Snug is 6...Sweet Pea is 8 months!

Wow.  Six years goes by fast.  Snug had his sixth birthday and we celebrated over the weekend.  He had a LEGO theme.  

 Thank you Pinterest for easy decorating ideas!

 His cake was the easiest one I've made in years.  I wanted to make it look like a Lego brick.  The dots are 1/2 of the GIANT marshmallows they sell (I think they are called 'roasters').

 I took cardstock and made circles on them to look like LEGO bricks down the center of the table...can't really tell in my picture though.

 I do believe she is yelling "CAKE"!

 He was thrilled.  The yellow "Legos" are gluten free cupcakes that have 1/2 a regular marshmallow on them.  The only thing I hated was how much food coloring I used.  I'm not into artificial colors, but this was the look I wanted.  I guess they really don't get them often.

 Opening presents.

 This was Snug's gift from #1's parents.  I had to include this picture of LMM as he went whizzing by.

 Snug caught on right away.  I was both surprised and pleased.

 He looked so old.  You know, minus the Diego knee and elbow pads  :o)

 Just being silly.

 We gave Snug a bike.  He can't ride it, and might not be able to until next summer...it is even a little too big along with not having training wheels.  That's ok, he can grow into it.  He is growing so fast we were afraid that he'd outgrow an 18" before he learned to ride it.

 This past weekend Sweet Pea turned eight months old.  She got her first solids unexpectedly at a wedding when we were trying to keep her quiet during the toasts.  I gave her tiny pieces of melon (not our traditional first food for sure) and it indeed kept her quiet.  She was so excited I decided the time has probably come.

 Being in the high chair is not her favorite thing for sure.

 And she wasn't so sure about having a spoon shoved in her mouth.

 She wasn't sure at first about the advacado (our first choice in introductory food).

 The next bite was eagerly accepted.

 After that she fought daddy for not only the next bite but also for control of the spoon.

 She won.  We gave her the spoon and let her go at it.  She only got maybe 1.5 tablespoons.  We'll keep her intake very low so that her milk intake doesn't decrease.

Yup, this eating thing agrees with her. I've made lots of baby food and it is in cubes awaiting her in the freezer.  As organic produce comes on sale at the grocery (or ripe in our garden!) I puree it, freeze it in ice cube trays, and then freeze it.

At six years old Snug is 48" tall and weighs 50 lbs.
At eight months Sweet Pea is 26.5" and weighs 14 lbs 10 oz

The Rest Of the Story

Last post about Rosebud's birthday.  I have other stuff to post, like Little M. Man's reptile day at school and life...you know like meeting a fellow baby-wearing-Bible-believing-mom named Neptune in the organics isle of Kroger.  Stuff like that!

 So here's how we made Rosebud's Hello Kitty cake.  I got the pan with a 50% off coupon which is good because you know me, I never pay full price unless I have to.  And cake pans aren't a "need" they are a "want" so they better be on a great sale.  Anywho, I made two full recipes of Betty Crocker's gluten free cake mix (yes, it is REALLY good) and divided it into three equal parts.  If I had to do it again I'd either just do a two layer cake or buy a third box (which isn't happening, that stuff is pricey).

 The plan was to do a three layer cake having one be yellow, one orange, and one pink.  I read up online about how to do natural cake dye, and read several places that 2 TBS of beet juice should do the trick.  See how pretty pink it is?

 See how pink it isn't?  The cake on the left is the pink one.  Once it baked...no pink.  Just disappointment.

 Anyway, I put the three layers together and "caulked" it with gluten free frosting.  I mean I literally took my (clean) fingers and shoved frosting up in it so that it was all the same height and not sagging anywhere.  The edges were a bit frosting-y.

 Next I carefully put on a thin layer of frosting all over.  Using my fingers.  The cake was really crumbly and wouldn't tolerate a knife.

 My mom volunteered to do all of the little piped starts, and I let her.  I did it once for Snug's second birthday cake and vowed I'd never do it again.  Thanks to Grandmommy little girl had a beautiful cake.

Ok, now to the pom pom how-to.  First you need 8 sheets of tissue paper.  Nothing fancy.  I got 32 sheets for $1.

 Accordion fold the paper in about 1 1/2 in folds.

 Use florists wire to secure in the very middle.  I forgot to keep taking pictures, but next you round off each end with sharp scissors.  Then you carefully pull the entire thing apart.  I do one side at a time

 When it is all fluffed, hang it up.  If you want a face, cut out and hot glue on whatever you want.  I'm going to try and do an Angry Birds one for LMM's birthday.

 Here is the completed cake.  We used leftover Easter jelly beans for the eyes and nose.

This is how the color layers turned out.  The top is what was supposed to be the pink one.  Hmmmm.  It tasted good though.

22 Months

Ah Rosebud.  She is one stylin' girl.  She loves her jewelry and anything sparkly/shiny/pink/glittery/frilly.  Her mama likes browns/jeans/sweatshirts/crocs.  We may just be polar opposites in the fashion world.  

Rosebud now can quickly and quietly take off her clothing.  She loves to be down to a diaper (and apparently BabyLegs...those stayed on).  She completely accessorized herself also.  

 She wanted her picture taken and kept saying "cheese"!

She is a total ham and attention seeker.  She loves the camera.  

 When she wants to be.

 But there are other times.  Like when I was trying to take her 22 month pictures.  That she is NOT feeling it.

 Not one tiny bit.  And nothing you can say is going to change her mind.

But wait a few minutes, and she'll come around.  Too bad we now were on our way out the door and this is the only picture I could snap!

Rosebud is 31.5" tall and weighs 21 lbs, 0 oz.  We are having some problems with her digestive tract (I know, surprise, surprise) and investigating what the problem could be.  We had trouble with her about a year ago and then it seemed to get better.  As of probably November we've been having problems on and off...mostly ON.  As of this morning she is gluten and dairy free.  We already cut out fruits and veggies (many of which we thought were the culprit but may not be).    I am just praying it isn't dairy.  I can deal with gluten.

Soup! It's What's For Supper!

With the cold blustery winter months upon us (Or not.  I have pictures of the kids last week outside without coats) it is time to pull out the soup recipes.  I'm a picky soup person.  I only like certain kinds.  None of them are tomato based in any way shape or form.  All of them contain only the most mild tasting of veggies (read; no peppers of any kind).  But I do enjoy a good hot soup on a cold day.  

 This is a "white chili" that a friend of mine brought to a potluck in the fall.  I got her recipe, modified it a bit to make it gluten-free, and now we all can enjoy it.

 Too bad mommy forgot that this little one doesn't do well with beans...after her third bowl.  Oops.

 Three bowls for this one also.

Only two for him, but that is highly unusual!  It is a white chili, but I think of it more as a taco soup.

Here's the recipe:
 5 chicken breasts
16 oz of sour cream
2 cans rinsed chili beans and 2 cans rinsed great northern beans OR 4 cans great northern beans
2 cans of shoepeg corn (not drained) OR 2 cans hominy (not drained)
2 PKGs powdered ranch (to make gluten free soup use 1/2c. Annie's organic Ranch instead)
2 cans GF chicken broth
2 cans water
2 PKGs of taco seasoning (to make it GF see below)

Cook chicken for about 20 minutes in the water and chicken broth.  Shred chicken and put all of the juice/chicken in a crock pot.  Add all other ingredients.  Cook on low at least an hour.  If too thin, add a little cornstarch.

Serve with cheddar cheese and tortilla chips  :o)


*in place of taco seasoning you can use the following, from Carrie.
2TBS chili powder
4tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp paprica
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

One Week Ago...

One week ago I never thought I'd be seeing this.  LOOK AT THAT SMILE!!!!!

 We traded in our constantly screaming baby for a pleasant, happy kid!  Not that she never cries (ALL the time in the car and quite a bit at night), but man is it quiet around here.  Well, as quiet as any home with four children five and under that runs a home daycare can be.

 I have been gluten-free for a week, and if this is any indication, I will be till she weans.  I've found some great food and I think LMM likes having a GF buddy in the house.

Yup.  Miracles occur every day, and this is one of them!

"Eight Weeks", Alternately Titled, "Crying"

 Sweet Pea is eight weeks today.  She is 22 inches long and weighs 9 lbs 6.5 oz.  Not great weight gain this week, but she and I (and Snug and #1) had a stomach virus so it isn't surprising she didn't have great gain.

The older Sweet Pea gets the harder she has been.  I've mentioned before that she is "fussy".  That is just being polite.  She has been demanding, angry, and cries ALL THE TIME.  It has been especially hard the last two weeks.

 LMM was very similar as a baby, and I decided to try something.  When we found out that he couldn't have wheat/gluten and discovered how much better he felt when he didn't have it...we wondered if that was why he was such a difficult baby.  Maybe he just didn't feel well.  So as of this past Thursday, I am gluten-free.  Although gluten in my milk shouldn't affect her growth till she starts solids (then if she did have a gluten allergy she'd drop right off the charts like LMM did) it could make her really uncomfortable.  If she indeed cannot have wheat the likelihood that LMM (and she) have Celiac disease goes WAY up.

*Side note, you can see her diaper in this picture...she is almost totally cloth diapered now and you can see a post about it that I wrote for The Cloth Diaper Whisperer blog here.  There were quite a few grammatical errors I realized later...sorry.

 I noticed an improvement in her Friday night and all day Saturday.  Saturday night she was fussy, but most babies are in the evening.  There was such a difference in her Snug even thanked God when praying for dinner that "Molly stopped crying".  It was getting hard for everyone in the house.

 I don't know for sure that wheat is the culprit.  We'll see what the next few days are like.

But we hope not to see a whole lot more of this.