6 Months and Loving Life

6 months

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

Sorry I've been such a slacker lately about posting. Also apologies to those of you who have sent me emails I haven't responded to yet. I've been effectively offline in the past few weeks for various reasons such as illness and trying to tackle several projects in the house and yard at once (hopefully I'll be able to post on that soon).

David is now 6 months old and learning and growing each day. As the picture shows David's sitting up straight rather than leaning back into the chair. He can sit pretty good now for several minutes at a time but can't be left alone yet because at any given moment he'll lunge backward or to the side and topple over. He's almost there though. Seeing as he's now wearing the 12 month clothing it's no surprise that he's still at the top of the growth charts. At his 6 month check-up he was in the 96th percentile for height and the 80th for weight. I was a little concerned that his weight is becoming less proportionate for his height but the doctor noted that David seems more active that many babies his age and probably burns a lot of calories in his jumperoo and flailing around. He's perfectly normal though and has hit all of the developmental milestones for babies his age and then some so we're happy.

This week he's also tried some baby food other than rice cereal. Seeing how he wolfs down his cereal every night I expected him to love the sweet potatoes I fed him, but the response was kind of lukewarm. The next few days I tried mixing it with breastmilk and cereal which went better, but he still only wanted a few bites. I tried banana too because supposedly it tastes pretty close to breastmilk but that too was only interesting for a few bites. I guess he just needs some time to get used to different foods. I did make my own baby food which was actually fairly quick and painless, although 2 sweet potatoes go much farther than I expected. I think I filled 10 containers with it so I hope he learns to like them.

PA Family Vacation

We spent the week of Memorial Day with Derek's family in PA and David finally got to meet the rest of his family. There were a few rough parts (like the fact that both David and I got sick) but mostly we enjoyed seeing everyone. Here's a quick recap of how things went.

We stayed with Derek's mom and Jim. Jim's niece and her family were also visiting at the same time which made for a full house, but their almost 1 year old twins were fun to watch toddling around. It occurred to me that David is already half-way there and while it's fun to watch him grow it's hard to realize that his baby days are numbered. Here's some highlights from the trip:
We got to meet David's cousin Alexandra! She's only 4 weeks younger than David and very, very cute. The babies had fun looking each other over although David kept trying to claw his cousin's face. I enjoyed seeing how different their little personalities already are. Ally will be content sometimes to just quietly sit or lay and look around and play with a toy. I've heard that baby boys tend to be more active in general and while I'm not sure if that holds up in general it's definitely the case with David. Next to Ally he was like a baby high on crack, constantly flailing and flopping around. I'm excited to have met our first niece though.David went for his first swim ever. Grandma Ingrid has a pool at her house so we took David in for his first dip. He enjoyed getting his feet wet, but wasn't so thrilled about wading in. Unfortunately that water still a little bit cold, but at least he got to try out his new swimsuit.Pop-Pop took David on his first tractor ride. My father-in-law collects old Allis Chalmer garden tractors so of course he had to take his grandbabies for a little ride. David lunged for the steering wheel right away. I guess he wanted to drive.David also saw his first baseball game. We saw the Ironpigs (minor league for the Phillies) play although we were rained out toward the end and had to leave early.

Mommy had fun at the baby clothing outlets with Aunt Erica, especially The Children's Place. We found lots of great deals and David is well-outfitted for the summer now.

Yummy Curry

I can guarantee this isn't an authentic recipe because I've made many modifications of my own, but it is tasty and easy. The flavor is most like that of Thai curries.

2 T olive oil
1 lb chicken cut into pieces
2 T curry powder
1/4 t cinnamon
1 chopped onion
1 small zucchini chopped
1 small summer squash chopped
1/2 cup chopped carrots (I use frozen sliced)
1 can low-fat coconut milk (14 oz?)
1/2 can chicken broth (14 0z?)
1 1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
fresh torn basil
slivered almonds or cashews

Heat oil in large skillet and cook chicken until lightly browned. Add onion, curry powder, and cinnamon. When onion is clear add chopped vegies and saute for a couple minutes. Stir in all other ingredients except basil and nuts and simmer for 5-7 minutes. If desired you may use a little corn starch to thicken base. Serve over rice and top with basil and nuts.

I can't remember the exact sizes for the cans of broth and coconut milk, but they are a standard soup can size. When cooking the rice I use the leftover chicken broth to substitute some of the water to give it a little more flavor. Also this is not a very spicy curry. For those that desire more heat you can add red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper to taste with the other spices.

Has It Been 5 Months Already?

I'm finally getting around to posting David's 5 month photo. He kept leaning forward so it's hard to see but he really is growing taller. When I compare the 2 month photo to now I can see that he really is changing. This month he's learned to scoot around on his back and tummy although he's yet to learn how to steer so to speak. He's also a pro at eating rice cereal by now. He doesn't understand though that spoons are not like breasts and bottles in that the food keeps coming if you just keep it in your mouth and suck so he gets mad when I take the spoon away between bites. He tries to circumvent this by grabbing the spoon and playing tug of war with me which usually results in both of us getting covered in rice cereal. Fun times. Are there any highchairs with wrist restraints? Just kidding. Sort of.

How Do You Do It?

Yesterday afternoon I an errand that couldn't be avoided. We left the second David woke up from his nap and only had about a 5 minute drive. I frantically completed the errand in less than half an hour and resisted the urge to stop by Walmart on the way back to pick up a few things we need. So far so good. Then as I was about to turn onto our street I realized I was too late. David had fallen asleep. I brought him in the house as gingerly as I could and put him in his room where it's nice and quiet, but true to form a few minutes later he was awake as soon as he noticed he wasn't in a moving car anymore. Even if it really is naptime, the only way to get him to sleep more than a few minutes when he falls asleep in the car is to keep driving around until it's time to wake up. Even then it's pretty dicey since a prolonged stop at a traffic light is often enough to wake him up.

So what's the problem with that you ask? Even just that few minutes of sleep ensures that when it is time for his next nap he won't sleep. He'll still get tired and I'll have a very cranky and clingy baby on my hands until he finally collapses, but sleeping is out of the question. It's bad enough when this happens in the morning, but in the afternoon I don't have time to get him back on schedule before bedtime. The time that he's finally ready to drop winds up being a couple of hours before he goes to bed. Falling asleep then will mean that come 3 am he's wide awake and ready to play the night away. I try to keep him awake until bedtime, but sometimes he's so tired it's just not possible.

Unfortunately I often need to run to my office in the afternoon to hand in the previous night's paperwork. I can't go in earlier because it usually takes me until the afternoon to finish it and handing it in the next morning isn't an option. On the rare day that we can avoid any errands David's so happy and well-adjusted. I feel so guilty about going anywhere even in the morning because it makes him so miserable and cranky. I know I'm not the first mom to ever have difficulties like this, but why do I feel like I'm the only one who can't deal with it? Other moms manage to get out with their kids. What am I doing wrong?

Happy Mother's Day and Nurses Week

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. Obviously this is the first year that I've been on the receiving end of this holiday (I'm not counting all the geraniums and other assorted flowers I've received over the years at church for being a 'Potential Mother'). Of course I think last year should count too seeing as I was pregnant and miserably puking my guts out, but I digress. Mostly this year I wanted to pamper my own mom a little so I invited my family over for dinner and cooked Indian food. I tried a couple new recipies which turned out okay but definitely need some tweaking. Also I baked a cake and decorated with fondant, something I haven't tried before. The finished product was far from perfect (see below), but it wasn't as difficult as I feared and I learned a lot from it.
It was so much fun that I made another fondant cake for Nurses Week (see header photo). I was even brave enough to try 2 tiers (another first) and while still not perfect I was pretty pleased with the results. The nurses I work with definitely appreciated it when I brought it to out meeting today.

Last but definitely not least David loves bouncing in his jumperoo more and more all the time. He'll literally go to the point of exhaustion where one minute he's happily bouncing away and completely conked out the next. I managed to snap this photo on Mother's Day.

Our New Old Dining Set

I've posted before about why I love craigslist. Here's another reason. Our old dining set was a piece of junk with rickety chairs and I'd been meaning to replace it for quite some time. Yesterday I found this set and fell in love with it. It's an older set but excellently built with solid pecan wood and only a few minor scratches and signs of wear- just enough to give it an antiqued look. I love the chair backs especially. Working as a home health nurse for geriatric patients I have seen many dining sets from this era and more often than not the meticulously carved chairs are a little too overdone for my taste. These chairs sport the same attention to detail but a design that is much simpler and elegant. Best of all we got the table, 6 chairs, and 2 additional leaves for the very reasonable price of $375. That's hard to beat even with poorly constructed particle board furniture.