1 - First about me. I'm struggling with the knitting a little bit. I still really want to work on a sweater for me. But I get to the point in the evening (like now) where my choice is either to go to sleep or do something for me. I've been tired enough that the thought of planning out a sweater is a little too much for 10pm. I have hope though. Heather has slept through the night the last two nights (*Knock on wood*), so maybe there is a more rested Amy in my future.
I'm still working on the Patchwork Tortoise for Heather. I'm working on the patches now and should easily finish them before knitting or Sunday, or at least in the first hour that I'm there. I don't want to spend the get together seaming, so I need to get something else on the needles.
I started swatching for the Tulip cardigan. Santa brought me the kit for Christmas. If I don't make the time to start a sweater for me before Sunday, then this will be my next project.
2 - Heather isn't walking yet, but she's still painfully close. She's moved up to the older infant room at daycare, and she's the only one in the room not walking, so it is certainly just a matter of time. She can climb the steps by herself (with someone behind her, of course, as a safety net), push the wagon by herself and cruise all over the place.
Her eating has reached a new level, too. Since the new year, she's eaten pasta with sauce, grilled cheese and shared some of my chicken, rice and broccoli casserole. Sometimes she won't pick up and eat things when they are first offered, but will come back to them later. And other times she'll eat her fruits and veggies from the spoon even when she won't pick them up herself. Last Sunday at brunch, she ignored her apple chunks on the table, but was happy to eat them from my hand later. She also ate quite a bit of potato, egg and cheese from my breakfast.
It seems like there was more I wanted to post, but my mind is blank. Must be time to go to bed.
Fingers crossed for another long and quiet sleep!
Showing posts with label baby food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby food. Show all posts
Friday, January 11, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
2 more hours...last minute thoughts for 2007
I think every year on New Year's Eve it seems strange to me that one year is coming to an end and another is about to begin. I always like the fun of saying "This is the last time I'm going to do X this year" or "I'll do that next year". Silly, but it still kinda cracks me up.
I looked back at some of my posts from a year ago. They are about how I was feeling during the pregnancy, preparing the house for Heather's arrival, and finishing up the Christmas knitting. None of that to write about this year, although we still have lots of presents for Heather to put away just like last year. I need to decide which ones should stay in her room, which ones should stay in the living room, which ones should go in the 'corral' in the dining room and what should go into storage. I also need to go through her clothing again. There are lots of short-sleeved shirts that can go into storage since she got a good winter wardrobe for christmas and there is some stuff from the past few months that needs to be labeled. It isn't as critical as it used to be since clothing changes at daycare are more rare (knock on wood), but it needs to be done.
I'm pleased to announce that I was right. :-) Heather's on-and-off crankiness of the past couple of weeks was due to a new tooth. Number three has broken through the gum and our happy baby has returned. There has still been some night-waking and co-sleeping in response, but I'm hopeful that it is partially due to our recent travel and screwy schedule. Our recent trip did give me some insight into Heather's nap needs. Based on our experiences, I'd say that Heather could do one nap per day and she can adjust okay to schedule changes. She can do a 2-3-4 nap schedule, a 3-2-4 schedule, a 3-4-2 schedule, etc. But, I still think that she does better with two naps each day and her first nap 2 hours after waking up.
Heather is also doing better with table foods. She still seems somewhat reluctant, but tonight, after being encouraged by daddy, she fed herself pasta with sauce, peas and carrots. And at one point she seemed to be shoveling it all in as enthusiastically as she does her cheerios. I have to keep reminding myself to be patient. It is a lot easier to feed her mashed food with a spoon, but I know she needs to get used to more table foods so I can stop making her food separately.
The closest thing I have to a resolution this year is the goal of cooking dinner on a regular basis. This includes planning ahead (sigh) and making a real grocery list each week. Not sure when I will find time to start looking for ideas in my cookbooks.
Now there are only 90 minutes left in 2007. Time to wrap this post up and try to relax a little. A note for the readers on Ravelry - I've finally posted some project pictures and there will be more on the way soon. Not sure when there will be time for blog posts about the projects, so the Ravelry descriptions might have to do for a while.
I'll end with my favorite picture from Christmas Day. :-)
I looked back at some of my posts from a year ago. They are about how I was feeling during the pregnancy, preparing the house for Heather's arrival, and finishing up the Christmas knitting. None of that to write about this year, although we still have lots of presents for Heather to put away just like last year. I need to decide which ones should stay in her room, which ones should stay in the living room, which ones should go in the 'corral' in the dining room and what should go into storage. I also need to go through her clothing again. There are lots of short-sleeved shirts that can go into storage since she got a good winter wardrobe for christmas and there is some stuff from the past few months that needs to be labeled. It isn't as critical as it used to be since clothing changes at daycare are more rare (knock on wood), but it needs to be done.
I'm pleased to announce that I was right. :-) Heather's on-and-off crankiness of the past couple of weeks was due to a new tooth. Number three has broken through the gum and our happy baby has returned. There has still been some night-waking and co-sleeping in response, but I'm hopeful that it is partially due to our recent travel and screwy schedule. Our recent trip did give me some insight into Heather's nap needs. Based on our experiences, I'd say that Heather could do one nap per day and she can adjust okay to schedule changes. She can do a 2-3-4 nap schedule, a 3-2-4 schedule, a 3-4-2 schedule, etc. But, I still think that she does better with two naps each day and her first nap 2 hours after waking up.
Heather is also doing better with table foods. She still seems somewhat reluctant, but tonight, after being encouraged by daddy, she fed herself pasta with sauce, peas and carrots. And at one point she seemed to be shoveling it all in as enthusiastically as she does her cheerios. I have to keep reminding myself to be patient. It is a lot easier to feed her mashed food with a spoon, but I know she needs to get used to more table foods so I can stop making her food separately.
The closest thing I have to a resolution this year is the goal of cooking dinner on a regular basis. This includes planning ahead (sigh) and making a real grocery list each week. Not sure when I will find time to start looking for ideas in my cookbooks.
Now there are only 90 minutes left in 2007. Time to wrap this post up and try to relax a little. A note for the readers on Ravelry - I've finally posted some project pictures and there will be more on the way soon. Not sure when there will be time for blog posts about the projects, so the Ravelry descriptions might have to do for a while.
I'll end with my favorite picture from Christmas Day. :-)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
About the Peanut
Heather is 10 months old. (How time flies!)
Overall, I would call her a happy girl. She's generally only cranky when she's hungry or tired, although there have been a few brief moments that we've seen a little bit of a temper. I think she's going to be a handful when she's a full-blown, walking toddler. Honestly, she seems like what I expect from a toddler now, just without the walking. She's as independent as she can be and has so much personality. I can't really think of her as a baby anymore...except maybe when she's nursing.
The thing I've learned in this parenting thing so far is that as soon as you get one thing figured out and under control, something else will get harder or toss you a curve. In our case, we seem to finally have a handle on a more regular bedtime, so Heather has decided that she has no interest in lying still for diaper changes anymore. Whenever possible, we double team her so the extra person can distract her.
Things are progressing on the food front. We haven't tried a lot of new things in the past couple of weeks. Although we did try pumpkin last week and chicken tonight. I have to figure out if there is anything else that Heather needs to try in order to share in the Chicken and Noodles my dad is making for Christmas Eve. :-) A few weeks ago, Heather wasn't interested in self-feeding anything other than Cheerios and Puffs (and she refused to let any meal pass without getting some of them), but I tried a few more finger foods this week and she seemed more receptive. I can tell that she isn't ready for an entire meal of finger foods. She is just a little too impatient and hungry for that, but I'm happy to be making another stride toward table food. Now I just have to figure out if there is a good way to prepare finger foods in advance like the purees. :-)
Heather is still crawling and cruising. She'll also walk a little bit holding our hands...although it's kind of a drunk walk. ;-) Her favorite thing at the moment is crawling over to the Christmas tree. She loves looking at it - the lights and the ornaments. She's also very enamored with ceiling lights and fans. Just turning on an overhead fan can stop a cranky baby in her tracks.
Occasionally she gets close to letting go and standing on her own, but she isn't quite there yet. It seems like it is just a matter of time. She doesn't have much fear when it comes to trying new things. She also still loves going swimming and really enjoys her bathtime. Splashing mommy and daddy is lots of fun!
Oh, and she wasn't at all scared of Santa. She just stared at him!
Overall, I would call her a happy girl. She's generally only cranky when she's hungry or tired, although there have been a few brief moments that we've seen a little bit of a temper. I think she's going to be a handful when she's a full-blown, walking toddler. Honestly, she seems like what I expect from a toddler now, just without the walking. She's as independent as she can be and has so much personality. I can't really think of her as a baby anymore...except maybe when she's nursing.
The thing I've learned in this parenting thing so far is that as soon as you get one thing figured out and under control, something else will get harder or toss you a curve. In our case, we seem to finally have a handle on a more regular bedtime, so Heather has decided that she has no interest in lying still for diaper changes anymore. Whenever possible, we double team her so the extra person can distract her.
Things are progressing on the food front. We haven't tried a lot of new things in the past couple of weeks. Although we did try pumpkin last week and chicken tonight. I have to figure out if there is anything else that Heather needs to try in order to share in the Chicken and Noodles my dad is making for Christmas Eve. :-) A few weeks ago, Heather wasn't interested in self-feeding anything other than Cheerios and Puffs (and she refused to let any meal pass without getting some of them), but I tried a few more finger foods this week and she seemed more receptive. I can tell that she isn't ready for an entire meal of finger foods. She is just a little too impatient and hungry for that, but I'm happy to be making another stride toward table food. Now I just have to figure out if there is a good way to prepare finger foods in advance like the purees. :-)
Heather is still crawling and cruising. She'll also walk a little bit holding our hands...although it's kind of a drunk walk. ;-) Her favorite thing at the moment is crawling over to the Christmas tree. She loves looking at it - the lights and the ornaments. She's also very enamored with ceiling lights and fans. Just turning on an overhead fan can stop a cranky baby in her tracks.
Occasionally she gets close to letting go and standing on her own, but she isn't quite there yet. It seems like it is just a matter of time. She doesn't have much fear when it comes to trying new things. She also still loves going swimming and really enjoys her bathtime. Splashing mommy and daddy is lots of fun!
Oh, and she wasn't at all scared of Santa. She just stared at him!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Still around here somewhere...
My mood seems to swing between totally overwhelmed and totally under control on a regular basis these days. On one hand, I'm in much better shape than I was two weeks ago. I'm still behind at work, but not as much since this week's trip was cancelled. And I was finally able to start cleaning up the house this weekend. But on the other, the house is still a big mess and I'm still behind at work. We're also running low on Heather's food and I really need to start getting in the habit of making a regular dinner so we can start eating as a family.
On the food front, Heather seemed to have a surprising intolerance to apples. But she has accepted avocado the past two nights when I mixed it with her oatmeal. I don't know if the texture or the flavor was the issue, but oatmeal fixed it. We've been offering her a sippy cup of water, which she seems pretty unimpressed with, and Gerber puffs for "dessert", which she has learned to feed herself! Since she has learned to move the puffs to her gums and munch on them, I don't think it's going to be too long until we start offering her some small chunks of real food and see how she does. Both exciting and scary!
I'm working on a pair of socks (my first regia sock yarn because it was the first Regia colorway I ever liked enough to buy) and I still have two baby sweaters to sew up and at least one more to make before the end of the year. But I don't expect a lot of at home knitting time until the house is clean enough for Heather to crawl around without getting her hands covered in cat hair. ;-)
More soon...
On the food front, Heather seemed to have a surprising intolerance to apples. But she has accepted avocado the past two nights when I mixed it with her oatmeal. I don't know if the texture or the flavor was the issue, but oatmeal fixed it. We've been offering her a sippy cup of water, which she seems pretty unimpressed with, and Gerber puffs for "dessert", which she has learned to feed herself! Since she has learned to move the puffs to her gums and munch on them, I don't think it's going to be too long until we start offering her some small chunks of real food and see how she does. Both exciting and scary!
I'm working on a pair of socks (my first regia sock yarn because it was the first Regia colorway I ever liked enough to buy) and I still have two baby sweaters to sew up and at least one more to make before the end of the year. But I don't expect a lot of at home knitting time until the house is clean enough for Heather to crawl around without getting her hands covered in cat hair. ;-)
More soon...
Monday, September 10, 2007
Peas....No
We have our first denial of food. At first I thought she was just tired, so we took a break, and she ate oatmeal without a problem. So I tried the peas again. Same immediate negative reaction.
So we left the table. She nursed, she played and then we went back to the table. This time, she had a full serving of oatmeal and enjoyed clicking her lips together to imitate me. Near the end of the bowl, I added just a dab of peas to the oatmeal.
Another crying fit.
So, what shall we try tomorrow night instead? :-)
So we left the table. She nursed, she played and then we went back to the table. This time, she had a full serving of oatmeal and enjoyed clicking her lips together to imitate me. Near the end of the bowl, I added just a dab of peas to the oatmeal.
Another crying fit.
So, what shall we try tomorrow night instead? :-)
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Squash, Formula and a lower mattress
There is no way to catch you all up on everything, but I think this will be a rambling post to do what I can.
First off, I'm in pretty good shape with the house tour stuff. It took every available minute last weekend to get everything ready that needed to go to the printer...but I made it. At 9pm on labor day night, I delivered a CD to my co-chair with the program, poster, ticket and postcard designs on it. Big, humongous CHECK. There are still a few other things on my to do list, but I think I can get most of them done before our next meeting on Tuesday.
The other highlights of last weekend is that Saturday night was R's high school reunion. For my benefit, I was thankful that there were two couples there that I had met before. Dave (who was in our wedding) and his wife, and Michelle (R's prom date) and her husband were in attendance, and as well as talking with them that night, we also saw them on Sunday so they could meet Heather and we could see their ever growing children again. (Dave and Reiko's youngest was still in the womb at our wedding!)
We actually stayed longer than we had originally planned, partially to see these friends, but mostly so that Heathe could have more time in the pool. The reunion started at 4pm and we left later than planned from Pittsburgh, so Saturday's dip was just too short. We had a great time on Sunday - Heather really enjoyed the water. We will have to go back more next summer. :-)
On to things about Heather. On the physical activity front, she's a dynamo. We heard from her teachers this week that she had sat up on her own. It seemed that she had pulled up on a toy. Well, maybe she did then, but today she sat up with no toys around! She figured out how to get from all fours to a sitting position. I saw her do it in the crib. Even before I saw it, we decided to lower her mattress in the crib...figuring that it would only be a matter of time until it was necessary. While I was at it, I installed her new crib mirror (thanks grandma and grandpa!) and finally made an adjustment to her mobile so it could be used on her crib.
On the food front, things have been moving slowly so far. In a month, she's had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potato and squash. Given that we can try something new every three days, that's pretty slow. :-) Honestly, a big part of it is how busy I've been. I've traveled for work two weeks in a row and we only had sweet potato and squash in the freezer. Truly, since solids are just for practice at this point, it is pretty easy to put them off when there is a lot of other stuff going on. And we have to try new foods with Heather before they'll give them to her at daycare. But today I made peas, bananas and more squash (she really seemed to like it yesterday and today) and we bought apples, green beans, pears, carrots and avocados. I hope to make at least a couple of those tomorrow in between vacuuming and laundry.
On the milk front, the milk stash officially ran out while I was on my trip this past week. And just like the solids, it was necessary for Heather to have formula at home before they would give it to her there. So on Thursday morning, she had her first full bottle of formula. Since my last trip was longe than my next trip, I don't expect that we'll run out again until I go on one of the longer trips again.
It bothers me less than I thought it would and pumping during business trips truly stinks. Although I successfully squeezed the gallon or so of milk that I pumped into my checked suitcase. :-) I'm tempted to try to wean from the pumping and just BF when I'm with Heather, but I'm to scared that I'll have to stop all together, so I'm not willing to try it for a few more months at least.
Not much knitting to report on. The secret knitting continues (and I need to get on that) and I started a stole from Victorian Lace Knitting on my last trip. So far I like the pattern in the yarn I'm working with (Helen's Laces). Although I might not work on it again until my next business trip since the secret knitting is bulkier.
I'm tired and I've written quite a bit, so that will have to be my catching up for now. More soon.
First off, I'm in pretty good shape with the house tour stuff. It took every available minute last weekend to get everything ready that needed to go to the printer...but I made it. At 9pm on labor day night, I delivered a CD to my co-chair with the program, poster, ticket and postcard designs on it. Big, humongous CHECK. There are still a few other things on my to do list, but I think I can get most of them done before our next meeting on Tuesday.
The other highlights of last weekend is that Saturday night was R's high school reunion. For my benefit, I was thankful that there were two couples there that I had met before. Dave (who was in our wedding) and his wife, and Michelle (R's prom date) and her husband were in attendance, and as well as talking with them that night, we also saw them on Sunday so they could meet Heather and we could see their ever growing children again. (Dave and Reiko's youngest was still in the womb at our wedding!)
We actually stayed longer than we had originally planned, partially to see these friends, but mostly so that Heathe could have more time in the pool. The reunion started at 4pm and we left later than planned from Pittsburgh, so Saturday's dip was just too short. We had a great time on Sunday - Heather really enjoyed the water. We will have to go back more next summer. :-)
On to things about Heather. On the physical activity front, she's a dynamo. We heard from her teachers this week that she had sat up on her own. It seemed that she had pulled up on a toy. Well, maybe she did then, but today she sat up with no toys around! She figured out how to get from all fours to a sitting position. I saw her do it in the crib. Even before I saw it, we decided to lower her mattress in the crib...figuring that it would only be a matter of time until it was necessary. While I was at it, I installed her new crib mirror (thanks grandma and grandpa!) and finally made an adjustment to her mobile so it could be used on her crib.
On the food front, things have been moving slowly so far. In a month, she's had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potato and squash. Given that we can try something new every three days, that's pretty slow. :-) Honestly, a big part of it is how busy I've been. I've traveled for work two weeks in a row and we only had sweet potato and squash in the freezer. Truly, since solids are just for practice at this point, it is pretty easy to put them off when there is a lot of other stuff going on. And we have to try new foods with Heather before they'll give them to her at daycare. But today I made peas, bananas and more squash (she really seemed to like it yesterday and today) and we bought apples, green beans, pears, carrots and avocados. I hope to make at least a couple of those tomorrow in between vacuuming and laundry.
On the milk front, the milk stash officially ran out while I was on my trip this past week. And just like the solids, it was necessary for Heather to have formula at home before they would give it to her there. So on Thursday morning, she had her first full bottle of formula. Since my last trip was longe than my next trip, I don't expect that we'll run out again until I go on one of the longer trips again.
It bothers me less than I thought it would and pumping during business trips truly stinks. Although I successfully squeezed the gallon or so of milk that I pumped into my checked suitcase. :-) I'm tempted to try to wean from the pumping and just BF when I'm with Heather, but I'm to scared that I'll have to stop all together, so I'm not willing to try it for a few more months at least.
Not much knitting to report on. The secret knitting continues (and I need to get on that) and I started a stole from Victorian Lace Knitting on my last trip. So far I like the pattern in the yarn I'm working with (Helen's Laces). Although I might not work on it again until my next business trip since the secret knitting is bulkier.
I'm tired and I've written quite a bit, so that will have to be my catching up for now. More soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
