26 weeks - Sweet Potatoes? Not so sure...

6 months old and we introduced solid food today, or at least tried too, she let it stay in her mouth for a few seconds and then would just spit it out.

The plastic bib caught most of the mashed up potato as it fell out of her mouth. She liked putting it in, but wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

Her favorite part was the bowl and picking up the sweet potatoes. I later mashed them up and tried with a spoon, but we got the same results. We will experiment for a while and see what she thinks. It was fun trying though!

She loves her new toy from our neighbor. It provides hours of entertainment.

Princess is still loves knawing on things. Here she is knawing on a big carrot.

She also loves to play peek a boo these days and put blankets over her.
She is also learning to get to what she wants by rolling, pulling, and scooting.

Enjoy these fun video's from Princess's 6mth birthday. She shows off her snort laugh in the second one. We sure love her!

Report about EC- with Blossom

I just saw a great interview with the girl who played Blossom on the 90's sitcom. She is now an attachment parenting mother of 2 boys. It was really well done! check it out..

6 month Birthday Today!! (Target Photo's Sitting)

Princess -6months and oh so sweet!

Coach picked out her outfit- She was his striped, star, rainbow, butterfly fairy.


Tiny Toes--Love those leggings

Chipmunk Cheeks- You just gotta kiss them!!

Ahhh! So delicate!

She is very photogenic....at least I think so. Her personality is really developing. She snorts when she laughs, she makes this funny gurgling noise when she happy and she sqwaks when she is excited. It is so fun to be her mom!

Eat the Beads!

We got a few pictures of Coach and Princess together reading since Coach reads to her everyday. They have finished almost a dozen novels out loud. Mostly fantasy young adult fiction such as Fablehaven, Princess Academy, Spindles End etc...
Coach got this picture to put in his classroom (He is a reading teacher)

So excited to read!

Hungry for Reading?

Yummy Healthy Banana Bread

I had some bananas that were getting a little over ripe, so I decided to make some banana bread. I ended up melding two recipes together. This tasty sweet soft bread is made with whole wheat flour, apple juice concentrate, 3 banana's and the secret ingredient 1/2 c. cauliflower puree.

The texture was very soft and moist and the walnuts gave it a great crunch. My son had no idea he was getting the benefits of eating cauliflower. tee hee

It was a great way to start the morning for breakfast. Yumminess.

This is the complete recipe the way I made it: (adapted from Deceptively Delicious Cookbook and also Desserts to Lower Your Fat Thermostat)

3 Med Ripe Bananas

1/2 cup cauliflower puree

3/4 c. thawed apple juice concentrate

1/4 cup butter or margarine (melted)

2 1/4 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 c. walnuts.

Directions:

1. Mush up the banana's really good, then add the cauliflower puree, apple juice concentrate, and melted butter. Mix well.

2. Add the flour and baking soda, mix well.

3. Fold in chopped walnuts.

4.Put into greased baking pans (I used three small pans and baked at 325 degrees for 35 minutes.) Make sure your toothpick comes out clean to know the middle is done.

5. Take out of oven and let cool for 10 minutes before taking out of pans. Cool completely.

6. Wrap in plastic wrap, or a plastic bag over night to help the banana flavor enhance.

WAY EASY AND OH SO YUMMY!

25 weeks

25 weeks and look at those rolls. She is currently weighing in at 18lbs! She loves her momma's milk that is for sure... Pure Cream.
She now likes to pick up her toys and throw them over and over, especially tigger.

She has been teething, and irritable especially at night. I gave her this sugar snap pea to chew on. This is actually the very first "food" she has put in her mouth (she didn't eat it) It was cold and felt good on the gums.

When she was done she just tossed it on the ground. I trade off between the teething ring and the peas. She doesn't like to hold on to the frozen teething ring, but the pea pod is just the perfect size. I plan on introducing sweet potatoes as her first food on her 6mth birthday next Saturday!

Starboy loves to play with Princess. Their newest game is Super Baby. He can sure get her giggling. Sometimes she just snorts and gasps when she is happy, I still have to get her cute snort on video.

1st Day of School

This is Starboy's new 2nd grade teacher. We went to meet his teacher on Tuesday night before school started Wednesday. She is a special teacher because she knows Starboys Grandma J.

She had fun meeting Princess also. Starboy is so excited for a new school year.
We started the first day of school with a healthy granola breakfast and a card from mom!

Starboy read his card to Princess and enjoyed playing with her until it was time to leave. He woke up way early and was ready 30 miinutes before I would let him go.

This is how he gets to school each day! He loves to ride his bike down the hill. Coming home is another thing.

Getting My Fruits and Veggies!

I am so excited I ate a salad grown from my own garden. It has been fun growing a garden this year, but it has amazed me how little produce I get after so much time. (of course my garden is very small) The cucumbers and peppers are extra sweet, the tomato's are delicious, and the squash has been great. I just wish I had a bunch more.

This summer has also been hard in some ways because I had to go on the Candida diet since I was suffering from yeast overgrowth and so was Princess. This meant no fruit, sugar, yeast breads, white flour, etc.. It has been hard mostly because I LOVE fruit. I love to make smoothies, and eat lots and lots of it, but I hated seeing my baby suffer so with yeast diaper rash and thrush. So, for the last 6 weeks I have been very very good about following the diet, even though peaches, and apricots, and cherries have been in season and for sale on every corner I have stayed on course.(I did have cooked apples in my cake for my birthday last week, but I used whole wheat flour and apple juice concentrate as sweetener-I felt that I deserved a special treat). Well, Today I went to Life Clinic and we were tested and happily we are both finally candida free! Now I can start to slowly introduce fruit and whole grain breads back into my diet. I am going to be really careful about making sure I have equal protein to carbohydrates since my system seems to be very sensitive to candida. )

During this time of no fruit I was even more glad that I could take my Juice Plus everyday and could get my variety of both fruits and vegetables without the sugar. What a blessing! Everyone needs to check out my new Juice Plus website. It has a brand new video on it that is so well made and really explains the importance of a variety of fruits and vegetables everyday.

I am also excited to announce that Juice Plus has also expanded their Children's Health Study. Now any adult that is signed up as a preferred customer and taking Juice Plus ($43 per month) can enroll a child ages 4-18 as well as college students 19-26 to receive free juice plus for up to 3 years. They have also added the Juice Plus Gummies to the Children's Health Study for children under 13. (These are soooo yummy- and kids are getting the important nutrients of uncommonly eaten veggies like kale, beets, and parsley without any arguments!) It is so great that for less than $3 per day a family of 4 can get 17 different fruits, vegetables, and grains into their bodies and protect themselves from oxidative stress and DNA damage.

It's hard to believe I have now been taking Juice Plus for 10 years and been a Sales Coordinator for NSA (the company that makes Juice Plus) for almost three. It has really blessed by life. Especially since it makes it possible for me to stay home with Princess and Starboy. I also love educating people about health and nutrition. Which since this blog is called nutrition momma, I am hoping to dedicate more time too now that Starboy is back in school. If anyone has any questions I can answer or research feel free to ask.

24 weeks

We call this the baby size La-Z-Boy. It was a gift from a wonderful neighbor whose grandchildren had outgrown it. When Princess gets tired of sitting up straight, she just sits back and relaxes. It makes it a lot easier for me to leave her sitting because I don't have to worry about her falling and hitting her head.

This is our new way to carry the baby. It is a Becco carrier that can be worn as a backpack, or as a front carry. I used it when helping Coach paint.

Coach used it while reading to Princess

and I carried her in it while we went on an outing to the gardens. This one I carried her for 4 hours, but the end my back was tired, but we all had a great time, and the flowers were gorgeous.

Princess's legs are getting super strong and she loves to stand up! She especially loves playing with her brother. Starboy is the best at making her smile and laugh!

The biggest accomplishment this week was Princess learning to scoot! We even caught it on video. It is sure fun to witness her little accomplishments each week.

31st Birthday

I had a very fun 31st Birthday. Everything went smoothly and the whole family had a great day.

In the morning I ate breakfast with Starboy and then he gave me this beautiful jewlery box that he had painted. His Aunt D. had taken him to a pottery place so he could suprise me. It turned out just perfect! I love it.

Next we dropped Staboy off at his Grandma H's and we took Princess to get her 6 month pictures (a couple weeks early, but we wanted them back by her 6mth birthday, and we wanted Daddy in some of the pictures and he goes back to teaching next week. We always go to Target for pictures because they do a fantastic job at a great price.

Coach loves to dress princess in all kinds of colors and mismatching outfits, so I told him that he could choose anything he wanted for the 6 month pictures. She is definitely a striped, rainbow, star fairy. Aunt K. helped me make the head bow to match from a present ribbon I got at one of my baby showers.

After pictures (which turned out so cute, and princess was an angel for) Coach took me to lunch at a Brazilian Buffet Grill. We ate and ate and ate, but forgot to take pictures. He also gave me a gift certificate for 1lb of chocolate from one of my favorite chocolate shops See's Candy.

After lunch we went back to Grandma H's house and I picked up Starboy. The two of us went Black Light Miniature Golfing. The whole place is decorated in paintings of fish and neon colors. It was a fun time.


To and this great day I was sung to by all the family at Grandma H's and we all enjoyed my Whole Wheat Pumpkin Apple Cake sweetened by apple juice concentrate, and homemade apple sauce frozen yogurt. Everyone thought it was delicious, even the kids!

It had an apple cinnamon syrup topping also made with apple juice concentrate. NUMMY NUMMY! By the end of the day I had eaten so much I had a tummy ache, but it was way way good. It was a great day spending time with the people I love most. It is hard to believe it was just 2 years ago that we decided Starboy would come an live with us. A lot has happened since then, and I am so grateful for the opportunity I am having to be a Mom, there is nothing better.

23 Weeks

We went swimming again with our cousins and Princess had so much fun in this little boat. The video below shows just how much she enjoys the water.

We also got to go to Chucky Cheese. Princess was a little aprehensive when she sat down by Chucky, but after a minute she gave us a smile.

This was one of Princess's favorite rides. She was in AWE over the movement and music.

Aunt E. gave princess this new bouncer toy. She loves all the things she can do in it.

And she still loves playing with her big brother best of all!!

It was a really fun week of adventure.

5 Kids - 3days Exhausting

This week my Niece E. had a conference at a hotel near our house, and so I watched her 3 kids while she attended each day. It was a lot of fun, but also exhausting. I took the Starboy and her three kids on a lot of adventures while Coach watched Princess in the mornings, and then we would all go out in the afternoons when their Mom finished her meetings.

We went to 2 different parks on picnics and just to play. We blew bubbles and played on the playground.


Starboy had fun swinging his cousin who is 2 in the baby swings. He loves to be a big helper.

At home we read a lot of books and the kids played outside in the sprinklers. Cousin K. loved playing with the Baby and Princess was pretty happy about it also.

One evening after going swimming, we went to Chucky Cheese. The kids had soooo much fun. Starboy showed off his free-throw skills.


The kids climbed up in the playhouse.

Even Cousin S. came to help us at both the pool and Chucky Cheese. She was great with the little ones.

Overall the week was successful, but there always seemed to be someone to help, clean-up after, stop from getting hurt, discipline or praise. It was never ending chaos. I think I am pretty used to my two kids 7 years apart. 5 with the oldest 2 being seven was a little bit intense for me but we survived, and now we are returning to our normal routine.

My Garden

My first vegetable garden has started producing! I am so excited. I have eaten a few baby carrots, lettuce, and cucumbers. My tomatoes are growing well, but not ripe yet. and my squash plants have tons of flowers, but have not put out any squash yet. Maybe soon. It has been

alot of fun watching it grow this summer.
It has a lot of weeds in the bed but with daily TLC I have been able to keep them at bay.

Peppers- Yummy

Tomatoe's

Lettuce