avocado face!

Elliot tried avocado today. At first, he wasn't too sure about it... but it was really thick, so I added some water. After that, he gobbled it right up!


Making avocados was super easy! All I did was cut a chunk off, scoop out the flesh, mash it up, and add a little water.



Stay tuned tomorrow for a really great review/giveaway!

sixteen.

16 days!
Our new furniture has been delivered {it's gorgeous!}, the movers will be here in just over a week, and we've been moved to the top of the housing list. To top it off, plans for Elliot's baptism and our little retreat to Macinac Island are almost complete.
Life is good.

circumcision in the media.

It looks like my husband and I are not the only ones who think circumcision is not medically necessary.
Medicaid no longer covers circumcision in eighteen states.
Read the article here.

"That's a good thing, because paying someone to amputate a healthy functional body part from an unconsenting minor is not just a waste of taxpayer money — it's also a violation of human rights."
-Matthew Hess {I couldn't have said it better myself!}

As natural parenting moves into the limelight, controversial topics such as breast feeding in public, cosleeping, cloth diapers, and circumcision are making their way into the media more and more. In fact, circumcision rates are going down rather quickly. In many US hospitals, it is now close to 50/50. Times are changing. Parents are challenging the status quo, instead of blindly doing "what everyone else does"- in all different areas of parenting. I think this is a very good thing.

Are you pregnant and wondering whether or not to have your son circumcised?
I recommend the following links:
Peaceful Parenting's "Are You Fully Informed?" circumcision resource page.
Circumcision Resource Center
Kids Health: Circumcision
Mothers Against Circumcision

{I realize that this is a very touchy subject. I'm not condemning those who chose circumcision. Either way, it's YOUR decision and nobody can tell you what you should or shouldn't do. I just wanted to provide some information and sources for those who may be trying to make this difficult decision. Luckily, I had a wonderful OB who presented me with a bunch of pamplets and printed articles on the subject. I know not everyone is so lucky!}

"big people" food? Yes, please!

Elliot is absolutely loving all the big people food he's been getting lately. I have decided, for now, to just make his purees in a plain old steamer and blender. We'll see how long that lasts... if I get too tired of it, maybe I'll reconsider buying a fancy Beaba or Brezza. For now, though, the "old fashioned way" is working well!
So far, Elliot has tried apples and bananas. He likes them both in all forms- homemade applesauce, whole apple slices, big chunks of banana or mashed up. In fact, he likes them SO MUCH that he hasn't really been drinking bottles except for at night and before naps. Now, this wouldn't really bother me {formula, gross!} BUT he won't drink water. So we're still working on that.
Boy, does this kid like to eat! I'm not kidding. This morning, he had a big bowl of homemade applesauce, followed by half of a banana. Since he was still acting hungry, he then ate two apple slices in his mesh feeder, too! Yet he is still such a scrawny little guy! I don't get it. He must've gotten his mama's metabolism.
Next, we're trying avocado, and then we're venturing into the world of veggies... starting with either sweet potato or carrots. Fun, fun!

nature boy.

After six straight days of rain, the sun finally decided to show his face and break through the clouds today. In fact, it was a downright BEAUTIFUL day. We had no idea just how nice it was going to be... so chose to deep clean the house this morning {and I mean DEEP clean- even washing the walls and vacuuming the window screens}.
I have no idea why in the world we didn't do this on one of the last few days, when it was too cold and gross out to go outside. I will admit, however, that my eyes are less red and my nose is less runny, so all that spring summer cleaning must have done something for my allergies. That's always a plus.
After I showered and rinsed off all the bleach, Elliot and I spent the rest of the afternoon outside. We went for a walk and Elliot did a bunch of new things: he looked at the fish in the pond, smelled a bunch of flowers, and fed the horses.
We decided to go to the 5:00 mass so that we could relax tomorrow morning. Elliot has been getting a burst of energy every time we go to church lately. WOW. That's all I can say. He's crazy!
To wrap the day up, he had a big bowl of homemade applesauce, a bath, a bottle, and then proceeded to fight sleep for almost an hour. I like to sing songs to Elliot while I'm rocking him, and today the song "It Won't be Like This for Long" by Darius Rucker came on. I thought I finally had my hormones under control but I guess not, because I totally burst into tears. My little boy is just growing up so fast.
"This phase is gonna fly by, so baby just hold on.
It won't be like this for long."

A few pictures of my little nature lover exploring today:







and very excited to go for a walk:

It's here!

Guess what? My new laptop is here!
Here's a video of me testing out the webcam:

apples, anyone?

Elliot has been extremely constipated so I decided to temporarily give up on bananas and make Elliot some homemade applesauce. I'm glad I did, because it was easy and Elliot LOVED them! It also helped his little problem ;).
We're phasing cereal out of his diet and are going to continue with apples for the rest of this week, and then we're going to try avocado! After that, we're trying our first veggie-probably either sweet potato or carrots. I'm also experimenting with baby led weaning and plan to start using our baby safe mesh feeder soon, too.
Starting solids is so exciting!


First, peel, core, and chop 5-8 apples of your choice. I think these are Braeburn.


Next, put the chopped apples into a steamer and steam until soft.


Blend, adding the steaming water if neccessary, until smooth.


Pretty sure he loved it- he ate the whole bowl!


We're slipping and could REALLY use some votes. I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but I promise to post much better posts full of adorable pictures as soon as my new computer gets here- which should be tomorrow or the next day!

I've been bad.

I've been a bad blogger. I know.
It just takes so long to do posts on my ipad, and time is a commodity when you have a wild {CRAWLING!} six month old and no husband around to help.
Yes, you read that right: Elliot is starting to crawl! He's also just learning how to go forwards in his walker. You know what that means? I need to do some serious baby proofing. Like, yesterday.
I'm also busy getting ready for our move to Texas. Aaron finally got his orders. He will be flying in on July 14th at 10:30pm, so my father-in-law and I {and Elliot, of course} will be driving down to meet him, staying in a hotel for the night, and then visiting friends in the area the next day before heading back up north. I have planned am planning a lot of things to do while he's home on leave for fifteen days before we fly out to Texas, too- Elliot's baptism, an overnight trip to Macinac Island {possibly WITHOUT the baby?! Eeep!}, camping, and visiting a lot of family and friends.
We had to leave behind a lot of our furniture and things during the move from Arizona to Korea, so I've also been making some big purchases lately- a gorgeous new bedroom set, dining room table, new dishes, bedding, etc. I can't wait to see it all set up in our new home!
I have A BUNCH of photos to post, but don't really like editing on my iPad, so I shall be posting them later this week when my new laptop arrives! Yay!
23 days! ♥

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day. This is a bittersweet holiday for me, because Elliot and his daddy do not get to spend their very first Father's Day together. It just seems wrong. The last time Aaron saw Elliot, he was only six weeks old. SIX WEEKS!! Elliot has changed and grown so much since then... and Aaron has missed so much. I know he would have loved to be here for every moment of the last sox months, but he couldn't. That's just army life. I've grown to accept it. It doesn't mean I have to like it, though!
Even when he is hundreds of miles away, in a foreign country, Aaron is still a wonderful father. I knew he would be! There was never a shadow of doubt in my mind. I can't wait to see both of my boys together again... in only 25 days!
Some of my favorite father-son pictures {taken before I had my fabulous Canon DSLR} :

Elliot: 6 months!

Elliot is six months old today. 6 months: 182 days, 24 weeks, half of a year. This one trumps all the other month birthdays so far- by a long shot. I remember reading other blogs when Elliot was only one or two months old and thinking, six month old babies are so big. They're more like toddlers and less like little babies. Suddenly, Elliot is six months old, too. He's one of those babies that I always marveled out. Holy cow, how did that happen?!

This month:
♥ Elliot weighs 16 lbs {according to my scale at home}
♥ he is wearing mostly 3-6 month onesies and rompers, and 0-3 pants and shorts
♥ he is eating 6 ounces every 2-4 hours during the day and 2-4 ounces every 2-3 hours at night
♥ he sleeps in his crib half the night and my bed the other half. I call us part-time cosleepers :) I love this arrangement!
♥ it can be very tricky to get him to go to sleep these days... bedtime usually involves rocking, walking, singing, or cuddling... or a combination of all 4
♥ he is taking one long nap in the morning, one long nap in the afternoon, and a short nap in the evening. He goes to bed between 9:00 and 10:30pm
♥ he got his first two teeth and they are HUGE now and very sharp
♥ he rolled over for the first time!
♥ he can sit unassisted in laps, on the beach, or sometimes outside on the grass, but he can't sit up on his own on carpeted or hard wood floors yet
♥ his favorite toys are still Sophie the Giraffe and his plastic keys
♥ he can walk all over the place in his walker... but only going backwards. He hasn't figured out how to go forwards yet.
♥ He likes to stick his fingers in people's mouth and nose
♥ He gives kisses and sometimes "hugs" on command
♥ We found out that he really, really likes dogs!
♥ We took him to the beach for the first time and he has become quite the beach baby
♥ Anytime he is crying, if you take him outside he will stop almost immediately
♥ He loves going for walks in the stroller and also loves grocery shopping
♥ He's still not shy AT ALL and will go to ANYONE. He has no fear of strangers whatsoever. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing!
♥ He loves to be thrown up above your head
♥ He's full of laughter and fun.

Happy half birthday, Elliot Reid. Mama loves you!

not a banana boy

If Elliot had a personal ad, it would go something like this: "Hello! My name is Elliot. I'm six months old. I like long walks on the beach, drooling, and my plastic keys... but I don't like bananas."
Did you catch that?? Elliot is six months old today!" To celebrate, he tried banana for the first time. I was fairly confident that he would like them, since all my books said that bananas were one of the most widely accepted {and enjoyed} first foods. Well, apparently Elliot didn't get the memo. He didn't like them at all! First, he tried a bite of the whole banana, and he didn't like that. Then, I mashed it up and mixed it with a little formula. Nope. Finally, I tried to just sneak some into his cereal... and he wouldn't eat that, either!! I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. The bananas weren't super ripe yet, though, so we'll try it again in a couple days.
The official six month post will be coming later. For now, some more pictures of the birthday boy this morning:









Could you spare a moment and vote for us? I'd like to get back to where we were. Thanks!

a puppy for Elliot...

As I've already mentioned before, Elliot is OBSESSED with dogs. He absolutely adores them, which is good, because Aaron and I love dogs, too! We're planning to get a new puppy once we get settled into our new home in Texas. As much as I love big dogs, I think a smaller dog would fit into our lifestyle much better right now, with all the moving and traveling that we do. My husband really wants a miniature pinscher. At first, I wasn't so sure how they got along with babies and small kids. Well, check THIS out! :)





Cute, right? Maybe I'll have to give this breed more thought! We did play with a few different min pin pups at a pet store a few times, and let me tell you: they have a LOT of energy. Coincidentally, so does Elliot. I think they'd get along just fine ;)

another beautiful day

Today was an absolutely beautiful day, and after all of that cold and rain we just had, I made sure we made the best of it! We spent most of the day outside- other than lunch {chinese buffet, yum!} and, for Elliot, nap time, but he hardly slept at all today. I don't blame him- could you sleep if there was a whole beautiful world full of exciting new things right outside your window? Yeah, I didn't think so. Elliot can't get enough of the great outdoors. He just loves it- rain or shine, sand or sun, grass or dirt. He doesn't discriminate, he loves it all. Whenever he's tired and cranky, if you take him outside, he stops crying immediately.
29 days and my husband will be home. Twenty-nine days. I can't believe it. Soon, we will be able to enjoy beautiful days like this together. We could go hiking, biking, camping, and exploring as a family. Just the three of us. My heart skips a beat just thinking about it. 29 days doesn't seem like very many when he's already been gone for eleven months {minus the six weeks he was home while Elliot was in the NICU}. Plus, there is still lots to be done to prepare for upcoming move. I'm sure the days will fly by.
You're probably thinking, okay, enough babbling, where are the PICTURES? You know me too well ;) Here you go:


The only bad thing about sunshine? When it shines into the bedroom, Elliot wakes up early. Here he is wide awake and ready to play at 7:00 this morning.


My brother Matthew playing horseshoes.


Elliot cheering them on!


Pretty much my favorite picture of Elliot and I. Ever.


Playing with uncle Matthew.


I love bumblebees! Such fat, fuzzy, friendly little guys.


The rose bushes I got my mom for mother's day are still blooming!

Beach day!

We went to the beach today. It was pretty windy, but Elliot still had a blast. He is definitely a beach baby! He still really liked the water and if he had it his way, he would've gone all the way in... but it wasn't warm enough for that!
The one thing I will miss about northern Michigan once we leave will be the beaches. There are so many beautiful lakes nearby and it's just so easy to pack up and head to the beach for a few hours! I love it.
A few of my favorite pictures from today {horribly edited on my iPad...}

pinterest

Guys, I have a new obsession: pinterest. I used to just gather ideas online and organize them into a bunch of bookmark folders, but this is so much easier! If you haven't joined yet, you definitely should! And if you have, please follow me. Oh, and if you're not already, why not follow me on twitter too?
Thanks for all the votes yesterday. You guys rock!
Just for fun, here are some of my recent pins:

Source: love-remains-the-same.tumblr.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: aprilmackinnon.files.wordpress.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: weheartit.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: quote-book.tumblr.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: designspongeonline.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: joannagoddard.blogspot.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: carlasdeleon.blogspot.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: None via Jess on Pinterest