6 Months

I find it so hard to believe that I have a 6 month baby boy. sometimes when people ask me how old you are, I have to count on my fingers "January, February, March" etc and it always shocks me when I get to the second hand. Ricidulous.

As for stats, he's a biggin'. He's in the 99th percentile in height at 28 1/2 in and a shrimp in weight at 96th%- 19lb7oz. HA, he's my big baby boy. Measuring exactly like his daddy did at the same age.

Six months has been one of my favorites with Little Man. His personality is coming out so strong these days. He is my little lover. He's a snuggler that loves attention and smiles all day long. He's a flirt and its one of my favorites of his qualities. Remind me of that when he's in high school please.

His best friends are his sister and his dog. He is obsessed with both of them. He beams when he sees either of them. He cracks up at pretty much everything his sister does, whether she is aware of it or not. She knows how to get him going though and when she starts cuttin' up for him, its quite a laughing fest.   He adores our pup Lola too. He will get himself to her any ways necessary for a snuggle. She is so great with him. Gentle and loving, they are pretty cute.

Its been a big month for J. Not only has he been a traveling boy, seeing lots of family members that we don't see often, he's had some new experiences and learned some exciting new skills. His 6 months has been a nonstop adventure, one new thing after another. I think it might just be easier to list the main ones.
-crawling. That's the biggest one by far. The army crawl started last month but the actual mobile at warp speed crawling started this month. He's a quick learner and an even more determined one at that.
-talking. He says "dada" all the time. He says it to everything so I know its not his first "word" but its a recognizable sound so it counts. "baba" and "bla" and "bra" are all other sounds we hear a lot too right now. I love the early stages of babbling.
-Daddy obsessed. I feel like the word obsessed doesn't do it justice. Jameson is ob.sess.ed with his Daddy. He wiggles and squirms right out of my arms to get to him when he is reachable. Mommy's sloppy seconds when Daddy is around.
-Starting solid foods. I just started him on any solid foods. He's still a momma's milk kind of kid which I love. I don't rush the solids on my kids because let's face it, I thankfully have healthy fast growing babies that seem to thrive on whatever liquid gold I seem to produce for them. And really, food is so much more difficult than breastmilk.

G.R.I.T.S.

Girls Raised In The South

LOVE

Grits

And that saying still stands true with this little one. This girl loves some cheesy grits for breakfast. I couldn't be happier about this fact and not just because I love them too. With her under the weather, I'm just happy that she is eating anything. Poor Chey's still fighting a yucky cold. There is no end in sight yet for the cough and runny nose but since it hasn't seemed to slow her down too much yet, we're going on with life just more gently. Nights are rough since she keeps waking up from the cough and drainage, but she seems to be handling the day time much easier.

A little surprise gift definitely perked her up today.

Sophie the Giraffe!!

We must inspect first.

And taste.

Giraffe approved.

Four feet? Check!

Two ears? Check!

Happy baby?! Check!

Thanks Auntie T!! Best Aunt Award goes to you :)

Pa-sghetti please

Mmmm well at least that makes two people in this Wood house that love spaghetti. (Actually, even I was a fan tonight- no hell did not just freeze over Mom...).

Apparently it was finger licking good.

And now a pasghetti coma will ensue

I think I may be having to eat spaghetti more often now if it makes Little Miss this happy. There's not much cuter than a baby covered in spaghetti sauce- except maybe a clean baby post spaghetti dinner night.

Good job on dinner tonight Daddy Giant. Again, another hit.

An easy momma recipe

Tonight I got bit by the baking bug. Yeah yeah stop choking... I get bit every now and then. I read a recipe a while ago over at Healthy Branscoms that I tucked away in the mental maybe-one-day-I'll-make-it recipe file, and I finally decided to give it a try today.

I say its a momma's recipe because (now bear with me here) it has a little bit of an unusual cooking ingredient. But, since I'm a momma with a pantry full of it taking up space, I decided "Heck, why not? I could use the space" And let me just tell you, it was a hit! And no one ever suspected a thing.

I twisted the recipe a little from the original, but here is my take on Carrot Cake Bars.

2 eggs (beaten)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3 small jars carrot baby food
1 1/4 cup flour
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 t. vanilla

Cream egg, sugar, and oil. Then add the other remaining ingredients: baking soda, salt, carrots, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Mix well. Bake at 325 deg for 25 to 30 min in a 9 x 13 pan. (Mine took the whole 30 minutes).

Add cream cheese frosting! I made mine from scratch and it was AWESOME! 


Easy. Easy. Easy. And sooo delicious. 

But listen, if you see my dad or grandparents around town, please don't mention to them that I had them eating baby food. I don't think they'd see my logic that a carrot is just a carrot. 

What about watermelon?

None left here. We had some... before Cheyanne got to it that is. This girl LOVES her some watermelon. I have entirely too many pictures to show you. I can never seem to pick just one for my posts recently, thus the photo dumps in all of my recent posts. Enjoy!

 Look at that chomp!

Num Num food

The solids have begun! Cheyanne was so ready for them too. I am so proud of myself however that I made it all the way to 6 months solely breastfeeding her. ::Pat on my back::

We started with homemade (brown) rice cereal. It was a hit the first day, then it quickly went down hill. I don't know if it was just because it was a new taste that made her like it, or it was the excitement of trying something new that got it down, but something changed after that first tasting. Starting night number two, in went the food and quickly back out it came. After about 5 days of trying different ways of feeding it to her, I gave up.

Yeah...that's food coming back out

I started redoing some research and found that oatmeal is also a good food to start with, so I immediately went out shopping for a new menu. We switched to oatmeal and there was no looking back. She LOVED it.

Even though half of it ended up on her face and hands, the part that made it through was a hit. Yeah, she's a messy little one.

Last night she had her first vegetable and wanted more.  I introduced acorn squash first. I love making her food myself because it makes me feel good knowing exactly what is going in. Plus, as weird as it sounds, it still makes me feel connected to her while she eats, call it breastfeeding syndrome.

 I am using this website called Wholesome Baby Food that is helpful with homemade menu ideas and how-tos. Up next, maybe butternut squash or avocados? Its so fun planning num num foods.