When I was pregnant, I was one of those moms who knew she would feed her kids healthy, wholesome food. I haven’t always been very “clean” about what I eat, but I wanted to do better with them. Tons of fruits and veg, healthy snacks, etc.
Well…then I had a baby. And worked 50 hour weeks. And didn’t have a housekeeper. OK, so those are really excuses, but still.
I have been somewhat sucked into the world of convenience kid foods. You know: goldfish crackers, graham crackers, veggie straws, animal crackers. Tons of starch and carbs. The kid seems to be hungry 24/7 and, yes, I do understand there’s a reason for the phrase “he’s a growing boy” but DANG!
PS…these Penguins are from Walgreens and they are delicious. So much better than goldfish! They are crisper and more cheesy tasting. Just a shameless work plug…
I’m good with BLDs (you know, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners), but it’s the in betweens that get me. I try to have lots of fruits available. His favorites are strawberries and blueberries, though he is quite a fan of canned pears and peaches (in juice only please!). He also likes applesauce pouches.
As for veg…he’s kinda iffy about most veg. He loves corn, but is eh on potatoes. Any time I put anything green on his plate he kind of pushes it around. He loves avocado, but that’s technically a fruit, right?
Yogurt is a great option for him as is cheese. Jeff seems to think a piece of bread is a good snack and I only somewhat agree. We gave Jake peanut butter the other night though and he liked it, so I’m not opposed to a piece of toast with PB. At least he’d be getting a little protein.
I’ll be the first to admit that traveling with Jake makes me, well, nervous. The farthest we’ve ever gone away from home is Cleveland and that was when he was just a few months old. I wish I could tell you I was all gung ho about taking him away on a trip this summer, but that’d only be partly true.
You see, I’m not worried about him being away from home because I’m pretty sure we can get on a similar schedule he has here and be just fine. It’s the getting there part that makes me cringe. How will he do flying, driving, on a boat?
Deciding where to go has gone through several phases. First, I wanted to try South Carolina. Get a beach house somewhere and just chill.
Then, I asked around and got Destin as the consensus for places to take your kids. I looked at the pictures and it was just lovely. Hurricane season limited us a bit on when to take a trip, though, so it was quietly marked off the list.
Chicago was mentioned a few times, but I’m a beach person at heart plus I wanted a quiet, relaxing trip, not a go, go, go sightseeing trip, so it too was nixed.
Of course Hawaii was mentioned, but…no. No funds, long flight, just no. Not quite yet, my dear Jacob. In time.
Finally, we settled on Texas. My mom lives near San Antonio, so we talked about coming to visit her and then Jeff and I bumming around SA for a few days. Then she asked me “What about South Padre Island?” She went there a few years ago and loved it. I’d always heard people talk about it when I was in college as a fun Spring Break place. It’s just a couple hours from her home, so I said, “Sure!”
We are planning to rent a condo for a few days and just chill. Maybe take in a sight or two, but the main purpose of the trip is to recharge our batteries. I strongly believe that I need a vacation to really get back to where I need to be. I haven’t been myself 100% in the last year and a half and I miss me. Plus I’m unspeakably excited to get to share the beach with Jake!
Good thing I get a discount on sunblock.
What tips do you have for traveling (especially flying) with kids? Jake will be 21 months at the time of the trip.
Hi, guys! You miss me? I’m not going to make excuses for not posting much in the past few months. I have a life. I was living it. The end.
Regardless, I wanted to share some of the latest pictures in our life. Jake has been growing so much. He’s actually becoming more like a little boy instead of a baby. He’s gotten a lot more independent, often playing for long stretches of time on his own. He loves attention, though, and makes it a point to get lots of hugs and kisses from Mommy and Daddy.
He’s saying tons of words now, specifically Mommy, Daddy, Nana (banana), soos (shoes), cra-ka (cracker), bubby (blueberries), etc. He knows where his head, belly, hands, and feet are. I think he’s starting to get ears and eyes too. He can blow kisses and leans in to give Mommy a kiss when she leaves for work. He will pick things up and give them to us when asked and he’s even managed to throw some things in the trash on command. He’s getting a lot better at following directions. He’s also getting a lot worse at following directions. We will ask him to do something and he will throw a holy tantrum. Other times, he does it just fine. He definitely tests his boundaries.
One of his tricks he’s been doing for a while is throwing food. He’ll do just fine for a bit and then all of a sudden he will pick up some food and throw it on the floor. I’ve started removing his tray and/or taking him away from the situation, which helps for a bit, but hasn’t had a long term effect yet. The last time it happened, I put him in his play pen and we continued to eat dinner, which he absolutely hated. When I took him back out, he finished his meal like a little angel. Last night for dinner, we actually set him up in his little table and chairs my mom bought for him for Christmas and he did better.
He’s transitioning into the next room at daycare, which means no more high chairs (all their meals are at baby tables) and transitioning to a cot instead of a crib at 18 months. Jeff and I agree he’s growing up too fast! He has a toy train that he pushes around all over the place now. It makes noise and sings to him, which he loves. It’s the cutest thing.
In the spirit of the NCAA tournament, we have started teaching him how to play basketball. The kid is smart. Now all he needs is a UK jersey!
He’s the sweetest, best little boy. If all children were like Jake, I would have a million of them!
He is the best little boy in the world. He is an absolute joy to be around. Just ask his daycare teachers! I will be the first to admit babies are not necessarily my thing. Toddlers on the other hand are awesome! Jeff and I both agree that if we could have a baby born around 9 or 10 months, that would be ideal. They sleep through the night, they interact more, and they don’t need constant attention.
Jake is independent, but definitely loves attention from his mama and daddy. He plays well by himself but loves sharing with us.
He’s smart as a whip too! He now knows the words shoe, book, blankie, head, and hand. He will show you his belly on command. He says “tan to” (thank you) when he gets and gives you something. (You’re all pronouncing “tan to” in your heads right now, aren’t you?)
He knows exactly where we keep the animal crackers and will try to get one any time I go into the pantry, which is often especially at dinner time. He likes to pick out his own from our super huge tub of them and prefers to have one for each hand.
His favorite foods are still mainly fruits and veggies, though he does eat more meat now. His top picks are blueberries, grapes, and sweet potato. He also loves mac and cheese, sloppy joe, and spaghetti & meatballs. Typical kiddo.
Most of the time, he eats exactly what we eat. Every so often if we have something with seafood in it or I think it will be too spicy for him, I give him something else, but that doesn’t happen often. I do know he does not like spicy yet, but that’s to be expected.
He still does not like frozen things either in his mouth or on his body. He bumps his head sometimes at daycare and they put a cold pack on him. They always say he hates the ice pack more than the bump!
We’ve had a little…uh…frustration (for lack of a better word) with meal times lately. He has this bad habit of trying to slam his body into the back of his high chair over and over again. I asked people on Facebook what was going on with this and everyone said it’s normal, but I don’t like it. I’m afraid he’s going to hit his head or hurt himself in some way. Plus it’s not going away. No matter how many times I tell him “no” he continues.
Speaking of “no”, he thinks that word is a game. Whenever I tell him “no”, he just looks at me and grins the biggest, goofiest grin he has. This, of course, makes me smile, which in turn confuses the heck out of him! I try to keep a straight face, but the cutie pie is manipulative!
Jake is a great sleeper, for the most part. His most typical routine is to go to bed around 7:30p and sleep until 6:00a. I wish he would go to bed a little later and wake a little later, but that’s just me being selfish. He has to leave for daycare around 7:30a, so honestly the 6a wakeup time is actually pretty ideal. It allows us time to play with him and get him ready at a leisurely pace instead of scrambling. I leave for work at 7a, so if he slept much later, I wouldn’t see him for very long nor would I be able to help get him dressed. Still, waking up at 5a so I can have a little quiet time gets tiring some days.
My little guy is seriously the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love playing with him. I love watching him grow and learn. He is getting so big so fast! Every time he does something new I am amazed. It’s awesome how their little brains soak up everything like a sponge.
Every month brings new, exciting changes. Instead of getting nervous when I have to watch him by myself, I find I encourage Jeff to do things on his own now. I have no problem watching Jake by myself for long stretches of time. I know most of my SAHM friends are thinking “Yeah, I do this every day” but when you’re a working mama who has a retail schedule and aren’t home a lot of nights and weekends, being the sole person in charge can be daunting!
Jake is my little buddy now. We go places and do things, he helps me with chores, and we play tons. He’s the best friend a girl could have and I love every minute I’m with him. If the years to come are anything like the past 14 months, we will be the luckiest parents on the planet!
Doesn’t hurt that he’s super cute too! (This is a new face that he makes all the time. Love it so much!)
Don’t adjust your computers. You are ACTUALLY reading a post. A new post! I have had a lot of stuff going on in the past few months, particularly working 60+ hours a week in December, that put blogging on the back burner. I am hoping this blog post is the return of my blogging, but now I’m sick so who knows.
So much has happened lately, but probably the most important thing was that Jake turned one! He ate yummy blueberry pancakes for breakfast!
We had his party at our house on his birthday (December 8th). He loved playing with all the kids and squishing the delicious cupcake between his finger. He would probably have eaten the entire thing, but mama was worried he would get a belly ache.
Another important event was (obviously) Christmas! Jake still didn’t really understand what was going on, but he was such a good boy the entire day. I was worried he would get over-tired and cranky, but he both napped and played well with the other kids.
He’s been doing some really cute things lately. I kept telling myself to write them down before I forgot! He has learned so much from us and from the teachers at daycare. For example, he waves bye bye, shakes his head when you say no, and claps any time you say YAY! We recently just taught him this little trick:
And he just started doing this on his own:
His official first word is Uh-oh! But he also says dada and occasionally mama (very rarely). And he got some maracas for Christmas and he LOVES them!
We also discovered his love for pasta and meatballs.
He also loves the roomba and making raspberries.
Another thing that is his favorite to do is close doors! He never catches his finger in the door either…knock on wood. I don’t have it quite on video yet, but I’m sure I will soon.
Just wanted to drop in, say hi, and let you guys know what was going on in our lives lately! Talk to you all soon.
Do you guys remember that show? Man, I LOVED it! The books came alive! They literally came alive!
Anyhow…my friend, Heather, started a great link up for us moms out there that want new ideas for books for their kids! What a fantastic idea!
Jake is all about textures lately. He loves feeling things, tasting things, etc. When I pulled out the “That’s not my…” series, he loved them!
These books allow him to feel various textures. He is very good at picking out the “different” texture on each page.
See how fluffy Black Bear’s ears are?
OK, it’s kind of hard to tell from that picture. But what about Brown Dog?
He has mega fluffy ears!
I’ve gotten some ideas from Heather as well as Joanna. I’m always looking for more, though! If you’re a mom, or even if you’re not, leave a comment below telling us what books you recommend for your little ones! Even better, if you are a blogger and want to participate, head on over to Heather’s blog and link up!
Jake is officially 11 months. Well, technically he’s 11 months and a few days. Which means he’s nearly one. ONE. Can you believe it?
We’ve had some fun this month. Mommy practiced her photography skills and Jakey got to dress up for Halloween. We also (all three of us) got the stomach bug. Ick.
Jake hasn’t changed a whole ton in the last month. He is still getting four bottles a day: at 6:30a when he wakes up, two at daycare, and one right before bed around 7:15p. He usually goes to bed around 7:30ish and sleeps for about 11 hours. Here’s a typical day in our life:
6:30a: Jake wakes up, gets changed, gets a bottle
8:00a: Breakfast
8:30a-9:30a: Playtime
9:30a-11:30a: Nap
11:30a: Bottle #2
11:45a-1:00p: Playtime
1:00p: Lunch
2:00p-3:30p: Nap
3:30p: Bottle #3
3:45-6:00p: Playtime
6:00p: Dinner
6:30p: BATH TIME
6:45p: Changes into jammies and plays in his room
7:15p: Bottle #4
7:30p: Lights Out
Of course, this is on the weekends. During the week, he goes to day care from 7:30a-5:00p. Otherwise it’s the same.
Jake has a new favorite toy. I broke out a huge box of Mega Bloks I bought super cheap at Walgreens last year and he has found a green square he carries with him everywhere. He even took it to daycare and back one day last week! It’s funny…I’ll throw the block in with the other blocks and he will pick that specific piece out!
The other day I bought him a fun little walker. He’s still learning how to use it, how to not go too fast, etc. He doesn’t know how to turn yet, but he’s pretty good at walking with it.
Speaking of walking…we have a walker in our house! He got moved up to the next room at day care and they told us the babies don’t wait too long to start walking once they make the switch. They see all the other babies walking and tend to figure it out pretty quickly after that. He’s still not super confident at walking, but he will take a couple steps here and there. I’m sure he’ll be flying by his birthday!
As I mentioned above, Jake’s birthday is right around the corner and, to be honest, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. I need to plan his party, order invitations, get a birthday shirt for him, and figure out what to get him. On top of that, I’m in charge of Thanksgiving this year (which I’m actually really excited about as I’ve never cooked Thanksgiving before) AND will be switching to only being off one day a week during the month of December. That’s how we do at Walgreens…
Anyhow…back to Jake. I also mentioned above that we all got the stomach bug a few weeks ago. Jake brought it home from daycare and Jeff and I got it a few days after he showed signs. Luckily, it only lasted about 8 hours in each of the grown ups, which was good because it let us take care of Jake better. Also luckily, I happened to be off work the days we were sick! Good thing too…
They put Jake in the baby swing at day care when he first showed signs of the illness and he still liked it! We had moved our swing down to the basement a while back, but after hearing he slept soundly in it when nothing else worked, we brought it back up from the basement to give it a try. He is content in it for a while, but I don’t know if it was worth lugging the thing back upstairs. I guess we will find out.
We have decided Jake’s favorite food is most likely cheese, though blueberries are a close second. He will actually pick out the blueberries even when they are hidden in other things! (FYI, I don’t usually give him this much cheese but I was at work that night!)
I mentioned Halloween earlier. Well, Jake was sick over Halloween but I still managed to snap some pictures of him in his costume so we could remember it for years to come. I love his little costume!
We had a great month. You can see it in our faces:
We love this little boy. He’s the best in the world!
As you may recall, Jake was under the weather last week. In fact, he was sick the entire week. No fun at all. Not for him, not for us, not for the ladies at daycare that had to clean up his vomit from the floor on Friday.
We thought he was better since he didn’t get sick all day Thursday, but around 11:30a on Friday, I got a call saying he had gotten sick twice and needed to be picked up. Boo! Luckily, Jeff’s work is very understanding and flexible so he was able to take care of the little guy.
As I was finishing up my long day at work Friday, I started to feel…iffy. I just felt off. I thought maybe it was the pizza I had brought for lunch that day as it had started right around the time I finished eating. But as the day went on, I kept feeling worse and worse. I eventually called it a day about half an hour early and went home. About 15 minutes after I got home, I was running to the bathroom to throw up. (Sorry…tmi.)
I ended up getting sick twice that night and quarantining myself in our bedroom. Too bad it didn’t help! Jeff got sick twice, but luckily I felt better after a good night’s sleep! I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I didn’t question it. (I don’t know how lucky you can call getting the stomach flu twice in one year though…)
Saturday, since Jeff felt gross most of the day and I didn’t want to get too active with Jake, we hung out at home, playing inside. It was very cold out and I didn’t want to risk making Jake worse. Then, Sunday, we were all feeling much better. After running some errands and taking a short nap, I dressed Jake in his Halloween costume and took him outside for a photo shoot (and some tree tasting).
Since he was sick on Tuesday, I didn’t get a chance to take him trick or treating! I really wanted some pictures of his oh-so-cute costume, so I figured better late than never. In a few years’ time, I won’t remember anything aside from how cute my little monster looked.
We also managed to snap a few family photos today as well.
With the storms raging outside due to Sandy (OK, by now they’ve died down but it was pretty scary there for a day or so), we are battling our own little storm in our house. Little Jakey is sick.
He was sent home from daycare on Monday because he had two diarrhea diapers before lunch. The rule at my daycare is two diarrhea diapers in one day equals that baby is sent home for the day. They do their best to contain the situation. Since Monday, we have been taking care of our little guy hoping and praying he feels better.
He added vomiting to his menu of symptoms last night. I’m hoping this morning’s poopy diaper was the end of it. Back with a funner post on Friday…hopefully.
