The Day Before Thanksgiving

The day before Thanksgiving Madeline's mama was in a mad dash to get food cooked, pies baked, clothes cleaned, and bags packed. Madeline was such a helpful little lady.

Reading up on my baby food

Pushing the whites into the laundry room

Folding my washcloths

Practicing my music

Telling mommy what to pack

Mommy's apple cranberry pies

It's been a long day, huh, Glowee?

Our Growly Bear

I think I've written about Madeline's growling while eating puffs.  Well it's recently gotten a ton worse, and she's started doing it at times other than just eating.  Pretty much anytime she's frustrated or irritated or bored she does it.  It seems to have gotten a little more intense as well.  We're starting to get concerned she may be damaging/hurting her throat/vocal cords.  During supper time is the worst by far, and she's started to do it if I'm not fast enough at getting her food to her. I'm also fearing that it's going to become an issue during church time.  We love so many things about this precious girl, but it would be really nice if she would stop.  I keep telling her "No one's going to want to be your friend if you don't stop growling."...for some reason it hasn't worked.  This is just a warning... expect a loud Thanksgiving dinner everyone :)

Super Baby Porridge

Well, we finally found something the girl refuses to eat.  Saturday, I tried making Super Porridge from brown rice.  I was really afraid the food processor was going to explode while trying to grind up the rice so I kept stopping it.  I guess since that took so long a lot of the water I was boiling evaporated.  Needless to say the rice was a bit crunchy.  So I tossed that.

Madeline loves the store bought oat meal so I decided I would try making Super Porridge from the rolled oats.  They were much easier to grind.  I used a smaller pot and everything went great until it was time for her to actually eat it.  She made the worst face ever, put her hand up and batted the spoon away.  She had NEVER done that before. Of course, I was devastated I had spent all this time and effort into making it.  My kitchen was a disaster and I had two big bowls of porridge my baby would not eat.  I put the one she hadn't eaten in the fridge thinking we'd give it another try later and threw the other one out.

  


   

and you've already seen what happened next :(

Sunday we rested and ate jarred baby food.

Monday I tried again.  This time I got an idea.  I reheated it in the microwave, but I didn't like the consistency and it had some hot spots.  SO I got some applesauce and put in a spoonful.  It solved all my problems.  Good consistency, cooled the hot spot, and ta da got Madeline to eat it!!! YAY!!!

attempt 2

Not again!! 

Here goes nothin'

I love it!  I love it!

Yummy food is all gone!

Each day this week, her noon meal has been Super Porridge made from rolled oats along with two of the veggie cubes I made and froze last week.  I make a fresh batch of porridge every other day.  I grind up the oats while she's having her breakfast and cook it up during her morning nap.  I still have some brown rice and millet to try later, but I think we'll stick with the oats for now.

She also got to enjoy yogurt for the first time this week.  She loves it.  It's yobaby peach.

I heart yogurt!

 Hopefully, all this work will pay off.  Now that I have lots of food cubes stored and know she'll eat the oatmeal.  I think I will slowly but surely get the Super Baby Food diet going with my little lady.

All this healthy food gives me strong muscles!

Her Rocking Chair

I love the rocking chair I found for her room this summer. It has green, pink, and yellow hearts on it, and it's just her size. We've posed her in it for a lot of photo ops. Anyway, it is also the perfect height for her to pull herself up on and it's cushy enough that it doesn't hurt when she bites the dust trying to pull up. Here are several pictures of her pulling up and making her way over the recliner and swing. It seems as though this is all she wants to do today. So we either listen to music or I read to her while she's working out. Those chubby little legs are finally getting some workout. Here are some cute pics of today!

checking out some of her favorite books

singing "Jesus Loves Me" w/ her lamb

working out w/ the swivel rocker

whoa..I better hold on tight!

Eight Months

Our baby is eight months old today. The first thing I must do is describe the most exciting part of our day today. It was time for Madeline's afternoon nap. I put her in her crib as usual, walk out, grab monitor, get something to drink, check monitor, she's standing, SHE'S STANDING! I yell "Scott, we have a stander", we both run into her room, we want to take a picture, neither of us has phone or camera, Scott runs to get his, she falls back and hits head on bumper pad, mommy quickly puts down monitor and drink she still has in her hands from earlier, and daddy rushes back in with his how did you let this happen look on his face. (Don't worry she was fine, more scared than anything.) So now we have tons of baby proofing to do this weekend. O.K. so that's out of my system..back to her at 8 months.

She can

• crawl, crawl, crawl, fast, fast, fast
• feed herself puffs, cheerios, pieces of bananas, avocados, peas...that's all we've tried so far
• drink/hold her own bottle...baby steps to a sippy cup
• 'read' books to herself (she's quite the pro at turning pages)
• say "hi" or "hey" to people she sees (even weather man Pete Delkus on channel 8)

Things she loves

• crawling into the office to see her daddy working
• reading books
• putting all the shapes from her shape sorter into her mouth
• pulling up on mommy and daddy
• food..anything that we give her she seems to love
• smiling at the pretty baby in the mirror
• computers and electronics
• paper
• ceiling fans
• music (especially Dr. Jean)
• jumping (in her jumparoo)
  

Quirky things about her

• she is the noisiest eater you will ever meet...she growls and grunts the whole time...there was a brief week where she stopped, but she's back at it now
• she sometimes puts her head down on the tray of her high chair... I guess she's tired from all that growling :)
• she loves the Harvey's who sit behind us at church....she practically breaks her neck trying to wheel around and see them and when she does she lights up like a Christmas tree...they love her too I think
• when things during the church service get boring to her she likes to growl and/or sigh about it
• her nose scrunch...she started this about 3 weeks ago...it accompanies her smile most of the time

Things about her that make me smile

• she loves Bible class and the Church
• she loves books
• she has yet to cry when I leave her with someone else and is usually happy to let other people hold her (I know my day is coming though)
• she is not a picky eater....yet
• she smiles at everyone and has this unique ability to get them to smile right back
• her nose scrunch
• how happy she is most of the time
• her sweet little voice
• her silly streak
• when she puts her head down on my shoulder and poses

Our Super Baby is Super Fast

It seems like in a flash Madeline went from slowly scooting across the room to crawling super fast and pulling up on the coffee table.  Some days she just takes off for Scott in the office or for me in the kitchen.  She is so focused and determined when she gets her mind on something.   There's just no stopping her, but if you do try to stop her she has the most blood curdling scream you have ever heard.  Perseverance she's got down, but we do need to work on another p word... that is Patience :)

Super Baby Food

This week I've been dedicated to making batches of baby food for Madeline.  I got this book recommended by a friend of mine called Super Baby Food.  It has a wealth of knowledge in it.  It's a little overwhelming so it's taken me a bit of time to get my head wrapped around the entire system, but once I get it going I think it's going to be really healthy for Madeline and a real money saver for us.  So far, I've made batches of sweet potatoes, acorn squash, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, and zucchini that should last for 1-2 months.   Next I'm going to try my hand at making the Super Baby Porridge.  I bought brown rice, millet, and rolled oats.  We'll see how our blender handles it and how well she likes it.   As I've mentioned before, the girl hasn't refused anything edible yet.