Toddler Eats

So what happens when I have a random day off..... two blog post! yay!! 

I haven't blogged about food in quite awhile.... quite frankly because I felt like I was writing the same thing each time. To be completely honest, getting back into the routine of work had me in quite the food rut. Plus Dax's lack of teeth made food time not that exciting. But good news is now I'm settled into our new routine of work and Dax now has two sets of matching teeth (by that I mean teeth that match up on the top and bottom... molars on top and bottom, and middle teeth on top and bottom)  He still only has 9, working on 10, teeth so we're still a little limited but we're able to do a little more now. 

My main goal with Dax's food is that it's organic, has no high fructose corn syrup (I swear this stuff is a drug), low sugar (especially refined sugars), whole grain, and fresh/no processed (whenever possible). The one I have the hardest time with right now is the no processed one. With mine and Daniel's busy schedules it super hard to only do fresh stuff. But I do try to at least go organic with my processed food. Don't beat yourself up over it... it's tough to do everything right... just do what you can... and for now in our house... there has to be a bit of processed food. Moderation is key.

Here are some of the things that make up Dax's meals each day...

Breakfast:
*Earths Best Organic Mini Blueberry Waffles
*Earths Best Organic French Toast Sticks
*Whole Grain english muffins (with an organic fruit spread or a bit of butter and cinnamon)
*365 (whole foods brand)  Morning multi-grain O's   (these are like cheerios but organic and mulitgrain... I like them SO much more than Cheerios) .... when we do these we mix in some berries as well.
*Earths Best Organic Baby Yogurt.  We have the Vanilla Prune flavor right now. The only real difference between baby yogurt and regular yogurt is that it's made with whole milk, had no refined sugars, and is infused with a few more vitamins.  Dax recently saw me put granola in mine and wanted some in his. Since granola is still a little hard for him I crunched up some of his morning O's and put them in there. He loved it and it added some good whole grains
*Organic Unsweetened Applesauce.  This is a good side with his waffles or french toast. He liked to dip them in it :)
* Berries: He has some sort of berry every morning with breakfast (unless he's having applesauce). We rotate between blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. All are on the dirty dozen so we go organic with them whenever possible.
* Omelets. I don't have much time during the week to make an omelet so these are the occasional weekend thing. Add in a small dash of shredded cheese and veggie (spinach works nice).
*Toast. Whole grain bread (we use Natures Own 100%Whole Wheat bread. It has 14g of whole grain per slice and no high fructose corn syrup! I top it with the same things as I do with the english muffins


 Lunch/Dinner: 
*Whole grain tortilla with low fast cheese. A toddler quesadilla.... Dax loves it.
* Grilled Cheese: On our whole grain bread of course and one piece of low fat cheese.
* Veggie Corn Dogs:  Dax still wont eat meat so this is our go to "meat" for him. They're Morning Star brand. Lots of good protein in these!
*Veggie Chicken Strips:  See above :)
* Spaghetti:  We use wheat pasta and organic sauce. Also if you get plain sauce and season it yourself you can cut back on the sodium drastically.
* Fruit: Dax has fruit with every meal. We mix it up between berries, mandarin oranges, watermelon, peaches, pineapple. We stick to the dirty dozen on these. And if you happen to get canned things (try to go fresh but I know it's hard) make sure you get some that aren't packed in syrup or "light syrup". Get the ones that are in their natural juice or water!!! 
* Veggies: We also do a veggie with each meal... but this is still a struggle for us. Dax has texture issues so a lot of veggies he won't eat unless they're pureed (he'll eat anything pureed). So we go with peas, carrots, green beans, and the occasional pureed veggie.  For our pea and green beans we go with frozen. We steam them all at once, put them in a freezer bag, freeze them flat, and break off what we need for each meal. Carrots we do the same thing but buy fresh.
* Annie's Whole Grain Shells and Cheddar. This is a "healthier" version of mac and cheese. We also mix it with veggies which Dax really loves (esp peas).
*Sweet Potato Fries: We use the Alexia Natural frozen kind.... delish!
* Earths best mini cheese pizza! These are made on whole grain bread and very yummy.

Snacks:
*Fresh fruits: berries, apple slices, watermelon, mango slices.
*Fiddlesticks: These are a processed snack that we throw in the diaper bag for when we're out and about. They're organic (Plum Organic Tots) and super easy for him to eat as a snack independently.
* Cheese sticks:  We buy a low fat, low sodium string cheese. Dax could live on these.... and so could I :)   We do a lot of cheese to get protein since he won't eat meat.... and he eats so much fruit that they balance each other out in the diaper area if you know what I mean ;)

*Trailmix:  I made Dax a trailmix yesterday and it went over really well. I mixed some of his Morning O's, dried strawberries and bananas (I bought at Whole foods), Pecans, Shredded Spoonfuls (organic cereal that's sort of like chex... again... these are seriously delicious!), and Annie's organic whole grain bunnies (they're just crackers in the shape of a bunny). I wanted to put some raisins in too but forgot to buy some.
*Yogurt
*Applesauce
*Raisins.... we go organic
*Kale Chips..... I actually just made these today. I love them so hopefully Dax will as well!



Well that sums up the majority of the things Dax eats. We are far from where we want to be with his food (especially his dinners and lunches) but we're getting there. And it will be much easier as he gets more teeth. We're hoping now that he can eat a little more we can all eat the same dinner more often instead of having separate things for him and us. What are some your little ones favorite things to eat??

He's normal after all...

Well today I started at my second placement. It's with PreK in a Reggio Emilia based private school. It's actually the school we have Dax on the waitlist for to start next Fall.

I'm only one day in and I already know that I'm in love...

This is way more up my alley than public school.... especially second grade in a public school.

Day one and I already got to walk out to the woods and climb into a treehouse.... while checking out the llamas, goats, donkeys, geese, and other random animals the school has on the way. I also got to watch some kids do some awesome things with paint and some hardcore ramp building in the construction area.

Have I mentioned how right up my alley this place is???



On to Dax.... since we know that's why you all read the blog anyways ;)    He's been in his new big boy bed over a week now and things are still going awesome! Nap times he tends to wonder around the room until he's so tired he just passes out where ever he's at... but I think that's more of a light issue than anything else (someone is going to be like his daddy and have to have it completely dark in the room to sleep).   He is also getting a little better with his eating... but I found this online yesterday and it made me feel better.... because it just happens to be Dax to a T...

"the eating habits of toddlers are erratic and unpredictable from one day to the next. He may eat everything in sight at breakfast but almost nothing else for the rest of the day. Or he may eat only his favorite food for three days in a row, and then reject it entirely. Or he may eat 1,000 calories one day, but then eat noticeably more or less on the subsequent day or two.

Although toddlers are beginning to develop food preferences, they also can be unpredictable about what they may want for a particular meal on a specific day. Their favorite food one day will end up being thrown on the floor the next. The food that they had spit out, day after day, will unexpectedly turn into the one they can’t get enough of. Picky eating is often the norm for toddlers. For weeks, they may eat 1 or 2 preferred foods—and nothing else. They may eat a big breakfast or lunch and then show no interest in eating much of anything else the rest of the day. Don’t become exasperated with this kind of behavior. Just make healthy food choices available to your youngster, and acknowledge that his appetite or food preferences today may be quite different than yesterday’s or tomorrow’s. That’s just the way toddlers are."    healthychildren.org

Welp that's him. He use to live on strawberries... going through over a box of straweberries each week. Now, he hates them. He has opened his appetite up to any bread item (toast, waffles, crackers, bagels, etc), grapes, pineapple, cheese, veggie corn dogs, some days sliced turkey, and peas.... boy does this boy love peas! 

I also think he's teething again.... fussing at night, drool, drool, and more drool, and picky eating.   

Someone has also started saying "outside"... it's pretty darn cute :)

That's our update for now....  I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more about my newest placement so brace yourself!

Foodie Friday!!

This week I tried to coordinate Dax's foods with what we would be eating, so here's a peak...

Daniel has been dying for me to make popsicles so I finally did and made some mini ones for Dax. I did a blend of banana, blueberry, and nectarine and for Dax I just used his ice cube trays that we freeze his food in and stuck a craft stick in the middle. These were the perfect size for him and the big craft stick made for easy holding for little hands. These were just ok. They were sort of icey.... but I'm not sure why? Maybe that's just how fresh fruit popsicles are since there's no added fruit juices or anything? If you have any tips let me know!  Dax wasn't the biggest fan of them. I think little piggy wants instant gratification when he's eating something and therefore the slow process of eating a popsicle wasn't up his alley.

One day for lunch this week I made this very yummy wrap for myself for lunch with whole grain tortilla, spinach leaves, balsamic vinaigrette, turkey, cheese, and capers. So for Dax I went with whole grain crackers, turkey, cheese, and threw in some peas for a veggie (plus they're dax's favorite finger food). Of course he loved it and cleared his plate!

So yesterday was my first full day at home without Dax and I was sort of in Susie Home-maker mode (I think it was my way of not being depressed about being away from Dax). Well on top of cleaning the house top to bottom, making birthday decoration, and doing 3 loads of laundry, I decided to get "adventurous"  and make something for dinner! Whoa... step back a minute!  Anyone that knows me knows I can not cook, at.all. I do the baking around the house, and Daniel does the cooking. But I found a very yummy recipes for a crock pot meal in one of my cookbooks and decided to tackle it.  Introducing Italian Chicken (check out the recipe here).

This was minus the chicken and dressing and soup. Looks soooo yummy! I used diced tomato's instead of whole.  And here is the finished product!

I thought it was delish!! I put it on top of some Basil Linguine and I'm not going to lie... was pretty impressed with myself. Plus, it was super, super easy. Basically everything was canned or prepackaged so all you had to do was wash the mushrooms, cut up the chicken, and poor everything in. So, so easy and yummy! For Dax I saved some of the artichokes and steamed them, so he had artichokes, basil linguine, strawberries, and tried a few mushrooms (which he loved!). This was a great, super easy meal that I'm sure we'll be having in the future!
And to end foodie Friday here's a pick of our boy double fisting it :)  I like to give him choices on what to drink... and apparently this day he wanted both milk and water. It was pretty cute.

Foodie Friday

So food this week was not very exciting for us. We were out of town last week and Monday took Dax to the doctor to find out he had an ear infection and asthma. So needless to say we were pretty much on survival mode this week so there wasn't much time to get creative with food.  But here are a few of our favs from the week...
Monday we had some sweet potatoes and peas we needed to use before they went bad so Dax had sweet potatoes, peas, and pasta seasoned with parsley.

Little man loved this. It's possibly 3 of his top 4 favorite foods so he cleaned his plate fairly quickly!
Wednesday I wanted to get Dax a variety of veggies in but also wanted to try and get some protein in. So we tried sliced chicken (think thin sandwich meat) for the first time. It was a BIG hit... and he quickly picked out all the chicken and then moved on to the veggies.

And a third big hit this week was done by me having nothing prepared for him ahead of time and just throwing whatever I had easily available together. But luckily, my little piggy thought it was delicious! We again went with the sliced chicken, threw in some shredded cheese, and broke some whole grain crackers up into bite size pieces. Yum yum

 

We have been slowly weaning Dax off of formula over the past couple weeks and we are now down to 2 bottles of formula a day, one first thing in the morning and one before bed. The rest of the time he is drinking organic whole milk from his sippy  (at all snacks and meals) and water throughout the day as he needs it. He's really doing so well with this and luckily has taken to milk and water really great. He's totaling about 10oz of whole milk a day and 3oz of water. And this has nothing to do with food... but he is officially a walker..... and it terrifies me! Yikes!
I promise this week we'll try to get a little more creative on our food..... try :)

Foodie Friday

Alright, so here's a look at a few of little mans favorite things this week…

So Sunday night Daniel & I had the yummy tilapia dish that talked about here for dinner. So from there I found this very yummy recipe in my Baby & Toddler cookbook that I decided to make for Dax… and then we also planned on letting him try a little tilapia for the first time as well. So Sunday night Dax had tofu with rice & avocado seasoned with fresh cilantro and a small piece of tilapia.

Sorry it's so blurry. My camera was dead so I had to resort to my phone camera.

He absolutely loved this! So much that I had to make him stop eating because I"m pretty sure he would have ate until he got sick. The rice did make quite the mess but it was worth it because he really loved it.

Tuesday Daniel had clinic until late so it was just Dax and I for dinner. I like to try and eat when he eats one, because dinner as a family is so important, and two, because if I don't eat while he eats then I don't get to eat at all because he is screaming at me wanting my food the whole time. We had quite a bit of tofu left from Sunday nights meal, Dax had some mixed veggies he had been eating on throughout the week that we needed to use up, and I had some frozen veggies in our freezer that I needed to use. So I decided on a tofu & veggie stir fry. Dax's was tofu, garlic, EVOO, peas, carrots, corn, and green beans. Mine was similar with some additional seasonings and different veggies.

This was another big hit. He LOVED, especially the tofu.

Wednesday for lunch I needed to use up some of Dax's pita bread before it went bad. I also steamed an orange bell pepper that day so wanted to use it as well. So I drizzled a little EVOO over the pita, added just a tad of shredded cheese, heated it until it was melted, and then diced up some orange bell peppers. Sorry no picture for this. But Dax really enjoyed it. But then again anything with a bread product is going to be a hit for him.

Introducing....

So a couple of the other blogs I follow do something called Foodie Friday where they highlight a few of the things they cooked that week for lunch or dinner. I love reading these…. but Lord knows I have no ability in the kitchen other than baking or making finger foods for Dax. I also think it's really fun to hear/see what other people with little ones are feeding them and to share ideas with them. So from there, I've decided to do my own version of those oh so fun blog post. This week I'll actually list Dax's entire menu from the week so you can get a feel for how food works for us. But in the future, Foodie Friday will online highlight a few of the things I made that week.And if you have any questions on anything I listed please ask!! It will make my day :)
I've made Dax's baby food from the time he was 5 months old and have had so much fun doing it! But now that he's on finger foods I'm having even more fun coming up with fun combinations of food and watching him try them out. Despite the fun, I am constantly worrying about making sure Dax is getting all the vitamins and nutrients he needs (ok… so I may be a little obsessive with that… but it's not a bad thing right?). Daniel reassures me that I'm doing great and I'm starting to feel pretty confident in the foods I"m feeding him. So here goes nothing…. Foodie Friday: Toddler Edition

Saturday
Breakfast: Half of a whole wheat bagel thin with a really thin layer of low fat cream cheese cut into bite size pieces & sliced strawberries. This is probably Dax's favorite thing to have for breakfast!
Lunch: Butternut Squash
Dinner: Yogurt & Plums

Sunday
Breakfast: Bagel w/ mixed fruit
Lunch: Carrots & Cauliflower
Dinner: Pasta with hummus cut into bite size pieces. Dax loves pasta and we have a lot of hummus that needs used so I thought I would try it out. Dax loved it!

Monday
Breakfast: Oatmeal & papaya
Lunch: Pita with hummus and peas and bite size pieces of red bell pepper. I found mini whole wheat pitas at Target so I spread hummus over those. I also wanted to get another veggie in there so I spread pureed peas on the pita with the hummus. We also had some steamed red bell peppers left from making the hummus so we cut those into bite size pieces as well. He absolutely loved this meal!

yum yum yum... he loved it!

Dinner: Yogurt & applesauce

Tuesday
Breakfast: toast & pears, mango, & plum
Lunch: Butternut squash & apples
Dinner: Pasta w/ asparagus & parmesan. I had some whole wheat penne  and parmesan in the fridge but wanted to get a veggie in there somewhere so I mixed in  some pureed asparagus. Dax LOVED this and we'll def. be making it more!

Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ pears & papaya, strawberries
Lunch: Pita w/ hummus & chicken
Dinner: I wanted to get some dairy, fruit, and veggie in with dinner tonight so we tried something new. I have seen those premade pouches of baby food with things like spinach & pears on it, and I looked on the homemade baby food bible for things that mix well with yogurt and found that it suggest carrots & mango. I was out of mango so we went with a combination of yogurt, pears, & carrots. It was delicious (sort of tasted like a creamy sweet potato) and Dax loved it!

Thursday
Breakfast: Egg yolk & parmesan omelet. In one of my baby cookbooks it has a recipe for egg yolk, asparagus, and parmesan omelets that we've had before and Dax loved. We are out of asparagus so I just followed the recipe without the asparagus and make one for each of us for breakfast! Yum! And Dax gobbled it up really fast!
Lunch: Carrots, cauliflower, peas, & eggplant
Dinner: Yogurt w/ papaya & pear

Friday
Breakfast: Bagel w/ cream cheese and blueberries

The blueberries always leave quite the mess...

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta w/ parmesan, carrots & asparagus
Dinner: Yogurt & apple/strawberry sauce
 
And just a side note about Dax's meals. He still, at 11 months, doesn't have  a single tooth! So almost all of our finger foods are steamed so that they're super soft and pieces of bread and pasta and strawberries are cut small enough for him to gum and not choke on. We only feed him whole wheat/whole grain pasta and bread and we go by the dirty dozen on organic fruits and vegetables. We also usually give him yogurt at dinner which may seem weird, but yogurt has a ton of protein in it and your body uses that protein to help you grow most while you sleep so we figured it was a good time to give it to him. Our little man also has a pretty sensitive tummy, with a lot of things giving him gas. Because of that I try to give him something I know will be easy on his tummy before bedtime and we try all of our new things at breakfast or lunch. Snack usually consist of fresh fruit or veggies cut up and occasionally organic puffs, and he has a sippy of water out all day he can get a drink from as he needs it.

That's it for our first Foodie Friday! I know this one was super long but from now on it def. won't be! I'm excited.... and I hope you are too!

Hello World!

Well hello world! It's been awhile!  We have been one busy house the past two weeks. We'll start first with Daniel...
Well Daniel start his rotations! He was very excited to finally be out of the classroom and in working with patients! For those of you not familiar with the med school lingo (trust me... it's a language of it's own that I'm just now catching on to), rotations are done you're third and fourth year of medical school. During this time you'll spend six weeks (i think) in several different fields of medicine, letting you get a taste of each. Daniels first rotation is OB/GYN which he originally wasn't looking forward to but has since realized that it isn't so bad. His first week was working the night shift of labor and delivery. He really enjoyed it and really learned a lot in one week. He got to watch an emergency c-section lasting a total of about a minute and got to help with some of the not so glamorous parts of childbirth. This week he's in the clinic and while he's not enjoying it as well as labor and delivery he is still learning quite a bit. And once again, other than being a great soon-to-be-doctor, he still a great chef!

Cedar plank Salmon with garlic, shallots, and onion, and grilled asparagus.

Now on to the star of the show... Daxton :)  This little boy has been up to so much! We spent nine days at the lake and during that time he had so many first! While we were there he said Papa, Yie Yie (chey chey... his cousin), makes a boat noise, and yesterday he tried to say puppy (which ended up just being the p sound) and woof (minus the f). That makes is repertoire of "words" up to  seven plus some great sound effects for cars and boats! He's getting way too big way too fast! I love watching him learn... it's possibly one of my favorite parts of motherhood. At the lake he once again fell in love with the golf cart and being outside. By the end of the week he would make his way to the door and cry wanting to go out and would then squeal with excitement when we got near the golf cart. He also had his first wave runner ride!

Oh yeah... and one other special little development while we were at the lake.... FITS. This boy can throw some fits! I knew he was strong willed and stubborn but man these fits get me every time. They mostly happen when I'm cutting him off from eating (bc he would literally eat ALL day). He pushed my hands away while I'm cleaning him up and as I try to get him out of the high chair he will twist and turn and arch his back. Oh boy I am not looking forward to the terrible twos with this little boy!
As for me I am enjoying my last month and a half as a stay at home mom... which is a full time job in itself. We're completely settled in and unpacked now and most of the pictures are up on the walls. Being a mom is getting more and more fun as the time goes by. Food with Dax is getting fun and lately I've spent a lot of my time thinking about and planning finger foods for him. He loves to munch on berries, peaches, carrots, toast, pasta with EVOO and parsley.

This was not for Dax but since we were talking food I figured I would throw it in! We had this recently and is one of the few things I can successfully make. Tortellini, black olives, spinach, cherry tomato's, and Italian dressing. Yum-O!

I have lots of things on my "to make for Dax soon" list and I'm very excited about start new and exciting things! I have also been staying busy planning Dax's first birthday extravaganza which I am WAY excited about! Here's a peak at the invitations.

Lake vacation as a mom was a completely different experience but it was still enjoyable nonetheless! I love getting to spend time with my entire family and my favorite part of the lake isn't the typical swimming and boat riding.... it's the time in the morning when everyone is just sitting around in the cabin together eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and talking. Those really are priceless memories that I wouldn't miss for the world! I can't wait until Daniel & I buy our own place right there by everyone!
And here's one more precious pic for your viewing pleasure :)

Sweet Summer Time

One of my favorite things about this time of year is very yummy fresh fruit! And with Dax eating more and more finger foods I've been trying to come up with more things that we all can eat... meaning that it is healthy, generally organic, and contains minimal sugars. Dax absolutely loves fresh fruit and does really good eating it, and loves bread of any kind. I had been wanting to make a fruit pizza for awhile now but really didn't know much about it besides the fact that it looked like a pizza and had fresh fruit on it. I looked up recipes and they all used sugar cookie as the "crust". Well that wasn't going to work for us and pretty much eliminates the word "healthy" from the snack... so I substituted whole grain pita instead. It was delish! Here's a little step by step of my first fruit pizza endeavor..

All of the yummy stuff I used. I diced up blueberries, kiwi, strawberries, peaches, and raspberries. But you can use any fruit that you really enjoy... these just happen to be our favorites.  And as I mentioned above I used whole grain pita as the crust.

For the topping on the "pizza" I used fat free cream cheese with a few drops of vanilla mixed into it! The vanilla completely changed the taste of the cream cheese and it was so yummy! Who would have thought! I spread the topping out over the pita. I made two separate "pizzas" one for me, Daniel, and his sister and her husband to eat that night after dinner, and one for Dax. On the one for the adults I made the cream cheese a little thicker, and on Dax's I spread it out pretty thin. 

The finished product!!!! You don't have to get all fancy laying the fruit out like I did... but I had nothing better to do with my time while little one was napping.  If you let it sit in the refrigerator for a bit before eating the fruit stays on better than eating it immediately after making it.  For the adults I cut it like pizza slices and for Dax I cut it into bite size pieces.

Well that's the very yummy and healthy dessert that we had this week at the house and we will definitely be having more often! You should try it out.... I promise you'll love it.

So I know it's not the normal time for updates on Dax (usually once a month) but he has done so much in the last week that I feel the need to write about it... in particular to keep our family updated on his life. So if you're not ready for a little mommy bragging than I would skip over this post ;)

* He "dances"! WOOHOO!! It's not quite the stand up dancing yet but he holds his arms up in the air and flaps them while he bounces his body. It's pretty cute. It's also his go to anytime he gets really excited.... which lately has been a lot.
* Walks with his new walking toy! He does so good.... when he wants to. He has now figured out that he can push it around while on his knees so when he's feeling lazy that's what he does. He gets really excited while he's doing it and talks/screams the entire time. I highly recommend this toy at target for $17.

* Our little dare devil will now let go while he's standing up and stand all alone for several seconds. It catches me off guard and I get way excited everytime. He also tried to take a step while doing this a couple days ago.... was unsuccessful... but tried. I'm afraid we're going to have a walker before i'm ready! He also was squatting on the ground the other day and stood up without touching anything. Wowzer...
* He's really into cars and makes a car sound now when playing with them! He especially loved this little dump truck we had and would try to put toys into the back of it but it was so small they wouldn't stay. So today we bought a BIG dump truck at Target and he's in loading heaven!
* Naps are sooooo much better! We switched to 2 naps, one at 9:30 and one at 1:30. They last anywhere from 45 minutes to 115 minutes. This is huge improvement from his previous 30 minutes naps. Those were not working for momma or baby.
* He's eating everything! He has done absolutely amazing with table food and I'm so proud of him everytime he eats! I was really worried the first few times b/c it seemed he didn't like any table food but puffs.... but he will now try anything and loves it. As far as finger foods go he has had, pasta, peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, cheese, strawberries, peaches, mango, and butternut squash. He has also tried kiwi and bananas but isn't really a fan of those. He'll eat them purreed.... but not at finger foods... it must be a texture thing :)
* He might be a bit OCD... like his mommy :)  He has an obsession with putting toys/food/whatever he can get his hands on into buckets/bowl/dumptrucks. For example, I had layed out 6 pieces of butternut squash on his try. He put them all back into the bowl and then ate them. And like I mentioned earlier... he loves to load up his dump truck with toys.
* He absolutely will not go to sleep if his feet are covered up. This has been going on for awhile but has become even more evident lately while putting him down for nap. He will kick and kick and kick until he gets the blanket off of his feet.
* He has finally got the stage where he puts everything, and I mean everything, in his mouth now. I have taken away plastic, grass, leaves, fuzz, paper, and the skin of garlic and onions. I.Am.Terrified.


Well that's it for the mommy bragging. Lots of exciting post coming soon with all of my arts and crafts activities I've been working on lately! Get excited!

10 on 14?

So on the tenth I was back home visiting my family... and my parents are still in the dark ages so I had no computer to post my 10 on 10 pictures. So today we're have a special 10 on 14 :)  All of these pictures are from the 10th which was a special day for me and Dax spent at my parents house and running around with "Maw Maw". Ready, set, go...
 

The flash is weird in this one... but if you look closely you can see big tears right below each eye. Quite the story with those tears. I gave Dax half a piece of toast and then wanted to try to get him to eat some pureed fruit. He had a few bites of the fruit and started turning his head away. Thinking he was full I got up and started walking away with the other half of toast and fruit... and you would have thought the world was coming to an end. Needless to say he was not done... he simply did not want the fruit... he wanted the rest of his toast.

Highlight of my day for sure. We spent about 15 minutes this morning rolling around and "wrestling" on the ground. There were lots and lots of laughs and kisses from both of us.

This is an old family toy that I think started with my brother. It is Dax's absolute favorite toy. He sits and opens and closes the doors forever. I also love this picture because it captures his crossed feet. From the day he was born he has always crossed his feet like this.... he even does it in his sleep and car seat. It's one of my many favorite things about him.

Good morning! With the change of schedule he has started taking better naps... like an hour longer. And because of this he is waking up in such a better mood from those naps! I usually walk into the room and see him playing with his blanket or doing this :)

One of Dax's favorite activities is to pull everything off the coffee/end table. He got distracted though by Papas Field and Stream magazine and decide to pause from the destruction and take a peak.

Dax is into cars now... which just happens to be one of Papas favorite activities too. I.love.this.picture.  It's his first time really "playing" with Papa and I'm glad I caught it on camera.

The one thing I miss the most when we're not at home is our changing table. Changing this little wiggle worm on the floor is quite the event... and he usually wins. This pic is him after he got away before I could pull his pants up... so I let him play like that for a bit :)

New phone!! WOOHOO!! I probably haven't had a new phone in over 2 years so this is a big deal for me. Not anything fancy but I don't require much. It does have a touch screen and a fancy key pad that makes texting easy. haha! So far I really like it.

Jessica's baby shower was Saturday so me, mom, and Dax spent quite awhile at Babies R Us shopping for Jess and little Mr. Kason.  This is what me and Dax got for him :)  I was pretty pumped about all the gifts.

Dax is fascinated with mouths and tongues right now. So needless to say when MawMaw blew bubbles at him it blew his mind! He thought it was simply the coolest thing in the world and he would intently move his tongue around as well. He eventually got brave and would try to pop it so we had to put and end to the bubble blowing.

Well there's my ten on ten... just a few days late! haha!  Look for a post soon on all the new things Dax has started in the last WEEK! It's crazy how much he learns each and every week! Until then... have a happy day :)

Our 18 Month Anniversary

Well yesterday my little man officially became nine months old! It was sort of a big deal to me because  nine months is how long this precious little miracle grew inside me, and now he has spent nine months eating, sleeping, talking, learning, and exploring in this world we share! We have had a beautiful 18 month relationship and I can't wait to see what the next 18 hold.
Here's a little update on what our nine month old little boy is up to these days...

* Crawling like a mad man. He's super fast and gone in the blink of an eye. He has also decided to branch out and explore on his own now and a couple times I have found him wondering into the kitchen or bathroom all on his own.
* Pulls up and tracks like a pro. He's been pulling up for awhile but he has just now mastered getting down. In fact, it's pretty much is favorite thing to do now.... stand up, get down, stand up, get down. Oh the simple things. He is also tracking between pieces of furniture and has started getting brave and doing it with only one hand. I'm afraid he'll be walking before we know it!
* He is just fascinated with drawers, doors, and cabinets.... leading to lots of smashed fingers! :(  He doesn't get into the things in the drawers or cabinets, just simply opens and closes them over and over.
* He really enjoys the game "I throw everything on the ground and watch people around me pick it up". Mommy is not such a fan.
* His favorite toys right now are a shape sorting cookie jar (that he loves opening and closing), a rubber spatula (lol), the dog bowls (eek), and his little wagon that he really enjoys flipping upside down and investigating the wheels.
* He's really into books right now and loves looking at them. He's a boy after my own heart <3
* Sleeping is going great. He sleeps from about 6 or 7pm until about 6am without making a sound!  Right now he takes about a 45 minute nap at like 9am, 1 1/2 nap at around 12pm, and a 30 minute nap at around 3. I'm hoping to start trying to get into two naps here before long... but we'll go with the flow and right now his flow is screaming for 3 naps :)
* Food, oh food. It feels like all I do is feed this boy! He has fruit and cereal or toast in the am, veggies for lunch, and yogurt and fruit for dinner. He also munches on puffs, yogurt melts, or mum mums when he needs a snack. We're starting to do a few finger foods now because all signs from his little body are saying he needs to! So far we've done banana, kiwi, toast, and cheese. He does absolutely awesome with them and deciding what to do and when is so stressful!
* He says "more" and "momma" and knows exactly what they mean! I love it and still get so excited when he says them! He knows what "all done" means but hasn't signed it himself yet and he also knows who "dada" is but hasn't said it yet. He is making some of the funniest sounds now and I love listening to him "talk"!

That's all the updates I can think of now but I'm sure I'll come up with more as soon as I sign off from here :)   Look for a post soon on how we're settling in and some pics of how the house is going!

10 on 10!

It's May 10th!! Time for 10 on 10..... ready.... set.... go....

So today's weather started out perfect! Not too hot, not too cold, and just a slight breeze! Needless to say, Dax and I sat on the patio for awhile this morning enjoying the beautiful weather. Our fur-babies joyed us as well :)

 

 My mom got this for Dax for Easter and it is his favorite toy right now. Just like every morning... Dax started the day today with this favorite activity of opening the box, taking out a toy, closing the box, opening the box, putting the toy back in, and closing the box again.  It's his new favorite game :)

 

Dax is wayyy into kisses right now so of course I take advantage of that! This morning he was even more full of kisses than normal. I def. wont' complain!

 

 Today we had tons of errands to run to get ready for the move! First stop today was Home Depot.... where obviously Dax decided to take a nap :)  He looked pretty sleepy so we decided to take the seat in instead of having him sit in the cart. Good thing we did!  Such a sweet boy!

 

After Home Depot daddy had to get a hair cut so we dropped him off at the Barber Shop and we headed over to mawmaws work to say hello! She was pretty darn excited to show off the cutest grandbaby in the entire world ;)

 

 The next stop for the day... and by far my favorite... was the assisted living center to see my grandma & grandpa! We didn't make it over there on Mothers Day b/c Daniel was studying for a test so today we took our card, flowers, and teddybear over today. They were VERY excited to see us and so proud to show off they're great grandbaby! My grandpa who usually walks with a cane, walked up and down the hall from one end of the building to the other carrying Dax so that he could show him off to every resident and worker. Dax would just laugh everytime my grandma said something to him and was very drawn to grandpa (he kept climbing up to him which is what this picture is). He also really enjoyed playing with grandmas wheelchair!

 

Ugh... worst. part. of. the. day.  Packing.  We are loading up the Uhaul Thursday so our days are numbered on getting everything done that needs to be done by then! My mom came over and hung out with Dax for a bit so we were able to get a lot of packing done tonight!

 

I really love this picture! Daniel has another test tomorrow... but Dax obviously did not want daddy to study! Dax thought this was a really fun game for about 5 minutes... and I really enjoyed watching it! :)

 

 Someone was pretty playful this evening.... so again.. I took full advantage of that! I would hide under the blanket, leaving only a tiny hole where I could see out of and Dax would bend way over to peek in the hole at me. When he would get where he could see in the hole I would lift back the blanket, he would laugh, and then he would sit patiently waiting for me to do it again. I think I enjoyed it just as much as him!

 

Someone has become a little rockstar at feeding himself lately! This evening he had Puffs & Cheerios for an evening snack. He really enjoyed it.... so much that he decided to save one for later :)

We had a really busy yet perfect day! Hope yours was just as good!

8 Months!

Well in three short days Dax will be 8 months old! Wow! We'll be in Bixby painting the new house then so we're doing his 8 month update now :)

* Boy does this little man love his food! He's having a 6 oz bottle every 4 hours, 2 cubes of fruit and cereal for breakfast, 2-3 cubes of veggies at lunch, and a protein for dinner. The protein switches between tofu and a veggie, or yogurt and a fruit.
* He also munches on Organic Mum Mums and Organic Puffs, both of which he LOVES. We're working on picking things up with his finger and thumb and actually getting it to his mouth. He picks it up pretty good... but getting it in the mouth isn't quite there yet.  He does really good with the Mum Mums and will hold it all by himself and take bites off of it.
* He's drooling and fussy at times like he's teething... but no teeth poking through yet!
* Sleep is going really great! He's been going to sleep at about 6:30 or 7:00pm and sleeping until anywhere between 5:45-6:30am. He'll usually wake up at about 4:45am but the desperate side of me wishing for one more hour of sleep before I have to get up for work puts him in bed with me and he goes right back to sleep.
* He's officially a crawler! He's so stinkin fast! He still rotates between the lizard crawl and actually crawling but whatever he does it's quick. If I want to see him crawl all I pretty much have to do is open the front door and he takes off as fast as he can to it! This includes climbing up a small step from our living room to entry way! I was way impressed the first time this happened... who am I kidding... I'm way impressed every time this happens!
* He likes to spit now. lol.  Another little one in his class at daycare started this and now Dax does it all the time! It's really cute right now but I'm sure the first time he does it with food in his mouth it wont be so cute anymore!
* Makes all sorts of crazy sounds... but still has yet to say Dada, and only says Mama when he's crying.
* Naps are going awesome and all of them are in his crib now! We turn on his sound machine, pat his butt for a couple minutes, and he's out for the count! We actually just packed the swing away and it was sort of a sad day :(
* Dax wants to stand up all the time! He has pulled up successfully a handful of times on his own but is constantly trying to pull up on anything and everything he sees! Even when he's crawling he gets his legs under himself and tries to stand up.
* Bob Marley still works miracles for him...
* His favorite toys right now are baskets that his toys go in, plastic Easter eggs that I put beans in and sealed, Scout (of course), his sensory bottles, and a small tin bucket I found the other day. Who needs all those fancy expensive toys when you have things like buckets, baskets, and water bottles??
* He has had mango, pears, applesauce, peaches, banana, plums, avocado, butternut squash, sweet potatoes,  tofu, parsnips, zucchini, green beans, peas, broccoli, yogurt, and blueberries. Up next are honeydew, carrots, and some new fruit... any suggestions??
* He's in 6-9month clothes and size 3 diapers during the day and 4's a night. His pants are starting to get a little short... but the next size up are still too big in the waist... so lets just say if a flood comes through Dax is prepared :)
* And possibly the most exciting part for me.... I def. recognizes when I sign "All done"!!  A couple days ago when I signed it he automatically started reaching for me to get him out of his seat. I thought that maybe it was coincidence... but he has done it a couple more times since them! yay!!!

 Well the next couple weeks are going to be sort of nuts for us! We'll be making trips to Bixby this weekend and next to paint and clean the house, next week is my last week of work, I'll have one week at home to finish up getting things done, and then the big move! Eek!   Continue keeping us in your prayers as we face all of the changes coming our way!

Happy Wednesday!!!

27...26...25...24.....

The count down is on..... 27 days until the big move. YIKES!  This is coming way too fast and I'm not ok with that! And I'm sure those 27 days will go just as fast at the last month has....  *big breaths*

Starting with last week we have so much going on all the way until the move! Thursday I went to my adorable nephews t-ball game.

He's pretty darn cute in that uniform... but I think he rather find every rock on the field than play ball itself. His nickname is Rocks because that's all he does when he's in the field... search for rocks. You can usually find a back pocket full of rocks by the time the game ends. Thursday night while we were there he hit a home run and was very proud of himself... as was I :)

Dax loved watching the boys run around on the field.... maybe we have a future ball player on our hands??
Friday was, well Friday... therefore, we busted out the ole' moon bounce in the Superstar room...

 

With my time quickly coming to an end as their teacher I'm doing as much as I can to get lots of smiles and fun memories in with these kiddos... boy how I'll miss them!

That night we had dinner with some amazing ladies that I work with to celebrate baby Teagan coming soon! We had so much fun and lots of laughs... plus good food... what could go wrong??
Saturday my wonderful husband watched the baby for  a little while so I could meet a couple girls that I went to school with for lunch! The last year in college I got super close with 3 special ladies and would have gone completely insane without them! They also gave me the cutest baby shower when I was pregnant and I thank them so much for that!  Anyways, I got to meet two of them for lunch at the old stomping ground (The Mont) for lunch! It was SO much fun to catch up with them, reminisce on good times, and talk about our crazy lives we're all living now. I also found out that there will be a new little on come November and I couldn't be happier for Mr. & Mrs. Martin :)     It was really refreshing to get out with friends and not worry about all of the stresses going on right now in life!

So this week includes Easter festivities at work all week, completing my applications for Grad School in the fall, getting the house clean (the landlord is showing it to a potential renter Thursday), Easter egg hunt Saturday morning, niece & nephew birthday party Saturday afternoon, my going away party with work ladies Saturday night, and Easter on Sunday. Man oh man! After that is my birthday, a week of work, a weekend in Tulsa painting the new house, my last week of work (tear), and then the big move! Wow!

Dax is handling all of this chaos like the little trooper he is! Since the last post he officially got his first haircut!

 

BEFORE...

 

and AFTER...

His aunt Kelly did such a good job! My little baby is becoming such a big boy!

He also now how mastered the lizard crawl. For those of you who are asking, "what exactly is a lizard crawl?".... I like to think of it as a step up from the army crawl. Unlike the army crawl.... all four limbs are moving in the correct motion instead of just his arms... but it isn't quite a crawl because he just drags his belly on the ground while doing it. It's surprisingly effective and he gets around pretty quick. Today he actually crawled like a normal child for the first time for a few seconds... but then quickly went back to the lizard.

He's also now making all kinds of fun sounds and is really quite funny. He makes me laugh.. a lot. Especially when he does things like this...

We've also started some snacking/feeding ourselves in the last week! He does so good chewing on his puffs, frozen yogurt bites, and mum mums and LOVES getting to eat them. The mum mums he has mastered eating on his own but we're still working on picking up those tiny puffs and yogurt bites on our own. And I'm one happy momma because I was able to find all three of these things in organic form.... I was like a kid in a candy shop!

Also, a big "winning" moment in the Freno house right now is that all naps are now in the crib!  YESSSSS.  Before he was only napping in his swing when at home and he was quickly out-growing that!  Now we lay him in his crib, tell him night-night, turn on his sound machine, he plays for about 15-20minutes, and then he's asleep. Every once in awhile we have to go in there and pat his butt for a minute but usually he does pretty good just going to sleep. 

Happy Sunday!!

Life in the Fast Zone

Man time has been flying!!  (hence the extremely cheesy title).  We now have a chunky 7 month old that is in full on teething mode (yay for a new milestone... not cool for mom and dad and baby). We took Dax to the doctor again this week for what we thought may be another ear infection. He had gained a pound in two weeks! WOW! He's up to 19lbs, 5 1/2 oz! Such a little chunk! Luckily there was no infection.... only allergies and teething. He now takes allergy medicine everyday so hopefully that helps out! We've also been chewing on lots of fresh frozen or cold fruits to help out with the sore gums and Dax LOVES it!
Also since the last post... we found a house!!  This was such a weight on our shoulders and finding has made things much less stressful! It's a three bedroom, 2 bath house in Bixby, Oklahoma. It's on a half acre lot with a big back yard and lots of trees for the dogs. It has a fireplace (a must for daniel and I) 2 car garage, and a big covered patio. We're pretty excited. Finding this house has definitely made the idea of moving an easier one for me so hopefully as time goes I'll get more and more comfortable with the idea.
So my very best friend in the entire world is a pretty awesome blogger ... you should check it out ourlovelystory .  She does a ten on ten where on the tenth of each month she post ten pictures from that day. I LOVE this and plan on starting it myself. Since I don't have ten pics from today my first ten on ten will be ten pics from the last month ... ready.. set... go.

 

A couple weeks ago our theme in my class was Bugs. One day we made bug eyes using egg cartons and pipe cleaners. The kids LOVED them and it was pretty darn cute to see them running around the playground with them on :)

 

These are the other two rugrats of the house, Sophie and Sadie. They're my other children and I love them as if they only had two legs and didn't stink.  Look how cute they are?? They're def. enjoying all this spring weather!

 

Hopefully this is a sign that getting Dax to do chores will never be problem. He loves the vacuum cleaner. He'll jump out of your arms to try to see in and just smiles at it. Oh the little things...

 

This was Dax's first experience with frozen fruits and as you can plainly see he loved it. He was quite the fussy baby and pulling on his ear this evening so I assumed it was his teeth hurting. I put some frozen cherries in his mesh feeder and he went to town! He was quite the sticky red mess afterwards but his little gums felt much better.

 

Such a man... such a man. Two of his favorite things... being naked and the tv remote.

 

We had our first zoo trip Friday and had so much fun! Dax loved it! He and this gorilla had quite the stare down for the longest time. His favorite animals were the monkeys, deer, and sea lions. 

 

This was after our zoo trip lol. Daddy and Dax were both pretty wore out and I walked into the room to find this cute sight :)

 

More soothing of the gums went on yesterday. We went for the less messy alternative of a fresh cut pear from the refrigerator. Dax was in heaven! He loved this just as much as the cherries.

 

We're in the process of transitioning Dax from taking his naps at home in his swing to in his crib. He takes his naps at daycare in his crib and will soon outgrow his swing so crib it is! He does really well! He'll usually play for about 15 minutes and before he ends up falling asleep. It's a lot of fun to watch

him over the video monitor. During his 15 minutes of play time he has figured out how to pull the bumper down so he can peak through the bars of the crib and take a peak at what else is going on in the room. Today he got caught in the act.

 

The beautiful sky this evening! I really think Oklahoma has some of the most beautiful evening skies possible! This evening after Dax went to bed Me, Daniel, and the dogs enjoyed the perfect weather outside and I caught this gorgeous picture! What a way to end the day!

Hope you enjoyed my first ten on ten! Next time I'll try to get ten pics from that day.... try at least :)