Baby Food Making 101

When you were baby, (Mack) I tried to make your food, but I tried with fruit only and it was a failing attempt.  Now that you (Nolan) are eating like a grown man and will soon be eating your parents out of house and home, I decided there has to be a more efficient, cost effective, safer way for you to eat.  I have a dear friend, Kendra who I consider by baby food guru.  She gave me a few basic steps and I was on my way to making food.  Daddy's NaNa bought me the book Double Delicious by Jessica Seinfield and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone.  There's a whole section in the book on how to steam, boil, and cook all kinds of vegetables.  And I will also add that I don't own a food processor.  I got hooked on The Magic Bullet infomerical one year so for Christmas Carmen bought it for me!  I've done all kinds of recipes in it and now I make your food with it.  Making your food is so much fun for me.  It's become a game for me to find out which stores have the cheapest, highest quality foods. We went shopping back in late January and I bought 7 bags of frozen vegetables.  Each bag was $.77 for 16 oz.  I bought a 5 lb. butternut squash for $1.49 a pound, a bag of carrots for under $2.00 and 2 sweet potatoes.  It's now March 16th, and I'm still using the same food!  Insane!  And the best part, it doesn't smell funny, look funny, or taste funny and you, Mr. Nole, absolutely LOVE it.

I really enjoy cooking and I would say that this is the most time consuming part of all of it.  It takes about an hour for the squash to roast.  While that's roasting, I'm steaming away.

 This is the squash after it's cooked.  Mixed with water and pureed.  

This is just a fraction of what I made.  It was getting late and the battery was about to die in the camera, but from what you can see, that's 26 containers of food!

Nolan's First "Puffs"

Now that you have 2 of your bottom teeth, we decided to let you try out some puffs.  You definitely didn't know what to do with or think of them to begin with, but with a little help, you decided they were worth the trouble.  You started by chasing them all around your food tray and getting pretty angry that they would stick to your finger, but you just couldn't figure out how to get one, just one in your mouth.  Finally, you did it, and you really enjoy your morning and afternoon snack times now.  And since your first puff experience, you've also have tried the dry yogurt rounds, and you my love, think those are pretty good. 

January 21, 2011

Mackenzie's 1st Day of School!

Well, preschool, but it was still your first day being instructed and care for by someone other than family.  We've debated for over a year now about putting you in preschool at our church, but let's be extremely honest here, Mommy just wasn't ready.  Now that I'm babysitting and we're at the church everyday of the week, you were crying every time we left because you wanted so badly to stay.  It took one week for me to realize we both needed this.  Your first day was January 31, 2011 and Mommy and Daddy both took you to school.  You were so excited...until they tried to take your Barney lunch box away from you.  You have always had a difficult time with transitions, you are a girl that likes to do things on your own time, and you had no control over this situation.  Lucky for you, you were able to carry your lunchbox around with you and you were happy once again.  You go to school on Mondays, Fridays, and Wednesdays as you like to tell people.  You cried every time I dropped you off for the first week or so, but the funny thing is, you would walk in to the classroom willingly, you just had tears in your eyes.  Now, you give us all big hugs and kisses and run barge right through the doors to get into your classroom.  I personally, can not be happier with this decision.  Your teachers are phenomenal and you're already learning so much.  You call all the kids in your class "your friends" and you've bonded so well with everyone.  For me, it was difficult.  It was that whole letting go process and I'm just not good with that.  I was being very selfish wanting to keep you all to myself and wasn't thinking about what is best for you.  Because your Uncle Matt and I had such horrible anxiety about school, I just assumed that you would be the same way, boy was I wrong.  It was by far one of the best decisions we've made for you so far.

January 31, 2011

Mack-29 Months Old

Ok, so sweet girl, you're now 29 months old and Mommy will be 29 years old in March!  Lately I've been having flash backs of your first few months of life.  I'm trying so hard to hold onto you and you seem to always be one quick step ahead of me.  I'm so desperately trying to keep you a baby and I'm failing miserably.  By putting you in preschool has really helped me to start "letting go".  It was a very big deal for me to put you in preschool, but I had to as previously talked about.  I'm so excited for the future with you, what you'll look like this time next year, what new crazy things you'll be saying, but for some reason, I'm having a tough time with this whole growing up thing.  You're my little side kick and have such fun conversations now.  I never want you to be disappointed or embarrassed by your Daddy and me (although we both tend to act a fool every once in a while).  We love so much, Mackadoodle.  So here's what you've been up to for the past few months.

*You went to the doctor in mid January for what I thought was a cold.  Turned out you had a nasty ear infection.  The dr. was so impressed by your verbal skills (no shock to us) because you were able to tell her exactly where it hurt and what it felt like.   After a round of terrible, horrible medicine, you were back to your crazy self.  They weighed too, and you're right at 30 lbs.
*You say the absolute funniest things!  There's a new show on called Bubble Guppies and you refer to it as "Gubble Buppies", you call a tape measure "teasure mape".  You have no problem telling us if we "make you sad" or you say, "I'm sad at you."  And you've been exploring with pushing our buttons so to speak, and a few times, I've yelled raised my voice at you.  One day I did this, you very matter of factly pointed your finger at me and said, "Mommy, you don't yell at me."  This really put me in my place.  It came as a shock and I'm trying very hard to find other ways instead of raising my voice at you to get the point across.
*You're still very interested in "The Wizard" and you just told me the other day that you wanted your brugger to have a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Curious George birthday party because you think he really likes those things.
*You are obsessed with those crazy dancing-dancing-people-blow-up-things.  You refer to them as "the red guy" because our local BBQ joint has one in it's parking lot and you go nuts when you see it.  You do the little dance like them and it's so funny.
*When you get really excited about something, you cover your mouth and start to squeal which is then followed with, "I really yike that!"
*You're extremely creative and think outside the box.  You recently took the foam letters "a" that's green and a "p" that's red.  You put the p on top of the a and told me that you made an apple.  I was stunned.  And during snack not too long ago, you said, "My frozen yogurt is yike ice cweam...well awmost."  And then giggled your head off.
*Daddy taught you that his ring means Mommy loves him and Mommy's ring means that Daddy loves her.  It's the sweetest thing ever to hear you talk about it.  I thought I would stump you, and so I showed you Gramma's (gorgeous) ring and asked you what that meant.  I was fully prepared for to say that it meant that Daddy loved Gramma.  Well, Miss Smarty Pants, without missing a beat you said,"Gramma's ring means Pawpa loves her."  And then you followed it with an, "Awww!"  Funny girl, you.
*You are so compassionate.  You will randomly give us hugs, kisses, and tell us that you love us, or that we're your best friend. 

We love you so much and Mommy and Daddy are trying our hardest to raise you to give respect and to expect respect.  You have lit up our world and continue to shine.

February 4, 2011

Baby Recognition Sunday

Sweet boy, you got recognized at church on Sunday, January, 16, 2011.  It was such a special day, because this was also coming off of the week of snow, so it was nice to get out as a family and enjoy it.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures because I left the camera in the car and we were running late.  A staff member did take a big group shot, so I plan to see if I can get a copy for your records.  You were given the sweetest little Bible and you jibber jabbered the whole time we were standing up front.  Dr. Higgins had a pretty moving sermon that day about Are You My Brother's Keeper.  You're far too young to understand all of it, and there's no need to publish it on here, but I will tell you, Mommy really needed to hear that sermon.  At one point I wanted to stand up and shout, "Amen!"  And I was moved to tears at one point.  Dr. Jim was so proud of all you babies that were born in 2011 and I have a mighty big feeling that all of you are going to move mountains.  Nolan, you came into this world very quickly, and just as quick as you came, you stole your Mommy and Daddy's hearts that much faster.  We're so proud of you and love you.

January 16, 2011

Potty Talk 101

 During "The Snow Storm" I took it upon myself to attempt to potty train you.  You've had panties since this summer and have sat on the potty a number of times, but that was really it.  Everyone had been telling me that once we started, you would take to it right away.  I of course, was a nervous mom who had no idea how I was going to do it, but it's not an option to have you in diapers until your 50!  Looking back, we all learned a few things throughout the whole process.

1.  You chose your reward, stickers for pee-pee, stamps for poopies.  Yes, I just said poopies.
2.  You quickly learned to stamp all over your little body. Thank God for the winter, because I'm pretty sure DFACS would have been called.
3.  Doing the potty dance all around the house is perfectly normal nowadays. 
4.  It's not uncommon to hear, "My poopy crashed!"  or  "My poopy plopped!". 
5.  Now when we're out in public restrooms, strangers will often hear you shout, "I'm so proud of you Mommy!"  When I go potty.  No shame.
6.   This whole public restroom thing was freaking me out a bit, you can't even reach the potty yourself and the germs makes my skin crawl.  I found the neatest little potty seat that fits on big seats, folds up, and fits in the diaper bag!  Score!!

Needless to say, you're rocking this potty thing!  We're now longer offering rewards and you don't even notice it.  You always tell us when you have to go and you can hold it!  Amazing.  You're not wearing panties to bed just yet, but you do when you take your naps.

I had this posted saved because I needed to post some pictures with it.  It's now been a full month that you've been wearing panties and there's no looking back on diapers!  Just this week (Feb. 14th) you started waking up during your nap to tell me that you have to go potty.  The catch, you wear a diaper for naps and bed time and still wake up to go potty.  Then, you lay back down and fall back asleep!  Amazing, baby girl!  You've learned to "hold it" because you really enjoy saying that you have to go right after we get you all buckled in to your car seat and down the road from a bathroom.  Just last weekend, you said you had to go as we were getting on to 75, and you held it all the way to Gramma's in Flowery Branch!  I think we all kind of forgot you had to go, because I would never make you wait that long, but you did it.  And you've collected quite the panty collection.  So far you have Dora, Tinker Bell, and a pack of very brightly colored Levi's.    You're growing up way too fast and we only have one more thing to take care of until you're officially a big girl and that's getting rid of the dreaded paci.

Snow Fun 2011

On a Sunday night in early January we were blessed with some amazing snow.  It was funny because I'm kind of a nut about snow.  I absolutely hate the cold, but love it if there is snow.  All the news stations were reporting that there would some accumulation and boy were they right!  Daddy and I put you two to bed and sat down to watch a movie.  At 9 p.m., I opened the front door to see snow falling and falling fast!  It was starting to dust the grass and walkway but that was it.  At 9:45 p.m. I peeked again, and man o man, there was snow everywhere!  I wanted so badly to wake you two up, but knew that wasn't the right thing to do.  I lay giddy in bed all night long dreaming about all the fun we were to have.  Monday morning rolled around, and Mack you were so surprised to see all the snow!  We were the only ones on our street out in it and we even bundled you (Nolan) up for the fun.  I normally am not a huge fan of our driveway, it slopes up, but it made for so much fun in the snow.  Daddy packed down what was on the driveway, and we took out every possible makeshift sled we could think of.  This consisted of us using a Rubbermaid lid, a baby float, baby pool, a cooler lid, and said cooler.   We discovered that the cooler, lid, and baby pool worked best.  After a few hours of playing, we were all pretty cold so we headed inside for some much needed french toast and "The Wizard".  We all took a nap and were back at it for another round of snow fun.  Daddy wound up being out of work for 2 days, which is never fun on the paycheck, however, we LOVED spending some very much needed family time doing a whole lot of nothing.  Basically, the whole northern part of the state shut down for a week because of the snow, but it didn't bother us one bit.  And during this time, you baby Mack, became potty trained!

Our humble home covered in snow.

 Daddy was having way too much fun with you.

 You and our neighbor, Hunter testing out the baby pool.

 You ate and ate and ate so much snow/ice that day.

 Now testing out the cooler.  You LOVED it.

 And the baby float...

 Crazy Stetson would catch snowballs that Daddy threw to him.  Nick was the smartest out of all of us, and hung out inside.

 Making yummy french toast with Daddy.

 We spent a lot of time playing dress up.  Here you are as Cowgirl Mack.

 Love you.

 Elefun is only fun when you wear nets on your head too!

 Paging Dr. Mackenzie, Paging Dr. Mackenzie.

 And you, Mister, learning how to prop yourself up to start crawling.