Happy 6 Month Birthday!!!

I cannot believe that Belle is already 6 months old. Time is truly FLYING by. She is changing every day and we love watching her personality develop. This is a week late because I wanted to wait for her doctor's appointment to post her new stats. She is rolling all over creation and scooting backwards on her tummy. She can conquer surprising distances in little amount of time. She pulls her knees underneath her in order to crawl but cannot really muster the strength to get anywhere at this time. We aren't sitting up without support yet, and this was a big concern of mine. The doctor confirmed today that she is just so little and petite that she really doesn't have a good balance or strength to accomplish this now. She is loving rice cereal and has started squash. Her face is hilarious after she swallows the squash. We have found ourselves in the swing of teething and separation anxiety. Fun stuff!! I cannot wait till the day I find a tooth in that sweet mouth. Mark and I fall more in love with her everyday, and are immensely blessed to be her parents.

The Stats:

12 pounds 6 ounces (5th percentile)

25 inches (25th percentile)

Sweet baby girl with her daddy and birthday cake! Her Gran bought her a cake with her name on it.
Not too fond of her birthday hat.
Love those gorgeous baby blues!

They did notice that Belle has a hip "click" at this appointment. We are going to have an ultrasound done to make sure there is nothing else going on. We are praying fervently that is completely normal and we ask you to pray with us. I will keep you all updated on the day that we go for the ultrasound.

To Swim, or Not to Swim???

I am looking for some feedback here. I am thinking of enrolling Belle in a water baby class this fall. It is at an indoor pool and the age range is starting at 6 months. Belle doesn't mind when we take her in the pool. This past beach trip she even seemed to enjoy it.

Have any of your kids done this? What was the experience? What age do you think best to get a kid used to swimming?

How to...Make Sweet Potato Baby Food

I know that I promised this post yesterday, but unfortunately blogger hasn't been letting me post pictures until today. One of my good friends at work was telling me about how she was making her own baby food. I had always been kind of skeptical of people that made their own baby food, but upon learning how easy it was I decided to try it out myself. Up to this point, I have made squash, peaches and apples. I recommend Cooking for Baby at Williams Sonoma. I have also ordered Top 100 Baby Purees. I will let you know how it is once it arrives.

The basic things you need for making your own food (equipment-wise) are a steamer or steam basket, oven, blender or food processor, and ice cube trays.

Mom you may want to stop reading here due to your sweet potato aversion.

Ingredients: Two sweet potatoes scrubbed very well (you will also want a little bit of breastmilk, formula or water to thin)

Preheat your oven to 425. Prick potatoes with small knife and place on baking sheet. Bake in oven for 45-60 mins until tender when poked with knife. My oven took 45 mins and they were very tender.
Potatoes should be very wrinkled when cooked. Allow them to cool.
Cut potatoes in half length ways.
Scoop flesh from skins and place in food processor or blender bowl.
Pulse until smooth. Add in breastmilk, formula, or water until at a texture your baby can handle.
This is about what a stage one baby food should look like. I bought a jar or two of stage one foods to compare the consistency.
Spoon into freezer trays. Before doing this measure the sections to see how much each one holds, so you know how many sections your baby needs for each meal. Mine hold 2oz. each. Let freeze overnight.

Label a freezer bag with the type of food and date. Once good and frozen pop the sections into a freezer bag. I find this easiest to do in a big bowl so that you don't have little section flying across your kitchen. Store in freezer up to 3 months. May also be stored in the fridge up to 3 weeks.

I hope you have enjoyed this and maybe find it helpful. I love to cook and bake so please leave me a comment to let me know if there are any other foods or baby foods you would like featured!

Life is like a bowl of... rice cereal!

Today we made the leap and dove into the world of solid foods (I think that is confusing to begin with because they are really semi-solids). Belle was really interested in everything we were eating. Dr. "Chip" told us at four months that we could hold off until six months to start baby food. It was so much fun watching her faces and having her blow raspberries with lips covered in rice cereal. She was much more interested in playing with mommy, daddy, everything on the table, the spoon and the bowl than actually eating the cereal. She ended up taking about 10 spoonfuls over about 20 minutes before she decided to call it quits. She also found it adventurous to attempt turning around in the Bumbo to see what was behind her. All to say it was very fun and very interesting.

I have ventured into the arena of baby food making this past week. I have made Belle squash, peaches and apples. I still have sweet potatoes in the pantry that need to be made. A couple of friends told me how easy it was, and so I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. It is VERY easy. I will post tomorrow on this, but my parents were over Saturday while I was making some, and I had bought a jar of regular food to see the consistency. When I was done making it I had them taste the applesauce I made and then the Gerber applesauce. Lets just say that my dad went home raving about how good it tasted and the huge difference between the two. Tonight I am going to take pictures Pioneer Woman Cooking style so you can see just how easy it really is!

Enjoy the pictures and video!

Fourth of July Weekend

I hope that everyone had a safe and fun fourth. We had a very nice vacation at the beach with the family. Belle was wonderful the whole trip. We enjoyed lounging around, munching on great food and some incredible fireworks. We were able to see four different firework shows from the crow's nest of the house. We also discovered a Bailey Boy's retail store on the island that has fabulous children's clothing. They were having a 40% off sale and of course I indulged. Now on to the pictures which I know you are really here to see.

Daddy and Belle by the pool. I loved her new Kate Mack Cherry Pie swimsuit. I waited and waited to find this all on sale!

Just chilling in the S.S. Belle. She really loved her new floaty.Loving the beach breezes. I am ready for our next trip when I can really sunscreen her up, and we can spend more time on the beach together. Posing with her daddy.
Whenever Belle is in the pool at the house she is completely expressionless. We do everything we can to win a smile. Mark and I decided that maybe this is her nervous face.
Just lounging watching Myrtle the Turtle spray water on her boat. Don't worry we were standing right beside her. She loved to just float around with us and stare at everything.

Best attempt at a family picture for the weekend.

Belle woke up much earlier than normal while we were there. I would go get her from her room and let her snuggle with us. I love this picture. It is so sweet it is priceless.

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we have been relaxing and letting loose. I cannot wait to share her sixth month post. She is changing so rapidly.

So Pitiful, It is Funny!

Belle has figured out how to roll back to tummy now for real ... no flukes! She is perfectly content to roll all over creation at playtime. This past few mornings when I have gotten her out of her crib and brought her into our room to feed her she has done something funny. She will lay there just happy as can be for a few minutes. She then starts to get a little fidgety and starts the motions for rolling. She gets rolled over onto her tummy and then looks up at Mark and I. You can tell that she is not happy she has rolled over because when she looks up at us that lower lip pokes out and she just starts sobbing. We can not help but laugh a little because it is so dramatic and pitiful. This of course makes her cry even harder. Please don't worry I pick her up and feed her right away, but this is a great story of how much her personality is beginning to blossom.

I leave you with this picture from nap time the other day. Belle is such a mover. She started with her feet towards the top of the picture. We have had to move her bumper pad because she moved so much that one time I found her with her face up against it. I have chosen safety over beauty at this point. I just love how she has her arm out loving on her baby. SO SWEET!

She was SO itty-bitty!

This week I have spent some time packing up all the clothes that Belle can no longer wear. It has been bittersweet. I cannot believe how fast she is growing. Belle is still very tiny, but packing up the preemie and newborn clothes I was reminded of how tiny she was when she first came home from the hospital. I decided to do a some comparison pictures. It is not too much to compare since she is only wearing 0-3 month clothes right now (even though I see 3-6 month clothes in our near future).

This is Belle's preemie sleeper and her sleeper she wears now. I also included the diapers she was wearing when she was first born with the one she wears now.

Look at the itty-bitty onesie and pants. Hard to believe that all of these clothes were actually big on her at the time.
The gown on the right that she wears now is still on the big side.
It will be very interesting to take these pictures at one year and see how far she has come!