Express Yo' Self!

I can't get enough of this little face you guys. I love his early morning face, his middle of the night face, his yawn face, his sleepy face, his grunt face, his furrowed brow, his poop face, his sad face, his slobbery face, his I love bath time face, his I just ate something disgusting face, his curious face, his happy face, his hungry face, his studious face. Since I take way more pictures than I can keep up with in blog posts, here are some of my favorite Aiden expressions lately...

Be still my heart. <3

Aiden {7 Months}

My sweet boy is 7 months old. As soon as he hit 6 months, he was doing a new trick every single day. He is sitting up so well now, he is riding in the shopping cart and sitting in a high chair. He is eating solid foods and making all kinds of crazy noises. It is all happening so fast! Out of all the months so far, this one has been the most eventful and I feel he is changing from my little baby to my little man with oh so much personality!

He still adores his daddy and is finding him more hilarious than ever. He mimics us when we do things, but he finds his daddy's noises especially entertaining. I love how much he loves his daddy.

This month people are starting to say they see more of me in Aiden. Watch out Daddy!  love seeing a few curls forming on the top of his head and am hoping he gets my curly hair. I still think he is the perfect blend of both Drew and I. We swear he is already saying "Mama" which I hear is unusual since most babies make the sounds for "Dada" first. If he is anything like his Dad though, his first word will be cookie or ball. 

For the most part, Aiden doesn't get upset very easily or very often. He has such an easy going personality and he absolutely loves to laugh! Something new makes him laugh every day. One day it will be a popping noise we make on accident, the next day it will be a silly word I say. We love our happy boy. This photo shoot was poorly timed and required Daddy's help. All Aiden is thinking in this picture is why won't she stop taking pictures and feed me already? Haha. I had to include one of his fussy face pictures though because it's adorable.

A few stats about Aiden at seven months:

Weight: At his 6 month check up he weighed almost 17 pounds and is in the 50th percentile for weight. His rolls and chunky thighs make me a proud mama.

Height: Am I a terrible mother for not remember his height from last month's appointment? All I remember is the Pediatrician telling me he is in the 10th percentile for height and head size. Aw, my little peanut.

Size clothes: He is wearing mostly 6 month clothes and some 9 month clothes. All of his 3-6 month clothes are now officially out of his closet and put in storage. He also  just graduated up to size 3 diapers.

Sleeping: He is still sleeping well in his crib and he is still sleeping in his Merlin Sleep Suit. After trying a few solid foods that messed with his belly we've had a few rough nights, but overall he sleeps 7-8 hours in his crib each night and naps decent during the day.

Eating: This month was huge because Aiden started eating solids! So far he has tried Avocado, Sweet Potato, Carrots, Pears, Peas and Banana. The top contenders right now are Sweet Potato and Banana with Pear coming in a close 3rd. Let's just say bananas might have been at the top of the list until they caused him not to poop for 48 hours. Yikes! Nothing a little prune juice couldn't fix though. 

I decided to make all of Aiden's food and wrote a post with some of my favorite products and a few tips for making your own baby food, you can find it here if you are interested.

Random stuff only parents want to know:

Nicknames: Bubba, Boo Boo, Curly top, Stinker, Buster

Likes: Trying new foods, attempting to break indestructible books (it's his mission), playing in his baby pool, reading Sandra Boynton books, listening to music

Dislikes:  Not being able to poop for almost 3 days straight, Avocado, the first diaper change of the day

         One Month Update          Two Month Update         Three Month Update        Four Month Update

     Five Month Update          Six Month Update        

Month 8 here we come...

Happily Ever After {Shirley's Bridal Shower}

My cousin Shirley is getting married in August so my Mom, Sister and I threw her her first (and best ever) shower. The theme was fittingly, Happily ever after. Since most of our family lives out of town we planned for things to last the entire afternoon. We started out with lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Grand Finale.

We ate a delicious lunch, watched Shirley open gifts and laughed as we read aloud our answers to a wedding style Mad libs. Let's just say when Shirley and Aaron cut their cake their will be fist bumps and head bobs and I think we decided on pickles as the meal each guest would receive. Ha.

After spending a few hours at the restaurant we headed back to my house for dessert and a craft. The girls in our family love a good project (see our baby onesie making party here). We decided to have each guest make a scrapbook page including a picture from my cousin's engagement shoot and incorporate a piece of advice to help them keep their Happily Ever After. It turned out so cute! I loved seeing the pages come together and reading the sweet words of wisdom.

My house was also where the husbands were with the babies so you can bet the babies did their part as entertainment. This picture says it all. I love everything about it.

Then we had to get all the girl cousins together for our "squish" picture, which we take every time we are together and now have dozens of. I love these girls with all my heart.

I can't wait to see these pretty faces again in August! 

Baby's First Food {Tips and Products for making your own baby food}

Maybe it's because I'm a new Mom, but I have been looking forward to making Aiden's food for a few months now. I pinned tons of ideas and baby food recipes online and have been researching the best options for my little guy. After some research I decided to skip rice cereal and go straight for pureed veggies. I had no clue what babies could or could not eat and how to prepare food for them, but I'm learning little by little and I feel so proud watching Aiden eat things that I made. Two weeks in to making my own baby food and I have to say I am still excited about it and it really is not that hard or time consuming. You just need the right products and I promise this whole homemade baby food thing can be fun.

Here are a few products I have found helpful and a few things I've learned along the way...

Helpful products for making your own baby food:
BEABA BabyCook:This item is a little on the pricey side, but as my friend and fellow blogger, Anne told me, it's worth it! It both purees and steams your foods making the process much easier and leaving you with less items to clean and put away. If you don't have one of these, no worries, a blender and pot to steam will do the trick.

Garden Fresh Freezer Trays:These trays are perfect for freezing baby food in batches. The tray holds 9 individual portions, which are each approximately 1 ounce, which is the perfect portion for beginning solids! I have made and frozen several batches of baby food using these trays and they are awesome. I love that they have a lid since most store bought ice cube trays do not. They don't take up a lot of room in the freezer and they are non-stick making it easy to pop the frozen food right out of the tray when you need it.

Nuby Easy Go Bowl

Munchkin Soft-Tip Infant Spoons

Wipeable Bibs

A few tips for making your own baby food:
Start Small: You may have your ice cube trays prepped and ready for filling, but don't start making your baby food in batches until you know it is something that your baby actually likes. I got a little ahead of myself and decided to puree 6 avocados and put them in my nice little freezer trays all set to go. Well that was a rookie mom mistake because it turns out Aiden doesn't love avocados (yet.) See above pictures for proof.

Keep it Simple: When debating about which food to give Aiden first I decided on Avocado mainly because it is the easiest thing in the world to "make." You don't have to do any steaming or baking! All you need to do to prep an avocado for your baby is wash the skin, slice in half, remove the pit and scoop out the "meat." Then puree it and bam...you made your own baby food. Congratulations!

Less is more: Stage 1 of feeding a baby is giving them single ingredient purees. Just avocado, just banana, just peas, etc. Don't try to get too fancy too fast. Trying individual flavors first allows you to see what your baby likes, but it also lets you know if they are allergic to something or if something causes them to have a tummy ache. I also read that a lot of people add water or breast milk to thin out the purees to make the consistency runnier for baby. I thought I needed to do that, but really I didn't need to. I would have your baby try the puree first before you mess with it. If your baby is fine with the consistency, there is no need to make it thinner. 

Make it fun: Take a trip to your local farmer's market to pick up fresh foods for your baby to try. Make a plan of what you are going to feed them and let your husband have some say too. We had so much fun giving Aiden banana because it was totally unplanned. He was reaching for my husband's banana and so we mashed one up and gave it to him right then and there. He loved it! Take pictures and videos and share them with your family because your baby WILL make hilarious faces when eating their first foods!

Here are a few posts I found very helpful when researching homemade baby foods:
How to Make Your Own Baby Food
All About Solids
The BabyFood Breakdown
Stage 1 Baby Food Recipes

What are some of your favorite foods to make or feed your little one??

Full weekend, full heart {Memorial Day Weekend 2015}

This weekend was full of family and full of fun. It was a sweet one and thankfully a long one! While I did enjoy an extra day off work, I do not take my freedom lightly and am so thankful to all who have gone before me and continue to pave the way for us to enjoy the freedoms we do...

Friday afternoon my sister came in town and since it was a gorgeous day we took Aiden on a walk in to our  downtown area to our local coffee shop. We sat outside and caught up on some sister talk.

Friday night my sister, Mom and I worked on some shower prep for my cousin's bridal shower Saturday and my Dad and brother joined us for a pizza break on our back patio. It was our first outdoor meal of the season at our house and Aiden ate with us too (sweet potato instead of pizza though).

Saturday my Mom, sister and I hosted a shower for my cousin, Shirley who is getting married in August. We had a lovely day, but that deserves a post of it's own. I just love my curly haired cousins.

Sunday my sister in law and brother in law had us over for a cookout. Aiden played in his pool turned ball pit and we sipped on drinks and chatted on their patio.

The faces we make to get a baby to laugh are priceless!

Monday Drew and I took Aiden to the zoo for the first time. It was overcast and scattered showers were in the forecast so it wasn't very crowded at all. We had a great time and Aiden did too.

We were all exhausted after our big weekend so we ended our weekend with a movie and family nap on the pullout couch. The cats even joined in. Bring on a short work week!

Mama's night out

My girlfriend, Alison recently had her second set of twins and was in need of a girl's night so our sweet husbands piled all 5 of our kids in their minivan and took off on an adventure so we could have a Mama's night out! That's 3 car seats, 2 booster seats and two awesome Dads pictured below.

Alison and I had no plans until we started driving away and we ended up out on the patio at Bravo's, wine in hand. It was a gorgeous night and we didn't get any calls from our husbands asking where bottles or burp cloths were or what time we would be home so we soaked it all in. 

We had a delicious dinner then strolled through the streets lined with shops and being the book nerds that we are, found ourselves in Barnes & Noble. We decided to buy the same book so we could talk about it as we read. 

The only text we received while we were out was this picture. It says it all. Our husbands are awesome and extremely brave. They must love us A LOT. And since they did such a good job, Alison and I are already planning Mama's night out part 2.

My First Documented Mom Fail

Dear Aiden,
While I wish I could say I am the perfect Mom and will never fail you, I can't. I am an imperfect person chosen by God to to live every day trying my best to make your life a wonderful one. I do my best to keep you safe and to make you feel so very loved, but there are times that I will fail. Last week was one of those times.

I decided to take you on a walk to the library. We live a few miles from the library and the forecast said storms were a few hours off so I strapped you in and off we went.

We made it to the library, I picked up the book I had on hold and we managed to get about half a mile down the road when all of the sudden it started pouring down rain on us. Thankfully your stroller covered you up most of the way, but I will admit that at first I was terrified. This was something that was not in my control. My first thought was where can I take shelter? Then there was a crack of thunder. We were still miles from home and there was no place for us to go so the only thing I could do was start running. I ran and ran and wondered what people must think of me. I felt people judging me from the inside of their warm dry houses thinking what in the heck is that mom doing with her infant out in the rain. But I kept running.

You were perfectly content in your stroller and probably didn't even really have a clue that we could have been in any sort of danger. As I ran, two different people offered me help. One was an older gentleman watching the storm from inside his garage and the other was a man loading up his truck in his driveway. It felt good to know that someone cared, but at that point I felt I just needed to keep running, so I did.

By the time we reached our street the dark clouds had rolled away and the rain let up. Sun began to shine through the clouds and I looked at you and smiled. I was soaked and out of breath, but we made it home safe and sound. The only real damage done was to my library book. Oops.

Life is like that. A storm will roll in when you least expect it, but you can fear it or you can embrace it. When people offer you help it eases the hardship and makes you feel less alone. You have to ignore the judgements of others and focus on you. When you don't get worked up about the storms in life, they can actually turn into adventures.

I want to always be able to keep you safe from the storms, but sometimes they roll in unexpectedly so my promise to you is to always do my best. To always love you unconditionally and to put your needs before mine. I love you so much and hope you can always face a storm and come out smiling. I love you little buddy.

Love, Your Mama