Chubby Baby

I'm so happy that I finally have a chubby baby! I put away all Ryan's 3 month clothes this week, since he has finally outgrown them. Here are some final pictures of him in his favorite doggy shirt. Notice the belly sticking out?

Ryan: 5 Months

Happy 5 months Ryan!One word to describe you this month is CURIOUS. You want to touch and taste everything! And when you can't, you get frustrated.
We started you on solids this month. So far you have tried rice cereal, banana, avocado and peas. You like everything! You've quickly learned what a spoon is and you open your mouth when you see it coming towards you.You are not crawling yet, but you've started to scoot. I think you have the strength to do it, you just need to figure out how to work your arms and legs at the same time. We're giving you plenty of tummy time to practice!You are slowly becoming a happier baby and it is so fun for me. I love hearing you laugh! Daddy can usually get you to laugh by rubbing your feet on his prickly chin. When you're not laughing or crying, you're talking. You love expressing yourself by saying things like "Ah Ghoo" and "Ghee".
You're becoming such a big boy. You weigh 15 lbs now and are wearing size 6 month clothes! I can't believe you've almost doubled your birth weight. Sometimes I thought you'd stay tiny forever!
I recently read that a 5 month old baby is now able to stay awake for 3 hours at a time during the day. You? You tend to stay awake for 13 hours. You get up at 7am and stay awake until your 8pm bedtime. Can you please learn how to take a nap before you are 6 months old? Pretty please?

Love you Baby Ryan!!

Weighty Wednesday: No Change

Nothing to report this week....no weight loss. Hopefully this coming week is better. I can't believe the weight I'm at now is 20 lbs less than my weight was when I got pregnant. I don't really see it, but the scale doesn't lie!

Stats and Goals for Week 17:
Lbs Lost This Week: 0
Lbs Lost So Far: 24
Lbs Left To Lose: 6

Hand-Picked

Whenever I hear the same thing more than once in a week, I tend to think God is trying to tell me something. Lately, I've had multiple people tell me that God gives us our children for a reason. As in, it's no accident that Ryan is mine. He was uniquely formed in my womb by God. He was created specifically to be my son.

I have to admit there have been times during the last 5 months when I have questioned why he was given to me. I've felt like I'm not the best mom for him. He tries my patience and he's not even talking yet! He makes me cry sometimes when he JUST WON'T SLEEP. I've questioned whether I'm the right person to raise this little boy.

But I am! God hand-picked me to be his mommy. I have been blessed with the gift of my sweet baby boy and God will give me everything I need to be a good mom. I have a feeling that God is going to teach me many important lessons about myself as I raise Ryan. Maybe even more than I will teach my son.

Carly May

Our dear friends Jon and Danielle have a new beautiful baby girl named Carly May! She was born on September 16th and we were finally able to meet her this week, once Ryan was over his cold. Isn't she adorable?

Silly babies weren't looking at the camera! Please excuse the spit up all over my son's pants. I can't wait until they're both old enough to play together!

Congratulations Jon and Danielle! Your daughter is beautiful and we are so happy for you!

Foodie Friday: A Well Stocked Pantry

I think one of the best tools the home cook can have is a well stocked pantry. Going to the store every single time you want to cook is a waste of time and money. A better strategy is to stock up on the essential basic items when they go on sale. Today I'm giving you a look inside my pantry and cupboards. They're not perfect, but I've built up a pretty good supply of pantry staples that help me put together easy weeknight meals. First up, canned goods:

I like to have:

Chicken Broth

Diced and Whole Tomatoes

Beans: Black, Garbanzos, Cannellini, Pinto, Refried

Tomato Paste and Tomato Sauce

Green Chilis, Whole and Diced

Corn

Green Beans

Spaghetti Sauce

Tuna

Chili/Soups

My Pantry:

White Rice

Brown Rice

Quinoa

Whole Wheat Couscous

Israeli Couscous

Kashi Pilaf

Arborrio Rice for Risotto

Lentils

Gnocchi

Split Peas

Assorted dried pastas - Whole Wheat and Regular (Spaghetti, Penne, etc)

There you go! Is this how you shop? Or do you wait until you have a recipe and then buy all the ingredients at once?

Next Week: Perhaps a look into the depths of my freezer?

4 Years

Happy Anniversary Adam! I have loved being your wife for the past 4 years. The best result of our marriage so far?

Weighty Wednesday: A Total Fluke

I'm convinced my success this week was a total fluke. First of all, I failed again at avoiding desserts. In fact, I made homemade cupcakes with 3 different types of frostings (vanilla buttercream, chocolate hazelnut, honey cinnamon). And when there's 3 flavors you have to try all 3 to figure out your favorite. Obviously.
I got out jogging a few times but only increased my total running time to 10 minutes. Most days Ryan was not in the mood for a walk. So I'm blaming this one on him.

Stats and Goals for Week 16:
Lbs Lost This Week: 2
Lbs Lost So Far: 24
Lbs Left to Lose: 6

I'm all out of ideas for goals. I think going forward I'm going to just try and be my healthiest. Get out for a walk every day. Eat dessert, but in moderation. Try to eat as many fruits and veggies as possible and eat whole grains as a substitute for white starchy carbs. I'll still check back in each week to record my weight loss for accountability, at least until these last 6 lbs are gone!

My Little Monkey

Stephanie and Ryan here checking in! We've been busy just living our lives and doing baby things.

Ryan tried bananas last week and loves them! I think he likes the sweetness. I'd like to give him a vegetable next. Any ideas? I'm thinking either carrots, peas, or some type of squash.

I don't want to jinx it, but wanted you all to know that Ryan has been sleeping through the night this past week! I'm still not able to sleep because I'm so used to waking up every hour. But hopefully that will change soon. Let's hope he keeps this up!

Rhyming

Look! I straightened my hair!
Because today we're going to the fair!

That is the extent of my rhyming skills.
Don't you think he has my eyes?

Strong!

Oh my goodness. When did my sweet little baby boy turn into a mischievous little man? I can't wrap my head around how strong he has become! It seems like every day now he amazes me with what he can do and with what he is trying so hard to do. (crawl)

He now rolls over quite easily both ways.

He tries to sit up, but usually falls forward.

He "scoots", which is his way of trying to crawl.

He supports himself fully on his legs, as long as I am balancing him.

He grabs at everything!

I snapped this picture this morning and just had to share. This is proof of how wiggly Ryan has become. If left unstrapped in his lamby seat, this is what happens:

Is it just me, or does he look like he got caught doing something wrong?

Weighty Wednesday: Temptation

It all started with one bite of ice cream. Then some rhubarb crumble (thanks mom), an oreo cookie, chocolate fondue.....basically I failed miserably at my "no dessert" goal for the week. Once I had that first bite of ice cream I knew I had failed at my goal, and the temptation was too big not to continue eating dessert. But I did get out and jog for 5 days! I started out jogging for 2 minutes (my lungs are very out of shape) and worked my way up to 8 minutes! Unfortunately I think the jogging and the abundance of desserts cancelled each other out. I lost nothing this week.

Stats and Goals for Week 15:
Lbs Lost This Week: 0
Lbs Lost So Far: 22
Lbs Left to Lose: 8

Food Goal: Let's try this agian. No dessert!
Fitness Goal: My goal this week is to work my way to jogging for 15 minutes, or 1 mile.....whichever comes first.

MOPS

I attended my first MOPS meeting yesterday. I am so glad I went!

MOPS stands for "Mothers of Preschoolers". It is a Christian organization that gathers together mothers of kids 5 and under. They meet twice a month for a couple hours and do all sorts of things....guest speakers, crafts, prayer, food, book discussions.....but the best part is the fellowship with other moms. I stepped into the room yesterday and instantly felt it was where God wanted me to be.

Everyone was so NICE. At least 5 people offered to hold baby Ryan. (Maybe they were trying to be helpful, maybe he's just too cute not to hold). I felt so welcomed and by the end I had made up my mind to join. I think it will help to fill a void in my life.....Christian fellowship with other young moms.

If you have MOPS in your area, I'd definitely recommend it. I know they are located in 30 countries around the world, (I won a t-shirt for guessing this!) so chances are good there's one near you.

He's All Boy

Last night the 3 of us were sitting on the couch. Adam, Ryan and I. I had Ryan sitting on my lap, facing outward. All of a sudden he flings himself off of my lap and smashes his face into the side of the couch. I immediately grab him and inspect his face for any damage.

Meanwhile Adam burps. Ryan turns to look at him and starts to laugh.

Yep. He's all boy.

3 Week Garden Progress

Remember the garden I started 3 weeks ago?

Look at it now!

Don't Let The Smile Fool You

I'm sick with my very first cold. =(

Foodie Friday: Chorizo

Adam works with a guy who always brings chorizo to eat for lunch. He cooks it, scrambles in some eggs and rolls it up in a tortilla. Adam had a taste and liked it, so his co-worker bought him some chorizo. Adam requested that I make it for dinner last night. Being the nice wife that I am, I agreed! That is, until I saw words like "salivary glands" and "lymph nodes" in the ingredients. I'm sure this is safe to eat, and is similar to eating a hot dog, but it kind of made me gag a little just thinking about it.

I think if you didn't grow up eating certain foods, it can be really hard to develop a taste for them. For example, I grew up eating lamb sometimes, while Adam did not. He just doesn't like the taste of it, whereas it seems normal to me.

I prepared the traditional chorizo for Adam and a healthier version for myself. Or, as Adam would call it, the "white girl" version.
For mine I used leftover ground turkey that I had used to make meatloaf earlier this week. To it I added onions, fresh tomatoes, green peppers, paprika, cumin, cayenne papper, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Chorizo? No. But it tasted kind of spicy and Mexican-ish.

I scrambled in the eggs and put it all in a whole wheat tortilla topped with cheese and guacamole. It was really good! Kind of like a spicy breakfast burrito. And Adam totally ate both the pork and the turkey versions and liked them both. Mission accomplished! Have you ever had chorizo? What is the strangest thing you've ever eaten? For me it would be alligator and bear.

Books

Some of my best memories from my childhood are my books. I loved to read from a young age, and still do to this day. Whenever I got sick I remember sitting up in bed with my huge stack of books, reading through each and every one of them. The people at the library used to ask me "Are you sure you can read all those books?" when I would arrive at the check out counter with a stack of 20 books. My childhood favorite was "The Little Red Hen".

Because I have such fond memories of books, I think it is important for me to start reading to Ryan at a young age. I want to start building up his book collection. Maybe reading books can soon become part of his bedtime routine.

So far he only has a few books. I want to buy him many more!Unfortunately books are expensive. I was at the bookstore the other day buying a book on how to get your baby to sleep (a blog post for another day). I ventured into the children's section and recognized many books that I used to read as a kid. I got so excited seeing them that I wanted to buy them all! My plan is to slowly buy books for Ryan, maybe 1 or 2 per month. I hope Ryan learns to love books as much as I do!

Weighty Wednesday: Slow and Steady

Slowly I am still losing weight...1 more pound this week. I get discouraged when I don't see the scale move, so even 1 lb encourages me to continue in my weight loss. Particularly after I lost nothing last week.

Stats and Goals for Week 14:
Lbs Lost This Week: 1
Lbs Lost So Far: 22
Lbs Left to Lose: 8

Food Goal: It worked before so I'm doing it again. No dessert for one week!
Fitness Goal: I've started jogging a little bit during my daily walks with Ryan. I want to continue to do this, going just a little bit further each day. Although I doubt I'll be able to get back to where I was before I had Ryan (training for a half-marathon), at least a little jogging each day should increase my stamina and help me lose these last stubborn pounds.

Rice Cereal

We gave Ryan his very first taste of rice cereal on Sunday! He wasn't too sure what to think. He made a weird face, just as I expected he would. But then he actually swallowed it and seemed to have pretty good tongue control. Of course he wanted to be in charge of holding his spoon like a big boy. It's a work in progress but he'll get the hang of it!

Granola

So the other day I was breastfeeding my cloth-diaper-wearing baby while simultaneously making baby food from veggies grown in our garden. All while wearing a dress I wove myself from organic cotton.

OK so I'm being funny. But honestly, that little scenario is not all that far from the truth. I did make zucchini bread recently using zucchini from the farmer's market and lemon juice from my backyard lemon bush. Ryan does wear cloth diapers, I do breastfeed, and I plan on making at least some of his baby food myself. Somewhere along the way I have turned into a granola mom!

I always said it would never happen. Turn into a health-nut like my mom, that is. Sorry mom, but growing up we thought it was weird! My sister, brother and I affectionately referred to the bread we used to eat as "tree-bark" bread because of its abundance of nuts and seeds.

So yes, I may have become a bit granola since having Ryan. But the choices I make are what I think is best for my family. And they make me happy.

Oh and just for the record, I have made homemade granola and it was delicious.

This Has Never Happened Before

Ok Mom I'm all ready for my diaper change!

Actually I'm kind of tired. Can you come back later?

Foodie Friday: Freeze-Ahead Meals

I've never been the type of person to make a big batch of food at once and freeze it for a later time. The concept just doesn't appeal to me....I like making new meals every night with fresh ingredients. But now that I'm a mom I can appreciate the idea! This week I made 2 freezer meals and they were both delicious. Each recipe makes enough for two small casserole dishes, so you can eat one and freeze the other!

I made Pioneer Woman's Lasagna first. It was very rich and meaty, just how Adam likes his lasagna.

Then I made my friend Jen's Mexican Casserole. Yummy! My friend Jen made this for me shortly after Ryan was born and I really appreciated the home-cooked meal.

There are tons of casserole recipes out there that are ideal for making and freezing. Some are even healthy! Here's a link to a few that I'd like to try. 10 Healthy Casseroles

What do you think? Have you ever made freezer meals?

Ahh Gheee

That's Ryan's new favorite word. Ahh Gheee! He has become quite the vocal baby lately. He likes making new sounds and I often hear him talking to himself when I put him down and leave the room. Unfortunately, his vocal abilities include a lot of screaming and crying. The other day I was at OSH with Ryan and my Mother-in-Law. I saw our next door neighbor there and waved hello. Just then Ryan woke up and started wailing. Our neighbor later told Adam:

"I saw your baby at the store today"

"Actually, I heard your baby at the store today"

"No wait, actually the entire store heard your baby"

Yep. That sounds like my little boy!

4 Month Dr. Visit

Ryan has his 4 month well-check today and the Dr. said he's looking great! Here are his 4 month stats:

Weight: 13 lbs, 10 oz (24th percentile)

Length: 25 inches (53rd percentile)

Head Circumference: 16.25 inches (25th percentile)

He said that Ryan has excellent leg strength because he can support his weight pretty easily when "standing". Maybe he'll be an earlyish walker like his mama! 10 months, I think I was. Right mom?

He also said we can introduce Ryan to rice cereal! I am so excited for this phase of his babyhood! I know he will probably just spit the cereal back out the first few times, but at least it's good tongue control exercise for him. I think we're going to start the cereal this weekend. I'd love to hear about experiences any of you had when you first fed your baby solids. Did they like the rice cereal? Did it help them sleep better at night?

The sad part of the appointment was when Ryan got his shots. His crying was so hard for me to listen to because it was a different kind of cry than I'm used to. A few hours after we got home he seemed really whiny and his painful crying was continuing. So I gave him a little baby Tylenol and he has been napping for more than 2 hours! I guess his Dr. appointment and shots wore the little guy out.

Weighty Wednesday: Hunger

I have been a bottomless pit this week. I feel like all I've been doing is eating because I've been so hungry! I lost 0 lbs this week. I'm wondering if now that Ryan is getting bigger, he's requiring more calories from the breastmilk, and that's what's causing my hunger. I'm not sure, it's just a guess.

Stats and Goals for Week 13:
Lbs Lost This Week: 0
Lbs Lost So Far: 21
Lbs Left to Lose: 9

Food Goal: Bring on the fruits and veggies! I've been eating everything in sight....except produce. This week I'm going to aim for 4 servings per day.
Fitness Goal: Walking! This is all I have time for.