Entertaining the "beast"

Avery was in a mood today-a not-so-good-mood. She was very whiny and crying a lot today, which she normally doesn't do. Yesterday she woke up from her nap with a stuffed up nose so I don't know if that is bothering her. Or if it's her non-existant teeth doing something? She normally doesn't fuss unless she's tired or hungry, so something must have been bothering her today. She did get better in the evening, which was nice. This is when I wish they could talk and tell you what's wrong with them. It's frustrating not knowing how to help them!

So I took some pics of her today since I was trying a lot of new things to entertain her and distract her a few minutes here and there.
Pushing up high on her stomach:

She loves seeing herself in the mirror:


Teeny tiny toes:


I attempted giving her some ice in one of those mesh feeders and she was pretty interested in it. Not sure if it was soothing somehow or if it was the newness of it that interested her:



Today we also tried a new veggie...peas! She ate the first 2 spoonfuls without a reaction, then we got the winner!

Put Her in Jail!

Gabe told me about a story at lunch today so I had to look it up when I got home.

This article makes me mad!

Seriously?! Changing a diaper on a stove-how genius is that?! Who in their right mind when they have a dirty diaper thinks "stove? Sounds like a good place to me!" Unreal! I just don't understand how that thought comes into your head. Especially a 44 year old woman who I'm sure reared kids of her own (which is a scary thought).

And who has to deal with the consequences? A sweet, innocent baby....for the rest of her life! That's unfair.

I hope her ass gets thrown in the slammer!

Oatmeal & Applesauce

Today was a dinner full of new things for Avery! She has become a "pro" with the rice cereal but when I went shopping last weekend, I decided to pick up a box of baby oatmeal to try next. Last night we finished the rice cereal so tonight was the debut of oatmeal.... First taste:
Unsure.... This isn't what I'm used to! She wasn't a huge fan. But with everything so far, it takes her a few days to get used to it, then she seems to like it. Hopefully that happens with the oatmeal. We also finished off her sweet potatoes yesterday so today we moved on to her first fruit-apples! I cooked a few last night and pureed them for her so we could try them tonight. I took a video of her first few spoonfuls but unfortunately the video is too big to post on here! It's a shame because it's pretty funny! Again, she was not a huge fan, but we'll see if she warms up to them soon!

Sweet Potato Face

Wednesday we gave Avery her 2nd "real" food-sweet potatoes! I made them myself (very easy by the way) on Tuesday night and thought they'd be a hit-they tasted so good! Well, it was the funniest reaction we've gotten yet and of course we didn't have the cameras ready for it! The only way I could describe her face was that it looked like she was sucking on a lemon! It was priceless!

Last night was night 2 of them, so we grabbed the camera ready to get that reaction again....but she didn't cooperate. We got this face:

Cute and funny, but not as good as night 1. Next time we know night 1 of a new food=be ready with a camera!

Frittata

So last night I had no idea what to make for dinner. We had some random leftovers in the fridge to use-steak and pasta so I knew I had to use them. I started doing some thinking and was thinking I could use eggs somehow. But I didn't want to do steak and eggs mainly because we didn't have a lot of steak, and then what would I do with the pasta? So I started some searching online for ideas and came across some frittatas that used pasta and eggs. So I thought, why not add the steak to it? So, that was my concoction! I'll list the ingredients, but I really am not sure of the measurements of our leftovers-I'm just estimating those!

Frittata
olive oil
6 eggs, beaten
steak (~6oz)
pasta (~1-2cups, ours was spaghetti with no sauce)
crumbled bacon bits
parmesan cheese
mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400. Cut steak into small pieces. Heat a small amount of oil into a frying pan and warm up steak. Add bacon crumbles near the end to warm them briefly.
2. Beat eggs in a bowl. Add pasta (cut into 2" size pieces) and mix.
3. When steak is warmed, add to the pasta/egg mixture and mix again. Pour the mixture back into the frying pan. Don't stir while it cooks-let set a few minutes and you can lift the edges to let more raw egg get to the bottom. You should let it cook roughly 8min (on med-low heat) until egg is browned and set. Sprinkle top with parmesan and mozzarella.
4. Take the entire skillet and put in the oven. Let bake about 10min or until egg is cooked through. If you like your cheese browned/crispy (like I do-yum!), you can broil it for a few minutes after.



Close up shot

Verdict: this was very yummy! I'm one for making weird concoctions with eggs, rice, etc so this was right up my alley to begin with. I wasn't sure what Gabe would think of it, but he liked it as well! Definitely will be on our list again and it's a good way to clean out the fridge!

It's a Myth People, a Myth!!

What's the first thing people ask when you tell them you have a baby? Ok, besides gender, name, etc.

The dreaded question....

"Is he/she sleeping through the night?"

I loathe that question...loathe it.

When my response is "no" I know immediately what is going to follow.

First the look that's half pity, half "you suck as a parent". (And what's with the pressure for your child to sleep through the night anyways? Besides not feeling exhausted...)
Then the other comment that makes me cringe....

"is she eating cereal yet?"

As of today, my answer will be "yes" and is it helping her sleep? NO! Her sleeping is the same as it was weeks ago, in fact, it might even be worse than a few weeks ago.

It's an old wives tale people!! Cereal does not equal sleeping through the night!

A few months ago before I was even thinking of starting solids, I was looking through websites, books, magazines, email lists I'm on, etc. Most of them at some point mentioned that there has been new research going on about how starting solids has nothing to do with how a baby sleeps. They suggest starting solids closer to 6months (instead of 4) because there's really no benefit in doing them before.

I can't tell you how many people have told me that once Avery started cereal, she would sleep better. I work with patients everyday and heard the comment so frequently. I would just nod and smile and keep my thoughts to myself. Maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong. Would an old wives tale be correct or would this new research shine through? Time would tell....

We started Avery on cereal about a week before she was 6months. My gut told me it wouldn't change things, although I was secretly hoping it would. And the result?

Research seems like it's correct in our case. Cereal hasn't done a darn thing to help that child sleep better. She's eating it twice a day now along with some veggies and still waking up overnight like a champ!!

So, if someone tells you to try cereal before bed....you can, but don't get your hopes up too high!

Happy New Year...and Merry Christmas??

Let's start with New Year's Eve. I had to work that day and when I got home we did a few things to get ready for some company. Our neighbors, Dan and Kate, came over to ring in the new year. They were nice enough to bring over dinner-homemade mac-n-cheese (YUM!) and sausage bread. We made a salad, some appetizers and had stuff here for dessert. It was pretty low-key...we ate dinner, then played a fun game called Apples to Apples then watched the ball drop while drinking some Dom P! I actually made it until midnight which was a miracle in itself! It was a very nice evening!!

Speaking of the new year, I can't believe we're starting a new decade-2010! I remember back when it was 1999 and the whole Y2K thing was going on-it's hard to believe that was 10 years ago already. Let's see-I was 20 years old, living at home with my parents, attending Buffalo State College, working at Rizzo's waitressing. Gabe was nowhere on my radar at that point. To think how life changes over that time-wow!

We had a wonderful 2009 and probably our biggest life change took place-welcoming Avery. I wouldn't change it for the world! I'm excited to see what 2010 brings!!

Yesterday our holiday celebrations continued. We never celebrated Christmas with Gabe's family because his sister had to work Christmas day and that whole weekend. We decided to postpone Christmas until New Years so we could all be together and enjoy the day. We had a very nice dinner of steak, shrimp scampi and antipasto and the kids got to go crazy with their gifts.

Gabe liked Bianca's new doll!

Bianca was hysterical with her gifts. She wanted to just keep opening gifts one after the other-she would barely see what she got and would go running to look for the next one. It was pretty funny. I did get to catch her opening one of them:

Gabe's parents got Avery this cute chair (Owen and Bianca have them also):

So we had to put her in it to test it out:

Avery loved the teething toy Pa and Grandma got her:

And Owen and Bianca loved playing in the garbage:


We had a very nice day and got some nice presents-clothes, jewelry, a pizelle maker, one of those new flip video cameras, and a GC for a pedicure! Avery got some books, ornaments, clothes and toys-we all made out pretty well!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2010 brings you lots of love and happiness!