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??

First Birthday: The Cake

Well for Dax's smash cake I went with this banana cake recipe, but left out the cinnamon (Dax is allergic) and added in applesauce (so I guess you could say it was an apple banana cake). It was sugar free but I went ahead and used regular icing with sugar and all!

It wasn't that pretty but it served it's purpose :)  At first Dax had no idea what to do with it. He sort of poked at it a little and made a weird face. So I had to dig in for him and give him a little taste. He decided then that it wasn't so bad...

He ate it.... but I think he liked the attention he got more than the cake. That big chunk that's missing from the cake was not him... it was me :)  He also decided that the icing wasn't for him and started just picking at the cake part (apparently our boy is not a fan of sweets.... but anything bread-like is his favorite food)!
He ate for a few minutes... but then started getting a little fussy like the cake wasn't what he wanted. I went and got some fruit and instantly he was better...

Apparently Daniel and I did something right because this boy rather have fruit over cake any day!  It was pretty funny!
And after cake his little face was all broke out where the icing was at... so apparently he was allergic to something in the icing.... maybe the sugar ;) 

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!

Birthday Cupcakes!

Well in a month from yesterday we'll be having our little boy's first birthday party!! Everything is about 90% done which is really exciting! This past weekend I decided to go ahead and try out a very yummy recipe that we'll be using for some of the cupcakes for the party. For Dax's smash cake we'll be using this banana cake recipe that my best friend used for her little boy with a substitution for the cinnamon... b/c apparently Dax is allergic to it (something I found out about 2 days ago). For everyone else we'll be doing a dozen regular, boxed cupcakes and then a dozen of these yummy goodies you're about to hear all about!  Introducing the low fat, about 80% organic Strawberry Banana cupcakes!
So here's what you need....

2 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of chopped fresh strawberries
1 cup skim milk (we had 1% so I used that)
1/3 cup low fat banana yogurt (we had plain yogurt so that's what we used)
1 mashed banana
1 large egg lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

Ok so this was absolutely delicious! I loved that it was low fat and used whole wheat flour. I used everything organic or all natural except the salt baking powder and vanilla. Here's where you go from there...

1. First, preheat the oven to 400 degree and spray or line the cupcake tin. This recipe made a total of 18 cupcakes for me.

2. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. Once you get that mixed well stir in the strawberries.

3. In a small bowl combine milk, yogurt, banana, egg, and vanilla and mix well.

4. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.Then fill the cupcake tins about 2/3 full

5. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are firm and golden (ok so the golden part is sort of hard since it's whole wheat flour...mine cooked for 16 minutes and were just perfect).

6. Let cool completely and then ice if you want. These would be great just plain (I was thinking for breakfast) but since we're serving them at the party we decided to put a thin layer of cream cheese icing on top.

These were a definite winner! They won't only be served at the party but I plan on making them here pretty often as well! We figured they're about 180 calories each which is really good for your typical cupcake which apparently are on average 300 calories each!  Winner for sure with the low fat strawberry banana cupcakes!

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.

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!!!

So Domestic

I did it... I made my first batch of baby food with my Beaba!  I have to admit.... I did not expect it to be THAT easy. And it was a lot of fun for Daniel and I to make it together.  We picked Butternut Squash for Dax to try first... simply because it was the veggie that looked the best at Walmart lol. I'll now be making weekly trips over to Target to get veggies to make that weekend. We decided that on Saturday mornings we'll spend an hour or two making food, that way it can freeze all day Saturday and I can bag it on Sunday for the next week.   I took pictures of our first baby food making adventure so enjoy :)


Step 1:  The Butternut Squash

 

I had never actually had butternut squash and was pleasently surprised. It looked and smelt a lot like pumpkin, and tasted like a mix of pumpkin and sweet potato. We'll def. be finding some recipes for adult uses of butternut squash.

Step 2. Cut it into small pieces.

 My wonderful BFF had warned me about the pain that was cutting up a butternut squash, so I recruited my wonderful husband to do this part... besides, my family doesn't have the best history with sharp objects so Daniel tends to not let me cut things anyways :).  This was byfar the most painful part. It was like cutting a pumpkin... just in a more awkward shape.  

Anyways, we cut it in half and took out the seeds. Then diced it up and removed the skins.

Step 3: Steam it.

The Beaba made this SOOOO easy! We filled it with water to the level 3 mark, pour it into the babycook, placed the cubed butternut squash into the steaming basket, turned the dial, and continued on with our lives. It was that easy! After 15 minutes they were perfectly steamed! We then poured the water that was used during the steaming into a cup to use to thin the puree if we needed to (the water has a lot of the nutrients from the squash in it so don't waste it!).

Step 4: Puree

Again, SOOO easy! You pour the steamed butternut squash from the basket into the bowl and puree it until you get it to the right consistency. I probably did it for maybe a minute TOTAL. That includes stopping half thru to add some of the water to it.  I still can't believe how easy it was!

Step 5: Pour into trays for freezing.

You spoon the squash into your trays. Regular ice trays work as long as you have lids for them. We use the BabyFresh trays. Set them in the freezer and let them set until fully frozen. We filled 2 whole trays and 2 more spots on another tray from this one squash!

Step 6: Put into freezer bags.

Once they were completely frozen in the trays we popped them out and put about 6 cubes into a pint size freezer bag. Make sure you label it with what it is and the date... frozen food is good for about 3 months... meats, 1 month.  This makes for easy storage and makes it really easy to just reach in and grab out what you need each day. We do two cubes at a time for our little piggy :)

Step 7: Clean up.

No picture here, but I felt it was worthy of a step b/c it was SO easy! I am not a fan of washing dishes at all... and will do basically anything to avoid having to do so. It is a rare occasion that I ever use our blender, George Foreman Grill, or Coco Latte machine simply for the fact that I don't want to have to wash it when I'm done. Cleaning the Beaba was SO easy! I was once again shocked. And having it all in one little machine was very handy. The only dishes that got dirtied up were a knife, cutting board, small cup, spoon, and the Beaba bowl and basket. So easy!

Step 8: Feed the happy baby.

 Haha!! In case you couldn't tell... he LOVED it! This was the face he made when he wanted more... he would reach for it and move his tongue in and out! He loves his cereal but he has never done this with cereal... I would say the Butternut Squash was a hit!

To sum up my first baby food making experience... I'm addicted!  I've already made green beans and I can't wait for this snow to melt so I can get down to Target to buy some organic produce and make more! Not only was it easy and allows us to control what gets put into Daxton's little body, but it was so cheap! We got about 13 servings out of one squash! That would have cost us at least $9 to buy organic baby food... and it only cost us about $2!!  I'd say homemade baby food is a success :)

Single mom... no thanks!

Well I'm full of new updates since my last post.... so here we go!

This last weekend was my first weekend alone with Dax... meaning no Daniel, all weekend long! I would be a single mom for the weekend...EEK! Daniel had a conference in Houston and I would be alone with Dax... just us... for 3 days and 2 nights. Lets just say I was terrified! I'm not a fan of being at home by myself at night anyways.. and with a baby in the mix that just pushed me over the edge! I was VERY tempted to just put Dax in the bed with me for those two nights but I held it together and resisted the urge... that would have been a two night mistake that would take a week to correct. I must say though that the weekend went great! Dax was sort of a fussy boy Saturday but I handled it like a champ if I do say so myself :)  Things I learned while being alone with Dax for the weekend.....
1. Make bottles and have them prepared in the refrigerator ahead of time.  There is no one to distract a hungry baby while the other one makes a bottle when it's only you at home with the baby. After Dax would go to bed for the night I would make bottles for the next day. I still nurse Dax during the night and first thing in the morning... but the rest of the day is formula so having it ready was a life saver!
2. Go to sleep the second that baby goes to sleep. There aren't two of you to take turns waking up with the baby during the night.... so if you want any sleep at all... you better get to bed when that baby does.
3. Prepare the night before. Dax and I went to church with mom Sunday morning and having everything (clothes, bottles, cereal, diaper bag, etc) all set out and ready for us Saturday night made life much easier come Sunday morning.
4. Daniel is my security blanket.  I don't sleep well AT ALL if Daniel isn't home... and this just jumped to a whole new level with a baby in the house.
5. Being a single mom... no thanks!  While it was very empowering knowing that I did great handling everything on my own... I gained a whole new respect for single moms that I don't think I would EVER want to get familiar with... not that that would ever be an option anyways... have you seen how amazing my husband is??  :)

In my last post I mentioned Dax trying to roll from his back to his tummy.... well he mastered it Sunday night! YAY!  Now he really enjoys rolling back and forth from back to belly, belly to back, etc.  I'm pretty sure he'll be crawling much sooner than I would like to admit :/     He also gets two bowls of cereal a day now and LOVES it. The Dr. recommended cutting back the ounces in each bottle and giving him some cereal to help with his acid reflux so we've been doing this for about a week now and it's working pretty good.  He does so great with cereal and I can't wait to start feeding him food in a month! Speaking of food....

WOOHOO!!! My new pride and joy!  My Beaba was delivered this weekend and I'm SOOOOO pumped to start using it! With it I had delivered some trays for freezing the food, labels to label the food, and a babyfood cookbook! Last night we bought a Butternut Squash to make this weekend and I couldn't be more excited! We also got some glass bowls with lids for babyfood at daycare so it can be thawed in the microwave if necessary. Wouldn't you think they would sell glass bowls for baby food somewhere...  no... only plastic... despite how bad it is to head plastic. We just settled for some small pyrex bowls with lids that should work perfectly. I'm so excited about starting this chapter of ours and Dax's life! I feel so passionately about this and hope that it's something I can stick with!
More VERY exciting news that we got last week... I'm pregnant!! just kidding just kidding. lol  I couldn't resist ;)    The exciting news is that Dax will be starting daycare at the center I work at Monday!  We love where he's been and will miss Lora.... but having him literally right next door to me will be soooo amazing!  I'll be the one getting Dax ready every day now and will be able to take him to work with me and take him home with me when I leave. I'll also be able to peek in on him whenever I want... and probably be able to hear him scream through the wall when he's in a mood :)   We'll be paying more than what we do now but the convenience of it all will greatly outweigh the cost issue. Daniel will be able to spend more time studying for school and boards (he has his first licensing exam in June.. eek!) and will save me an hour and fifteen minutes of driving everyday (45 minutes from my work to his current daycare, and then 30 minutes back home).  It's going to be so perfect. Not to mention I LOVE Dax's new teacher. I'm so excited about this new adventure and all the new doors that will be opening for Dax from it. Now just send prayers our way that the new transition goes smoothly for him!
Life for me and Daniel is going good. He's staying busy with school... starting to gear up for test block (yuck) and I'm staying busy with work. Since starting back I've been reassured that I'm in the right career. This point about a year ago I was unsure. A mixture of pregnancy hormones, stress from school, and absolutely insane class at work made we question whether or not I was really meant for a career in early childhood. Now that life is back to normal for me and I have my own classroom again with wonderful kids that are a year older than what I was previously teaching I know that I love what I'm doing. I get so excited when I see my kids learning (and my how much they are learning!) and actually love going to work everyday!  I have wonderful students and parents in my class, an afternoon teacher that is just wonderful, two wonderful bosses, and did I mention the wonderful kids in my class?? Hugs from the each morning make my day so much brighter and I instantly forget about the lack of sleep I got before or any other stresses in my life. Hearing them ask me about how "baby Dax" is every day melts my heart and hearing these sweet little words, "Mrs. Kandice, will you be here everyday?"  from one special little girl before I leave everyday erases all the worries I have. This week I have been sick and getting hugs and kisses to "make me feel better" and hearing them ask me everyday if my body is feeling better yet, really does make me feel a little better.  If you can't tell... I sort of love my class <3

Off to nap again before Mr. Man gets home from daycare... I've been sick the last few days and in case you didn't know... the job of being a mom doesn't stop when you're sick.... you still have to wake up all night and you still have to have the energy to deal with a 5 month old... it's a whole new learning experience that I'm having the pleasure to experience for the first time. But his little smiles and laughs remind me that it's def. all worth it :)

Have a good day :)

Questions Questions Questions

In my four months of being a mom I've learned a lot. I've learned that I actually can function on only 4-5 hours of sleep a night; that family members are no longer excited to see me when we get together, instead Dax; that baby socks, particularly Dax's right sock, needs to be glued on; that before having a baby I had WAY too much time on my hands; that I am now ambidextrous (due to circumstances like feeding a baby with right hand and feeding myself with left, etc); and the one that probably came as the biggest surprise... that people are full of questions and opinions...

"Why are you doing this?"  "Why are you not doing that?"  

"Why would you do that?" 

"We did that and we turned out fine." "That's just a silly thing to do/not do."

When I hear all these questions I instantly want to respond back with the quick snap of, "because we want to."  But instead I try to explain our reasoning usually only to get back another smart remark or opinion or a simple nod with the look of "you're absolutely crazy" written across their face. 

Daniel & I are different (as our close friends and family can attest to :). We don't do things just because it's what always been done, or because it's what other people say to do, or because it's the easy way out. We put a lot of thought into the daily choices we make in our life and consider the long term effects of our choices.  Yeah we may do things that the normal everyday person wouldn't do, and yeah we might find things very important that other people blow off, but whatever it is we're doing you can guarantee it wasn't just done by chance.  

* Yes, we are doing sign language with Dax.

* No, we don't let Dax watch TV and won't... not for a LONG time

* Yes, we buy vegetarian and organic food, and plan on doing so with Dax as much as possible.

* Yes, we plan on making homemade baby food for him.

* No, we will not let him cry it out. 

* No, we aren't feeding him food yet. We are waiting until 6 months and will then start with our HOMEMADE, ORGANIC baby food :)

I don't mind answering questions about the choices we make if you are genuinely and sincerely curious about it and willing to look at my response with an open mind... but if you plan on responding with a smart remark or silly look upon your face... just save it for another day :) 

 I highly recommend this book for anyone that has even the slightest thought of signing with your little one. I LOVE it and it will probably be my new gift to all of my expecting friends :)

 One Love <3

A Few of My Favs...

So I was talking to a friend the other day who is expecting and she asked about what she should register for... soooo the things below made the list (warning:::: this is going to be a VERY lame post... it quite possibly will be a post that only other mommies can appreciate)

1. Diaper Genie....

oh how I want to kiss the person that invented this. Our lovely, precious tiny baby boy can sometimes resemble a man (if you know what I mean) and this wonderful invention keeps our nursery smelling nice and fresh. And it's so easy to change out the bags when you fill one up. I <3 it..... def. a must have.

2. Munchkin Bottle Warmer/Sanitizer

I don't know what I would do without this! It makes heating a bottle soooo easy. But the best part is the fact that it's a sanitizer. If you know me... I"m kind of a freak when it comes to sanitizing. Needless to say this sanitizer gets used multiple times a day for binkies, toys, you name, I've sanitized it.

3. Mobile above changing table

So my aunt got us the ADORABLE OU mobile. We had decided that we didn't want a mobile above the crib b/c we wanted it to be strictly a place for sleep, not a place to play, but we also wanted to use the mobile somehow. Well during my time working in daycares I learned one thing... keeping a child still while you change their diaper can be nearly impossible... soooo born was the idea of hanging a mobile above his changing table. Daniel built a little contraption to make it fit (he's pretty handy sometimes) and now it is one of Dax's favorite things ever! He just sits and watches it while we change his diaper! greatest. idea. ever.    (if I do say so myself)

4.  Huggies Pure & Natural Diapers/ Seventh Generation Diapers

So we've always loved the idea of using as much organic/natural/chemical free stuff as much as possible and started out with the intent of using only Huggies Pure and Natural. Well we were given TONS of diapers (pampers, regularly huggies, luvs, etc) so we used those when we ran out of our original stash of Pure and Naturals. Well Dax got diaper rash after diaper rash so we decided to bag them up and give them all to someone else. While after bagging away a ton of diapers Daniel's hands got red and started burning.... needless to say that was the night that we decided no more diapers that aren't chemical free.

5. O'Ball

This is Dax's favorite toy EVER!!  And mine :)   I found this at Walmart after Dax's shots and felt obligated to get it for him. It's soft, rubbery, squishy, light weight, easy for little fingers to grab a hold of, and rattles.... what else could a boy need?!  It was the first toy Dax reached for and we play with it all evening long.

6. Dapple Bottle Cleaner

So I only bought this stuff last night but so far so good. I wanted a dish soap that didn't have all the extra non essential stuff in (again with the as natural/chemical free as we can get) so that when we cleaned Dax's bottles nothing harmful was getting left on them. This stuff works really good, smells great, and is very safe for baby.... I'm a fan

7. Combi Shuttle 33 Stroller and carseat

I'm in LOVE with our stroller and carseat! Daniel was really picky on the carseat we would get and I was pretty specific on what I wanted a stroller to be like. We knew we didn't want the traditional travel system because its just way too bulky for us. And Daniel wanted a top rated carseat. Well this little wonderful combination was at Babies R Us and we fell in love. The stroller is super light weight, folds up really small, is easy to open and close, and the carseat just snaps right into it. And the carseat is highly rated, very padded, and is complete with a baby roll bar as I call it. It's perfect.


ok... I'm done with the lame mommy post. I promise next time I'll try to be more interesting!