Baby Food

The best thing about being a second time mom is my confidence to try new things is much higher. I don't have the anxiety and doubt I had the first time because I know that everything will be just fine. Not to say that I don't have worry and anxiety at all, just much less. One thing I've tried this time around was Baby Led Weaning, as suggested by our doctor. I can't really describe it but it's basically that baby eats what you eat, just cut down to their size. So no purees, no jars of baby food, just whatever we are eating that day. If you want to learn what its really about just google it, there are thousands of websites that can explain the reasoning behind all of this. 

I should mention though that this is an option for us because we do not have a family history of food allergies, and I have the time to sit and supervise Miles' eating. It's not for everyone but so far it has been great for us.

 We eat pretty well already but having another eater in the house has made me up our veggie intake each day for sure. He doesn't have any teeth yet (at 9 months!!! He's a toothless old man!) so some foods are out for now but he is loving his whole veggies for now. His favorites are sweet potato spheres (I cut them into long, fat strips and dust them with cinnamon and bake until tender), peas, and broiled broccoli.

Nolan loves to entertain Miles while he finishes up.

 He has even gotten to taste a bit of meat lately. Here he is gnawing on a piece of steak. I cut it so it would be impossible for him to break anything off but he gummed the life out of that thing for nearly an hour. The boy REALLY loves meat. He has since tried chicken and meatloaf...all were devoured.

 And most importantly we introduced him to pasta, Pat's of course. He loved it but had a hard time figuring out how to eat it. After a lot of trial and error he figured it out and ate a lot. Especially when I put sauce on it. Yum!

I really love this method and although I miss making purees, I'm looking forward to having a smooth transition onto table foods and hopefully a kid that actually eats!

Crawling

Break out the baby gates, we have a crawler!

I couldn't figure out how this plank position was helping him learn to crawl but he would go into a lot. Then one day he started to lift his legs up like this and fling them forward so he was on all fours. Not the most efficient way but as we know, these boys like to get creative when it comes to becoming mobile (click for a reminder of Nolan's creative manuevering).

 And just because he is so stinkin cute!

Day Hike

Our family went for a little day hike to Twin Falls this weekend. We haven't done any serious hiking really, only a few leisurely walks around Lincoln Park and such. So I made sure to do a little research in order to make sure we had some success. Especially since this one would have to walk the entire thing. He is much too big for us to carry!

 I found a couple sites that listed this trail as perfect for families with small children. I would say that was a slight exaggeration but we made it out ok.

 It really was a gorgeous hike with plenty to see. Nolan even spotted his first chipmunk ever. He said it looked like Tezzy (our tabby cat).

 Miles did really well strapped to Pat the entire time. He sung his little baby songs and hung his head way back so he could see the enormous old growth trees.

 The most challenging part was that it went up, down and then up again rather steeply and it was a tad muddy. Nolan got nervous a few times but kept his footing just fine. I might have been holding his hand super tight since there were some rather steep drop offs right on the edge of the trail. Then we found these stairs. We almost didn't go down them because we were worried about getting Nolan back up but in my research I read an insider tip to definitely go down the stairs, the view would be worth it.

 It didn't disappoint!

 The trek back was a little harder but we kept Nolan moving (he started asking to be carried right after we reached the falls) by promising him his favorite protein bar which we had in the car. It worked! I was so happy to be back on the street again, but not as happy as little Miles who was all giggles despite skipping his lunch and nap time that day.

We are already planning our next family hike.

Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day at my Aunt Carolyn's house and had a great time playing in her amazing back yard. She could seriously charge admission back there!

Gigi and Miles taking a stroll.

Yaya and Miles bouncing around.

The babies relaxing in the swing.

I even got a pic of me with the kids...a Mother's Day miracle!

Nolan was pretty busy gathering acorns, digging holes and running around with Cousin Clementine for pictures.

I was able to get one more shot in with my boys for good measure. 

Bath Time

Miles is getting too big for his baby bath tub so I had to get a few pics of him enjoying it one last time. On to bigger and better things!

Wild Things

Pat has the week off of work so we've had a bit of a "stay cation" going this week. Yesterday we took the boys to the zoo (Miles' first visit ever). It also happened to be our 8th wedding anniversary and spending the day in the sun with our family was the perfect way to celebrate.

It was later pointed out that the 8th anniversary is brass, Nolan did his part to help us celebrate by posing with every single brass statue at the park. 

Doing his best hippo expression.

Komodo Dragon

We started to lose Nolan at the snow leopard exhibit. He woke up at 5am ready to get to the zoo so he was a little delusional by the end of the day. But he really wanted to see the bears so we trekked on.

We made it to the bear exhibit and all he cared about were these ducks sleeping by the window. He talked to them for quite a while.

Some more brass statue love.

He's come a long way since his last time at the zoo 2 years ago when he was afraid of all these statues.

Miles stayed awake the entire time, cheerfully looking around.

I love that my boy is still not too old to hold my hand. 

And of course the "on the way home photo". This time he barely made it out of the parking lot. 

My favorite part of the day was when we were sitting by the elephant exhibit eating our lunch when a crow came by and snatched Miles binky (it was in his parked, empty stroller while he was sitting on my lap, so he was not attacked by the crow). I jumped up to grab it and it flew off dropping the binky right on the edge of the elephant exhibit, just inside the fence. Pat decided we must have the binky so I covered Nolan's eyes while Pat jumped the fence and retrieved it. I didn't realize until later that I had a spare packed in his diaper bag...don't tell pat!

Visit to Yaya's

The boys and I went to Yaya's house this weekend to help her get her house ready to sell. Nolan's favorite place to go when visiting Yaya is the park that has a bridge over the train tracks and water. I can't blame him, if this park was around when I was a kid I would want to spend a lot of time here too. I did come to this area a few times when it was still piles of gravel but that's a story for another time! :)

Showing Yaya a rock he found on the beach.

Watching the trains pass below.

This trip to the park did the trick, they slept great that night and we had a fairly successful garage sale, despite the rain forcing us to close up before the end of the day.