Tuesday, November 29, 2011

savings.

i decided to keep track of how much it was to make my own babyfood to see if it really was a savings. that's the main reason for making it. i mean, it's nice to know what's exactly going in her food, but i certainly don't think there's some conspiracy out there and they're putting weird things in babyfood. i keep store bought babyfood around in case i forget to thaw some or didn't get around to making anything. anyways here's what i've found:

fresh
4 bananas- $1.08 made 16 oz
4 yellow squash - $1.93 (used 3) made 6 oz
1 butternut squash- $2.88 13oz
4 organic gala apples- $4.20 (used 3 1/2) 15 oz
3 organic bosc pears- $4.02 13 oz
1 cauliflower- $1.50 18 oz
2 acorn squash- $6.34 30 oz (!!)
3 sweet potato- $2.93  (2 1/2) 34 oz (!!)

frozen
10 oz peaches- $2.29 made 6 oz
12 oz mango- $1.90 10 oz
19 oz peas- $1.42 24 oz
16 oz rhubarb- $2.42 10 oz
12 oz carrots- 10 0z

so all in all most of it saves money. i buy green beans and prunes made b/c i don't want to deal with skins. also apples, pears and peaches don't seem to be worth it to make. i also got a can of pumpkin which she LOVED. andi now buy unsweetened applesauce (get lots). and i also made spinach. i don't think i'll be able to make the meat when it comes time for that. just thinking about it makes me gag.

some of the freezer stash

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

inchworm.

finley is determined to crawl. that's all she wants to do right now. she's figured out a method that works for her so i don't know if she'll ever crawl the traditional way. our little inchworm is getting faster everyday. this video was a couple weeks ago and she started pretty far back there. this is about half way to her goal.

storytime3.

FINALLY we got in! surprisingly she slept till 8 monday morning (after waking up at 5:38 then falling back asleep around 6:30) so we went to the 9:30 storytime. we got there 15 min. early and got a ticket. there were already lots of people there. they have coloring activities out, computers and some toys so the kiddos are entertained till it's go time. it was really fun! mostly songs which was good b/c i didn't think she'd really sit there for 30 min of stories. at the end there was a parachute and bubbles which every baby loves. so we'll plan on going on mondays as long as she's awake.

7months.

she's closer to a year old than a newborn!! so bittersweet. she...


*sits herself up from a laying position
*has her own way of crawling-- it certainly gets her where she wants to go (especially to the off-limits pumpkins)
*likes to hang upside down, fly, dance, play peek-a-boo
*loves animal sounds and hanging out outside
*takes 2 naps a day (9ish and 1ish) for about 1.5 hrs each
*goes to bed around 7
*wakes up at 6/6:30 (!!) we're trying to push this back since sometimes it's as early as 5:30
*has eaten peas, sweet potato, squash (butternut, acorn, yellow), green beans, apples, pears, peaches, prunes, carrots, and avocado.
*loves to eat puffs and mum mums
*doesn't have any teeth yet, but those bottom ones look like they'll come through soon
*went to little gym and gymboree (loved both)
*studies everything, especially people's faces
* eats 3 solid meals (8:15, 11, and 6), and 4 6-8 oz bottles (7,11,3,7)
*loves ruby
*loves to beat on things
*is a rolling madwoman
*is ticklish

storytime2.

was a fail also. well, i guess it was partly successful. fin got up super early monday morning (5:30 eek!) and then took a short nap so we were up for the first storytime at 9:30. we got ready, go there on time and i followed some women in with their kiddos so i could see exactly where to go and what to do. so they ran out of tickets 2 kids in front of us. ooooof course. it was kind of successful because we got a library card and a few books. maybe third times the charm, we'll be back next week.

Monday, November 14, 2011

napgate.

finley is not so easy to put down for naps these days. it started about 3 weeks ago. she's so determined to crawl that that's all she'll do in her crib. some days it literally takes an HOUR of her "crawling" and rolling around before she'll fall asleep. she's happy as a clam in there so i leave her, but i know she's exhausted. she's rubbing her eyes, yawning, but still keeps going. sometimes after that she'll sleep for a while, but other times she's up after 30 minutes to keep on practicing. she's so very close to crawling. probably due to all this extra practice. i've started to pat her back for a bit to get her super sleepy, but she's so nosy she cranes her whole body to look at me and try to grab my hair. i put my head down on the crib rail so she can't see my face (mainly b/c i'm trying not to laugh) so my hair hangs over. too tempting and she ends up trying to get me. i always know i'm in for some entertainment when i put her down.

Monday, November 7, 2011

storytime.

was a complete fail. storytime starts at 11:30 at the local public library. they let you in until 11:40. finley and i showed up at 11:42. yep, 2 min late. i even asked the ladies at the counter if i could go in, but they said no. awesome. apparently they don't have kids or they don't remember what it's like to get a 6 month old out of the house promptly. fin eats at 11 normally so i bumped it up to 10:45 today so we could be on time. all was going well until we were headed out the door and she had a poopy diaper. ooooooof course. so i changed that quickly, found the library (never been before), got an amazing parking spot and still was 2 min. late on top of the 10 min. late. sigh.... i guess we'll try next week.


also? i felt uber old b/c the library is on a community college campus. you know, with college aged kids. and there i am with my baby.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

NY.

well what i really want to do it say "see erin's blog" b/c she documents things so well, but alas, i will do my best to recount fin's first vacation. our first family vacation! nanny and papa live in NY and hadn't met their 3rd grandchild yet so we thought we needed to make that happen. she's at a great age, the perfect time of year to visit up north and i just couldn't wait for them to meet. so we spend the 2nd week of october having a blast in cooler weather. early, early, early saturday morning we woke fin up and headed to the airport. checked in, got through security, grabbed breakfast and got to our gate at the perfect time. i was pretty anxious about the plane ride b/c i didn't want to be that mom, but i had to keep reminding myself 1. i'll never see these people again and 2. she's a baby. there's only so much you can do. needless to say, she did amazingly well. everyone around us was so nice and oohing and aahing over her. she had maybe just a few minutes of not being happy, but i don't blame her. i was ready to get off the plane too. she got a bottle going up (on both flights) but didn't need it for landing. her ears didn't seem to bother her at all thank goodness. when we landed mom, erin, grace and andrew were already there with nanny and papa. i was so excited for them to finally see finley in person! it was great. we gathered ALL the luggage (you should have seen how much 4 adults and 3 children need) and packed up 2 cars. one for the luggage and the other for all of us. erin and brandon installed 3 car seats perfectly and we were on our way. all 3 kiddos were angels while we were getting everything in order. of course we had a feast at nanny and papa's that night. wouldn't expect anything less. we spent the week going to parks, climbing mohonk, apple picking, shopping at woodstock, and pigging out (friendly's, dallas hot weiners, chinese food, pizza, and of course nanny's home cooked meals/desserts). it was so weird to take your own daughter (that's weird to say anyways) to the same parks you grew up going to.

chillin at the cleveland airport

love this pic of erin and grace napping
all packed up and ready to go!




by the end of the week we were pros at getting everyone out of the house in a timely manner. it actually wasn't that stressful. it helps that we were all on the same page with the importance of naps and keeping the kiddos happy. erin and i have the babies pretty much on the same schedule so that helped a ton. grace is an amazing little girl so she's the easiest one, just one of the gals. she grabs diapers for you, keeps the babies entertained, sings to them, plays with them, nicely reminds them to be gentle, she's just great. not to mention she's hilarious, polite, beautiful, witty, creative and just perfect. she's a great role model for finley.

we had an amazing week and i'm so thankful finley got to spend all that time with her great grandparents, great aunt and uncle, 2nd cousins, grandmother, aunt, cousins, mommy and daddy. she's one lucky little girl. i've got it pretty good too.

halloween.

we took fin "trick-or-treating" on halloween, but we did it a little different. clearly she can't eat candy, but i definitely wanted to show her off. i decided to do sort of a reverse trick or treating so i made some cookies and we delivered those. we dressed her up as a ladybug and went to 4 houses. really just the neighbors we talk to frequently that we thought would want to see her. they loved seeing her! the people directly next to us are really fun and they had a pumpkin pinata for the kids so we hung out with them for a little bit till fin was ready for bed. once finley was down for bed we took the monitor with us to the driveway and passed out candy from there. i'd call it a successful first halloween.

mirror.

for about a year now there has been a tall wall mirror with no home just hanging out against the wall in the living room. we finally have a use for it! well, finley does at least. she loooooves to stare at herself and try to play with the other baby. she'll stare, get excited and rock  back and forth, talk, scream, hit the mirror and look at me like "isn't this awesome??" we try to visit the mirror a few times a day, and stop by the mirrors in the bathroom as well.