Baby-Food-Makin

We are trying to mainly make Griffin's baby food instead of buying it. Why?
- Cheaper.Cheaper.Cheaper.
- Know what's going into it.
- I just think its fun.
- Mainly bc it's cheaper!

So, just in case any of you are wanting to do this also, I will be posting a few tips and "how to's" soon. It is super easy!

Until I can get those posts written, I will leave you with a website that is a super helpful resource: wholesomebabyfood.com

So far I have made:
- sweet potatoes
- acorn squash
- green beans
- peas
- butternut squash

Tips and how to's for those foods are coming soon! Until then, have any of you made your baby food?

Trust yourself

I came across this quote this morning and wish I had read it around August of last year! Ha! Hopefully it will encourage some of you moms or soon to be moms (or dads for that matter).

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do."
- Benjamin Spock
(from Baby and Childcare book)

First Haircut- Seriously?

My kid is 7 months old and I had to give him his first haircut tonight! What??!! His little bangs were just getting way to long and were totally in his eyes. So tonight we made a little snip here and there...

Before:

During:

After:

So bittersweet... my baby is just growing so fast!

The Best Cookies Ever. Seriously.

For Valentines Day, one of our interns at work, Bethany, brought us the best chocolate chip cookies ever. Seriously. They were amazing. Therefore I must share the recipe (so that I will always have it on my blog to find when I need it!).You are welcome. Enjoy.

Bethany's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 3.4 oz package of vanilla instant pudding mix

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 package of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use mini-chocolate chips)

(you can also add nuts if you'd like)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and sugar until fluffy. Add pudding mix and beat until blended. Then mix in 2 eggs and vanilla extract. (I mix in with a wooden spoon, but you could also use the electric mixer for this step as well)

3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt.

4. Add dry ingredients to the large bowl and mix until almost blended. Then, add chocolate chips and mix.

5. Roll cookies into 1-1 1/2 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes. (for this step, I use an ice-cream scoop)

7 Months Old!

7 Months Old

Griffin is 7 months old! And we once again discovered our monthly stickers pretty quickly during our "photo shoot", ha!

Stats:

• I am not sure what he weighs or how long he is this month, but we go to get the 2nd part of the flu shot on Friday so I am going to throw him on the scale while we are there!
• Clothing: He is too big for his 3 month clothing now, but can still wear his 3-6 month stuff. Mainly 6 month and 6-9 month though. 
• We are still Breastfeeding! He is still nursing every 4 hours (or taking a bottle at daycare). 
• This month we started SOLIDS too! We started with rice cereal and did that for 3 weeks at different times of the day. Griffin is not the biggest cereal fan. Then we started with avocado which he was ok with, but it was not very ripe either. After that we did carrots, which he loved! We have now done carrots, sweet potatoes and acorn squash. I plan to do a post on this soon. 
• The spitting up is so much better! He still spits up when he burps usually, but it is a small amount and typically it is only once or twice, rather than the 5 or 6 times we were at. So glad this is improving! 
• Daytime Sleep: He still struggles to take good naps at daycare. He will sometimes take an hour nap there 2 times a day, but often he takes two or three 30 minutes naps instead. At home he will take hour or hour and a half naps two or three times a day. 
• Nighttime Sleep: He is still not sleeping through the night, but we have seen improvement most nights. He goes to bed great at around 7pm. We do our nighttime routine of sitting on the couch in the nursery together as a family and reading a bible story. Then we push the sleep music button on our Scout toy and pray. After that I lay him in his crib awake and he goes to sleep. He will typically wake up around 10 or 11 and nurse again then go straight back to sleep. Then if its a good night he wakes once more to nurse around 2 or 3 but goes right back down. Other nights he will wake randomly and I try to let him cry himself back to sleep. At this point it is what it is and I am moving closer to doing full blown cry it out. But since he doesnt eat much during the day and is smaller than most, I keep feeding him in the middle of the night just in case he really needs it. 
• Milestones: Griffin can now wave, clap and put his hand out when you say High Five! So fun! His wave is slow and usually facing him and not you, which makes it even more cute I believe. He loves to clap and does it over and over again. I think we are confusing him with signing more though, and sometimes his clap is with two closed hands instead. He is still scooting backwards but not crawling frontwards at this point. But he wants to really bad and is getting frustrated about it. He has pulled up on a few things this month too. 
• He is just so fun at this stage. He loves to eat and gets excited in his highchair. Its too cute. He loves to sit on the floor with some toys and just play. He really enjoys his exersaucer and will stay in it for about 30 minutes sometimes (yay for being able to shower and blow dry my hair because of this!). He loves to play with the cat, which I should probably call terrorize the cat. He also has the cutest laugh ever! 

7 months gone already. Man this goes fast! 

Click here to see how Griffin has grown! 

Add another one to the list

We found another keeper crockpot recipe, so of course I am going to share!

Hawaiian BBQ Chicken in the Crockpot

4 chicken breasts
1 bottle of Honey (or Hawaiian if you can find it) BBQ Sauce
1 can crushed pineapple (the bigger can)
Brown Rice

1. Put the chicken in the crock pot.
2. Pour BBQ sauce over chicken (whole bottle).
3. Pour pineapple over that.
4. Cook on low for 8 hrs.
5. Serve over Brown Rice. Yummo!

Found this one on Pinterest, but it called for Hawaiian BBQ sauce and our Wal-Mart did not have that. So we choose honey and it worked great.

What have you been putting in your crock pot????

Basket Full of Fun

Griffin's favorite toy of the day? A laundry basket of course! Tonight we had some fun play time with daddy by playing in our laundry basket! Ha!

What Griffin does with Valentines

Griffin got his first Valentine in the mail... And this is how he enjoyed it.

Thanks Nanny Martha!

Backseat summary

::: I am currently in the very backseat of my van, counting down the seconds till I am home with my man.
::: I am in said van with my mom, dad, sister, and adorable son.
::: Said adorable son has been screaming his poor little head off most of the past three hours. Ohemgee!
::: My grandfather passed away on Sunday, which is why we are in said van. We attended his funeral in Nashville, TN and then another in Nashville, IN the past two days. This was my dad's dad.
::: Seeing your dad brokenhearted is rough. I cannot imagine losing a parent, and I am sure it doesn't really get easy with age.
::: I fell like 2012 has been an exhausting year so far! Between having a sick kid, getting sick myself, having random events, being crazy busy at work, and now this, I feel like I am in a constant state of being behind. Ugh

Well that's my short update on where I have been. How are you?

Hi Blog

::: I am tired. It's not been my week.
::: I hurt my ankle Monday night around 2 am while trying to get out of bed and get my son... I was hardcore limping for two days but it is so much better now. Yay!
::: Someone tried to bust into my neighbors back door while she was standing right there the other night, scary! So now we are all freaked out. Mr.Pate closed last night so Griff and I hungout with them until he got off. No way I am hanging out by myself! Ugh!
::: Did I mention I am tired? Really thinking about doing CIO with Griff, but am confused. He doesn't eat great during the day, so I am nervous to give up the night feedings. I would still like to feed him around 11 and maybe 3. I feel like letting him CIO at wakings I between those times will be confusing for him?? Any thoughts or advice? And some nights he only wakes up those times and then goes right back down, and I am ok with that right now. But the other nights are killing me!
::: We start veggies this weekend! Hope he likes them!
::: Work has been crazy busy for me (most of it is catching up from the craziness of when Griff was sick). Whew.
::: The only time i can find to blog is my pumping sessions, goodness.

All I can say is I am so so so glad it's the weekend!

An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

Super-to-the-Bowl

We had our annual Superbowl party with our Youth tonight. This year several other people from church came out also and we had a great time. Griffin was very prepared for the day and wore a football jersey (though not a giants or patriots one) and football babylegs! He was too cute!! And he did great at the party. Such a cutie.

Ps. I thought Madonna sounded good and I liked the trip down memory lane, but man she looked awkward. She was moving slowly and not naturally. Weird.

Cutie Pie

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone