It's that time of the week....

For more baby food adventures....

I was already half way through before I realized I hadn't taken any pictures, so here's what I got...

I usually put each food in it's own bowl after pureeing then mix together the way I want

here's my mixed fruit and yogurt  (in the 1st picture you can see I mixed the extra all together

then put in the freezer bag) but for the cup I decided to layer it - just because it looks so darn good!

you're suppose to use full fat yogurt for babies, but I've had the hardest time finding it in the

grocery store, this one has about half fat.  The organic kind I was using before had 0 fat, so I switched.

At around 8 months old you can start adding more texture to their food,  so I cooked some brown rice and adding it to the peas

this is the only picture I got of the squash I made ( i was off my game today) but I pureed it and added some to the peas and rice and also some to the carrots.


My next food adventure will be pureed spaghetti!


Thennnnn......  I figured it was time to give her toys a good cleaning.  I do this about every 2-3 weeks. Ok, maybe every 3-4 weeks.....
I've always had this weird phobia with hair. yes, I'm a weirdo.  It totally grosses me out.  It's something that I've really had to work on now that I have a baby who spends the majority of her day crawling on the floor.  I mean between 2 dogs that shed and my own hair seems to fall out just as much as theirs does, she always has it in her hands and Im sure it's on her toys.  So we just try to do our best at keeping everything clean. I posted before that we bought the Shark Vac then Steam which we use about 2-3 times a week plus we've started brushing the dogs a few times a week, both have really helped.


Anyway, here's how I clean her toys...

I start with dish soap and 1/4 cup of bleach

Then separate the small plush toys from the plastic
(oh and give the remote a quick wipe down, that ends up in her
mouth more than it should)

I let them soak for a little bit then give a quick scrub then rinse

Let air dry

Before & After

Going to the gym before & after baby:

BEFORE:

Leave work
Drive to gym
Change clothes
Start workout.


AFTER:

Get up
Get bottle ready
Change diaper
Feed baby
Change baby's clothes
Take dogs out to potty
Eat cereal
Change my clothes
Get diaper bag ready
Put baby in car
Drive to gym
Check baby into kid care
Start workout
Lastly, Watch baby on monitor screen throughout entire workout making sure she's ok.

Just a wee bit different...

Here we go again....

Losing weight and getting healthy is and has always been a part of my life.  Well, for the past 10 years anyhow (wow, Im getting old) Having body issues is something that has just become a part of my "self". The only time I've been comfortable in my body was when I was pregnant which reminds me of this post (which is weird because this post was written almost exactly 1 year ago)

I've dealt with my weight in healthy, constructive ways at times and other times in distructive, even self sabotaging kind of ways.  I've never understood why.  I've always wondered if losing weight is such a huge thing for me, something that is on my mind constantly....why don't I just do it? Well, I don't know. Maybe I need therapy or something? Who knows, either way Im back at it.... again.

I joined another gym today, I've been a member at LA Fitness for a long time and it worked out for me since I had to drive by there on my home from work, BUT not only has my job changed but also my schedule.  So long to the days of a 9-5, M-F job and going to the gym after work.  Now.since Im working nights, my plan is to go in the morning.  There is a new gym that is about 5 minutes away, I checked it out on Wednesday, it's 10 bucks cheaper a month, and I actually really liked their child care center.  AND they actually have cameras in there and TV's screens throughout the gym so you can see your baby at any time.  Not only that- on the cardio machines there are 15" screens so you can either watch TV or the child center.

"mama's always watching"

  I was really impressed with that.  I was pretty nervous about just leaving her in there, I've never done that before.  It seems weird to me to hand off my precious little baby to a stranger but I thought to myself "this is good for both of us, so just do it"  Im doing something good for myself and she's getting to socialize.

I've always enjoyed working out, I know, weird.  But I really do.  I feel so good while Im doing it, I love being able to turn on my Ipod and just sweat my booty off.  So Im excited to be back at it again, my goal  is to work up to doing spin classes (again), I used to love those!

Wish me Luck!

Christmas Revamp Time

Hope you like the festive new look! I just LOVE this time of the year!!

Ps. I added a tab over here to the right with all of my homemade baby food experiments (for those mom's who are interested:)

Another Baby Food Adventure....

Blueberry-Banana-Avocado "Pudding"

I get so many great ideas from the mommy blogs I read and this was definitely one of them.  I know it sounds a little weird but it turned out really good and the texture was amazing.  Avocado is so so good for you (and baby too) it's packed full of all the "good" fats and I've read it's a great first food for baby.  

It was a hit!

Start with half banana, half avocado and a couple spoonfuls of blueberry puree
 (I already had the puree made) 

Give the banana and avocado a rough chop and put in the adorable baby bullet

Blend away!

Yum!

She loved it! (she loves everything though)

Savannah's Scrunchy Face

A little of this; a little of that....

First, a little Christmas decorating...

So glad our decorations are easy to get to (and might I add- very well organized :)

Alright! Here comes my helper! 

So happy about Christmas!  (this was right after she woke up)

She was having fun with all this "new" stuff

Now, a little mid morning snack... 

I made some fresh blueberry puree yesterday and wanted to try mixing with plain yogurt...

It definitely needed some sweetening

She loved it! YAY!

I'll leave you with a little adorableness....

"Forever in Blue Jeans"

Sunday Funday

I can't tell you how glad I am that this week is over....  I came down with a cold on Thanksgiving, yes folks thats right, on Thanksgiving morning I woke up and could barely even swallow; my throat was so sore. Then I had to get ready for work, yes (again) you heard right- work. on Thanksgiving. Then as Im walking out the door, my head hung low as I leave my hubby and smiling baby girl, Shane yells out "you didn't forget your clip on tie did ya babe?" Um, yeah- kick me while I'm down why don't ya.

Of course it wasn't a surprise or anything about me working, I knew I was going to be scheduled so we planned our family Thanksgiving dinner for Tuesday.  I would complain but work was so busy and I made great money.  So yeah,  sick as a dog on Friday, feeling a wee bit better on Saturday and much better today.  I worked the morning brunch shift then headed home for Sunday Funday with the fam. I couldn't wait! Finally, we get to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. And enjoy this beautiful weather...

We had lunch at a little outdoor restaurant then headed over to the beach....

chew, chew chew

us

checking out all the kids running on the beach...

I just loved the way her little leg was tucked under

she was a little skeptical of the sand at first but it wasn't long before she was crawling in it 

we love showing her new things :)

Hi baby

oops, I cut off the S and H

look at our big girl!

weeeeeee!

The beach was great, the weather was perfect.  Savannah got to crawl in the sand for the first time, we walked the beach a little and we all had a good time.  Looking forward to more Sunday Funday's :)

She took the words right out of my mouth...

Ok, don't laugh...but every so often I do a little reading online about "being the best mom I can be".  Of course most of the time I go by my own motherly instincts but I also like to read what other mom's are doing and what they have to say.  It's so incredibly important to me that I am the best mother I can be.   I always knew that when Shane and I had kids that I would put my heart and soul into them.  That they would be my #1 priority and this would be the most important job of my life.  And now that she is here, I want that even more.  I owe that to her.

So anyway, I came across this blog post and I swear it was like seeing my own thoughts written by someone else.

What Being a Good Mother Means to Me

I have written before that I am sad when I leave Amber at home one day a week while I work and that it bothers me to not have her with me.  I have been considering why that makes me sad and I think a lot of it has to do with my views on being a good mother to my little girl.  I do not think there is any one correct answer to the question of how to best go about being a good mother, as there are many ways for being a good mother.  That being said, I do believe that there is one very important key to being a good mother and that is time.

When I talk about time, I do not mean we need more time, though as mothers I think we all wish we had a few more hours in the day and a few more hands to use during those hours.  When I talk about time, I mean that being a good mother means investing lots of good quality time into your children.

I get teased on a semi-regular basis about wanting to take my daughter everywhere with me.  I do not like leaving her at home with babysitters, even family.  I like having my daughter with me as much as possible.  I want to spend time with her, I want to interact with her.  She is my responsibility.  I chose to bring her into my life and I should take the time and be with her.  *( i think I have actually said this exact paragraph to Shane before)

Don’t get me wrong, being a mom is hard work and all moms need a break from time to time.  I think particularly since so many modern moms are working full time, taking care of their children, and have so many other responsibilities, etc, that some time away from our children occasionally is important for our own sanity.  I enjoy my night or two a month that I get away for the evening with friends and have no child responsibilities.

But, those rare nights out are all I want.  To me, being a good mother means spending a high quantity and high quality amount of time with my daughter.  I am bothered when I see other parents out there, leaving their children with babysitters two, three, four evenings a week.  How could you not want to be home with your children, playing with them, teaching them, laughing with them?

Yes, being a mom is hard, but I signed up for this job.  I knew it was going to be tough and I knew there would be days that I would want to run screaming to my room and just hide.  But that is not how it works.  I truly think that for me the key to being a good mother is to be there for my child as much as I possibly can.  I will have time to myself when she’s out of the house and grown.

Savannah's Talking

This one is so cute, I just had to share it. {Please excuse my annoying voice}