Sometimes I need a little reminder, so I set this as my desktop.

(via)

This month my little munchkin:

-Mastered sitting up

-Learned to crawl

-Started pulling up on things, which caused the lowering of the crib mattress and the playpen mattress. Baby-proofing has begun.

-We have now worked up to quite a lot of foods. Likes: peas, zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots and cereal. Dislikes: Any fruit (including pears, peaches, bananas and avocado).

- We are slowly transitioning to the crib. Slowly.

This month will bring day care three days a week. I think I can, I think I can! I got a promotion at work this month and right after thinking “yay! A promotion!!” I thought “I still wish I could be home with my boy…” As you can tell I am still getting over the fact that I am a working mother. I am blessed to have a wonderful job and the best options available regarding who takes care of my son. And it is those two things that keep me going!

We are beginning to plan a trip back east this fall for Declan’s christening. I am going to have to go back through all of my favorite bloggers tip on traveling with a child. Declan will be about 10 months and being on a plane for 5-6 hours with him in my lap does not sounds all that exciting… Also on my to-do list: find him something to be christened in! Any Catholic moms (or dads!) out there? I am sure we don’t do the white dress on boys thing anymore (or do we?!) but at 10 months old what would you put him in?

Happy half birthday buddy! Now I am off to cover up some more outlets…

I am loving the chevron stripes and chalkboard wall in this nursery! (I showed this to Bryan and we both agreed the marriage wouldn’t last if we tried to paint that wall. One stripe was enough for us! ha)

Some things I have starred lately in my Google Reader…

If my mom surfed, she would ride one of these boards.

I want these. Bad.

I want this to be the inspiration board for my life.

I made up some sweet potatoes for Declan this weekend and ran out of room in the cube ice trays. The heart trays filled in for the last of the purée.

Just picked up a few more of these books over on GILT! They will round out our collection nicely. If you aren’t a member feel free to join using my referral link. It is free, and although most of it is still way out of my price range,  I find deals I just can’t pass up once in a while!

My dad is a crane operator who builds freeways bridges (hi dad!) so I am always drawn to construction stuff. This new bedding from Land of Nod and these onesies from Winter Water Factory have caught my eye this time.

You guys, I did it! I made baby food! ha I bought a cookbook at Williams Sonoma which is probably overkill right now since the recipes are pretty much cook the food, puree the food, serve the food, repeat. But it got me excited and on a straight path. I now knew how to cook the food.

I started with peas. Frozen petite sweet peas to be exact. I steamed them, then pureed them in our food processor, using the water from the pan to get the right consistency.

Since Declan is still young I took the extra step to strain the peas to get rid of the hulls. It took some extra time but it was worth it and my little taste tester agreed.

I used a silicone cube ice tray that I already had to freeze most of the peas, keeping some in the fridge for this week’s meals (using an empty baby food jar from our failed attempt at sweet potatoes).

Ta-da! I also pureed and froze some bananas. I feel so accomplished, as silly as it sounds considering all I did was puree some food, but still.

Next weekend maybe I will try sweet potatoes and zucchini.

Happy two year anniversary to my most favorite husband!

A little late, but happy month 5!

I have limited time while the little guy naps so here are some 5 month stats!

- Declan is getting to be a little mover! He is up on all fours and can move his knees forward but hasn’t quite picked up the concept of moving his hands.

- We have 2 bottom teeth popping through! The only real ‘teething’ symptoms we noticed were loose stools for a few weeks before the teeth broke through, and a whole lot of chewing on things.

- We started rice cereal this month and each feeding gets a little better. I am pretty sure the first few feedings he didn’t swallow a single bite! We let him taste sweet potatoes last night and he was definitely confused as to what was going on. (I am still hoping to make my own baby food, but this time we went with Earth’s Best jarred sweet potatoes. I need to do a big cooking day next weekend I think and just freeze it all.)

- Declan is still only taking cat naps during the day lasting 30-50 minutes in his crib/playpen. He is still sleeping in our bed at night but we are thinking about trying to transition him to his crib in the next month or so. Working full time and waking up multiple times a night is starting to wear on me. He was doing better, only waking to feed about once, and then waking and then falling back asleep twice, but this past week he has been waking every two hours and won’t fall back asleep until I nurse him. But I am pretty sure that has to do with the next point.

- I recently started adding dairy back into my diet. And while he doesn’t get painfully gassy anymore, he definitely farts a lot more and wakes more often at night. Time to cut back again.

- I am still exclusively breastfeeding but I think we may need to supplement with a bottle of formula during the day. I am pumping 4 times a day at work but only getting about three 4-ounce bottles and maybe an extra ounce or two. Declan is getting more and more hungry as he gets older though so I am thinking an extra bottle of formula while I’m at work might help out. If he takes it that is.

- He is still watched by both my husband and my mom during the week while I am at work. I am so blessed to have him in such loving hands!!  In the fall he will start daycare at the private school that Bryan works at. It will be hard having him be watched by ’strangers’ but I know that they will take great care of him and best of all Bryan will be on campus and can go see him  whenever he wants! (Read: can go take pictures of him smiling to send to me at work to calm my little mama heart!).

- What else what else…  He is just such a little munchkin. I want more than anything to be home with him everyday, showing him the world, teaching him how to be the best that he can be and maybe one day in the future that will be a possibility. For now, I can rest easy knowing that he is in good hands. And oops, there goes my thirty minutes and he is waking up… right on cue.

Happy 5 months!!!