Half a Year!

Holy buckets.

 My baby girl is halfway to her first birthday. She's kind of a big deal. To update those of our family who don't follow me on Facebook - or don't get to see Daniel's amazingly entertaining stay-at-home-dad posts - here's what Faith has been up to this month.

She has outgrown her activity gym

 She knows how to roll the ball back and forth

She is able to rest on her knees and just hang out 

We're working on holding a bottle for ourselves

She's stinking cute!

How cute is this baby? Very.

She's learning how to stack the rings (she's a rock-star at UN-stacking)

Regular pillow talks with Daddy

Regular giggle-fits from Daddy

Visiting Grandma at her work - wearing matching outfits!

This is how Daddy dresses her - dress on backwards & bloomers from a different dress

Her big girl car seat!

Exploring every nook and cranny she can find

What's missing:

A video of her crawling (At 5.5 months)
Her signing MILK as I mix her bottles - I DID IT! I TAUGHT MY BABY SIGN!! *happy dance*
Giving kisses with her open mouth
How perfectly she puts herself to sleep now - without a peep!
Her pulling herself to standing along furniture and then WALKING on her own alongside it



And so much more. I know this is a bragging blog-post but I'm so momma-proud!

Pass the peas, please!

We have moved on to our 2nd veggie! I decided to go with peas because they're packed with nutrients and are more starchy than other vegetables in stage one and Faith needs more substance - since we took out the brown rice because of her allergic reaction.

First, I gave her a serving of squash (I asked Daniel to give her one at lunch - and he didn't) to mainly make sure she would eat something she liked - just in case the peas backfired. Then, we cooked up some frozen peas and tried 'em out! (Recipe at the bottom of the post)

She's a champion jumper!

The anticipation! (note the leftover squash to help her get used to the new veggie)

Not quite sure what is in my mouth...

Maybe I'll take some more!

Gobbling it up!

I'm clearly not quick enough for her.

Mmmmm!

Who wants to lick the spoon??

Faith is done and Mommy gets the leftovers! Yummm!

By the end of dinner, she had 3 servings (including her 1 squash)! I think she definitely needs to start eating at lunch. Now, I just need to nag Daniel some more until he does it.


Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup water

Boil 1C of water and add peas. Bring back to a 2nd boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 7 minutes (less of tougher, more for smushier). Drain and rinse.

Put a small amount into the Magic Bullet and add about half as much water as you did peas into the cup. Blend for 30-40 seconds and check consistency. I added a little more water and then blended about 40 more seconds to get it very smooth.

Some suggest to strain the hulls of the peas, but I didn't want to waste food so I just decided to add more water and blend in small amounts.

Baby Food #2

We have successfully homegrown, harvested, roasted, pureed, and frozen Faith's first veggie! Last night she had it fresh from the oven (cooled down, of course) and here are some pictures to show her reaction!

The anticipation!

Big girl bite!

See that hand? She can hardly get enough!

The spoon I use is pretty sloppy. I got a new one though!

I believe we found a keeper veggie!

Yummy!

A big ol' mess makes a happy baby!!

Oh and don't mind the belly - she got a slight rug burn from scooting so much. It didn't bother her but I learned my lesson about letting her run around naked!

I feel very good about giving her organic, fresh food. It makes me feel like I'm making up for having her on formula from day 5.

Recipe for squash:

Ingredients

- butternut squash, deseeded and cut in half

- splash of water

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400*

2. Put squash face down in a roasting dish with about an inch of water

3. Roast for 1 hour

4. Scoop out meat and put into Magic Bullet with the tiniest bit of water

5. Puree until it's a pretty runny consistency

6. Put into ice cube trays and freeze overnight

7. After completely frozen, microwave the tray for 10 seconds to loosen the cubes and pop them out. Make sure they're still frozen!

8. Put in a freezer safe ziploc and label the date. 

I've heard squash shouldn't be frozen more than 3 months and butternut and other winter squashes will usually have a shelf life of at least 3 months, so I'm only cooking what I need for a week at a time - since they will keep better out of the freezer than in.That gives me roughly 6 months of reserves on squash just from my mom's garden.

She loved it day 2, also!

Sisterly Love

Yesterday, I didn't want to wash my hair before work. I have a thing about Fridays. They're pony-tail days. The bad thing about this Friday? Well, since my aunt did an amazing job cutting my hair in Florida, I still haven't master the ponytail and what to do with my bangs. So I got brave, pulled some inspiration from Karla and decided to french-braid my bangs. Just to get the approval from the master, I sent my sissy a picture after I got to work.

Not bad for wearing my first self-braid!

Her reply?

Much more professional than mine!

Yep. 2 sisters. 2 states. 1 hairstyle on the the same day.

This got me to thinking. I miss my sister. Since she moved across the country, it's made me appreciate the bond that we have.

Don't get me wrong, my brother is an amazing young man. He is kind-hearted, helpful and great with Faith. Besides, he was everything my parents wanted in a farmhand so Karla and I didn't have to do anything. :)

Then I started thinking, I really hope God gives Faith a sister someday. I want her to get to experience having a best friend that you can fight and make-up with in very short periods... Well, they get shorter as we've gotten older. Fights used to last quite a while when we were younger. Especially over clothes. Now I see her in my clothes and I just let it go because it looks better on her!

I'm so grateful for my sister, brother, and family. Having started my own has been the biggest blessing and I'm excited for it to expand, Lord willing, in a few years. :)


Oh, and... Someone's ready to crawl very soon!!!!

Why am I always naked, Mom?
Because Faith, then you don't ruin your clothes with your slobber.

5 Month Update (lots of pictures)

We've made it to 5 months!

As I write that opening sentence, I'm trying to comprehend how tired I am... Today was the first day of school where I work. My kids are great but going from teacher to mom is hard to transition psychologically.

Moving forward! As a teacher, I really like to go over my goals and reevaluate for my next time period. Wooo!

Continue teaching her the signs for: MILK, MOM, DAD
Survive a 25-hour drive to Sanibel Island, FL, with my family
Survive a 7-hour plane trip from FL - MO
Visit the beach for the first time
Visit a pool for the first time
Scoot more efficiently
Sit for longer periods of time

We did a great job meeting all of our goals! Faith no longer needs to sit with her hands supporting her and can sit for a long period of time. 

She has been scooting wonderfully - even taking a crawl step every now and then.

Showing off her muscles!

She loved the pool and the beach!

Aunt Karla and Fifi on her first trip to the beach!

In her life-vest that was a boy's and too big! 

My dad and mom with Faith in the ocean. Mom knitted her sunhat that I am absolutely in love with!

Our last night at the beach. Dad got a great shot of Faith throwing up!

His favorite grandbaby!

The plane was a successful trip.  She only slept for 2 20-minute naps, but we survived.

At this point, anything counts as a chew toy.

So thankful for my dad to be on the same flight!

Waiting for our luggage so patiently. I have the most tolerant baby ever!

She doesn't sign yet - it's normal for her to not sign back until after 6 months - but when I say and sign milk she laughs and flaps her arms!


Some things I want to make for goals for 6 months are to :

Continue working on signs for MILK 
Start crawling
Be on at least two fruits and two vegetables 


And that's all I can think of right now. I'm surprised I got out a somewhat successful post considering how mushy my brain is right now. I'm going to snuggle with my husband and mindlessly watch The Office. :)

Solids Update - and Help!

When I first started on her brown rice cereal, I took a short hiatus because of a reaction .. in her diaper.. I'll leave it at that. I chalked it up to being something she caught at daycare because it was happening the morning before I gave her the rice. 

Last night, I gave it another go. Once again, she absolutely loved the rice cereal and had a great time trying to "feed" herself. I thought that we were well on our way to trying some great foods - squash, carrots, pears, bananas.

Alas... overnight, Faith had a terrible time falling asleep. Thinking it was just because she took one five-hour nap, instead of 2 3-hour naps,  I just gave her some extra TLC until she finally went down at 9:15 - nearly 3 hours after I started her bath. 

Around 10:30 or so, she woke up screaming and crying. This had never happened and Daniel started getting really weird. Something told me to just pray before going in and getting her so I prayed, "Please Lord, let her mind rest, let her body calm down, and fall back to sleep." By the time I was done praying, Faith had put herself back to sleep. She did the same thing at least 3 more times throughout the night. I watched her sleep, too, and she had her knees pulled up really tight against her chest while she laid on her tummy. I felt so sad for her discomfort.

Overall, I'd call this an allergic reaction. Especially since she woke up with a cough and stuffy nose.I don't know what to think about her being allergic to something simple like rice and because of her taking 32 ounces of formula (the max. daily amount) and sometimes still seeming hungry, I don't really see a way to take her off solids completely.  

There's also this 4-day-wait rule that I'm 'supposed' to follow but I already know that this food is bad for her, so can I move her on to the next one, since she's obviously hungry for food? Help if you know!

The Next Gerber?

Gerber is doing a contest. And I want to enter Faith. There are a few regulations that I apparently broke when I entered this keepsake. 

Planning to use this for future suitors. 

Apparently Naked Baby doesn't get much love from Gerber!

So now I need your opinion. There are a ton of pictures of Faith on my Facebook but not a whole lot of them are very good for entering a contest. I got quite a few good ones and I'd like to enter them for final voting. If you don't have a blog address, just post on my Facebook which is your favorite! :)

Picture 1

Picture 2

I don't think this one will do...

Picture 3

Now all you have to do is tell me what picture you think will get Faith the furthest in the Gerber competition! Leave your vote in the comments here or on Facebook.OR check out the poll I just added to the right of this post and vote there!

I'll update this post when I've decided what picture to enter and will leave you details on how to vote from your own Facebook page! :)

How to Drive for 2 Days Straight with a 4-month-old

To figure out if you'll survive a car ride with a baby who is just 4 months, you'll need to make sure the following are in place (especially when you're driving 1,380 without your husband - just parents, sister, and brother-in-law).

The best travel buddy ever!

1. Sanity. You must mentally prepare yourself to endure crying with no escape. As she wails like a banshee, you must remind yourself, "she will fall asleep, she will fall asleep, she will fall asleep, she must fall asleep!" I suggest a good mystery/thriller book to completely occupy your mind - romance novels aren't good enough here.

Faith's little room for 2 days

2. Safe Haven. Try to figure out how you'll create a little cocoon for your babe. With Faith, I took the blanket that we spread on her Pack N Play to sleep on top of and draped it over her rear-facing car seat. Then, I took my phone, turned on her noise machine (the Relax & Sleep app [Android] is amazing! We use the Relaxation Melody and Air-conditioning for soothing white noise), and waited her out. She took several half-hour to one-hour naps throughout the day with a six hour stint in the middle of the night.

3. Comfort item for you. Find a pillow and blanket for yourself and just relax while she cries because the second she falls asleep, you don't want to waste time trying to get to sleep AFTER she's asleep!

4. Heed all Rest Areas. These are your best stops. I would have stopped at each along the way but my dad was driving, and it wasn't imperative. Take a towel or picnic blanket and lay it out while everyone takes shifts watching the baby play. Faith enjoyed the ability to roll around and get out of her seat - which was my biggest concern. It definitely made our trip longer, but stopping for twenty to thirty minutes per waking period wasn't painful and it's healthy for everyone - not just baby!


5. Prepare to re-train sleeping patterns once you reach your destination. We're on day 3 of being in the condo and Faith is having a really hard time sleeping through her naps. I'm going back to hardcore mommy mode and I'm just glad no one is in the condo next to us!

6. PUMP!! If you breastfeed at all, bring your pump! I figured that since Faith only breastfed about four times a day, it wouldn't be a big deal on the road. I'd just feed her whenever we stopped. Nope! I'm pretty sure the fact that we were in a car was a big deal and meant that she wasn't interested in anything but socializing while she was out of her seat. Consequence? Now I have less than about two minutes worth of milk for her during the day. My morning and evening milk wasn't affected because she did nurse then. By day 2, I gave up on hoping she'd nurse so I just hand-expressed into her onesie from the day before to relieve and prevent mastitis.

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Overall, it wasn't a terrible trip. Faith did a lot better than I was willing to even hope for and she was able to happily make it through an hour-long trip through Wal-Mart in Fort Myers before we made it to our condo on Sanibel.  I feel really comfortable about our airplane trip back home on Sunday. I think she'll do alright but I am hoping my milk supply comes back in so that I can comfort her enough so she might sleep.

I also recommend packing a ton of bibs. Nothing is worse than sitting next to a baby in a stinky bib because her mother was too stupid to pack plenty of extras.

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Do you have any other travel tips with infants? What about venturing into my plane trip on Sunday?