Southern Summers

Let me just say that I LOVE summer! It is not my favorite season (the two weeks of fall we experience here in South Georgia is my favorite :)). Despite the gnats, mosquitoes, sweat and 100% humidity, I love getting out on the boat, going to Steinhatchee, FL, spending time at the beach, laying out by the pool and mowing my grass. My most favorite part about summer though is the fresh fruits and veggies!

These peaches came from South Carolina and were HUGE!

Bi Colored Corn, also from South Carolina

(My daddy went on a trip and his customers sent him home with fresh produce)

White acre peas from Little River Produce in Lake Park, GA

I have been a busy bee these past two weeks putting up vegetables in our freezer for the winter.  I have put up fresh cream corn, zipper peas, and white acres.  Needless to say, between the venison, breastmilk, baby food, and veggies... our freezer is pretty FULL!

Nannie teaching me to cream corn.  This is a messy job!  I had creamed corn in my hair, on my face and up to my elbows!  It will be yummy in the winter time though!

 

Normally, Matt plants a summer or fall crop of squash, but he didn't this year so I missed the chance to put up squash.  Hopefully he will plant some for fall.  I have begged Matt for several years now to plant me a garden and I would tend to it, but he hasn't.  Maybe next year!  Mama is supposed to teach me how to put up jams and perserves this summer too! I am so excited!  I love being raised in the South!!! 

All my hard work!

Old & Senile

I have a funny story for you guys and gals...

Today I went to Walmart, which is my most favorite place to go in the entire world. (Not!)  In fact, I despise it so much that it has been three weeks since I have been to the grocery store.  The only reason I went today was because we had nothing in the pantry... no cereal, bread, lunch meat, milk...   I choose Walmart over anything else because it is just easier to go ahead and finish all my shopping in one place.  I have learned that by stretching my shopping trips to every 2-3 weeks I save a ton of money.  When I was going weekly I would always come home with extra stuff that wasn't necessary every time; usually spending an extra $50-$75 on "stuff".

Anyhow, my child was an ANGEL throughout the entire trip.  She fell asleep midway through and didn't start fussing until we were checking out.

When I finished, I put her in the car and was loading my trunk with the groceries.  All of a sudden, my car rocked.  I thought to myself, "Surely she isn't kicking hard enough to rock the car?"  So I peek on her and she is fine.  In the meantime, an old lady (probably close to 80 or so) in the parking spot in front of me rolled down the window in her van.  "Sorry honey!  I bumped ya!"  Haha!  You think?  You knocked the stew out of my car.  Of course, I just smiled and waved my hand... "It's alright.  I just didn't know what happened."   She told me, "I just hate it when my back end is sticking out.  I wanted to pull up far enough."  Well, believe me ma'm, I think you did....

Her and her husband get on out, come and get my buggy from me, and stroll in Walmart like nothing ever happened.  I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head, because one day I am gonna be old and senile too.  Luckily my car wasn't damaged, and really no harm was done.

It's no wonder they have lived that long.  I guess they have learned not to sweat the small stuff.  I pray I get more wisdom and patience with age :)

I thought about my other Walmart incident that happened a few months back.  Haha, luckily it wasn't that woman in the Mustang whose car she "bumped."

Homemade Baby Food

Since my piglet is now eating solid foods twice a day, I decided to make my own purees for her.  It has been super easy, fun, and very inexpensive.  One sweet potato makes about 5 servings for her and she ate off of one banana for 3 days.

Fresh Fruits & Veggies

I found this website, Wholesome Baby Food, which is AMAZING!  It has recipes, step by step instructions, freezing/storing suggestions, and lists of foods that your baby can eat at the different stages.  It has been my baby food Bible!

We are eating stage one foods and so far she has had bananas (loves!), sweet potatoes (mmm.. not so much), avocado (loves!), acorn squash (loves!), apples (loves!), and peaches (we made some sour faces with these).


She loves bananas so much that she "mmmm.mmms" the whole time I am feeding them to her.  I can mix something she isn't crazy about, such as sweet potatoes with bananas or apples is she enjoys it a whole lot more.  After I defrost her food from the freezer, I usually put cereal in it to thicken it up and to give her extra iron.  Last week, I pureed zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, apples, and peaches and put them in the freezer. 



I bought the Baby Bullet Turbo Steamer and use that to steam my veggies. 

After steaming, I put them in my food processor and puree.  I add water as needed to thin it out.  Norah Kate likes her food more soupy. 

I have used both the food processor and the blender.  They both work pretty good.

 

Once you are satisfied with the consistency of your puree, pour it into ice cube trays and freeze.  Once they are frozen just pop them out into ziploc bags.  I put two cubes into a milk freezer bag, label and date.

 Voila!  Baby food made easy :)

I really like my steamer for multiple reasons 1.) By steaming foods they maintain more nutrients 2.) It cooks the food in minutes (the longest cycle is 13 minutes) 3.) The Baby Bullet Steamer also can sterilize bottle nipples, pacis, etc, and it will defrost frozen baby food.  I bought it for like $25 at Walmart. 


Norah Kate gets cereal at lunch and veggies at supper time.  We will eventually work up to cereal for breakfast, veggie/fruit for lunch, and veggie/fruit for supper.  We have followed the "four day" rule.  Each time I introduce a new food, she gets it for four days in a row to make sure she is not going to have an allergic reaction to it, then we try something new.  I don't stress to much about how much she eats either.  If I can only get her to take a few bites of something, then so be it... She is still breastfeeding so I know she is still getting all of her nutrients.


Pears will be the next thing I make for her.  I have also started some combinations for her with foods we have already tried, such as apples and sweet potatos or bananas and apples.  Don't worry, I taste test everything before I feed it to her!


A few things I have learned, peaches and apples don't go very far at all! Four peaches made only 3 servings.  And 3 apples only made 6 or 8 servings.  I will probably buy adult all natural applesauce from the grocery store for apples, and may try a bag of frozen peaches next time.  With everything else though, a little went a long way!


I thought about doing the Baby Led Weaning which is when you introduce pieces of food rather than purees.  For instance, you would give the baby slices of a banana or sweet potato and let them feed themselves.  This makes me really nervous because of choking!  I gave Norah Kate a banana and let her chew on it the other day just to see what she would do and she LOVED it, but then hunks of the banana started falling off in her mouth and scared me to death.  For now we will stick with our pureed mush and might try Baby Led Weaning later.

Oh and she has two pretty pearly whites on her bottom jaw now!  They came through two weeks ago!

*5 Months Old*

My sweet, sweet Norah Kate... How is it even possible that you are five months old already!  I thought I just came home with you from the hospital?



These past five months have been the absolute best of my life!

I am impressed with how much you change daily and the new things you are learning.

Here is an update on my precious sugarbean...

What she likes:

Rice cereal... mmm. mmm. mmm.  She gets three tablespoons mixed with my breastmilk once a day.  She likes it thinner and soupy. When it is too thick she gags on it.  Sometimes she wants to feed herself and we end up with rice cereal all over me, her, Hoss, the floor, everywhere!
Talkin'.  She is her mama's child.  She talks and talks.  She has really found her voice and will squeal, talk, and hum.  It is truly the sweetest sound.
For her daddy to get her out of her pack and play in the mornings.  Usually, I let Matt get her out of her pack and play first thing.  That is "his" thing.  She is always so happy to see him and smiles so big.  We usually put her in bed with us and cuddle for a little while before I get up and nurse her.

Rolling on the floor.  We were somewhere last weekend and she was about to have a fit to get down!  She is so used to laying on her pallet at home.  (We just bought a rug today to the poor thing would have to roll on the wood floors!)  I guess I am going to have to start carrying a blanket with us to lay on the floor when we are visiting places too!  She can entertain herself for hours as long as I have her on the blanket with some of her toys!

Standing up.  She loves to be pulled up into a standing position... it gets her tickle box turned over every time. 

Her sippee cup.  I bought a training one with handles and a bottle nipple on it.  I will put some nursery water in it and maybe a little apple juice and she loves it!  She more or less chews on the nipple, but I think it makes her feel like a big girl.



Dislikes:

Up until two or three days ago she hated being on her tummy.  She could roll over from her back to her stomach, and she would get mad.  Now we now how to roll from back to stomach and back again... She is on the move!

Being sleepy.  You haven't seen ill until you have seen my sleepy baby.... Whew... She is a force to be reckoned with!  She has started this new thing of really fighting sleep.  She will shake her head from side to side to wake herself up when she starts to fall asleep.  I am hoping to really get her on a better nap schedule!

 

What else are we up to?

• She is rolling all over the place.
• She can almost sit up. 
• We have tried avacados (like), sweet potatoes (dislike) and bananas (like).  I am making all of her baby food right now. It is actually easier and prompts me to buy and cook healthy foods for me and Matt too!
• No teeth yet, but boy are we working on them.
• Size 3!!! diapers.
• Size 6 month clothes (we are actually fitting into some 9 months too!!)
• Talking, laughing, "mmmm," "ddddd," loud, ear piercing, squeals :)
• Pinching (This I am not so impressed with!)  She isn't doing it to be hateful, she is just exploring but man it hurts!!
• Sleeping on her tummy in her pack and play... I guess this is okay?  I put her on her back, but lately she has been rolling on her stomach to sleep.  It makes me kinda nervous.
• She is still sleeping in our room.  I am not quite ready to make the change.
• Trying to get Hoss... poor thing, he is just too tempting to her.  He is probably going to put himself into hiding when she starts toddling!
• Noticing everyone and everything.  She is into grabbing peoples faces.  She will grab your face and give you "sugar."  It is sweet.... until those little nails scrape your skin... eek!
• I am still nursing her on demand... but I am trying to stretch our feedings to every 4 hours during the day... sometimes we can, sometimes we can't.

Norah Kate's schedule (roughly; on most days)

• Wake up at 6:00-7:00am and nurse
• Go back to sleep in about 30 mins to an hour until 10:00 or 11:00am, wake up and nurse
• Another nap at 12:00pm
• Wake up at 1:00 or 2:00pm
• Nurse at about 3:00pm
• Play
• Cereal/Veggie at 7:00pm
• Bath, nursie, bed by 8:00-9:00pm
• The early she wakes up the earlier she goes to bed, the earlier she goes to bed, the earlier she wakes up.  Sometimes I don't mind her staying up until 10 or so, because then I might get to sleep in until 8am :)

I can't wait to see what this next month holds for us sweet girl!  You suprise me every day!!