Garden has been started

The garden is tilled and potatoes and onions planted!

We've also started to fix up this shed.


More to come on that later.

A bib that covers all

So now that you have seen Lauren feeding herself and the mess that it makes, you can understand my need for a bigger bib than all of the store boughten ones that I have in her closet.

My mom always had a few bibs that were like this in her towel drawer and this shape seems to make the most sense to me.


She usually has food all over her chest, lap, shoulders and arms along with face and hands of course.

I took out some old scraps of fabric which work great for simple little projects like this. I used cotton. I usually have a burp rag and washcloth handy when feeding her anyway so I am not to worried about making the bibs with terrycloth because that would just add a lot unnecessary expense. Like I said, I'm just wanting to keep the food off her, not wipe her off.

First, I made a pattern out of some more scrap material and then sewed it quick to test and make sure everything would work as needed.

I did learn that I needed to cut my material a little more inside the circle for a seam allowance. If you don't do this then your neck hole will be extra large.

Then I cut out the main fabric to the size of a hand towel.


I stiched around it inside out, turned it out and top stitched around it again.


I also added some velcro to the back for a closure.

This bib has much more coverage than anything else we have in the house for $0.00.


I do think that it could be a little smaller for her right now but she will grow into it.

Inch worm

Do you remember in elementary school when you used to do the inch worm? Or maybe you still do it now as part of a work out. It's where you walk your feet up to your hands and then walk your hands out until you are in the plank position.

This is what Lauren does these days in her attempt to crawl. She just hasn't figured out the hands part. She also doesn't quite realize that she should be doing this on her knees instead of with her feet. I guess she has the whole one foot in front of the other one thing figured out for walking.

Lauren Can feed herself

Sweet potatoes are a hit once again but this time Lauren won't just sit back and let us feed her. Of course not. That would mean she would be holding still. She has to feed herself and she's actually pretty darn efficient at it!



Also, my seeds finally sprouted yesterday. I was getting a little worried about them but it looks like they're going to do just fine.

Making baby food

Making baby food is really a simple task that can save you a lot of money in the long run.

A tub of baby food is about $.63/each and you go through one a day in the beginning, and 3 a day eventually. Lauren will be eating 1 a day. If you figure that I did a batch of sweet potatoes for $3.00 (lasts 2 weeks) and I would have paid about $8.75 for this in the store, I saved about $6. Once she is eating 3 times a day obviously this will save us $18 every couple of weeks... or about $40 a month!

**Side note - this is the first time I've ever boughten sweet potatoes or squash. I bought them regular price and have no idea if what I paid is a good deal for them or not.**

Another great thing about making your own baby food is that you can have a much greater variety. Think avacados, zucchini, mango, eggplant, etc.

So here we go:
Cut squash in half.


Scoop out seeds.

Handy Pampered Chef Core and More in action!

Scrub sweet potatoes, poke with fork and wrap in foil.


Stick in oven at 350. Walk away for about an hour.

Squash cut side down in with some water in the pan.

When you pull the sweet potatoes out of the oven, cut them open to cool so that you can pick them up and simply let the skins slide off. Make sure that you keep the foil under them as they are very sticky and I hear it takes a lot of work to get this off your pans.


I used an immersion blender first


and then blended to get that super thin runny consistency for baby's "1st" step foods.


Thin with water, breast milk or formula as needed.

Pour into ice cube trays.

Each cube is approximately 1 oz.

Freeze and then pop out of trays for easier storage in zip lock baggies!


I got 35 oz. from 3.5 sweet potatoes and 30 oz. from 2 butternut squash.

A great resource is WholesomeBabyFood.com.

Happy 1/2 birthday!

Happy 6 month birthday to me! I just thought I would share my special day with all of you!

I slept in this morning until 7! This time change thing is still hard to get the hang of. I got up and played with daddy while we let mommy sleep in.

Me to Mommy: "You are really going to take pictures of me again?"

I thought it'd be a fun game to not look at the camera. Mommy took about 200 pictures of me today and she only got a few good ones. He he.


Playing with my dress and toes is much more fun than looking at the camera.


What are you doing back there mommy?


Oh I love my blankie.


This finger is so much fun to chew on.


Look! I'm trying so hard to crawl.



Yay! I got to go outside today! 60 degrees! I really don't know what outside is. I've been stuck in this house since I was born. I sure like it though!


Daddy even got to stay home and play with me today. He lifted me up in the air and that is alway so much fun!


Nap time!


I got to go on a nice long walk today! I visited Grandma, Grandpa and aunt Abby. I also got to see Aunt Angie, cousin Trey and Jersey!

(can you see my teeth?!)

We went to check if it really is almost spring. And it is! The iris are coming up.


Then we really got to play outside.


I thought I'd show you my teeth one more time.


AND I got to taste pineapple and applesauce today. Of course I loved them but we are still taking it slow with the foods. The Dr. recommends doing one food for a whole week before moving on to the next one since we already know I have a sensitive tummy with food intolerances. That way if something bothers me, mommy will know what it is. We are still on week one of re-introducing solids - oatmeal. Up next - Sweet potatoes again. I sure loved those last time!

I had a great day today. I sure hope my real birthday is as good as this one was!

Night night.

Unsupported sitter

We officially have an unsupported sitter. I think she would have been able to do this a little while ago. I noticed her doing it in her high chair a week or so ago but just haven't set her on the floor in a sitting position for a little while. Sunday I set her down to do some practicing and what do you know? She is an old pro at this sitting thing. She will be 6 months old on Thursday.



She is getting really close to crawling also. She can pull her knees up under her and rock back and forth. Yesterday she inched her way over to a toy on the floor by doing her "push up"s and falling.

Plant watch 2010 - grow vegetables from seeds

Like last year, I am growing most of the vegetables for my garden from seeds. I decided to wait one extra week before I started them because of all of the snow we received this winter. I figured it would take an extra week to dry up.

I planted my tomato and pepper plants yesterday. I use Better Boy and Roma tomatoes and bell, jalepeno and banana peppers.

I want maybe 15 plants of each kind of tomato, 3 plants of each kind of pepper. I needed to buy 2 packets of Better Boy seeds. I got 30 plantings out of those two packets. I plant each seed individually instead of a couple seeds in each spot because when you plant a few seeds in each spot you waste some because you then have to go and thin them out later. This way if the seed sprouts, I can use it. If it doesn't in that spot....oh well. I planted 30 when I want 15 because every seed will not sprout and some will probably die. If I have extras I can give them to family.

Peppers and the roma seed packets come with so many seeds in each packet. You will only need one packet unless you want a TON of peppers. Each pepper plant yields a lot of peppers so this is why you don't need so many plants.

I planted the extra seeds that come in the packets because I figured I had the seeds and am going to spend the time growing them - I might as well plant them and give them to family. Maybe some year in the near future I can start a little mini greenhouse operation. Plants have gotten so expensive to buy in stores that I'm sure I could sell quite a few!

Last year I used peat pods to start my seeds. This year I just put a layer of dirt in the bottom of my greenhouse trays, put seeds in, covered with dirt and misted with a water sprayer. I will then transplant them later into individual containers.

Push up

Well sort of at least. She still hasn't figured how to roll from stomach to back. She just won't let herself do it. If she starts to go, she pulls herself back over. While on her stomach she usually gets pretty P.O.ed and this may lead to her crawling soon. So far this is what she has figured out to do:



She's going to be one strong little girl. Already getting her exercises in!

Teeth!

I KNOW this is exactly what you want to see. The inside of Laurens mouth :) BUT, please direct your attention to the arrow. Lauren is now the proud owner of TWO teeth. They came in together on Saturday. I first noticed them last Monday. For once we seem to have caught a break and she wasn't super fussy or drooly.



First teeth: 5.5 months old.

Meet Jersey

Even though she's already a week and a half old - meet Jersey! Laurens new side kick.

She is the daughter of Adam's sister. Girls are a very rare thing in her husbands family so we were very excited when she made her entrance into the world!