Embrace the camera: April 26

We took Grayson's 7 month pictures outside this week because it has been such a beautiful week.  I haven't gotten around to writing his 7 month post yet, but I thought I would share a few pictures of Grayson and his Daddy from that day.

 The Hubs loves to toss Grayson up in the air every evening after we come back from walking Jack.  I think it is one of Grayson's favorite things to do, too.  I didn't get a great shot, but it is fun to have the pictures nonetheless. 

 P usually gets a good work out in when he does this and I am always worried that G is going to throw up when they are done, but he never has. 

Linking Up:

Baby Food Update

The updated food list for G includes carrots, pears and zucchini. He was totally on board with the carrots and pears, but we came to a screaming hault one night with the zucchini. I was a little worried to introduce his first green food, and on top of that, it was the first food I gave him that I made.  He refused it again the second night that I offered it to him, so I just gave up on the zucchini and offered him sweet potatoes.  A friend on facebook said that she has to mix the zucchini in with other food in order for her little boy to eat it, so I will have to try that trick next time.  I think the next food that I am going to attempt to make will be plums.  I hope he likes them!

Making Baby Food

For Christmas, my mom gave me a Baby Bullet - a system to make your own baby food.  When Grayson turned 6 months old (old enough for solids), we were in the middle of our move, so I didn't have the time to make any at that point.  The first six foods that Grayson tried were all from jars that I bought at the grocery store.  I decided that last weekend was a good time to get the Baby Bullet out and experiment.  I chose to make sweet potatoes and zucchini for my first try.  

In order to make the zucchini, I boiled water and then dropped the pieces in (unpeeled).  It took about 5-7 minutes for it to soften, and then I took them out of the water.  I didn't use a colander to drain them because the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of water, and I wanted to use the water that it boiled in.  This is a good way to put some of the vitamins that cooked out of the zucchini back into his food (or so I am told).  After the zucchini cooled off for a few minutes, I added them to the mini bullet container along with the water and then pureed it to the right consistency.  I think I ended up adding a little extra water to the mixture to make it a little thinner.  Grayson was not crazy about zucchini and only took about two bites each of the two nights I offered them to him. 

Three servings

Since the booklet recommends that food be eaten within three days if it is stored in the refrigerator, I did not chose to freeze any of the zucchini. 

The sweet potatoes took a little longer to make purely because they had to be peeled and then cooked longer than the zucchini.  I think that I ended up boiling them for about 10-12 minutes before I felt like they were tender enough.

 I took the potato pieces out and saved the water because it called for 1 cup of water to go in the puree.  Once the potatoes cooled down some (read: after Grayson got a bottle and put down for a nap), I added them to the larger bullet container and pureed them along with the water. This created 7 servings, and I decided to freeze some of it. 

Now, for the fun part! (well, to this CPA)

 I purchased one sweet potato at the store for $.75 and it created seven servings, which works out to about $.10/serving.  The jars of baby food that I have purchased at the grocery store have been about $.50 each, a savings of $.40/serving, or $.40 a day!

 I purchased one zucchini at the store for $.46 and it created three servings for Grayson, which works out to $.15/serving.  A savings of $.35/serving, or $.35 a day!  When he starts eating solids 2-3 times a day, this will really start to come in handy.
Of course the advertising for the Baby Bullet says that you can make a week's worth of food in 5 minutes, which I didn't find to be true, but it didn't really take too long.  I won't lie and say that it is easier to make the food rather than just grab a few jars at the grocery store, but I am happy knowing exactly what went into Grayson's food as well as saving a good chunk of change every week as well.

Date Night

On Friday night, Grayson went to bed super early (around 7), which gave The Hubs and I the opportunity to have an at-home-date-night.  I made a yummy pasta that reminded me of one of our favorite places in College Station and we opened up a bottle of wine from a vineyard we visited in Argentina.  I had hoped that we would be able to cook together, but I had to settle for eating together and watching an episode of HIMYM because P was/is frantically working on his dissertation proposal.  We ended the night by going to bed early because Grayson had a bad night the previous night. 

Our nights are anything but normal these days, but I am happy that we had the chance to hang out together for a little bit without Grayson crying in the background, without work, and without unpacking.  It had been too long! 

Birthday Boy

It is Jackson's 6th birthday tomorrow!!  He is still as spry and ornery as the day I got him.  Happy Birthday ToonDoggle!

Celebrate!

Grayson's Art

When I picked Grayson up from daycare on Monday I noticed that he had paint under his finger nails and glitter on his face.  I figured this meant he had been to art!  When I picked him up yesterday, this was in his bin!

 These are exactly the colors that he had under his nails!  His teacher said that they put paint on bubble wrap and then just let the kids go to town beating on top of it.  I am not sure how that resulted in so much paint on his hands, but oh well.  He tends to make most occasions pretty messy these days.  I put his artwork on our fridge, and I look forward to putting more things up there. 

I can't believe he already knows how to write his name!

And now, for some cute bath time pics from last night:

My mom got him a rubber ducky for the bath and this was our first time to try it out.  I think it was a hit-  well, until we had to end the bath because he reached too far over to grab it and his face must have gone under water.  He was just fine after a minute of cuddles and breathing though.  

Happy Thursday!

On sleeping

We have been pretty lucky in the sleep department with Grayson.  He is a kiddo who likes his sleep and never really had his days and nights confused.  When his pediatrician gave us the green light to let him wake us up for feedings, instead of us making him eat every three hours, he started sleeping for a good 5-6 hours at a time.  Right around the time I went back to work, he was sleeping through the night from about 9 at night to 5 or 6 in the morning.  Of course, there is always the one-off night here and there where he doesn't do so well.

Gray doesn't sleep quite as well when he is sick.  When he has been congested, he usually wakes up once during the night, but a quick bottle along with cuddles usually puts him right back to sleep.  Occasionally he calls for a brisk 'elephant march' across the bedroom floor in order to get back to sleep.  His sleep also suffers when we lay him down somewhere other than his crib.  When we were in Dallas, we had a really hard time getting him to sleep in the pack-and-play, but we also experienced trouble getting him to nap at daycare for a while, too.  I can finally say that he takes 2 hour naps at school now, so I am grateful for that. 

We swaddled Grayson nightly until he was a little over 6 months old.  He had been breaking out of his swaddle every night for quite some time, and we finally decided that since he appeared to be moving so much more in his sleep, we'd just put him in a sleep sack instead.  He usually turns onto his side the minute that we put him in his crib, and then during the night he usually flip flops from his back to his stomach.  We were hesitant to stop swaddling him because we thought that it was helping him to sleep longer, but I think he has been sleeping pretty well without it.  Until...

Over the last 4 or 5 nights Grayson has woken up at least once in the middle of the night.  I can't decide if we are regressing, or if it is due to the teeth he has sprouted.  (Two on top! and it looks like one on bottom is getting ready to come through as well)  We were up at 2 o'clock two nights in a row, then we got one full night's sleep (he woke up at 5 on Sunday, and that's still no fun), then the last two nights he has been up at 3:30 and 4:30.  The last two nights have been even more odd because he just wakes up and makes babbling noises for a while before it escalates into crying.  I am hoping that it's just a fluke, but if this continues for the rest of the week, I may have to start investigating baby sleeping patterns/sleep training.

G's new toy

(I already wrote and published this post once yesterday, but I somehow deleted it.  I didn't take quite as long to write it out this second time around.  Sorry!)
I wish that I could pretend for a second that all of our boxes are gone and that we are totally settled into our house since it has been over three weeks since we moved in. (Really? it has only been three weeks that I've had to walk around a house hunting for things like underwear, shoes, poo bags (still m.i.a), cleaning supplies, and tools??) Unfortunately, this picture tells the truth. 
We have been saying for a while that we needed to get Grayson a jumperoo or exersaucer, so I decided to peruse the children's consignment stores near the galleria on Friday afternoon.  At my first stop, I found a jumperoo for $50 - half price! - but I decided I would see what was available at the other store on my list before making the purchase.  I found an exersaucer at the second store for $35 and purchased it on the spot.  I couldn't believe that I could get both items for the full price of ONE at a retail store.  I never made it back to the first store for the jumperoo though, so we'll see if I still need to find one of those at a later date.  
Grayson really seems to like the exersaucer.  We have been able to get him to stay in it for 20-30 minutes before he starts getting fussy.  This allowed us to get a majority of our bedroom unpacked this weekend and to get the closet situation under control.  

Embrace the camera: April 12

My sister happened to be in town for a work trip on the weekend that we moved into our new house a few weeks ago, so my parents came down to help us out and see her as well.  Jess was charged with the tough task of hanging out with the baby while we finished packing up and moving.

She had to do hard things like cuddle with Grayson, kiss on Grayson, and feed Grayson.  I can't believe she was such a trooper over the weekend!  Then, my poor dad had to take a nap with Grayson since his crib sheets were all packed up.

I don't know if we'll ever be able to talk them into visiting again! :)

We had a hiccup with our moving plans, and the moving company ended up moving us the day after we had planned to, so we took advantage of the evening and went to Chuy's for dinner with the family.  Jess got her TexMex and I got a yummy meal out of the deal.  No complaints here! 

Quick family shot before dinner

Linking up!

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend in Dallas.  We were able to leave Houston on Thursday afternoon, so we had plenty of time to relax while we were away.  My mom treated me to a pedicure on Friday morning, and it was absolutely lovely.  I got a milk and honey pedicure, where they actually pour milk in the spa water and honey on your legs!  An hour long pedicure was a fabulous way to start of the weekend! Thanks mom!

My first instagram pic

We had to visit 5 different stores that afternoon before we were able to find a suit for Gray to wear Easter Sunday.  That evening, my parents had my in-laws and some of our friends over for dinner/wine/socializing (read: baby time) and we had a great time.  The next morning we went to breakfast with my parents and my sister-in-law and then The Hubs left for the second Rangers game of the season and we went to get Gray's second hair cut and visit the Easter Bunny. 

Side note: I just found picmonkey.com for photo editing- its fun! and free!

 

We did a little more shopping that afternoon, then we let Grayson take a nap while we planned Easter lunch and prepared some of the food.  That night we went to Rosa's (oh, how I love thee!) for dinner with my in-laws and then headed home for the night.  We went to church the next morning and then took some pictures of Grayson with an Easter basket.  The basket just had some of the grass and empty plastic eggs in it since he can't have candy this year.  It turned out to be the perfect thing for him since he was just interested in playing with the grass anyways.

 We went to my in-law's house for lunch after the photo shoot.  It was a fantastic meal, and we made sure to get pictures of Grayson with all of his family members who were present. I think these came out great!

Our little family

G and Aunt P

Gray, Mimi, & Grandaddy

Grayson, Grandma, & Grandpa

Oh, here is a little video of Grayson with his Easter basket!

Wordless Wednesday

6 Months

So, this post is obvious very late (he'll be 7 months in 10 days, yikes!), but I want to have it written down and the pictures taken anyways.  I took the pictures late as well, I think they were taken April 1, but better late than never!  Grayson is so smiley and social right now.  His daddy gets the biggest smiles when he sees him at the end of the day, he loves him so daddy!  Not to say that I don't get some good smiles, too, its just super cute when P comes home from work everyday. 

G's Schedule
Our move (which happened 4 days after his 6 month birthday) has changed up our schedule, but before we moved, The Hubs was taking Gray to school in the morning around 7:30 and I was picking him up after work around 5.  He still seems to really like daycare and hasn't given us any resistance at drop-off.  Physical therapy was still every Monday, and his therapist really thinks that he is responding well to the treatment. (read: lots of neck/shoulder stretching)  She has also worked with him a little bit on his arm strength because we noticed that he was having a hard time getting his arm out from under himself after rolling onto his tummy.  We try to get Grayson in bed around 8-8:30 and he usually sleeps through the night.  If he hasn't woken up by 6, that is when we wake him on weekdays in order to get ready for school. 

At 6 months old, Grayson is:
-wearing 3-6 month onesies and ones that are just labeled 6 month
-wearing 3-6 month pants
-in size 3 diapers  
-laughing and smiling a lot.  He usually smiles at strangers who smile at him first - its so cute!
-making more sounds with his voice
-sitting on his own!  Thanks to Aunt Pavi for her work with him while she was here ;)
-eating formula, some rice cereal, and just had his first solid.  I tried rice cereal with him intermittently to see if he was interested in eating with a spoon and I was usually left with an uninterested baby.  We gave Gray his first taste of solids (sweet potatoes) three days before he turned 6 months old.
-still reaching out and grabbing for everything-my dinner plates included! 
-still putting everything in his mouth. If he gets his hands on it...its goin' in!
-sleeping through the night
-napping like a champ at home (2-3 hour nap in the morning, with a possible shorter nap in the afternoon)
-beginning to nap better at school. 
-getting big!  26 3/4 inches long, 17 3/4 inch head circumference, and 18 pounds, 2 ounces!  All of these measurements are within the 60th percentiles, which is fantastic for our little baby who couldn't put on weight in the first few days.   

silly boy

 

Solid Foods

I haven't really taken the time, or HAD the time to research the different ways that people introduce solid foods into their baby's diet.  At Grayson's 6 month appointment (which I still have to write about), his pediatrician said that he needed to start on solid foods, and that vegetables and fruits are the first things to be introduced.  I have heard of a method where you introduce the same colored foods and then move onto the next color, but I just followed the Pediatrician's advice to wait 3-5 days between offering something new so that I would be able to pinpoint a food if he were to show signs of a food allergy.
I was excited to start trying new flavors with Grayson, so I bought some sweet potatoes to try out first.  He really liked the sweet potatoes the first time (as I have already blogged), but he wasn't really interested in eating them the next two times that I offered them. 

Sweet Potatoes

The next food that I offered to him were apples.  My sister was in town the next weekend and she and I picked them out once when we had run to the grocery store for something.  This was Grayson's first fruit to try, and although he did okay with them the first time he had them, he was not really a fan of them the next time I tried feeding them to him.  He made a sour face every time I put a bite in his mouth.

Apples

Well, maybe he didn't like them this first time either!

The third food we tried with Graybean was squash.  He really seemed to like squash and never turn them down.  I am wondering if his reaction to the squash has more to do with him having more experience eating food now, rather than the taste of squash.

mmmm...squash

The camera is such a distraction!

Squash face

  The last food that we have introduced are bananas.  He really seems to like bananas.  No complaints from him there.  I don't think I have a picture of him eating bananas, but it looks about the same as the pictures above ;).
So far, I guess my method has been veggie-fruit-veggie-fruit.  This week he is up for another veggie, but I don't know what I will end up picking at the grocery store tonight.  My plan is to eventually start making all of his food, but with the move I have not had time to do that yet.  I hope that I will find some time this weekend to research it a little more and make his first batch.  Right now, we are just giving him solid foods once a day.  It usually happens while we are eating dinner, in between his two evening bottles.