Crawling, standing, eating, teething...swinging!

This is a picture of Ryan from last Sunday (the 7th) at our local park...it's his first time on a swing and he really enjoyed himself. Look at that big smile!

In just the past couple of weeks, so much has occured. He's now crawling really well and has added a new skill. He wants to climb on everything and he pulls himself to a standing position. This weekend we went to a BBQ so we put him in the pack n play with a few toys. In no time he was showing off his new skill. He would pull himself up, then sit back down, pull himself up, then back down...over and over.

He also started saying "mamamamamama"...you know I love that!

Since my last post, I have tried to organize the freezer twice and although slightly better, it still really needs an overhaul. I thought I had larger rectangular tupperware but I actually don't. I ended up putting some things in a larger round bowl and then other stuff in smaller square tupperware. It's not perfect but it's better. It doesn't help that hubbs bought a box of 48 popsicles this weekend.

I did also make him some additional foods: pork, beef, turkey, chick peas, lentils, pasta, and brown rice. So far, he's liked them all! I made the meats seperately in a pressure cooker with some unslated beef/veggie/chicken stock that I purchased from the supermarket. I've realized that the turkey doesn't need as much water as the pork and beef during the puree process...turkey ended up a little watery so I added some baby oatmeal to thicken it up. The brown rice was hard to puree at first because I didn't realize how much water is needed for that. It kept having this really sticky quality to it but eventually it all worked out.

My little koala bear is teething in full force now. Poor baby is also congested so that sucks as well. His pain cry is so much different than any other cry it's heartbreaking. Humphrey's pellets have really been helpful but we're also going to try an amber teething necklace. It's supposed to arrive today and I hope it works. I am a little nervous about putting it on him for night time but I will have to see when it comes how it fits him.

Anyone out there try an amber teething necklace? I will give an update after we try it.

New Yummies for Ryan!

As soon as I get my freezer organized (which I think I might do tonight!), I plan on buying some more fresh organic food to make into baby food for Ryan.

My freezer sucks!! I can't wait to buy a house next year so that I can buy a new fridge with an awesome freezer (of course, I can't wait to buy a house for so many other reasons!). We also want to buy a freezer for the basement to store plenty of other stuff (probably mostly meats). But of course, by then, I won't be making purees for the little guy anymore (pause for tears).

My freezer is basically a really small cold box with a door. No shelves or anything. And for some strange reason (I think when DH and I were in our health kick) we have 2 or 3 huge bags of veggies in our fridge taking up most of the space. I will probably have to start cooking those veggies for Ryan...but then I'll have to store them where? You guessed it! Back in that freezer. We also need room for meats and all of Ryans purees.

Anyways...

When I first started giving Ryan solids, he started at 4 months with rice cereal and oatmeal. I think it was literally 3-4 days of that for practice before we moved on to avocado...his first real food. He loved it and did very well. At first, I was so scared of the thicker texture that I added lots of formula to the avocado making it more watery...errr...milky. He did great. I did this with some of the other first foods too like his butternut and acorn squash and some other things.

At first, I only gave him one food at a time. No mixes...being very careful to follow the 4 day rule. He did great with them all. After a couple weeks of trying different foods, I began to mix the ones he'd already tried. A little squash and avocado puree...peas and carrots...banana and apples and so on.

At around 6.5 months I began to add a couple of other foods that I thought he was ready for like chicken, mango, papaya, white potato, and yogurt. He loved it all. I also began to get more creative with his combinations. Once I made a combination I wasn't too sure of. I tried it for the first time at a friend's house and found myself feeling the need to justify it. "Well...I know it looks a little weird but I think he'll like it?" And like it, he did! I think it was something like carrot/ blueberry/ sweet potato or something like that.

Today, I sent Ryan to day care with a rainbow! I was so proud of myself last night after looking at the 3 bowls I was preparing for his breakfast/lunch/dinner at day care and deciding to throw in a small cube of blueberry to complete the rainbow of colors in that 1 day worth of food.

Here is what he's having today...
Breakfast: Yogurt/Pear/Banana/Blueberry
Lunch: Sweet Potato/White Potato/Avocado
Dinner: Chicken/Carrot/Peas

Being that he's now eating 3 solid meals a day, my stash of baby food cubes is dwindling faster than ever before. I am now planning on adding some additional foods with more flavor cooked into them. Such as a salmon/dill/mustard recipe I found on someone's blog recently. I plan on adding onion and peppers and cooking meats in low-sodium broths.

My grocery list includes (in addition to Ryan's usual faves)...
Lentils (red/yellow)
Butter Beans
Chick Peas
Onion
Bell Pepper
Salmon (skin removed)
Pork (center cut)
Beef (lean ground beef/top sirloin/eye of round roast)
Turkey
Eggplant
Zucchini (yello or crooked neck)
Low-sodium chicken/beef/veggie broths
Tofu (maybe...I just don't have any experience with tofu but I don't want that to stop us from offering it to him).

Tonight I am going to empty the freezer and put my zip-lock baggies of food cubes into labeled tupperware containers. I have somewhat large rectangular deep containers with lids that I can stack. I might separate the veggie from fruit from meats into their own containers. Hopefully this will work. I will try to remember to take before and after pictures for you (my thousands of faithful readers! hehehe)

Wish me luck!

Gimme a beat! Updates on Ryan :)

Over the weekend, Ryan had us cracking up! For the first time, he started bopping to the music that was playing...and he was totally on beat! It was so adorable. I've seen him do this a few times since then - even this morning to some music on TV.

He's growing up so fast I can't believe it's been 7 months (tomorrow)! It seems so short of a time span but he has changed and grown so much. He makes us so proud everyday.

• He's got to be at least 18 pounds and I'd say 26-26.5 inches (his next appointment isn't until 9 months).


• He's trying to crawl now anytime you put him on the floor. He gets on his hands and knees and does this cute worm thing to move forward. He's even taken 2-3 steps crawling.


• He has only once figured out how to go from crawling position to sitting.


• He goes from sitting to hands and knees very well now.


• He hasn't figured out how to go from lying down to sitting up yet.


• He stays seated very well when you place him correctly.


• He has stayed standing when placed that way and holding onto something. Like a week ago when DH placed him in the pack n play in a standing position and placed his hands on the railing. He stood there on his own very well.


• He eats 3 solid meals per day (homemade) plus 24-30 ounces of formula. He's at around 6 ounces every 3-4 hours during the day.


• He has started trying finger foods like puffs and Mum Mums and does very well.


• He is sleeping anywhere from 8pm/9pm until about 6:30am/7am every night with only 1 or 2 times where we end up coming in to put the paci back in his mouth after whining a little. He hasn't been asking for the bottle in the middle of the night for several days now. He naps usually from 9:30am-10:15(ish) then again for 2 hours at school from 12:45pm-2:45(ish) and then again around 5pm or 6pm for 20 minutes or so. He now falls asleep without a problem when we put him in his crib for naps while awake but drowsy.


• He loves to blow raspberries all the time


• He vocalizes a ton. "Dadadadadada" and stuff like that. He's even trying combinations of sounds.


• It's definitely harder to keep him entertained now. We bought him new toys to stimulate his brain. He still enjoys his jumperoo but it seems like he's not able to spend as much time in it as he did before. He enjoys his walker too but he doesn't move in it too much yet. He has moved back and forth in it but hasn't figured out how to really get it going. And of course, we interact with him a ton!


• He loves to bounce in our laps while we hold him in a standing position.


• When DH says "Where's Mommy?" he turns in every direction looking for me and stops when he finds me. He does the same for Daddy when I ask "Where's Daddy?"


• We put these wall decals in his room of various animals. Whenever we leave his room we point a few out to him "Say 'Hi Monkey friend!", "Say 'Hi, Turtle friend!", etc. That puts a huge smile on his face! We have a large monkey decal right above his crib and whenever I have him standing on my lap in the rocker he has a direct view of the monkey. Without being prompted he starts smiling at his monkey friend...so cute!


• He makes this funny sound that's like a prelude to his laughter. It sounds like when you inhale while constricting your throat muscles a little. It's hard to describe. Sort of what someone with asthma sounds like trying to inhale during an asthma attack. (He doesn't have asthma! No worries!)


• He loves the water! Bath time calms him down quickly if he's fussy and he LOVES pool day at school (it's not actually a pool, just water squirting out of this plastic kiddie splash pool thingy).


• He still has eczema on his face and some places on his body but it isn't too bad. His face is actually much better now.


• He is so resilient and flexible. He doesn't mind being held/changed/played with by different people.

I can keep going but I'd like to keep the readers I've still got (if any?) lol!

I will try to do better with keeping up with my blog and I will try to make it interesting.

Things I'd like to post about soon:

• Our plan to buy a house next year


• Ryan's food...I'll be experimenting with new recipes soon


• Our planned trip to FL to visit my mom in a couple months


• I'm sure there's more ;)

Ok...ta ta for now!