Well.

Well, guys, it’s been over a year. I don’t even really know how this happened, except every time I thought I’d write something, I just sort of groaned and didn’t quite want to, and I’m never happy with state of this blog, it never feels like *me* – and it really bothers me when things don’t reflect who I am. I still don’t want to write, but I feel guilty, so here I am, haha.

Kaylee will be two in January, she’s amazing and insane. I’m going back to school in January for psychology and philosophy. We bought a house in September in a Gilmore Girls-like walkable small town.

I don’t really know what to say, so here’s a random Kaylee word list, haha:

all gone, uh oh, daddy, doggy, ducky, kitty, i love you, ow, nom, stink, drink, thank you, banana, this (everything is *this* – point to something, this, hand me something, this)

She just recently made the sign for “I love you”. I said “I love you” to her, without making the sign, and she made the sign in return. <3 In this first photo, she's doing the Chicken Dance. 😉

IMG_3224

IMG_3146

IMG_3135

IMG_2998

IMG_3261

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

Vote for Kaylee in Gerber Photo Contest!

kayleegerbercontest

Friends! Will you please vote for Kaylee in the Gerber Photo Search 2014?

Her entry ID is: 349460 and she is in the crawler milestone.

You will have to make an account to vote, but it only takes a minute, and you can search for her in the gallery by her ID.

You can vote once a day, every day through December 14th.

Thank you so much!

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

Kaylee Photo Shoot

I’ve been thinking about entering Kaylee in the Gerber photo contest, so I tried to take a photo for it. I didn’t end up with anything I wanted, but I did end up with a cute little photo shoot anyway.

Can you believe she’s 9 months old already?

IMG_5549.JPG

IMG_5548.JPG

IMG_5550.JPG

IMG_5551.JPG

IMG_5553.JPG

IMG_5552.JPG

IMG_5554.JPG

IMG_5555.JPG

IMG_5556.JPG

IMG_5559.JPG

IMG_5557.JPG

IMG_5558.JPG

IMG_5561.JPG

IMG_5560.JPG

IMG_5564.JPG

IMG_5562.JPG

IMG_5568.JPG

IMG_5565.JPG

IMG_5567.JPG

IMG_5566.JPG

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

Baby Led Weaning: Strawberries & Avocado

Strawberries are definitely a hit. She really gnaws through them – it’s really amazing watching – like, she can really grip them and gnaw through them and they’re the perfect size. Her first time with strawberries.. she ate five of them!

Avocado is harder to keep a hold of (similar to bananas) but she seems to like them enough.

I picked up the book Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods-and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater. I’m enjoying it. Even though I understand the concept easily enough and probably don’t need the book (I mean, really, this isn’t anything new, parents have been doing this before the concept of smooshing up food ever existed), I enjoy reading the fully formulated idea all together in one place.

(Don’t forget to check out the other baby led weaning posts.)

IMG_4234

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

Baby Led Weaning: Waffles, Plums & Cantaloupe

For her second “official day”, Kaylee tried waffles, plums and cantaloupe!

Kaylee has no problems tearing through the waffles (in fact, she ate two!), she ate half of a plum (minus the skin), but cantaloupe is still a bit hard for her – she can gnaw on it in the center, mushier part. Next time I’d like to try it with the rind still on to give her something to grip and push against.

(Don’t forget to check out the other baby led weaning posts.)

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

Baby Led Weaning: Mashed Bananas On Toast Strips

We’re doing baby led weaning, instead of traditional weaning with Kaylee. In traditional weaning, the baby goes from breast milk/formula to cereals/purees that are spoonfed to them, then gradually thicken the purees, and slowly add solid foods.

In baby led weaning, cereals and/or purees are skipped, and the baby feeds himself from the start of weaning (after six months). An interesting difference is that in traditional weaning, the baby learns to swallow before he/she learns chewing. In baby led weaning, it’s the other way around.

A few general principles (also check out wikipedia article on BLW):

– Self-feeding from the start, no spoonfeeding. Put the food right on the tray/table.

– Baby eats what you’re eating (assuming, of course, you’re eating real, whole foods.)

– Chip-sized items that are easy to grab, baby eats as much/little as she wants.

– Some good first foods are steamed vegetables, strawberries, toast strips, bananas, sweet potato fries – softer things that can be easily gummed.

Food before the age of one is mainly for fun and learning, so there isn’t pressure to make sure your baby is getting enough (you continue to breast or formula feed), it’s mainly for exploring textures, tastes, smells, and learning to manipulate objects.

I’ve heard some mothers refer to this as “lazy feeding”, lol, but so far my opinion is that it’s very instinctual – it’s hard for me to personally think of purees as instinctual (but that could just be me).

And it’s a lot of fun so far! Messy, awesome fun.

I can’t help but watch in amazement – she isn’t just a baby but a little human.

Our first “official day” (which was just a few days ago) Kaylee had toast strips with mashed banana on them. She ended up eating the whole piece of toast (with half of banana) and then finishing the other half of the banana!

IMG_4153

IMG_4155

IMG_4160

IMG_4162

IMG_4163

IMG_4164

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

Kaylee: 7 Months

Kaylee turned 7 months old on the 24th!

Here are some of the things she’s done over the last month:

– She’s started babbling “mamama” and “dadada”.
– She recognizes the sign language sign for “milk” and can reproduce it while she’s eating.
– She can sit up on her own (when we put her there).
– She tries to give “kisses” by sticking her tongue out! I was playing around with her, giving her kisses, when she started sticking out her tongue, and I thought it was just random, but then she kept doing it. She’ll also just open her mouth.

And her official monthly pictures up until this point! I have other ones too that are beside a stuffed zebra, but I didn’t do the first month with those, and they’re also not all on my computer.

She’s starting to get hard to fit inside the circle/on the receiving blanket, lol!

It’s interesting to me how her face changed right after the first month into the same face she has today.

IMG_0866

IMG_4238

IMG_1870

IMG_4236

IMG_3001

IMG_3528

IMG_4068

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

This face.

Ever since Kaylee was born, I’ve been playing around with the idea of baby modeling.. I wonder what it takes to get started with something like that. Mostly just a passing thought though, but still, it would be kinda cool.. who could resist this face?!

IMG_3896

IMG_3898

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

Late Night Musings

Taken from my journal:

sometimes my thoughts feel so removed and complex from the world around me that I feel burdened to share them.. i don’t want to have to explain a life long back story to be understood. even on paper they lack the nuance and depth of what i’m really thinking – i don’t think the words, but feel them – at the same time i have a need to send them off, put them out there.

to be robbed of joy is the worst thing a human can be, to despair to have to hope no promise.

please stop glorifying suicide. it’s insidious the pain that would put someone there but that doesn’t mean that they’re at peace now.. i wish I could say they were. I hope that they are because I hope that they were given a choice we don’t know, but to say that they are is to minimize, it’s a disservice – a cliche to make everyone else feel better that equally does nothing to help those who suffer with real mental illness.

real joy is in the soul. to see what looks like joy but to know the truth, is so deceptive.

so complex the human mind and emotions and frailty – what masks do i have – what walls do i put up – what is preventing my joy – what is hiding my soul?

Posted by Lauren
No Comments

Baby Snuggles

GUYS. I love my baby so much.

♥ Baby snuggles

2014-01-31 10.49.15

IMG_0555

IMG_0595

IMG_0618

IMG_0701

2014-04-02 15.58.22

2014-04-04 19.57.41-2

IMG_0749

IMG_0856

IMG_1016

IMG_0966

IMG_0964

IMG_0963

IMG_1173

IMG_1186

IMG_1188

IMG_1310

IMG_1733

IMG_1761

2014-05-04 19.59.21-2

2014-05-06 16.16.38

IMG_2041

IMG_2108

Photo Jun 02, 6 45 27 PM (1)

Photo Jun 04, 2 16 57 PM (2)

IMG_2670

IMG_2778

IMG_2862

IMG_3208

IMG_3215

IMG_3162

IMG_3322

IMG_3501

IMG_3801

IMG_3802

IMG_3307

IMG_3367

IMG_3479

IMG_3388

IMG_3424

IMG_3462

IMG_3576

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Posted by Lauren
No Comments