thought I'd plant on the patio with the door to the kitchen open, so I could here him. But it was quite windy out and it seemed I'd make a big mess out there, so I figured I'd just do it in the kitchen and sweep up the floor afterward.
I failed to close the door. Yes, I am an idiot. Gusting wind + 3rd story + open door + potting soil = dirt on every surface in the kitchen. D'oh! To add insult to injury, Joseph was quite intrigued by the goings on in the kitchen and came to investigate, coating himself in it, and eating it (of course).
Note to self: Always buy organic soil in the future even if it's not for edible plants.
Then he took off for the living room, dragging the dirt through there as well. As I went to head him off, I climbed over the new baby gate, stepped on a mother effing plastic ball and fell. Ironically T.J. and I had just debated who'd be the first to go down over that thing. I lost.
On the bright side, my kitchen got a nice deep cleaning - floorboards and all, and the living room did, too. Just in time for mom's group today.
Auntie Debbie convinced me to do 30 day shred with her long distance. I convinced a few of my mom group friends, and now I'm letting you know, dear reader, in case you want in on the action.
I started yesterday, weighed myself today and I'm going to have T.J. help me take my measurements tonight for comparison in 30 days. In an ironic twist of fate, my weight is less than it's been in several years. That's usually not the time that I start exercising!
On that note, I may breastfeed forever, because I eat like a horse but I'm still losing weight. I thought that was a bunch of hooey for a long time, but it turns out that it just takes a while! It took me about 9-10 months to get to my pre-pregnancy weight, and I'm pretty much at my "goal" weight now, though I'm sure that's because all my muscle turned to fat over the last few years of slacking off. Yet another reason to nurse one year and beyond!
Happy: Joseph has started to pull up on me and give me that hug-with-head-between-the-knees thing. I remember doing that to my mom and it gives me warm fuzzies when he does it. I'm sure my love of not being able to move because he's hanging on me will be short lived, but for now I'm enjoying it!
Crappy: He's learned to "fake cry". No tears, just whining, but different than the whine I'm used to - it's really a fakey cry because he knows I respond to his cries. Gah, I have a toddler! Good thing he's cute!
It's supposed to be 65 on Saturday for the Easter Egg Hunt we're attending, but hey, we had snow today so you never know! Here is the pattern for anyone looking for a last-minute bunny hat. I know it's such a common problem.
Matching baby booties for Maja! They still need buttons on the straps. Too cute, eh?
Just whining. Joseph's woken up 4 times in the 5 hours since he went to bed.
Yes, I know I'd fare better if I were in bed, too. Ever feel too tired to go to bed?
Yesterday in the middle of my baking frenzy for mom's group March Babies Birthday Party (more on that later) I realized that
1) I had a whole organic chicken in the fridge that needed to be cooked. At $12.50 a pop, we don't let that go bad!
2) I needed to make dinner for Joseph and myself without using up the oven.
So I went on a search for something to do with this chicken that wouldn't mess up my baking. Voila! Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken. I modified a little:
1) Rinsed chicken and pat it dry with a towel
2) Season liberally w/ Lawry's
3) Fill cavity with diced onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
4) Wrapped 4 small peeled Yukon Gold potatoes in aluminum foil (had them left over from making soup)
5) Put potatoes in, and put the chicken BREAST SIDE down (let gravity help keep the breast moist)
I cooked it on low for 5 hours. It was so freaking good! Joseph even ate some chicken and potato! Score!
Perhaps the best part of the whole thing was the drippings. After I deboned the chicken and put the rest of the potatoes away, I saw all that juicy goodness at the bottom of the crock. So I poured it right into my gravy separator and stuck it in the fridge. Today I had some yummy, gelatinous stock. It's so good (I think because of the Lawry's salt). I took the fat off and added some to potatoes for Joseph's dinner tonight, and also to his chicken to give it some more flavor and moisture. He ate all of both things! Maybe he's a meat and potato kind of guy, after all. Dessert for him was homemade apple sauce with cinnamon.
I'm planning to make a chicken pot pie with some of the leftovers, and maybe some enchiladas. The bones are in the freezer waiting for another day to make a real batch of stock.
We got our new flip video recorder! It's pretty awesome. Here's one of Joseph "cruising"
I had a bunch of potatoes and veggies to use up, so I thought I'd make a soup. I get bored looking at recipes for soup though, so I just started chopping and cooking. It was pretty yummy.
1T olive oil
1 small onion, diced, small
1c diced carrot, diced small
3 stalks of celery, diced small
1tsp salt
8 or so small yukon gold potatoes, diced small
2-3c stock (I used turkey)
4T butter
4T flour
1c milk
Saute the onion, carrot, and celery in olive oil for about 10min with the salt, until soft. Add the stock and the potatoes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a fry pan. Add the flour and whisk for 2-3 minutes, until it starts turning a golden brown. Add the milk slowly, whisking all the time. Cook for a minute or two until thickened. Add to the veggies and broth and whisk together. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes aren't hard anymore. Be careful not to boil it.
While my stock is super flavorful (thanks, Ina!) the soup was missing something - fresh herbs, I think. Dill or maybe parsley would be a great addition, but I didn't have them on hand. Topping with cheese and/or bacon is encouraged.
Joseph and I both enjoyed this for dinner last night!
We had a playdate at Lily's house today. Lily is going to be in the same class at Notre Dame as Joseph! Her mom is Irish (you know, the country) and her dad's family are die-hard Catholic ND fans. Put it together and what else would you expect?
Girls Gone Wild. Oh yeah.
One too many green beers for Joseph
A baby gift for a special island baby.
Congrats to Melissa, Erick, Siri and Helen!
Today I put three toys in front of him - Sophie the Giraffe, Harry the Dirty Dog, and the Duck. I said, "Joseph, where is the duck? Quack quack says the duck." Can you believe he picked up the duck? Then I put another toy out so there were three again and said "Joseph, where is the dog? Woof woof says the dog." And he picked up the dog! Holy cow! I tried it again with Sophie, but it didn't work. So I don't know if he just got lucky twice, but I prefer to think he's immensely smart.
He also sort of "meow'd" at the Purple Cat in "Brown Bear" today. He loves seeing cats. I think it's because of Auntie Debbie's cat, Katsa. He was terrified of her at first, but they became best buds (well, not sure if she reciprocated the love).
I had no idea he could do pick out what I say, I just randomly tried today. So far as I knew the only time he understood me was when I made the sign for milk, said "do you want some milk", and let my breast hang out of my shirt. That always gets his attention!
So, after struggling (and talking, and struggling) all weekend with this weight gain thing, I've decided that the whole thing is ridiculous. Sure, he's small. Maybe there is even something "wrong". However, I'm not going to try to solve it by feeding the poor child cake and ice cream. Yes, that's what I resorted to today before I decided that it was ridiculous. And he didn't even want it.
I cannot make my child eat. All I can do is provide him with healthy, nutritious, and hopefully tasty food that he'll WANT to put in his mouth, and make those as calorie dense as possible. So while I will no longer be trying to sneak tahini into his yogurt (that went over like a lead balloon) and cajole him into eating chocolate cake and ice cream (seriously - he is his father's child. No kid like me would refuse that!) I will add a little more of it to hummus, put some butter or olive oil in veggies, etc... as well as try to give him less "empty" stuff like oat circles.
If he isn't where the pediatrician wants him to be in a month, then we can consider doing some testing to rule out things like allergies or celiac disease. And also get a second opinion.
The end. For now. ;) Thanks for all the support, T.J. and I appreciate it!
Joseph is starting to cruise already! I can't believe how fast that happened. He doesn't go far, and I think he's really just trying to find a way down (still hasn't figured that out), but he'll move from chair to high chair in the kitchen, or toy to toy in the living room! Pretty cool.
Sorry I don't have any video, my old camera bit the dust. We have a super cool Flip Ultra HD on the way, so don't despair! Video will be back soon, and better than ever!
I decided to call the doctor and see if she would agree with trying to feed Joseph more often and high calorie/fat things for a month to see how he progressed with his weight. She agreed, so now we're on
OPERATION CHUNKY MONKEY!
Give me your best ideas for (reasonably) healthy high fat, high calorie foods. Here's what we do so far on the high fat/calorie end of things:
whole milk yogurt
bananas
avocados
cheese
hummus
tofu
red meat
sweet potato
butter/olive oil
Things I'm thinking of adding in:
whole milk (cow)
heavy cream (either whipped w/ a small amount of sugar or to supplement milk)
ice cream (though I hate the idea - which was why I liked the heavy cream idea better)
bacon???
banana bread/muffins
I tried hot dog last night and today, but Joseph wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Also, I need to still get some healthy fruits and veggies in him, without filling him up too much. If you have ideas on that (especially green veggies) please post in the comments or send me an email!
Joseph and I drove up to see the pediatrician today. He seems to be hitting all of his developmental milestones, and she is pleased with the variety of food he is eating. He is 30" (50%) and 16lbs 15oz (not really on the chart).
The doctor is now concerned with his weight, and thinks he could possibly have celiac disease. I think he's just tiny, but whatever. So he is going gluten free for a month. The doctor said that I don't have to even though I'm breastfeeding, but Dr. Google says that I should, so I don't really know what to do on that score. I *really* don't want to do another elimination diet, but I don't see how we could actually tell unless I do. Sigh.
We finished up his HIB and PVC vaccinations, but put off the MMR. We just don't feel comfortable giving him more than a couple of vaccines per visit with all the stuff in them. Plus, as he is so small I really feel like we should delay until he's a "normal" weight. So I'd like to wait on the MMR until he would be 50-75% for a 12mo old... Does that make sense? I think so. Since he's home with me we don't have to worry about daycare rules or exposure, which helps.
On a more positive note, Joseph is a rock star at pulling up now! He's still nervous to get back down (he doesn't really care for falling on his bum!) but up, up, up he goes every 5 seconds! It's his new favorite thing to do.
"Mom, stop taking photos of my hiney for the internets"
"How do you get off this ride?"
I can't believe it's been a whole year. Neither can T.J. Maybe you guys can, given the number of posts you've had to read! We feel so blessed to have Joseph in our lives - he's just a wonderful person. I can't wait to learn more about him in the coming days, weeks, months, and years!
Enjoy this slideshow of our first year together - feed readers, you may need to go to the blog to see it directly.
Funnily enough, even reading the birth story a year later it doesn't seem like it was really that bad. Labor amnesia is so useful!
Birth Story, Part 1
Last year at this time we were preparing for Joseph's birth!
T.J. is golfing today, too, but he was much less nervous to leave me this time. Ha!
I'm baking Joseph's cake today... it's going to be quite the masterpiece if it turns out as I hope. I'll be sure to post pictures!
One year ago was our due date!
How fun. We're getting so close to the big day!
Today we planted our early spring garden. We put red leaf lettuce, broccoli, and kale in for now. Once the weather gets warmer we'll put in a new set of crops.
March 1 - March 5
Joseph waved today! On purpose! To the deli guy at Whole Foods. The guy must have thought I was nuts because I was so excited, but who cares!?! My kid can WAVE!
Genius, pure genius I tell you.
Yesterday while making dinner, I heard Joseph chatting in the living room for quite a while, so I peaked in to see what he was up to. He was sitting still, with a teddy bear in his lap, talking to it and then squishing (hugging?) it. Then talking some more.
It was pretty much the cutest thing ever!
I'm totally getting him a "baby" for his birthday. A DOLL people, not a real one. You so crazy.
I'm curious who my readers are. Please take the poll on the side of the blog! RSS feed readers, I'd appreciate it if you would come click, too.
Pick the one that fits you best.
Thanks!
So, I finally blocked an item for the first time ever. I know, right? What a difference! I'm making a wristlet for Debbie. She is going to send me fabric to line it before I sew it up. Then I'll add a button or toggle of some sort on the flap, and an icord for the wrist strap.
Check out these before and after photos of the blocking process:
After - Flat, uniform, and stretched to a nice size!
Before - Folded into the shap it'll be in, but looks hideous and tiny!
Can't wait to see the fabric that Debbie picks out and to finish this one off!
So it only took a year, but I'm getting the hang of being a stay at home wife and mother.
I can now manage to keep the house (mostly) clean - I even have a cleaning schedule
I can bake things like bread (first try today - it turned out great) and cookies. Dinner gets made most nights before 9pm. I even do laundry and run errands!
Never thought I'd see the day that I could accomplish all of this, to be honest.
If you can swing it, I highly recommend getting a cleaning person for the first year of a child's life. That will be a requirement if we have a second baby someday!
I can't believe I'm posting this. Joseph will be ONE in a week. Holy crap.
I feel like there is nothing I could do that is big enough to mark this occasion. Haha! And I totally mean that it's T.J. and my milestone - not Joseph's!
Our Mardi Gras decorations are still up, but maybe I should go get some party decor instead. It's kind of fun having decoations up all the time - I could get into it.
At the park this weekend... cute eh?
So I've totally dropped the ball on these... but here are all the February posts:
February 1-7, 2009:
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