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!