Tomorrow is baby food making day. We just got back from grocery shopping. We start meats next month, which should be interesting. I love being able to see all the wholesome foods that I get to feed Delight.


Here's a picture of everything I will be whipping up for her tomorrow (minus the meats and a couple frozen veggies).


Being silly during bath time. She still gets so excited at bath time. She was crying before we put her in her bath last night. But she lit right up when she got in the water, then proceeded to cry when it was time to get out :)

Puppy Love

Here's Delight getting some love from her doggies










Summer going in for a kiss...nooooo!!

Delight has the strange habbit of trying to cram as much paper as possible into her mouth if you ever hand her a piece. Don't worry, we took it away before she consumed too much ink.

Enjoying a walk on a pretty day...with a pretty little girl.

Baby food

I made Delight's baby food the other day. I've been making it since she's been on solids. I thought it was probably going to be a big pain and I would get sick of doing it, and although it can be time consuming, I love it! I love being able to give her good fresh food and knowing exactly what's in it. She eats a much wider variety of foods than what they have in the grocery store and does great with all kinds of textures. I have a book that I use as a guide line for knowing when she can eat what foods (Blender Baby) and I loosely follow some of the recipes in it, but always make much bigger batches so it'll last longer. It saves us a lot of money too! I've compared the store bought stuff to what I make and the cost isn't even close. I freeze her food in ice cube trays and when they're frozen, pop' em out and put them in freezer bags. The batch I made bellow took all day (with many, many interruptions) and will last 3-4 weeks.
Anyone considering making your own food, I would urge you to do it. All you need is a blender and several ice cube trays (they make special ones for baby food with lids. I have a couple and their nice, but you'll need a bunch and regular trays work just as well with a little foil on top and are so much cheaper). I don't think you'll be sorry if you try it.

6 Month pictures

I've been neglecting this blog for a while and thought it's about time I get some new pictures on here. Delight had her 6 month pictures taken by Mamaw, the wonderful photographer. She was getting close to 7 months by the time I had them taken. My goal has been every 3 months (0,3,6,9, and 12 months), so I thought I better get them done in February so I could say she was 6 months :)
Delight is so much fun. She's sitting up pretty good, but still isn't mobile, so I haven't had to start chasing her around yet. She's starting to show more and more personality and it's so neat to get to watch her grow and change everyday. It makes all those hard newborn days so worth it.
She loves snacking on Cheerios and bananas, hates green beans, and always lights up when you sing "if your happy and you know it" or "old mcdonald". She has enough rolls to put a shar pei to shame, her hair is starting to get really thick, she has the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen, and still doesn't have a tooth in her head. She likes to suck her thumb, loves watching Summer play fetch, and gets really excited when her daddy walks in the door.


Proud to be an American :) Sporting some cool baby leg warmers.








Is it nap time yet?

Those are some crazy arm rolls

Sucking her thumb again

Saluting baby ;)

Like oh my gosh!

BBQ Coon

We went to the Indianapolis Boat Sport and Travel show yesterday. We had a good time and Delight did great. Sam stopped at the Indiana Conservation Officer booth. They had a cook book with lots of wild game recipes wrote by Indiana Conservation officers. I'm always looking for a new way to use venison, so Sam bought it. I was looking at it today and found some pretty interesting recipes in there. I thought I'd share a few with you.
Fish on a Stick
Smoked Frog Legs
Turtle Soup
BBQ Skillet Coon
Lemon Pepper Rabbit
Grilled Italian Squirrel
Rabbit Pot Pie
Port Wine Squirrel (a little wine makes any dish sound fancy)
Wild Boar Chops
Easy Cheesy Deer
Crickbank Taters
Corn Cob Jelly (yes, that's right, they're making jelly from corn cobs)
There's also a nice article on how to clean a snapping turtle :)
I would probably try any of those, except the coon, they're just too nasty.
Makes me proud to be a Hoosier :)

Naps

Some of you know that I've had a really hard time for the past few months with Delight being a serial 30 minute napper. She consistently has taken 30 minute naps, almost every nap, since she was 4 months old. This has been a big point of stress in my life and has seemed to make everything harder. I have spent a lot of time online looking for solutions, bought a few books that cover the topic and tried every idea I can get my hands on. Nothing seems to work with that girl. The last few weeks I’ve pretty much stayed home determined if I could focus on getting her on a consistent nap schedule I could have a life again. I think I did the exact opposite. It certainly made us both miserable. I think her naps aren’t so much the problem then me thinking they’re a problem is a problem. I keep looking at the norm, and at what my friend’s babies do that I’ve forgotten that D is an individual and that if she only wants to sleep 30 minutes, by golly, that’s what she’s going to do. I know that when she’s had more sleep she seems like a happier baby. She’s not grumpy all the time or anything, just seems like she can’t stay awake for very long with these short naps before she's getting fussy. I’ve thought on, worried about and cried about this problem for too long! It’s robbed me of a lot of joy and enjoying my little girl. I came to a few conclusions this weekend that have made a huge difference in my week so far.

There’s nothing I can do to make her sleep more. Believe me, I’ve tried it all.

She’s healthy, she’s happy, she’s beautiful and I’m so blessed to have her, so I better stop worrying and start enjoying her!

I have to stop trying to get her on a nap schedule and just let her sleep when she’s tired. She’s tired more often with 30 min naps, so when she starts the eye rubbing, that’s when I lay her down, not when the clock says. I never followed the clock real close, but I would think, oh you can't be tired all ready, and push her to stay up a little longer. Most the time she only stays up
1 ½ hours, but I don’t care now! If that’s what works for her, that’s what works for me.

I have to get over my guilty parent syndrome. Since I don’t get that nice 2 hour chunk of time that babies normally sleep, I have trouble getting things done. Being a big list person, this also stresses me out. I have this guilt that when she’s up I should be spending time with her. It’s good to spend time with her, but I know I need to back off and let her play more independently. When she does have a whiney day and I can’t very far from her, I’ve got my Hotsling and Moby wrap to help me out :)

With all the frequent naps, for me to ever be able to leave the house and have a life, she’s going to have to learn to sleep on the go better. She’s done well lately and I’m encouraged. She slept in her Moby wrap at church Sunday, and I got her to go to sleep in her car seat at the grocery store today.

I’ll tell you, with my new view of things and being relaxed, I’ve had the best couple days with her these last two days that I can remember. I’ve had so much fun with her. She’s at such a fun age right now. She makes me laugh all the time and I’ve just been so happy being a mom. And you know what? She’s napped better too! Today she took a 1 ½ hour nap (thought I would faint) AND a 45 minute nap, on top of her two 30 minute naps she took. Yesterday she took a 45 min nap.

Was God trying to teach me something? Was Delight just needing me to follow her cues better? I don’t know, but both have happened. I know we’ll still have our ups and downs, but I’m glad to put all my worrying behind me and have a new attitude. Maybe she'll learn to take those 2 hour naps someday, but even if she doesn't we'll be just fine.
I’m so in love with my little girl and so thankful that God has entrusted her to Sam and I.

Good times

I thought it was about time I put something new on this blog! Delight's doing really well sitting up on her own. I still don't trust enough to leave her because she eventually ends up going backwards or to the side. She hasn't started crawling yet, but she's a rolling over fool :)

Below are a couple pictures we took a while back while we were having some warm weather. We took a walk on a bike trail that's near by. Delight loves being outside. I can't wait for spring so we can do this more often.





Isn't she so cute?! I'm pretty sure she's the cutest baby in the world :)







Here she is taking a bath with her cousin Zoie at my mom and dad's house. I think they'll have a lot of fun together when Delight gets a little older. They are only 9 months apart in age.


Check out those beautiful thighs :) She's having some fun in the bouncer that Jenn gave us. She loves it!


Supporting the Cubbies