What I love about you … week 35

My sweet baby girl turned 8 months old on Saturday! I just can’t believe it!

week 35

I LOVE…

• Your contagious laughter!
• Your sweet smile!

• The way you carry things around with you when you crawl around the house. You haven’t found a “lovie” yet, but you are working on it!I find you carrying around blankets, dish towels, toys, bows, pacifiers, and today… it was my shoe! :)

 

• Your love for your pacifier! Yesterday when I came in to get you after your nap, you were standing in your crib holding onto the railing with 1 pacifier in your mouth, 2 in your right hand, and 1 in your left hand!  I was laughing so hard! And today, I caught you carrying them around with you everywhere you went!

• Taking you on the boat with your life jacket on. You did NOT like that life jacket! As soon as I put it on you, you started crying. I promise it was for your safety!!

• They way you crawl away from me giggling when I say, “I’m gonna get you!!” It’s as if you already know those words mean I’m going to tickle you until you can’t stop laughing!!
• Watching your sweet personality take shape. You are FULL of life, laughter, smiles, and squeals of excitement!
• Your HUGE bow selection! Here is a new one of my favs!

• Watching you take interest in the leaves on our porch.

 

• That you are starting to clap your hands! It’s so cute!
• That today in the grocery store you were sitting in the cart with both hands in the air, screaming (happily) as if you were on a rollercoaster! Hilarious! :)
• Your picture poses. It seems every time I try to take a candid photo you stop what you are doing and look at the camera.

Cori – you are the most beautiful girl I have ever laid eyes on – inside and out! Of course I’m partial because I’m your mom, but the love I have for you is unlike any other. My heart melts when I look at you and I am so thankful the Lord gave you to me. I am honored to be your mom!!

Tiny Tot School

  ~ CB is currently 8 months old ~

 

This is my first Tot School post! For those of you wondering what in the world Tot School is, let me explain! I have been reading this amazing blog, 1+1+1=1. This is a blog of a homeschooling mom who homeschools her 3rd grader, her pre-schooler, and her tot (kiddos too young for pre-school, but surely needing some purposeful play with their mommas!) I’m calling my posts for now “Tiny Tot School” because CB is still a little young and purposeful play is all over the place, but she sure does LOVE exploring!! I am planning to post once a week about what we are doing in Tiny Tot School. I haven’t chosen a specific day that my posts will be on so until then, just keep checking back for what we are doing around here! :)

The other day I set up all the toys I wanted to use for Tot School at the moment. I thought it looked like Christmas morning! HAHA! CB LOVED it though!

You should see CB’s eyes light up when she plays with this Leap Frog Learn & Groove Musical Table. There are so many cool features. She practices opening and closing, spinning and making noises, colors, shapes, reading, turning pages .. the list goes on and on! Not to mention, she gets a lot of practice standing and cruising from one side of the table to another. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here she is even practicing moving from one table to another!

We also love our Playschool Poppin’ Pals. She does a GREAT job of closing the lids but hasn’t figured out how to pop the animals out again. Once all the lids are closed, she pushes the toy aside. We will get there!

This is a picture of her playing with one at her friends house. We have the one I linked up above.

One night we had Tiny Tot School in the bath tub! We have a slew of ocean animal bath toys. I’m not sure where these toys are from or what they are called (they were a shower gift from before CB was born), but they are FABULOUS!! Each animal has a hole somewhere on it’s body for water to squirt out. She loves squeezing them and feeling the water hit her hands. Some of them are textured which makes for great fun – especially when they enter her mouth!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also have some great little cups – all different sizes and each one fits inside the other. LOVE that! The edges are textured as well. I wonder why she would want to put those edges in her mouth?!?! :)

When she was all done, she climbed on up the side of the tub! How cute!!! :)

After we got into our PJ’s, we had some time on the floor to roll a few balls back and forth! Well, actually, there wasn’t much rolling going on where CB was sitting, but I rolled them over to her at least! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, I put all the balls into a basket. She worked so hard getting each one out individually!

 

and tasting them too…

When all the balls were out, she grabbed her binkie, and headed over to her Leap Frog Table one last time before bed.

It sure was a fun week in Tiny Tot School! Hope to see you next week! :)

Paula Dean’s Baby Food …. or something like that!

In all the years I have been a wife, cooking has not been my best attribute. Don’t get me wrong, I have a few good recipes up my sleeve (thanks to my Apples of Gold class last spring), but I’m definitely no Paula Dean! However, when it comes to making baby food, I’m ALL ABOUT IT!

 

A friend of my introduced me to a GREAT website called Wholesome Baby Food when our babies started approaching the 6 month solid food window. I hadn’t really thought too much about whether or not I wanted to make my own baby food for Cori or if I’d just buy it in the store, but after spending some time on that website, I thought I’d give it a try. After all, how hard could it be to make your own baby food?

Ya’ll let me tell you – I have absolutely LOVED making my own baby food, not to mention it’s a whole lot CHEAPER and HEALTHIER than that stuff in the store. I can’t even begin to explain the excitement I feel when I buy fresh green beans, bring them home, wash them, chop then, steam them, puree them, and freeze them. I seriously could make baby food all day! Maybe I’ll become the Paula Dean of baby foods – haha! I’m sure my husband would appreciate eating that for dinner! :) But seriously, for $1.29 I fed my child for 4 days, eating twice a day. You just can’t beat that!

We started solids right at 6 months, eating just once a day at dinner as a family (since that’s when my milk supply was the lowest!). At around 7 1/2 months, we moved to twice a day (lunch and dinner) and she is LOVING it! I haven’t found one thing she doesn’t like! She has tried yellow squash, green beans, avocado, carrots, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, bananas, blueberries, and just yesterday I baked some peaches – they were delicious! My next adventure is homemade applesauce! I can’t wait! Oh, and if you’re wondering where I get all these wonderful recipes for baby food – don’t forget to check out that website!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here she is enjoying some avocado. I think it’s hilarious that she sucks her thumb in between bites. I know it’s not promoting the best of table manners, but I think she does it to help her swallow.

 

However, if you leave your child to eat with her grandmother, be prepared to come back to find this!! HAHA!!

The Remodel Continues…

We are BIG Dave Ramsey followers and true believers in paying CASH for things, especially big things – like remodeling our kitchen. Back in February we started working on our kitchen. Click here for the re-cap. We put up tile backsplash, new countertops, replaced a cabinet, mounted a new microwave, and put in a new stove to match! It was looking great and we both REALLY wanted to keep going, but the cash flow ran dry and we knew we needed to save up some more.

So, a few months, a few things sold on craigslist, and a garage sale later, we purchased a brand new dishwasher! I’m so excited!! Our old dishwasher totally grossed me out! I’d run a load and go to unload it and find food particles stuck to cups. Ewwww! Why even bother with a dish washer if it isn’t even going to WASH your dishes?!?! Not only does this one look great, it WORKS GREAT and that’s what really matters to me!

 

Well, what to you think?? I can’t wait to get some Leap Frog magnetic Alphabet Letters up there for Cori! :) Won’t a new dishwasher just make learning even more fun?!?

So, the next big purchase is a new refrigerator. That may take FOREVER to save up for, but I don’t think we will be moving out of this “glorious” condo any time soon so bring on the saving and bring on a new fridge!! :)

Until next time…

What I love about you… week 33 & 34

Week 33 & 34

I LOVE…

• The Big Comfy Couch! Anyone remember that show?? I used to watch it when I would babysit in high school. Haha! Anyway, you sure looked little sitting on this BIG couch!! … You were also not feeling very well here. :( Sniffle, Sniffle

• Making kissy faces with you! I was hoping my kisses would help you feel better! :)

• Hanging out with your friend Willie. You guys have taken a few trips to Ocala lately with your silly mommies and you both have been such GREAT sports about driving around from store to store, missing naps, being over tired, and waiting a little longer than normal to eat. Your mommies LOVE you both!

Shopping for party hats at Hobby Lobby. Both of them were exhausted! Willie said, “Get this thing OFF me!”

Driving the Elmo Wagon at Toys R Us!

• Watching your legs kick back and forth when you ride in shopping carts and sit in high chairs! It’s so cute!! Oh, trying on fun hats is super fun too!

• How you love to look out the window. Once again, you are so curious and love to check out what’s going on outside! (The glass must taste good too! Yum!) :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Bath time!! Look at how cute you were with all those bubbles all over your body! You LOVE to play with your toys in the tub! There may only be 2 toys in the picture, but there were MANY, MANY more on the other side of the tub! I also just can’t get over those eyes and long lashes!! BEAUTIFUL!!

• New toys for you as you grow! We’ve gotten some GREAT new toys to help you learn new things. Lots of these toys we will be using for Tiny Tot School, but more on that later! You play so well by yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Another weekly get together with our Play Group Friends!

• This picture! You look like you are in jail, trying to escape! Haha!!

• All your explorations! Here you are exploring under the dining room table!

• When you start laughing and just can’t stop! You laugh at so many things now. The other day I was working out at home and you thought it was the funniest thing!!! Did I look that silly?!?!? :)

I also love the how easy it is for you to fall asleep on your own now, the way you whisper “da, da, da” and “ba, ba, ba”, the way your eyes perk up and the curious way you look around the room when you hear Maverick or daddy come home from work, what a fast little crawler you’ve become, snuggling with you in the morning, watching you play, seeing you learn, how you throw all your pacifiers out of your crib onto the floor every morning, … the list goes on and on! You are the sweetest thing I have ever laid eyes on. I just LOVE you!!