The Adventures of Solids

Feeding Audra solids has been such a learning experience for both of us. Some days she is great and gobbles down almost a whole pack of baby food. Other days her lips are pursed closed all day and solids don’t make it in. Then there are days when she is perfectly happy just to play with her food and lick it off her fingers.

Banana and avocado day. A bath soon followed. 

We are still getting the hang of food. I have tried to make my own baby food but I cannot get it smooth enough for her liking so I’ve frozen it so we can revisit it in a few months. She really likes have huge chunks of apples, pears, green beans, waffles, bananas, cantaloupe and avocados to hold on to but they are slippery (not the waffle but everything else) and often make it onto the floor before long. The mesh feeder things are just as fantastic as everyone has said. She loves apple, frozen blueberries, peaches, cantaloupe and carrots in them but again she loves to fling and drop everything these days so they end up on the carpet at least once.

It is a great season to get mangoes and Aldi's has them so dirt cheap right now. I've read that she can have them but I'm too stingy at this point to share. I know...I'm so selfish.

Eating a canned pear. This worked better in the mesh feeder thing. 

Apple. Carrot. Waffle. The apple was her favorite. 

Although there is the rare occasion that she sits happily sucking out the juices of her fruit staring out the window just happy as a clam. And then I snap a picture of these serene moments. 

And since it's the season for gardens to begin busting out all sorts of yummy goodies, we snagged a bean from grandmas garden and she just loved it. 

I cannot wait to have her try all the fabulous foods this life has to offer. Especially during the holiday season that's not so far away. OK I'm excited to eat all that food too. Let's be honest. Turkey and mashed sweet potatoes for days. 

Enjoy your week and all the fresh and delicious produce this season has to offer! 

P.s. I promise to learn the proper name of those "mesh feeder things" by my next post. 

Summer Bucket List

This summer is already half over, how can that be? I'm so glad Audra is at a good age where we can go outside for 20-40 minutes a few times a day to pass the time but I also think it's cool when moms have bucket lists for the summer so they can have things to do to pass the days a little easier and make memories in the process. I wanted to start our bucket list last month but June got away from me and so here we are halfway through July. Never too late right?? Since Audra is still so little I need to keep our list simple. We've already done a few things that I wanted to do before officially documenting this list. I have placed a "\/" by the things we have already completed.

2016 Summer Bucket List

\/ Spend lots of time outside

\/ Introduce her to playing in the water outside (I placed her in a huge Tupperware container with a few inches of water and a couple toys. I thought it was adorable. She was just happy to, once again, be outside)

Eat lunch outside - no clean up!

Make 1 or more mommy friends whose kid(s) are near Audra's age

\/ Do "mommy and me" things in our area and actually go to them. Not plan to go and then chicken out with the "my baby might make a peep or loose it" excuse.

\/ Start solids

Eat more homemade ice cream than store bought (this is mostly for mommy and daddy...when Audra goes to bed)

\/ Play in Great Grandpa's pond

\/ See fireworks

\/ Go berry picking

Introduce Audra to a fire fly

Make s'mores over an open fire and maybe let Audra lick the chocolate off my finger. 

I think that's a good starter list for now. It's already been a busy and hot summer. Audra is like me and does not do well in the heat so sometimes we stay inside until I go stir crazy. I don't like to wish time away but I am also anxious for Audra's first Autumn and Winter. But that will also bring her first birthday and my baby will be turning 1 and I'm just not ready for that yet!

Audra loves her Daddy but her Daddy loves her more!

Sweet Summertime

And we have a roly-poly on our hands these days. She can be so content just laying on the floor and rolling anywhere she wants. Until the dining room table gets in the way, then she tries to hurdle it. Horizontal running!

And I'm convinced that other people pick out cuter clothes for Audra than me. This dress was bought by Liam's Mommy and I just adore it. I should get a picture of the back because the turquoise bow just makes me swoon!

Happy warm and sweaty summer my friends!

Sixth Month Summary

I know I kind of touched on Audra's six month stats in my last post but I didn't post her official six-month photo with Zeka the Zebra. One day I was scrolling through my phone at the hundreds of pictures I've taken of Audra over the past 6 months and I came across this one of her in her swing. This was 1. when she fell asleep in her swing with no pacifier, no swaddle, no noise other than me shuffling around. In other words she fell asleep completely on her own. And 2. This is the last time she was in her swing. Ever. *insert sad music here* I didn't know this was the last time she'd be in her swing at the time but I'm glad I snapped this somewhat stealthy picture of it. She's been napping in her crib ever since....my babyyyyy

If anyone can tell me where the last six months went I would be greatly appreciative. 

We have more and more fun with our photo prop every month

 So I finally gave up and just used the picture with her best smile. Zebra on her lap. That's how we do. 

Audra is also completely and utterly fascinated by tags. 

Audra weighs about 14.5 - 15lbs. She wears 3-6 and 6-9 month clothes. She is in size 2 diapers. She naps 3-4 times a day. She sleeps pretty well at night. She chews on everything but her teeth have yet to poke through. I was sad about it one day think that it'll take forever for her to get teeth but then I realized when she does she will never have that gummy smile ever again. So now I'm hoping they show up late to the party because I love love love her gummy smile. She loves when daddy comes home from work and when he plays with her. 

We are enjoying each other these days. I almost want time to slow down but I also want it to speed up just the same. Weird I know. 

Thanks for reading and watching our six month old grow either in person or through these posts. 

Fourth of July Week/End

"Just make it to six months and then you know you're going to live" - This is what my mom told me from week one and momma was right. We're going to live. 

Well we've made it to the halfway mark. Raise your hand if you're surprised. *raises hand* Raise your hand if your excited about this. *raises both hands*
 I knew we'd hit this point eventually but it definitely came faster than I thought it would. Those newborn days are behind us and part of me misses the squishy snuggles and newborn scent. But as I told someone the other day "our first 3 months sucked. Like really sucked". The next 3 months is where we finally found a rhythm and a schedule and sleep! Now here we are halfway through Audra's first year of life and already on solids.

Green beans. Before the mess. 

I told myself I would wait until she was a solid six months or later. She has her whole entire life ahead of her to eat, so why push it? Nursing is now getting easier and better (when you don't factor in nipple pain or clogged ducts or a super distracted baby) so why not just keep doing it without having her on solids? All this and more went through my head week after week. I bought some small things of food "just to have so were ready". Then I got out her high chair from storage. "I'll just put it on the chair so we can get used to having it". "I'll just put the straps in so it's ready to go" Ours was a hand-me-down from my sister in law so it needed a new cover. So I told myself "once we get a new cover she can get used to sitting in it". That held true but she hated her high chair the first few times I put her in it. Especially if I dared to strap her in. "What sweet craziness is this!? You sit me in a chair and then strap me in? Nope. Sorry. Not happening" Well it all came to a point one day when she finally was used to her chair, she had her favorite toy to play with while sitting in it and we were both sitting at the table while I ate lunch and I got THE LOOK. That "why are you eating and I'm not?" look. The "I'm ready Momma, I'm really truly ready" look. I got the puppy dog eyes, the baby face from my baby.

I melted and gave in. "Tomorrow we will start you on solids." Two weeks shy of her six month "birthday". But let's be honest for two seconds. From the time we are little girls we are given baby dolls with all the accessories. They have diapers and bottles and tiny little clothes. Then we get little spoons and plates for them and pretend to feed them. It's something that is imprinted in us from a young age and we anxiously await the day until we have our own real baby that will sit perfectly in a chair and open nice and wide for a tiny spoon filled with baby food. Then we have a baby and once we make it to the point where solids can be introduced if we feel that's what we want to do; it's even harder to wait. It's like sitting there on Christmas morning surrounded by presents and being told "OK you can open them if you want because it's the appropriate time to do it but you really don't need these gifts so we can wait 4 or 5 months". Tell a kid that on Christmas and see what they do. So all this to say that once we got closer and closer to her six month mark it became harder and harder to wait. Ants-in-the-pants wiggling may have occurred.

The next day I had it planned out that we would start around lunch, after her morning nap and we would start with green beans. If you know anything about me you know I don't eat a ton of veggies. OK I barely eat them. I eat them once a week if were lucky. I know I.Am.Horrible. But I'm planning to get Audra good and used to veggies so she can get the nutrients from them that she's not getting from me. So green beans it is. She loved it! She has also had sweet potatoes which no surprise she likes more than green beans but I'm trying to give her more beans than potatoes for now.

So aside from starting solids Audra greets six months with sitting up to play more than lying down. She also got to sit up in the grocery cart in the same week - it was a monumental week for sure! She loved just watching everyone and taking it all in. I'm pretty sure we could have wondered around WalMart for an hour and she would have been content the entire time.

I also sit her up after her bath so she can splash in the water a little bit. She loves it!

 We are down to 3 naps a day about an hour on average for each of them. Most of the time she'll wake up from her last nap around 4 or 5 pm and then we don't put her to bed until 9pm but it's growing harder for her to wait that long so recently I've stopped fighting it and put her to bed around 8:30. It has seemed to work out so far. She barely lets me hold her chest to chest for any reason except going down for a nap or bed time. She is too interested at looking at everything that she doesn't want to be held facing any other way other than out. Ha. She is not crawling yet but loves to push her butt in the air and use that to scoot her way towards something of interest to her. Her pincher grasp is getting better every day thanks to all the tags on every toy we own she goes directly for it with her pincher grasp. I cannot get enough of watching her grab the tag with her thumb and pointer finger. Seriously. Watching her teach herself this brand new thing is fascinating. I don't even know how else to explain it but I love watching it!! Audra also loves watching and lunging for our cat.

This weekend we celebrated (Audra's first) Fourth of July. She did well with her first fireworks but her second time around was a little rough and she was more ready for bedtime then fireworks.

Audra loves her Aunt Jackie who took this photo. Liam loves Audra. I love them both. 

Three generations. Finally. 

Totally obsessed with this picture of Audra. Despite her tired eyes she is perfect in every way. Oh and my hand on her lap keeping her from falling forward. Which she did the other day. Forward and onto the floor. Kid you not I about peed my pants. Scariest moment ever. 

She loves her Aunt Jackie. Can you tell!? 

And of course I was too busy with all the weekend's activities to take pictures of her outfits so we had to do that this morning.

 Sweet and sassy Firework of ours

Happy almost 6 months my sweet and spunky baby girl. I cannot believe how time is flying now!