Lily Dawn 6 Months Old

Oh, Miss Lily! When did you get so big????

Not only are you rolling around everywhere, you are up on your hands and knees pushing or pulling yourself forward! I expect you to really start crawling any day now.

You have two bottom teeth. You are eating a little solid food (once a day) that includes bananas, avocados, yellow squash, butter nut squash, sweet potatoes, and plums.  You love to eat!

At your check up (7/11/11) you weighed 17lbs 2.8oz (76%) and you were 25.5in long (42%). 

You have moved into 9 month clothing but are still wearing some 6-9 month. It's so hot in Texas that sometimes we don't really even want to wear much!

Lily Dawn 5 Months Old

Miss Lily Dawn is 5 months old! (6/11/11)

She is the sweetest little girl. 

As long as we keep up with her nap schedule and bed time, that is. 

And as long as she gets to nurse whenever she wants. 

Just like Big Brother, she loves music and loves for me to sing to her. She is more then ever fascinated with Ethan and lights up when he comes into the room. She is almost always grinning and will laugh out loud when I tickle her belly. Her favorite sound is to see how loud and high pitched she can get her voice to go. She doesn't like to have on socks and shoes. She will kick at them until she gets them off. She won't sit in anything but the walker. No Bumbo, kick-n-play, or swing. She would rather be on the floor rolling around and playing with her brother. Or being held by Mom or Dad. She will lay in her crib with the mobile on for a little bit. 

I'm not sure what she weighs but she is still in 6/9 month clothes. They are a bit tight when she has her cloth diapers on. We are using a mix between cloth diapers (second snap for one size) and size 3 disposables. Sometime I just don't feel like washing diapers :(

See the tooth?

At the end of the month we started her on solid food. Just like Ethan, we started with avocados and bananas. The first few times she was confused but quickly got the hang of it. Sweet Potatoes are next. She started getting her first tooth (bottom front right) on June 11! She has started getting up on her hands and knees and trying to push herself forward. I don't remember Ethan ever doing that. He did his "crab crawl"!

Time to Eat!

The little boy has become so independent that he wants to feed himself! The only thing Mom needs to learn is to not forget the bib!

Do Not......

Leave your baby unattended within reach of a full bowl of mashed avocados and bananas!!! Things will not turn out well. Just ask Ethan:

Click on the pic to inlarge for the full effect.

8 Months Old!

Doesn't he look like Pooh with his head in his honey pot?

Today Ethan is 8 months old! He loves to play with his toys. He looks at them like he is about to take them apart! He is still chewing on everything. New foods: squash from Jee Jee's garden, peaches, nectarines, crackers (graham, saltine and Ritz), peas, ginger added to his cookies.

We have a new tooth (left front) and the right front is coming in now. We are still working on the sleep training. It's a guess everyday how he is going to sleep but for the most part it is going well.

I like to call this next move the crab crawl (or the Linda Blair, depending on your movie taste!)

We start on our tummy.....Then on our side.....Reach back and get foot up under us........All the way back.......And PUSH with the foot to move forward an inch or so!!!! Then start all over again. Soon you will be right where you want to be, next to mommy! This is the funniest thing ever. I laughed at him trying so hard to get to me. And he did!

Highchair, Homemade Baby Food and Teething Cookies

I have been making Ethan's baby food homemade. So far he has had:

avocado

banana

sweet potato

green beans

carrots

applesauce

peaches mixed with banana

lentils- Here's his face:

So I mixed them with sweet potatoes and he ate them up! Peas are next. It is so much cheaper then buying those little jars and produces less waist. It's also better for the baby because you know what is in it! Here's a great web site that tells you what foods to feed at what age and how to prepare them. I prepare most all of the food the same. I steam it until soft then blend in my food processor. Add a little of the cooking water to make it smooth. Then I put it into my ice trays to freeze. Each cube is 2 teaspoons of food. Once frozen I transfer to zip top bags and write the date on the outside. Ethan started out eating 1 cube at night, then 2. Then we started giving 1 cube in the morning and 2 at night. Now he is up to 2 in the morning or sometimes 1 with a 1/3 of a banana, 2 at night, sometimes adding a fruit. Just yesterday I gave him 1 cube in the early afternoon. The only thing I don't like about feeding him solids is all the poo!!!!

As you can see we got a Highchair! Jee Jee and Grandpa Scotty got us the one from Wal-Mart. We love it. The whole thing is wipeable, you can remove the tray with one hand and it has a mini tray under that. Not sure what it is used for but I'm sure it will come in handy at some point. Eli likes it because it keeps Ethan confined. We were feeding him on the floor and that was sometimes a big mess. We are very happy to have our new highchair!
Ethan enjoys looking at the animals on the pad behind him. In between bits he has to turn around to make sure they are still there.
This is it with the tray removed. See the holes on the side? The tray really grows with your baby. It is not too big to fit in our kitchen without getting in the way.

When I ran out of his Gerber teething cookies I thought "I should make some!" So here goes:

1c quick oats

1c ground oats

1/2 t salt

1/4 t cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, nutmeg

1t baking powder

2 over ripe bananas mashed

1t vanilla

3 T oil

I replaced the quick oats with wheat germ, I had it in my cabinet for the pizza dough. Ethan hasn't had any spices yet so I only put in cinnamon. I put all the dry ingredients in my food processor to grind up the oats and wheat germ. Then I added the vanilla, oil and bananas. I formed them into finger shapes with a spoon so they would look just like the Gerber ones and will fit in Ethan's food net.

I'm going to store them in an air tight container in the freezer. I think it will keep them fresh and be a nice cool treat for Ethan! He loves them just as much, if not more then the Gerber ones.

He gets one a day after his first nap while watching Winnie the Pooh.

First Food

Okay, I know I said I was going to wait to give Ethan solid food until he was 6 months old, but he just seems so interested in our food and drinks! I've given him a few taste of avocado and banana. I've also given him water in his sippy cup. This morning I smashed up avocado and BM and fed him a few spoon fulls. He loved it! He has no problem eating without pushing it out of his mouth. The ped said to try new things every few days to make sure he is not allergic to anything. I think sweet potatoes or green beans next!