Running?!?

Randal Jean's walk has escalated in to running, almost.  She tries really hard but it doesnt always work out...

Pure joy as she picks up speed:

And this is what happens when her feet can't keep up:

 

Thought I would share this one as well...check out that face as she feels the dead grass.

Bath Time Faces

Randal Jean loves bath time :)  Here are some of her stilly faces from bath time the other night.  Enjoy!!!

Afternoon in Calabash

We went to Matt's parents in Calabash a few weekends ago to have lunch with his family.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Randal doesn't only share with our dogs...she shares with Rudy too.  

And what was she "sharing"?  A seashell (don't know why).  No worries no babies were harmed in the making of the below picture.

Randal played in the kitchen as lunch was cooked.

She was loved on by her Great Grandma (Mammaw as we call her)

And because she had a cute hat on for the day I just need to get a couple pics :)

More love for Randal Jean.  This time with Matt's mom.  She's totally not loved you know, ha!

My name is Katie...

My name is Katie and I have a problem...I love buying Randal clothes!!!  Last weekend I packed away all of her 3-6, 6-9, and most 9-12 clothes.  Her clothes consumed the entire living room floor as I organized them in to various categories for storage.  As Matt looked at the clothes he said, "we must have another girl one day."  Agreed.  That would be nice on so many levels and it would justify the ridiculous amount of clothing Randal has.  Girl clothes are just the cutest and the only thing cuter than the clothes in Randal.  Cute baby + cute clothes = my obsession :)

Organizing...

I dare you to not go overboard with all things cute if you have a little one this adorable at home :)

Snow Day

About two weeks ago (need to catch up on blogging!) we had SNOW in Wimington.  Snow is rare for us all together, but to have snow that sticks is very rare.  Since snow is so rare it is a big deal so everything shut down which meant that we got to extend our weekend by one day :)

Here's Randal and Daddy playing in the front yard...I'd say there was 4-5in (more snow that I've seen in the 7 years I've lived here).

Sitting pretty in the snow :)  Even though Randal is walking 4-5in of snow made it impossible for her to do anything other than sit :(

After the quick shot of a smile in the snow (above) we had to put a hat on her because it was FREEZING (obviously), but she hated that idea so we quickly went inside. 

The rest of the day was spent admiring the snow from the inside.

I loved getting a day off work to spend with this cutie patootie pie!!!

About four days after the snowfall we could finally see the ground again :)  But what was interesting was the INSANE amount of birds that showed up after the snow had melted!!!  I guess they were hungry?...

Making Baby Food

I figure I need to hurry up and blog about making pureed baby food as my little girl is well on her way to eating only finger foods :)

So why did I make my own baby food?

Well, there are lots of reasons.  

*I wanted to feed Randal organic foods and organic store bought baby food is pricey.

*I love to cook so I looked at this at another cooking adventure.

*Homemade baby food tastes better....seriously!  Randal Jean loves peas; however, I tried to give her peas from a jar once and she spit them right out.  I tried them myself and I don't blame her...they were gross!

*To me cooking for people = love.  Does Randal understand this yet, no...but this is what cooking is to me and I love my baby girl more than anything so cooking for her is a total no brainer.  

*Variety Variety Variety!!!  Randal Jean ate everything that I pureed for her....okay, I'm lying she hated avocados.  I was not going to happen upon a jar of beets and mashed potatoes in the grocery store....just sayin.

*Taste the Colors of the Rainbow- You know how we are supposed to eat lots of colors everyday? By making Randal's food I could feed her more variety (colors) in a day than jarred simply because I was controlling what she ate in 1 oz frozen portions of food versus opening up a 2-4 oz jar and needing to use it all up.  Side note, I still started Randal with new foods one at a time to allow for any allergic reaction...she only ever reacted to pineapple by having diaper rash due to the acidity so we stopped that.  

*Consistency- Jarred baby food is soupy, very soupy.  It drips off the spoon and I'm sure there is more water than food.  By blending my own I was able to adjust the consistency to my liking (or Randal's).  

What tools did I use?

*Food processor (best for large quantities)

*Steamer basket

*ice cube trays

The above are the only things you need, but below are some other tools that come in handy.

*Beaba baby cooker (small quantities only...perfect for a bag of frozen veggies)

*emersion blender

*food mill (I didnt get this until a couple months ago....literally will shave 45 mins off of making applesauce since you don't have to peel.  Not a must but I would totally get one if you can)

*Apple corer (notice I listed corer only...I hate the ones that cut for you too!)

*Baby food cookbooks are a good reference for learning what freezes and what doesn't and they can also help you with food combinations.  The books I have are: The Baby and Toddler Cookbook, Cooking Light: First Foods, and The Complete Idiots Guide to Cooking for Your Baby

Other notes

*Making in bulk and freezing in ice cube trays and later popping them out for storage in ziplocs means you only need to cook one a month (or maybe two).

*Tidal Creek is a great place to get organic foods in Wilmington since we don't have a large organic grocery store like Whole Foods.  TC's prices are awesome...if they were closer and I was a better meal planner I would shop there more for Matt and I.  Their organic produce is sometimes less than the conventional produce at the grocery store.

*Check out the dirty dozen list for the foods that you should always try to eat organic if you want to only do some organic.

*Thinning out is easier than bulking up.  I purposely kept her food a bit thick when I froze it because I was only cooking once a month (or two) and she may have required thicker food by the end of the month...when it needed to be thinned out I just added water when I heated it up.

So here's some pics from an afternoon of baby food making back in September (this post has been a long time coming!).

Lots of organic produce from Tidal Creek.  Some of the items included are: leeks, ground turkey, pears, apples, dried apricots, peas, pineapple, butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes, lentils, rice, parsley, carrots, asparagus, beets, etc....

My little helper :)  Like I said this was in September...she has changed so much!

The kitchen in the midst of the chaos...no judgement on the mess please :)

A closer look:

Steaming carrots and peas.  Veggie broth complete and set aside waiting to making rice or water down purees.  Pineapple and peaches waiting to be cooked and pureed in the Beaba.

Peas and something else (dont remember, corn maybe?) cooked but waiting their turn to be pureed.  More peas in the Beaba (did I mention my girl likes peas).  Asparagus waiting its turn.  Pears waiting to be peeled, coored, and steamed. 

Above pears are now in the steamer, veggies from the veggie broth waiting to be pureed, and dried apricots rehydrating.

Gotta utilize the whole kitchen....sweet potatoes, white potatoes, butternut squash, and beets roasting

Fruits (and veggies!) of my labor.  

Okay, so if you are still hanging with me for this post.  Do you remember that I said a reason I made my baby food was because it was cheaper?  This particular trip to Tidal Creek cost me $90.  And made 42 ice cube trays full of baby food.  There are 14 cubes per tray and 1 cube equals an ounce.  I paid $90 for 588 ounces of baby food.  That is $.15 an ounce!!!!!  I'm sure there are ways to get this done even cheaper...like buying things only when they are on sale, but I only liked to cook once a month so I bought what I needed when I needed it.  A 2 oz jar of stage 1 baby food costs $.66 at the local HT ($.33 and ounce!!!)

Afternoon at the Park

Remember a couple weeks ago I shared that Randal was really cranky one morning?  Well luckily despite all the clouds in the sky it wasn't a cold day so we headed out to Greenfield Lake Park for some fresh air.  

Happy to be outside :)

"Oh look at everything there is to touch!"

Daddy trying to get her to walk...she preferred to just point and laugh at him 

Weeeeeeeeeee!

Kisses from Daddy

"Come on Daddy this way!"

"Okay, I'll just crawl and get there faster"

Practicing yoga

But holding a position for too long is tough stuff

So much to play with at the park

How big is Randal Jean?  This big!

Look whose walking

With Daddy bear

And because the park couldn't keep her interest (or Daddy's) all afternoon we had to leave

Randal's "Special" Christmas Present

Yes, Christmas was so last month but I still have things to share :)

Anyways, a couple months before Christmas I had high hopes of making Randal some Christmas outfits.  My mom and I even went to Elegant Stitches in Raleigh to pick the patterns and material.  Well time kept ticking away and those patterns and material just sat in our office.  Before I knew it we were 2 weeks from Christmas and there was no point in me making her outfits that she would wear once.  I felt so horrible...all I wanted to do was give Randal something special that she could hand down to her little girl one day and I FAILED!  Ugh, I hate feeling like I've failed.

So to add to my self inflicted sense of failure I asked my husband what we should give Randal because I knew Santa was already bringing her way too much.  And what does he say..."I think we should give her something special, you know like something hand made."  Well, thanks hon!  So, in that moment I issued myself the challenge of making Randal a blanket for Christmas.  This would still be special like the outfits but it used much more.  

I had found a tutorial for a faux chenille blanket online a while ago that I loved and thought this would be the perfect excuse to make it.  So about a week before Christmas I went to Fran's and picked out the material.  Side note: Since this was supposed to be "special" it took me forever to pick the material, but finally Lindsey (she's great at putting things together if you ever go to Fran's) helped me pick the perfect material and coordinating flannels.   

Gosh I'm too wordy...

So 3 night before Christmas I started the blanket.  That night and the night after I stayed up until 3am making the blanket as I was determined not to fail again at my attempt to give Randal something "special" for Christmas.  So after many hours I am glad to say I did finish the blanket in to for Christmas morning.  

I was so excited to give Randal the blanket; however, her 10 month old self could have really cared less. I just have to keep telling myself that one day she will appreciate it.

Here I am giving the blanket to Randal while she is much more interested in the tissue paper that the blanket was wrapped in....typical.

Already over it as she plays with an empty box...again, typical!

I try to bring the blanket out as much as I can...because like I said Randal could care less right now.  So we take it outside.  Check out all those rows of chenille!

We play peek-a-boo!  Can you find Randal?

There she is :)

 

Randal and puppy taking a nap on the couch

And my favorite detail...."Love Mommy"

If you're crafty and are interested in the tutorial I used...it can be found here.  Mine was different in that I used 4 backing fabrics 1 pink and 3 various flannels.  I only cut through the flannel backing pieces for the rows of chenille and I cut them using a chenille cutter rather than scissors like the tutorial (this shaved off atleast 2 hours).  Anyways, the pink backing fabric allowed for some contrast in between the rows of chenille (you can see it best of the peek a boo pick above).  Also, the "Love Mommy" used the same concept of the chenille in that I stitched was I wanted using my embroidery foot and then cut around the stitches leaving just enough fabric to chenille up when I put it in the wash.

Aubrey & Randal Go to the Museum

Today I met up with a friend, Courtney, from middle school (Go DTMS!) that I haven't seen in 11 years for a playdate for our daughters.  Courtney has a daughter less than two weeks younger than Randal and lives near Wilmington so I am so glad we have reconnected.  We took the girls to the Wilmington Children's Museum for their first meeting.  They had a lot of fun but you could tell that the museum is much better suited for the 18m+ crowd....oh well, like I said the girls still had fun.  I had fun too!!! It was nice to compare notes with another mom who is going through the same things as me.  I see many more playdates in our future.

Watching the big kids play....they did a lot of this :)

Peek-a-boo I see you!

Sharing :)

Sweet Aubrey