2011

Judah's first Christmas

We had a great time hosting Christmas, more pictures later!

7 months

My sweet baby is 7 months old today. He's 11.7 pounds and 24 inches long. He likes standing up a lot which means he falls down sometimes. It scares me, but I don't want him to react in fear, so I just say "boooom" really loud and we laugh. Judah really likes to caress faces, but only if he likes you. He's not crawling yet, but he will pull on stuff in order to drag himself a few inches to get a toy. He's almost sitting up unassisted, he can do it for a little while, but then he topples over.

We took him to a specialist on Thursday to discuss him spitting up all the time and the fact that he's still so small. Let me just reenact the conservation  we had at the end of his evaluation.

Dr: we need him to consume more calories. Give him butter and sugar in his food.
Me: I'm not doing that!
Dr: (laughing) why not?
Me: that's not nutritious, I'm not giving my baby sugar.
Dr: a calorie is a calorie, and he needs more of them
Me: those are empty calories
Dr: he needs calories, any calorie is good when you need to gain weight.
Me: well he won't be getting it from sugar and butter, I tell you that.

We went back and forth until I said, "you might as well stop, cuz I ain't doing it." He cracked up, my ma looked at me and shook her head, and I did a hoodrat neck roll. I told him I'd find other ways to fatten Judah up that won't turn him into a hyped up obese 5 year old that only eats ice cream and puts butter in frosted flakes. My plan of action includes baby yogurt mixed in with his morning fruit and potatoes or brown rice along with olive or coconut oil with his evening veggies. Those are calorie boosting items and they have nutrients to keep him healthy. I have whole grain rice cereal to put in his bedtime bottle for an extra calorie boost at night. If any of you have any ideas, let me know because now I'm determined to show this Dr that you can fatten babies up without setting them up with poor eating habits. Butter and sugar, I'm still shaking my head.

Secret Santa

As soon as I opened my secret santa gift I knew it was from Adrienne! We talked on twitter about my pretty scarf from Nerd Girl that somebody stole, and she sent me one that is just as pretty. She sent it in the cutest box and she included a journal. Now I'm just ready for it to get cold here, because I'm ready! Thanks!

You Vote!

I'm trying to decide on neighbor gifts. I know I want something food related but I don't know which items I want to make. 

Popcorn:

cinnabon popcorn? 

caramel corn?

Nuts:

Burnt sugar pecans?

Burnt sugar cashews?

Cookies:

Oatmeal butterscotch?

Chocolate chip?

Hot Chocolate jars?

What do y'all think? Any other inexpensive ideas you have for me? Do you deliver gift to your neighbors?

Before & After

I really thought Judah was going to sleep through the night tonight. Imagine my disappointment when I just looked over at the clock. The conditions were right, little baby, you didn't try hard enough!

I don't think I can finish this post in a logical manner. I'll attach pictures and just go back to sleep. Enjoy the before and after picture of my fireplace. I finally painted it the other night. I was so tired of those ugly stencils, I'm glad they're gone forever.  Hopefully I'll go get our stockings today, I haven't found any that I like yet.

Secret Santa Time!

Judah slept through the night again :) I think once we get a handle on this spitting up business, we'll have many nights of full sleep!

I'm doing Secret Santa again this year. I love being surprised every year, thanks Psonya for hosting this! In case you're struggling Santa, here are some things I like:

The Steelers- I'd enjoy a Steelers scarf, hat, or sweatshirt. My only request is please nothing with number 7 (Big Ben, the quarter back) his character is still questionable to me, so I don't wear his stuff.

Nail polish, natural body products, perfume- I like everything except red polish and rose based fragrances.

Slippers and socks- I'm a size 9 and I love cute slippers with lots of cushion. Our downstairs is cold so I always wear them, it's only a matter of time before I wear my current pairs out.

accessories- earrings, necklaces, bracelets, charms, scarves, gloves, I like them all!

You don't have to go by this list at all, but if you were stuck, I wanted to help!

Pass the salt, butter, and steak sauce

Last night was MrC's company's holiday dinner. There  are only 5 of them in the Maryland office, so dinner had a grand total of 10 people and 2 of us were wives of employees. We got there 45 minutes late because his ma was 2 hours late coming to watch the baby. I was so mad but I remained the pleasant daughter in law that I always am. Dinner was at.Clyde's of Columbia and it was such an underwhelming meal. Not one person ate all of their food. The cooks clearly did not believe in salt or butter. My side dish was green beans and shredded carrots. Y'all, who serves shredded carrots on a plate? That is a salad topping not a side dish. I couldn't even get them on my fork so I only ate 2 carrot strings. Not a lick of seasoning was on either of them. Aside from the most bland meal I've ever had, the night was fun. MrC has only been on the job 3 weeks but 2 of the people are from his old company so they've known each other for 3 years. MrC is the only black person and when I say they love them some MrC, I really mean it. His coworkers wife knew all about us because her husband always talks of his travels with MrC. The other dude was telling everybody how MrC always picks the best restaurants and how he texts me a picture of his plate every time. They knew my name, they greeted me with hugs, and MrC got $100 in his holiday card. For 3 weeks of work, I say this company is a winner. MrC and I have had 2 date nights 2 weeks in a row, we getting real fancy around here!

(time to go back to bed now.j again, excuse any delirious typos)

Crafty

I have been in such a decorating/ crafting mood lately. Pinterest probably has a lot to do with that, but I tend to get like this around Christmas. I'm currently working on a chest I got at the thrift store for $24 and a picture I got for $4. I haven't quite decided which direction I want to go with the picture, I have 3 different ideas swirling around:
cork, fabric, chalk. Yesterday on pinterest I saw the cutest bracelet idea! You take a charm and tie a string to it and you have an instant bracelet. That's perfect for me because it doesn't dangle or make noise so Judah won't pull at it. I don't have any charms, but maybe I'll ask for some this Christmas. Speaking  of Christmas the only decorating I've done so far is making my wreath. Hopefully this weekend we'll get a tree and finish up making this place festive. I'm making some ornaments too if I ever get around to it. I need a nanny to take care of this baby while I craft (and sleep and eat).

I guess I found a good blogging time, when Judah is up way too early nursing (or playing or attacking). Excuse any typos, I'm about to go back to sleep.

Pictures to go with Yummy post

The last picture is Judah's reaction to prunes. We'll try them again tomorrow!

Yummy!

We had a pretty good weekend, how about you folks? Friday night we went to my company Christmas party. Obviously you can't see us very well in the picture, I wanted y'all too see those 2 ridiculous appetizer plates. We got there right as cocktail hour was ending so we missed the hors d'oeuvres and were a little bummed about it. I did defend my title as the first person in the buffet line 4 years running, so I was ok that I missed out on garlic fries. MrC asked the waitress if there were any fries or southwest rolls left and she had the, kitchen cook us a huge plate of both. The 2 of us failed miserably at clearing those plates, but it was tasty to try.

On Saturday I didn't get out of bed until 3 because Judah had a rough night. I had to do something productive with my day, so I went to buy a coat and get Judah's produce from the organic market. Judah and MrC really bonded when I left. I was putting him to bed and he was on my chest, MrC was next to us and his head was at my shoulder while he looked at tattoo pictures on his phone. Judah kept reaching out and stroking  MrC's cheek. He finally just flipped himself down there so he could see what daddy was looking at.

Last night I spent 3 hours making Judah's food for the month. I pureed prunes, apricots, pears, apples, plums, peas, green beans, potatoes, and squash. They're freezing in ice trays now and then I'll bag them up tonight. We have a good system going. He eats 2 cubes (2 ounces) twice a day. I take the frozen cubes out at night and put them in his little bowls in the fridge and they're thawed by the time he's ready the next day. I like using the ice trays because it's so easy to combine flavors and track portion sizes. 1 cube of carrots and 1 cube of peas and now he has peas and carrots. I can make any combination I want once I finish introducing each food to him. Making his food is fun and easy and since I do a bulk cooking session it doesn't require more than 30 seconds a day to get his food ready. This week his new foods will be prunes and apricots. Next week green beans, pears and apples are getting introduced. I'm allergic to melons, so I like to take my time when giving him new foods to make sure it doesn't cause him any problems. I'm praying we stay issue free!

6 months

My sweet baby turned 6 months on Thanksgiving. He had his doctors appointment yesterday and he's still 23 inches long and he weighs 10 pounds 14 ounces. We have an appointment to meet with a specialist to see why he's still so small. The Dr thinks he may have reflux since he spits up so much. Judah never seems uncomfortable after meals though and spitting up doesn't ever bother him. I've prayed over him, so I'm not worried about it. He does so well at the Dr. He got 4 shots and cried when he got stuck, but stopped as soon as it was over. He didn't get a fever and he wasn't fussy at all this time.
Over the past 2 weeks Judah has gotten super happy and independent. We can put him down and walk away and he'll play alone for a long time. He seems to think covering his face with blankets and bibs is a fun game. Even when I take it off, he just pulls it back. He's doing well with sitting up with support, and he can sit alone in the frog position for about a minute before he tips over. Judah acts like he's ready to crawl, he's pushing up and rocking so I'm keeping an eye on him in case he decides to take off one day. He loves eating peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. He doesn't like bananas or avocados. He wouldn't even swallow the avocado. He made the "what the heck is this" face and spit them out. I gave him peas and he ate then right up and I tried the avocado again right after and he spit it out again.
I put him in the nursery at church for a bit on Sunday. They said he did well, but he got upset when a parent checked their child out. I guess he was ready to escape too.
He's guaranteed at least 3 thirty minute naps a day, but sometimes he'll go a little longer. Last night, he slept through the night! I put him down at 10, and I woke up at 5 and realized he was still sleeping. I had to pump because things got uncomfortable, but that's a good problem for me to have if it means more uninterrupted sleep in my future. He woke up at 6 and I'm feeding him now and I'll put him back in the crib to see how much longer he'll sleep.

Old man Judah

Judah sleeps like he just finished a 12 hour shift at a warehouse. I guess trying to snatch everything mommy has in her hands really wears him out.

Just a baby

I'm so behind on reading blogs and posting on mine. While I'm watching the end of Top Chef I'll take a minute to talk about my sweet laughing baby. He likes eating sweet potatoes, squash and peas. He likes to take the spoon and feed himself which leads to a very messy baby. I'm only giving him one tablespoon of food, but when he turns 6 months (Thanksgiving day) I'm going to allow him to eat for real. Right now I'm just introducing him to different flavors and getting him used to the process. He wants to sit up all the time now. When I put him in his boppy, he pulls forward and won't lean back. He can't do it without support yet though. We're working on going to bed independently right now. I'm going to miss holding him and rocking him every night, but I still have nap time! I just finished night 2 and he hasn't put up too much of a fight. He likes to flip over and play even when he's exhausted and I just have to keep flipping him back over so he won't hype himself back up. I am not a fan of crying it out, and I will not be making Judah do that. I keep telling him to chill out and just be a baby, but he insists upon growing up. Let me get some sleep now before bright eyes gets up.

Nursery

Judah's room is almost complete! This is all we're doing right now for his safari themed bedroom. I'll get a better picture of his brown and cream animals that are on each wall of Judah's room. Eventually we're going to have a table and chairs for him, a bookshelf, and a toy chest, but a 5 month old has no need for any of those things. We also still need to buy a door for his room so he can have a quiet room even when his momma is being loud and watching tv in her room (like right now).

Help Me, 5 Months, and GO HOME

I'm so happy we've been making actual progress in the house. I'll have pictures soon :) we need to clean up first. I'm going to make a cleaning schedule and post it because it's quite ridiculous. I washed clothes two weeks ago and they're still sitting at the foot of my bed.

 

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My sweet baby is 5 months old today! He's 10.2 pounds now, so he's holding steady with his one pound per month weight gain. I've been recording him since he thinks he should talk/screech all the time now . I'll be posting some videos as soon as my silly self learns how to upload things properly. We just started him on solids. We were doing the rice cereal but he was so unenthused about it, I decided to go ahead and give him some sweet potatoes. He loved them so much we had to restrain him to keep him from jumping us to eat them. We're going to give him bananas today. I'm only giving him a tablespoon mixed with some bre.astmilk once a day and we'll eventually move to twice a day and then I'll up the quantity. I love making baby food, it's quick and easy. Judah is trying to figure out how to be mobile. We put some toy in front of him and placed him on his stomach and he really tried to figure out how to get to them, before, he would just look at us like "I'm not here for your amusement, I will not perform for you." He really enjoys sucking on his fingers/fist/wrist as well as my collarbone and yesterday he tried to eat my leg. He passes out smiles all day long and he loves to stare at his pretty momma. He's beginning to reach out if you hold out your arms to pick him up, and if it's me, he'll actually move his body to get closer to me so I can take him from whoever has him. He's been trying to like my dad, but that man makes it so dang difficult. As soon as Judah wakes up from a nap my dad is in his face talking. Judah likes to take some time to look around, then flip over, then talk to himself and eat his hands before interacting with people. Oh well, one day they'll be able to peacefully coexist.

 

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I need some recommendations from you people. Do you like your dryer? Do you like your fridge? What make and model is it? If you have one that you hate, mention that too please! Also, do any of y'all use cast iron cookware like this? I think as I replace our pots,I want to go with cast iron, but probably not the Le Creuset brand because those prices are ridiculous. I'll build my collection one pot at a time so maybe by 2015, I'll have a set!

 

*******

I came into the office today because I really wanted to work, buttttttt I haven't done one report yet. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. My boss decided to actually come in today too, and she won't go home, so I can't go home. I'm going to be so sad if I have to stay until 4:30. GO HOME!

 

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Right now my focus is on Operation Lactation. The goal is to get a freezer full of milk for the baby so I won't have to be a slave to the pump or this baby during the holiday season. Last week I had to use all of the milk I had stored up (and by all the milk, I mean 10 ounces. I'm pitiful) because I was going to be gone for 3 feedings. I was panicking thinking I wouldn't have enough for him to eat and that I would have to give him some formula. As part of Operation Lactation I'm taking Fenugreek capsules to get my supply up and I baked lactation cookies (basically take any oatmeal cookie recipe and add brewer's yeast and flax meal). I haven't had an increase of milk yet, but I have been thirsty as all get out because of all the extra pumping. My plan is in effect until at least Thanksgiving. Y'all probably don't want updates on it, but I'm going to give them to you anyway!

 

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I showed my ma pictures of my friends 10 day old baby and she said: "ohhhh. He's funny looking." Ma, I didn't say he was cute, I said he was here and he was sweet. Newborns are supposed to be ugly anyway, so it's ok, I'm sure he'll get cute just like Judah did :)

Living Room Colors

Get it together

I really need to get in gear. I took off over the weekend which meant I did nothing outside of feeding the baby. I didn't cook, I didn't put away the laundry I washed on Wednesday, and I barely got out of the bed. It really was quite lovely, but now I just want my house in order. We have a lot to do still and we're making no progress.I figure if I blog about it, I'll be motivated enough to get some stuff done. First off, our dryer stopped working last week and our freezer cuts off periodically. Those are two big expenses that aren't in the budget right now, but I just keep singing Jesus Will Work it Out (no seriously, I sing it at the freezer daily) and I trust that he will. MrC and I can't agree on the living room color scheme. I'm going to have to put together a formal presentation to convince him I know what I'm doing. We also haven't picked colors for the guest bedroom or the office/exercise room. I need to pick fabric for my curtains and the chairs I bought 2 years ago to reupholster but I haven't done that either. Oh, our vacuum cleaner is broken. I keep meaning to take it apart to see if I can fix it, but I haven't. I want new floors, but that's not high on the priority list right now. We have a leaky window in the kitchen that we need to fix before the snow comes and a hinge broke on one of our cabinets. I'd really like new cabinets and a new counter top in the kitchen too. You know what would help me get all this done? If HGTV came and did it. I'd be really appreciative. We're a cute little family, we could be on tv. A nice windfall of money would help too. I don't mind doing the work myself, we just need somebody to pay for it. I'll set a goal, by January 1, everything that we can afford to get done will be done. That means at LEAST the house will be painted. I'm going to do do better, starting with today's trip to get groceries. Be back tomorrow, hopefully with some actual progress reports.

Bedtime?

I don't have anything to talk about still, so we'll just look at what Judah looks like when he's being disobedient. he had a late night and early morning last week so I took pictures like I always do!

Busy Baby

Judah has had a busy week with his momma always snapping pictures. Waking up? Snap a picture! Walking the neighborhood with Auntie? Snap a picture! Trying to play in your jumper but you're too light? Snap a picture! Playing with your toys or playing with Daddy? Of course I'm snapping a picture!

4 months old

My sweet pea is 19 weeks old today. At his doctor's appointment last week he was 23 inches long and 9.2 pounds. All the men in my and MrC's family are over 6 feet tall and the doctor said Judah will be too. In the past month he has gotten so animated. When I say good morning his face lights up and he's ready to greet the day. This past Saturday he started laughing at my sister. It was a crazy loud and wild laughter and he would only do it for her and he hasn't done it since. He really loves my sister and always has. I wonder what it is about her that makes him smile and laugh so much? When he first started smiling he wouldn't do it for any outsiders except her. He's consistently doing 6 hour stretches in his crib at night and then a 4-6 hour stretch after he eats. I'm thinking about starting him on cereal soon, but I need to do my research to see what kind I want to make. He's doing really well in his crib at night, but doesn't really like taking naps there during the day. I normally just let him nap in his play pen downstairs or on my bed. He's still taking 3 naps a day, two 30 minute naps and a 2 hour nap. I think he has a lot of my personality. When we went to lunch with Jameil and others he was so quiet and ended up taking a nap. As soon as we put him in his car seat he started smiling and laughing. When we went to the wedding he just stared at everybody. People were talking to him and trying to make him laugh, but he wouldn't respond. As soon as my sister and I got him back into the room he started talking and laughing and kicking. I can't blame him, I don't really like outsiders that much either. He'll go to anybody as long as they're calm. My dad is always to hyped up and irritating so he still doesn't like him. One night my MIL was over and she was fussing at my niece about procrastinating and was all worked up. She was holding Judah and he was wailing because she was too amped. MrC told her she had to calm down if she wanted Judah to chill out. She looked at Judah, took a deep breath, apologized to him for being upset, put her hand on his head and said "peace in the name of Jesus" and he instantly rested his head on her shoulder and was silent. It was so funny. He's been trying to sit up lately. This morning my ma had him in his Boppy pillow and he was really trying to straighten up like a big boy. Yesterday we were doing his leg exercises and he was pushing to stand up all on his own. Normally I have to give him some assistance to get him straight up, but he was doing it without any pulling from me.

 

Now that we live in an actual neighborhood we're thinking about participating in Halloween. I want to pass out candy with Bible verses (my sister said find the scariest verse in Revelation and put it on there) to all the cute little kiddies. I also want to dress Judah up as a lion so he can be the Lion of Judah! (Can y'all tell I'm a church kid that never got to participate in Halloween growing up!?)