Pineapple

I think it's so funny how food can be trendy.  I understand how healthy "superfoods" come and go in trends but fruit, really?  Pineapple is having it's moment right now.  It's all over fashion and parties.  Pineapple themed this and that.  A little while ago it was lemons. Anyway just to jump on board, I bought an Old Navy tank with gold pineapples on it and we are having a Hawaiian luau themed 1st birthday for Blake (Kyle's idea BTW).

I love this presentation for pineapple.  My step mom has been doing it for years and I tried it today and it was surprisingly really easy.  I might even try doing a bunch for Blake's birthday party.  Then again maybe not.  We'll see...

Father's Day

What do you get for your Dad of the Year?

How about a cake made of ice cold beer...

This was one of the easiest craft gifts ever.  It took 30 beers, 3 cake rounds from Hobby Lobby, some ribbon, Washi tape, bakers twine, and 2 cake pop sticks.  Done and done.  Voila!

Blake Olivia: 9 months

What's been happening this month:

• Whisper Babbling.  It sounds like kakakaktatatata.  Aunt Kylie swears she is saying "hi Ky"
• She is still normal babbling also.  Lots of momomomomomom and dadadadadada.
• Blake is giving kisses.  They are wet ones with an open mouth but we love them.
• She super ticklish now and loves to be tickled.  She cracks up before you even touch her. 
• She still loves her baby and is sleeping with her.
• She is sleeping on her side.
• Second bottom tooth cut through and we have signs of the two top teeth.
• Blake is waving hi and bye bye.
• Sleeping through the night a little bit more and we have stopped co sleeping and I'm trying the pick up/put down method again.  That is the Baby Whisperer and The No Cry Sleep Solution method.   It has been working pretty well. 
• I have switched to Cheerios from Gerber Puffs and Blake loves them.  Her fine motor skills are really good and she figured out how to feed herself pretty easily.  
• We had a serious heat wave for about a week so Blake spent her days in a diaper sucking on ice cubes through the mesh bag pacifier things.  
• She also learned to drink some water from a cup and water bottle.  I don't giver her water regularly yet but she enjoys practicing with the cup.
• She is still not crawling yet but she is soooooo close.  She's just really mellow and doesn't have a huge drive to get across the room.  She's always able to get to the thing that she wants though.  The doctor had us a little freaked out about this.  She wasn't concerned with crawling but at Blake's 9 month appointment she said she was delayed because she isn't pulling up to standing independently and cruising.  Personally, I thought 9 months is a little early to be so concerned.  She is still totally in the normal zone and has not been early on any other of her milestones.  She also has really good verbal and fine motor skills so I'm not going to let the doctor get to me....yet.
• We moved again.  We are so happy in our new house but moving with a baby is incredibly hard.  We had to have an extra person there at all times to help with the baby.  Luckily we have tons of family around us to help out.  
• Cody has started "helping" with night wakings.  There have been a few times when I didn't wake up immediately when she started to fuss.  Cody makes sure to come to my bedside and wake me up with a bark, growl, or a paw nudge :)

Blake Olivia: 8 months

What's been happening this month:

• Well I've tried everything (excluding CIO) and Blake is officially my 30 minute napper.  I give up.  It means we have busy days and not a lot of time to myself but oh well, babies are only little for so long right, so I'm enjoying our time together. 
• On the other hand, our nights have been much better.  We started co-sleeping out of desperate need for sleep but I always put her down in her crib first, at bedtime.  I have given up on the 3am fight and put her in bed with us if I need to.  It works out pretty well and her first stretch of sleep (in the crib) has gotten longer and longer and she basically sleeps through the night again now.  It's hard on my sleep (and my back) but I actually love having her close to me at night.  We are much less stressed about sleep now and way more rested.
• I still follow a loose schedule because a strict one just didn't work for us.  I like to have some order to my day but we aren't chained to the house because of a nap schedule.
• FINALLY she likes to eat food!! This was a huge breakthrough and she just changed one day all of a sudden.  She has tried lots of different things now and has had no allergies and really hasn't hated anything.  I'm hoping she won't be a picky eater.
• With her new love of food came the major poop change. It's pretty gross now and we will be installing a diaper sprayer at the new house.  Still, it's not that much harder and I'm sticking with the cloth diapers :)
• She cut her first tooth.  Her bottom left central incisor to be exact.  I'm sure it probably hurt but she didn't fuss too much about it.
•  She is giving kisses, sometimes, when we ask.
• She went swimming in the pool and had her first beach day. She loved both.
• She's getting more hair but it's still not a lot.
• She has a favorite baby doll that has become her lovie and she's sleeping with her now.
• She's scooting backwards but not crawling yet.
• She's babbling like crazy now.  It's started with nananana and now mmamamama, dadadada, kakakakaka, tatatata, babababa. 
• No more pacifier.  She just decided she doesn't like it anymore.  I hear that it's for the best and I won't have to wean her later but it would be nice if she had something to soothe herself other than my boob. 
• And one of the best things, her hair grabbing has really lightened up.  Thank god because I really couldn't afford to lose anymore than I already have.  

Blake Olivia: 7 months

What's been happening this month:

• We started solid foods.  She pretty much hates it.  We keep trying but she gags at everything (sweet potatoes, avocados, peas, oatmeal, bananas, apples).  Every flavor and every texture.  I did, finally, have some success with avocados yesterday in bigger chucks.  She might just be one of those babies who hates the mush :)
• At her doctor appointment she was a little low in weight, story of her life, so the doc said to keep trying with the high fat foods like avocados and egg yolks (not the whites which are the part people can be allergic to).
• We are still trying to do a schedule to help with sleep.  I'm not sure if she's getting better or I'm getting used to it.  Maybe both but we have had a few nights where she slept through and some others with 5-6 hours stretches so I think that's an improvement :)

As a positive bonus, her schedule is really good for me.  I get a lot more done when I'm organized and forced to do it.  I have a natural tendency toward lazy which makes me feel terrible so keeping to a schedule really helps.  I also read somewhere once that people with ADHD had amazing improvements when they had children because of the schedule they put their baby on.

• We have been going to Beach Fit Moms which is a beach workout for moms and we bring the babes.  Blake is the youngest there and she usually makes it until about half way, which is cool because I need a break about then ;)
• Blake is sitting up all by herself.  And for pretty long periods of time too.  She still topples over when she reaches too far for something though.
• I discovered the hip carry position on the Ergo Baby which has been awesome because she didn't really like the Ergo anymore.  She wants to see what's going on and front facing in the sling isn't completely "hands free".  Here's a link to a video on how to do it. 
• We are totally off the swaddle now and exclusively using the Zipadee Zip.  I'm glad I waited until she was ready instead of being pressured by the pediatrician.  The nurse practitioner told me to just take it away, lay her down, and walk away.  Haha ya right.  Also, we will never let them give us an appointment with her again :)
• She almost gets up on her knees during tummy time.  One step closer to crawling!
• We have had a couple nursing strikes/low supply issues this month.  I'm not sure if she caused it or it caused her to be frustrated but it was just a gentle reminder to never get lax on the breast milk supply maintenance.  It's a full time job.  For me at least.  Totally worth it but something I always have to pay attention to.  

When life gives you lemons...

My aunt gave me a bag full of fresh lemons from her tree a few days ago so I decided to try out making lemonade.  

• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water (make into simple syrup)
• 3-4 cups of water

Cilantro Lime Dressing

Lately, I've been obsessed with the chicken salad from El Pollo Loco with the cilantro dressing.  I found a recipe online for cilantro lime ranch dressing and created my own version of the salad. 

The salad:

lettuce

purple cabbage

cilantro

tomatoes

black beans

corn

cheese

grilled chicken

The dressing:

1 cup ranch dressing

2 cloves garlic

1/8 cup lime juice

1 jalepeno (remove seeds)

1 tomatillo

1/2 cup of cilantro 

Put all ingredients in blender and blend on high until well mixed.

Enjoy!!