Tag Archives: baby food

Oct19

Twelve Months!

Posted on by
Standard

Happy 1st birthday Kenley Dee!

IMG_3032

I’m not even sure where to begin. One year old, how is that possible?

Let’s dive right in.

Overall, Kenley does a very good job eating, even though it can be difficult at times.
She loves peas, macaroni & cheese, string cheese, and pretty much any fruit.
We are still continuing to try new foods and combinations of finger foods,
along with more “meals” rather than just food on her tray.
We have a good size list of the foods we have tried, but some new ones are
cheese quesadillas, chicken nuggets, hot dog (with daddy, of course), ravioli,
pancakes, waffles, noodles, bagel thins, and turkey sandwiches.
Majority of meals are hit or miss, one day she’ll love it, the next it’s on the floor.
She loves the Buddy Fruits pouches and will gulp them down for a snack.
She is still drinking breast milk from a sippy cup,
even though I finished breastfeeding around 11 months (!!).
We’ll either stay on the breast milk until it’s gone, or start mixing it with whole milk.
We haven’t really talked about it much or decided one way or the other. Suggestions?

IMG_3088

This girl is on the move! She loves to walk (read: hates to be picked up).
She is all over the place and into everything.
There is no more “getting things done’ when you’re the only parent home with her.
Grandma wanted me to leave her a list of things to do last week when she was home on Friday.
I laughed.
By the end of the day, she was exhausted, and with good reason.
It’s hard work keeping pace with a little one who is constantly on the go.
Her teacher said she and another little boy, who just started walking,
were chasing each other up and down the halls at school this week.
She came home on Monday and Greg and I were both shocked about how fast she is now.

IMG_3011

She is quite vocal and has started saying more words.
Each night she says “night night” and we think she understands what that means.
She as also added cat (“ta”), dog, book (“boo”), along with hi, bye, mama, dada, and ball.
We’re working on up, please, and done. She can say done, but chooses to yell majority of the time.
Along with words, she has tons of new sounds and tones that she uses.

IMG_2981

We have our evening routine pretty set in stone.
Each night we try to go for a run, or at least a walk.
Kenley has recently started having an actual dinner (rather than just milk before bed).
After dinner, it’s bath time (still in her Whale of a Tub, which we may be graduating from soon),
then it’s to her room, sound machine on, and in the glider for some books.
We say night night and she goes down in her crib.
She rarely cries for more than about ten seconds, snuggles up with her lovies, and is down for the night.
Recently, she’s been waking up crying one to two times a night, it’s usually short and we think she’s still sleeping.
It’s more of a quick scream and a little bit of whining, rather than crying, but it’s still sad.
Hopefully it subsides soon.

Updated 12 months stats:
21 pounds 8 ounces 
29 1/4 inches

IMG_3035

This girl in insanely fun and insanely funny too.  She can really crack us up.
I think I speak for Greg as well when I say that I cannot believe how quickly one year can go.
This has, hands down, been the best year of our lives.
We are still amazed each day that we (one) have a child and (two) have such a great one.

Kenley Dee, we love you so much and thank God every single day for you.
Happy birthday!

Sep19

Eleven Months!

Posted on by
Standard

Eleven months slash 48 weeks old today!

IMG_2059

Our photo ops are becoming more interesting. This girl is all over the place and hates headbands.
It’s quite hysterical, between Greg and I singing, yelling, dancing, and making weird noises,
to Kenley crawling all over the place and trying to find the headband on her head
(picture dog chasing his tail) before she finally yanks it off.
However, we got a few keepers.

IMG_2002

Kenley is becoming such a toddler. I can’t even consider her a baby anymore.
Long gone are the days of cuddling, bottles, and pacifiers.
With that comes a bit of ease. We usually know her wants and needs, so we’ll gladly say
good riddance to the days of a crying baby and clueless parents.
By no means do we have it all down. We are still battling nap time on the weekends,
but I think we’re not doing too bad at this point.

Kenley is also developing quite a little attitude personality.

IMG_1990

One of her teachers even described her as “bossy” at times.
We are definitely learning how to share and have nice hands.
I have a feeling she’s going to give us a run for our money.

IMG_2000

She is a great little eater, but we are struggling to keep up.
We really love making her food and feeding her fresh fruits and veggies,
but since we’re moving out of the puree stage, it’s getting hard to add variety.
I have been scouring Weelicious and other toddler recipe sites, but we are open to suggestions.
She is doing well with her sippy cup and has recently started to use her straw cup too.

IMG_2078

Her new class and new teachers are wonderful!
She is one of the oldest in the class, so I think this may have something to do with her bossy tendencies.
Maybe she’s just being a leader? …maybe?
They seem to have a great schedule for them during the day which translates to a good weekly schedule for us too,
even in the mornings! We are getting better, that’s for sure.
Since she has started in the new class, she has been signing. We had not done it much at home, but are getting better.
The most frequent signs are “more” and “all done”, with the occasional ”please” in there.
She is also becoming more verbal. She does a good job of repeating words and sounds that we do.

IMG_2110

One month ago Kenley took her first few steps and she is getting better and better.
She is getting more brave and is starting to take it upon herself to walk from one thing to the next.
Of course, she does it on her own time (i.e. not for the camera), which is perfectly fine.

IMG_2138

We have hit a new level of teething this week. We are guessing it’s time for molars.
I cannot begin to explain the amount of drool that is coming out of this child’s mouth.
Not to mention a fever, which has kept her home from school the last two days,
and just an overall whiny, puny, not good feeling.
The doctor checked her out and she’s not sick, so that’s a plus,
but she has cuddled and fallen asleep on each of us, which is a definite sign that she’s not feeling well.
It’s heartbreaking. Sleepless nights are back in the Gilbertson household.
Let’s hope they don’t last long!

There you have it! Eleven months!
One month until the big O-N-E!

Aug19

Ten Months!

Posted on by
Standard

We have reached double digits people. 10 months.

IMG_1603

IMG_1451

The biggest change from our nine month update until now is her eating schedule.
I mentioned that her milk intake was dropping a little. Since then, it has dropped a lot.
Everything I have read (and I’ve been reading a lot) says that babies under age one do not typically wean themselves,
so I don’t want to say that she’s self-weaning, but she definitely is drinking less milk.
She also decided that she was done with the bottle…which first started the drop in the milk.
She flat out refused. She would chew on the nipple and then spit out her milk like it was a fun game.
Those of you who have pumped milk  know this is not a fun game.
The nurse and doctor were not concerned since her last weight check was good
and she’s continuing to eat solid food like a champ.
They suggested just trying the sippy cup and we are still working on it.
We’ve tried three different types and two different brands and we have a winner…for now.
I’m still feeding her in the morning and at night, but the other attempts at milk are all from the sippy cup.
She’s eating three to four small solid food meals a day and we are continuing to introduce more foods.
We had a semi-unexpected trip to the doctor on Friday and Kenley weighed in at exactly 20 pounds.

IMG_1601

Another fun change since last month is our daily wake up call. We mentioned to our doctor that Kenley was still
getting up anywhere from 5am-6am to eat, then going back to sleep. She suggested that we push back this feeding,
and we gladly obliged. It really only took two days of us not going in there when she first woke up.
She eventually would fall back asleep, then we would feed her the next time she woke up, and was up for good.
At first it was 6am, then it slowly crept later and later.
The last couple of days, we haven’t gone into get her until after 7am!
Even if she is awake, she is happy as a clam just sitting in there and playing.
Excuse me while I go knock on wood.

IMG_1610

Other fun things this month: clapping, waving, talking, and dancing.
This girl loves music. As soon as any of her toys start to make noise, she moves it and shakes it.
She’s also adding to her long list of words. We are up to: mama, dada, hi, bye, ball, and uh-oh.
She says hi like it’s going out of style. The girl loves to talk and babble.

IMG_1616

Kenley starts in a new class tomorrow at school with a new teacher, so I’m sure her schedule will change slightly
as we head into a new school year. Also on that note, I’m hoping that our routine at home changes slightly too.
The mornings are exceptionally hard getting out of the house at a decent time to beat traffic and get everybody
where they need to be on time. Our goal is to start doing more at night, even if all we want to do is sit on the couch.
We think this will make our mornings less hectic. Here’s to hoping, right?

IMG_1660

It’s no surprise that this little girl is not our cuddly newborn anymore. She’s becoming more independent every day,
but with that, it’s so fun to watch her try things out on her own and learn new things.

IMG_1531

On that note. Someone took three steps yesterday! Look out world.

Happy 1o month birthday Kenley!

Aug2

Our Must Have List Part III

Posted on by
Standard

Here is Part I and Part II of our list.

Last I left off we had made it through the first seven months.

Fisher-Price Space Saver High Chair

We use our high chair religiously, especially now that Kenley is eating solids on a regular schedule.
Even before solids, the high chair was a great place to let her sit and play.
I honestly wish I would have gotten it out sooner, so we could have put her in it when she was younger.
We especially love this particular high chair because it sits directly on a chair at our kitchen table.
Our eating area isn’t huge, so I didn’t want a bulky high chair taking up a ton of space.
When we have friends over, we remove it so we get the chair back, but it really does save space!

Britax Convertible Car Seats

Kenley has outgrown her infant car seat, which is both happy and sad.
Happy because she was getting too heavy to lug around in that thing anyway and
sad because that means she’s not a little tiny baby anymore!
A friend recommended Britax to us when we were registering and we received the Marathon
before Kenley was born, so we used the convertible car seat as our second car seat,
and opted against buying a second base for the Chicco.
When it was time to buy another car seat, I definitely wanted another Britax.
I found last year’s model of the Boulevard still available for at a cheaper price, so I jumped on it.

Baby Bullet

This could go for any food processing device, really. We have been making Kenley’s food at home,
and this little guy has helped out in that process immensely.
We have some additional storage containers for the freezer and fridge,
like the OXO and Munchkin brands,
but we also use ice cube trays for freezing foods and toss them into a freezer bag.
This works especially well when we make a ton of food at a time.

Fisher Price Whale of a Tub

This tub could have definitely made the last two lists, but it just missed the cut.
Sorry whale.
But honestly, we love this thing and Kenley loves it too.
We have used it since she was able to take a regular bath and are still using it.
The infant “baby stopper” piece comes out so she can sit in the tub and splash away.
Bath time is definitely one of our favorite times.

***

Items from previous lists that we still use regularly:

Boppy
Medela Pump-In-Style
aden + anais Swaddle Blankets
Sophie the Giraffe
Graco Sweet Slumber Sound Machine and the Cloud B Gentle Giraffe

***

There you have it, probably the last installment of our must-have list.
What must-haves do you use that we left off?

Jul1

my weekend in photos :: summer vacation

Posted on by
Standard

Untitled

mani/pedi after work to kick off vacation right

Untitled

kyler came to play before we left

Untitled

kenley’s second trip to indiana was a success, just a little more difficult than when she was just a 2 month old
more on that later, i’m sure.

IMG_0384

party time at grandma & grandpa’s house

IMG_0379

kenley with her great-grandma lower

IMG_0390

michael & rachel

IMG_0388

reunited with my bestie

IMG_0408

the youngest babes of the lower cousins
jack – 18 months, kenley – 8 months, frankie – 15 months, landon – 10 months

flashback of when they were all together over Christmas

IMG_0438

all the great-grandkiddos

IMG_0453

sweet samantha loving on kenley

IMG_0475

swimming at grandma & grandpa’s for the first time

IMG_0477

fun in the sun before the storms moved in

Untitled

a perfect size chair

IMG_0489

bananas! she got a few in her mouth, not bad for the first time

Untitled
relaxing and enjoying a beautiful evening

***
how was your weekend?

Jun27

36 Weeks :: doing big girl things

Posted on by
Standard

I haven’t taken many videos lately so I thought I better get on that.
I mentioned that Kenley loves her some puffs, so I captured some evidence.
In the next couple of weeks we’re going to start to introduce some finger foods.

At times, I find myself just sitting and watching her play.
Toys are strung across the floor and she just goes from one to the other, often getting distracted by something else, then goes back.
She loves pulling herself up on her table and playing, then plopping back down.
She’s really good at pulling herself up and sometimes the table slides across the floor (silly hardwood) and she’ll even take a step or two  in order to stay up.
I don’t think she realizes she’s doing it, but it’s still fun, nonetheless.
She grabbed something off the couch the other day with both hands and ended up standing by herself for a few seconds before she plopped back down.
It didn’t even phase her, but I was excited.

Our weekly photos are now a two person job and don’t even think about keeping the fabric straight.
This was only one of a few smiling pictures out of many screaming ones.
You’d think we were torturing the poor child.
Nope, she just doesn’t want to be on her back. Same goes for changing clothes and diapers.
Full out screaming at times.
Two words: drama queen.

Oh, Kenley girl, you’re growing up so fast.

May9

29 Weeks :: loving food

Posted on by
Standard

There is no doubt that this girl loves food.
She intently watches if anyone around her is eating
and even goes as far as opening her mouth like you’re going to feed her your food.

Her menu now consists of…
organic frozen peas
organic squash
organic zucchini *least favorite
organic white sweet potatoes
organic orange sweet potatoes
organic bananas
rice ceral
organic banana flavored puffs

Foods on deck:
organic oatmeal
organic brown rice
organic avacado
organic apples

Right now she’s eating two pureed food snacks a day, one in the early afternoon and one in the later afternoon.
in addition to her five breastmilk feedings a day, ranging from as early as 5am to about 7:30pm.

We have been blending up foods on the weekends
and have decided what to feed her by what organic veggies are in stock at either Publix or Target .
We freeze some of the food, then thaw it mid week for the next few days.

My plan is to get a bunch of fruits and veggies and make a huge batch that will last several weeks,
but we’ll see when we actually get around to that.

I am definitely feeling much better about solid foods,
after her six month check-up and talking to the pediatricians, I felt much more at ease.
It’s fun to feed her and watch her eat; and she likes it, which helps.

Apr25

27 Weeks :: eat, drink, and be merry

Posted on by
Standard

The update this week will be short and sweet.

Solid foods include organic peas, organic zucchini, and rice cereal so far.
The more runny the food, the bigger mess that is made.

We tried a sippy cup once, it didn’t go over too well.
Just a lot of chewing on the top and milk everywhere,
we shall try again this weekend.

The saga of phantom teething continues,
and yet, there are still no teeth.
All the signs are there, so we’ll see how long this continues.

Majority of the time the issue is just tiredness, which leads to over-tiredness.
There is a fine line between getting her down for a nap just in time and too late.
You’d think we’d have it down by now, but no, we’re still learning.

However, following a nap, we have the happiest baby on the block.

Apr18

26 Weeks :: introducing solids

Posted on by
Standard

I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t really looking forward to the introduction of solids.
While it’s exciting, it’s also more work. It’s so easy to feed her now.
We’ve developed a good schedule with her feedings and I didn’t really want to deter from that.
And let’s be honest, it’s a whole new ballgame in the world of cloth diapering.
I also came across this thing called baby led weaning, which made me second guess
our decision to puree our own food, which made me even more nervous that I wasn’t going to do it right.
Overall, it was very silly how much time and thought I put into this,
but we were approaching the tail end of the 4-6 month starting point for solids, so we did it.

Again with the over-analyzing, the next decision was what her first food was going to be.
Alas, we decided on organic peas. They were super easy to cook, thanks to our Baby Bullet.
I’m sticking with our original decision to puree foods for her, especially after I now know how easy it is.

 Here is her first bite!
After seeing how interested she was in the spoon, I think she’ll want to feed herself some.

On her last couple of bites, I think the taste finally hits her.

She did very well with her first serving of peas, better than I thought.
She’s had one serving of peas each day at school this week too and has done fairly well.

I am still nervous about how it’s all going to go, but feeling better than I did.
I still have so many questions.
When do we move up to a second daily feeding? And then a third?
When will she start needing less breastmilk?
What should we feed her next?

My goal is to continue feeding her only organic fruits and veggies.
At this point, for us, there just really is not reason not to.
I have zucchini, squash, and white sweet potatoes all ready to be pureed!

So there you have it. We conquered our first food!

And little miss is half a year old!
26 weeks today and six months tomorrow.
I’m not sure how that’s possible.
Stay tuned for another update tomorrow.