Starting Baby-Led Weaning (& a recipe)

Guess what?! I suck at blogging. Maybe it isn't my forte. Maybe...? No, it's definitely not. My time management skills seem to be lacking. But only because there's a little person who is quite the time suck these days and he's much cooler than blogging. Sorry guys!

So why am I here about to blog if I suck so badly at it? Well, that's a great question. It just felt right. Owen is napping and I'm listening to music and sipping my daily iced coffee. All those circumstances make for great blogging time. However, I feel by just typing the words, I send signals to Owen in his sweet slumber to wake up. Don't do it, child.. stay asleep for mama!

 
Okay, so updates... Owen is pretty much an adult now. 6 months and a half months... He eats normal people food (well he practices.. he's still an avid milk drinker though, in case you needed to know?) We have decided to skip the purees and do Baby Led-Weaning (what the heck is she rambling on about...?) I know, I must be crazy... But hey, being a parent rocks because I get to raise my child whatever way I want.

Anyways, I have had lots of people ask me how BLW works and I figured this would be a great blogging opportunity. Let me start off by saying, I have absolutely no problem with mama's who decide to feed their babies purees. That is what they choose to do and if that works for them, then that's okay, too! We are all parents and we get to make those decisions for our children.

I decided to do BLW because I'm a weird mom, some would call me "crunchy". I wouldn't say I'm at that point, just yet, but I'm getting there. Haha. Anyways, BLW... it's the idea that your baby is able to eat normal food from the get go. It makes meal times much more enjoyable for the family instead of having to feed the baby something else, while everyone else is eating. BLW lets your baby take control.

They (who are these people anyhow?! The American Association of Pediatrics, or simply, AAP) recommend you wait until your baby is 6 months because that is generally the time when your little one is able to sit up without help and bring things to their mouth without missing. It's also when their digestive systems are geared up and ready for solids, which is the most important part. Now, you may be like... well what about cereals?! Feeding your baby cereals is absolutely unnecessary! It has little to no nutritional value for your baby. The only thing that your baby needs for the first 6 months of life is breast-milk or formula. Again, if you feed or have fed your baby, cereals that's totally okay, I'm the odd one out!

Now you're probably wondering how babies eat solids without teeth?! Babies gums are incredibly strong (if you've ever had a your finger gnawed on by a teething baby, you know this..) and they can mash foods up pretty well. There are some foods that are going to be harder for babies to eat, so you're not going to be able to give your baby a raw carrot and expect him to eat it, sorry! But, you will be able to give your baby soft foods and they will be able to eat it. Foods that Owen loves right now are avocado, peaches, cucumber, baked zucchini, bell pepper, and toast. He has even sucked a piece of steak dry; again, he can't eat it but the juice of the steak is high in iron which is amazing for babies!

Here's a video of Owen eating solids for the first time! It's in fast-forward mode but it's hilarious to watch.

So here are some pointers that helped me immensely:

• If you don't have a history of any food allergies, you don't have to wait to offer wheat, dairy, or  egg products but if you are concerned, discuss with your pediatrician first
• Nuts, honey, and peanut butter should be delayed until after 2, or after discussion with your ped
• Cutting fruits & veggies into fry-sized pieces with some skin on helps your little one be able to pick up and grasp them easily
• The first couple weeks to a month of BLW it's more of getting to know the food and playing with it, your baby doesn't realize that it's food, so allowing more opportunities to "play" with the food will allow your baby to quickly realize that its food to eat
• Gagging and choking are two VERY different things, babies gag VERY easily as their gag reflex is right at the front of the tongue, so naturally, when a piece of food is on it, they will gag, the more opportunities that babies get to eat, the more their gag reflex will adapt and move back 
• If your baby is gagging and you are worried, don't be afraid to offer a little sip of water to help wash the food down for them 
• Brush up on baby CPR and print out step-by-step instructions to put on the fridge or somewhere nearby, this will ease your mind in case something does happen
• Try to limit salt intake to little to none; if your baby does have something salty (like ham) just make sure they up their fluid intake
• Never substitute a meal for a milk feeding and remember "food before one is just for fun." Babies still need all the condensed nutrients that breast-milk and formula offer until they are one; around 9 months they will naturally start eating milk less and solids more but milk will still be the primary form of nutrition 
• BLW is MESSY! Buy a high chair that is easy to clean! 
• Don't overload your babies plate with foods, they will get overwhelmed easily, start by offering just a couple pieces of food
• Do what works for you, BLW is very lax and doesn't need to follow a bunch of exact times. We try to have breakfast every morning right now and that is what is working for us. If lunch or dinner work for you, that's great, too!
• If you have any questions, feel free to contact me! There is probably a bunch of stuff I'm leaving out and I'll edit as needed.

With all that said, I wanted to share a waffle recipe that Owen & I both love and eat on a regular basis.

BLW-friendly Blueberry Waffles
// makes about 3-4 depending on how much batter you use

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose, do what works for you)
1/2 cup oatmeal (we used quick cooking)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp olive oil (coconut oil, grapeseed oil, vegetable oil, could all be substituted)
1/2 cup milk (coconut, soy, almond, even breast-milk can be substituted)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp of water (if your batter is looking a little thicker, you can put a bit more)
& blueberries to top when baking, I put about a 1/4-1/2 a cup per waffle

I usually just put all the ingredients into my magic bullet and give it a whirl. But if you don't have a mixer, just combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined, then add your wet ingredients and mix until no longer lumpy. Pop about a 1/2 cup of the mix into a griddle or waffle iron and cook about 2-3 minutes. Let cool slightly (for baby) and cut into thick strips (again, for baby) and enjoy! These are super healthy for you and baby and can be whipped up relatively quickly.

Baby-Led Weaning has worked really well for us, but I absolutely understand that it doesn't work for everyone. I just wanted to share these tips for starting BLW. These are the tips I wish I knew when I started and I thought I'd share with other moms who might be wondering the same things.

Thanks for reading!

 xx

update //
I just received a comment from an anonymous person telling me that I should be careful about what I post on my blog and that someone should call CPS if they know what's good for me. I am really offended for someone to think that I would ever even think about endangering my child! If you do not agree with BLW, that's 100% OK, but don't come on my blog and threaten me. Just because it is different from what you would do, doesn't make it illegal or wrong.

It's a....

BOY!!!!

I think it is safe to say that those wives' tales were definitely wrong! We are most definitely having a boy, no question about it. Our little guy is measuring as expected and we could not be more excited.

The Proposal

It wasn't too long ago that I proposed to Michelle and saw the tremendous amount of happiness in her eyes, but time is flying quick (already 7 months until the wedding)!

Anyways, for those of you that haven't heard how it all went down, this is the post to read:

Michelle and I had a camping trip planned at Huntington Lake, nothing out of the ordinary, just another regular camping trip we wanted to take like all of the others we love so much. I figured that that weekend would be the perfect opportunity to pop the question; us being in the mountains and surrounded by trees, it's everything we love. 

So I decided that I would place the ring on top of the frosting on a cupcake since baking is her biggest passion (it's what she's basing her life around anyways!) But that wasn't easy, I had to sneak over to buy the cupcakes without her noticing or finding them in the fridge since I had bought them the night before. The next day came around and I was glad she hadn't found them yet, but now I had to sneak them into the car with all of our camping stuff and hope she wouldn't see them again, and thankfully it worked out... again.

As the night rolled on and we were all settled in at the campsite after a fun day, I got more and more nervous to get the cupcakes out, set the ring on top, and bring it out to her in a cute and romantic way. Eventually when the time was right, I walked over to the car and opened up the cupcake box and opened I up... they were both melted to the point of looking like hot fudge splattered all over the inside of the box. My heart was racing and I had NO CLUE what I was going to do now. The night was coming to an end and we sat inside the tent talking before bed like we usually do, but my mind was so pre-occupied I couldn't really concentrate and felt like she could see something was wrong. 

The next day, after a lot of thought, I figured that I would just take her for a drive and see if I could find a cute, secluded and elevated area to pop the question. We drove around and eventually came to the Huntington Lake dam and decided we should walk down and just relax by the water. We found an area just past the damn with a secluded shoreline where we could just sit right by the water and hang out. I finally realized that this would be the perfect area to propose, but there was only one problem. The ring was still hidden in the car (from me thinking there would be nothing special by the dam). I needed a reason to go back to the car to get the ring, so I made up an excuse to head back to our camp a mile or two back to get my swimsuit, which I really didn't have and needed. After we got back to the dam I made sure to stuff the ring in my shoes in our tote bag. 

The view from the dam

We hung out by the water for 30 mins or so and ate some snacks and tried to catch minnows with Ziploc bags (for Michelle, I swear she insisted we catch one). I eventually noticed that to the right of where we were sitting the shoreline stuck out a bit (to where you couldn't see what was around it) and then back again. So I tucked the ring box into my waist band of my swimsuit and walked across the rocky shoreline to the alcove (while almost dropping the ring in the water) and saw a perfect tiny log to place the ring on. So I set it down on top of it and tried calling Michelle over to me to sit where I was and hoped that as she came around the bend she would notice it and I would ask her those four words. But she didn't want to come over at the moment, so I walked back to her and sat for a few more minutes. 

Proposal right around the corner!

Eventually I said we should go to where I was because there was shade and we didn't have sunscreen. She finally gave in and began walking over while I walked right behind her. She got about halfway over (right to the point where you could see around the bend) and stopped. I could tell she noticed something weird. 

Turns out she was just pointing out some trees along the water that looked like they grew cotton on them... great, she didn't even notice the ring! A few second later after admiring the trees she asked me what the heck was over there and I told her I have no idea what you're talking about. She said, "Ty, I think there's a ring over there, OH MY GOD I think somebody was going to propose here!"

She had no idea!!!

Just as I came up right behind her to pretend to see what she was talking about, she turned around and saw me on one knee. I told her how much I loved her and asked if she would marry me, and I was only able to make it about halfway through before the tears started flowing (and she almost got me going too!).

And I don't know why so much nervousness had built up inside me all weekend from just the thought of me asking her, because of course she told me yes, albeit in the midst of her crying.

I swear we spent the rest of that weekend camping just looking at the new ring on her finger with huge smiles on both of our faces; we couldn't stop talking about it! But I guess that's what happens when you decide to spend the rest of your life with your best friend and the most amazing girl in the world. 

Insider Edition

If you want to get an insight of our relationship,
here are three things that allow us to enjoy life just a little bit more. :)

1. Written By A Kid - Ep. 1: Scary Smash

They turn kid's funny stories into actual little movies. As their slogan goes "we make videos based on what they say", it's seriously the cutest & funniest thing.

2. Coffee, coffee, and more coffee (specifically iced)

 Okay, so there's some hot coffee in there too, but if you want to learn how to cold brew your coffee then click here for the details! Warning: it does take 8-12 hours to go through the complete process but it's definitely worth the time.

3. Ticket To Ride

We recently started getting into board games and can't get enough of this one. Each player draws a couple routes that they try to complete by the end of the game using their train pieces. For every completed route you get points added to your total, but for every incomplete route you have, you get points subtracted from your total. It sounds simple, but chaos ensues as every player starts to get an idea of what route you're trying to complete and tries to block you off. If you want to get a better understanding of how it's played, click here. Thanks TableTop!

I hope you're hungry!

So as Michelle has recently started her senior year at college it felt like the wedding planning would start to slow down quite a bit, but we're still making a bit of progress! We recently finalized the menu for the reception... 

and it's BBQ!

Look at those baby pies!

I mean, seriously.... how amazing does all that look? We're drooling.. 

It took us a while to come up with what type of food we even wanted to begin with since we eventually decided against our first idea. And we know BBQ is typically a messy type of food so we're keeping the finger-foods to a minimum (because we don't want it to look like the end of a wing-eating competition by the end of the night).

As of right now here is what our menu looks like:

• Tri-tip (as a sandwich or by itself)
• Pulled pork (as a sandwich or by itself)
• Mixed-greens salad
• Corn on the cob
• Baked beans
• Potato salad

I'm sure we might add some more to the menu if we come up with anything, it's just so hard finding what works best for the occasion. If anybody has any ideas of something we could add to the menu, let us know in the comments.

Work, work, work!

This week has been insane... from planning a wedding, to saying goodbye to loved ones (only temporarily), to moving & unpacking, to starting up school (YAY! LAST YEAR!). It feels like there hasn't been any chance to catch a breath these past couple weeks but now we're relaxing and just finished up a shopping trip at WalMart (because we're classy).

For those of you who would like an EXACT date of when our wedding will take place... get those calendars out and mark off

MAY 11TH 2013 

and "save our date". We are incredibly excited to keep this wedding planning going and believe it or not, we have accomplished SO MUCH... here's a list so we can see all the progress we've made.

X Found an AMAZING venue (Thanks Kathy & Charlie) 

X Figured out our colors/theme 

X BOOKED OUR PHOTOGRAPHER! 

X Booked the Port-O-Johns :)

X Booked the chair/table rental 

X Made parts of our amazing centerpieces

X Made our backdrop

X Decided on the food..... 

X Set up a wedding registry for one of the two places

X OH AND WE (Michelle) SAID YES.... TO THE DRESS!!!

X ...other things that cannot come to mind. :P 

Here are some pictures of the things mentioned above. Enjoy!! :) 

Where we will be saying our "I do's" 

Really want this chair for the wedding... 

Had to say goodbye to this precious little girl for the next 8 months... :( 

...And an early Happy Birthday :)

Finally getting started

After much delay and thought going in to exactly what we want to have for everybody to feast their eyes on at the wedding, we finally got down and dirty and put our hands to work!

We started off our crafting binge last night with the process of cutting down some fabric to the proper size. It seemed like such a simple process for what we were planning to make (and it was really), but man, using a pair of scissors for any extended period of time starts to take it's toll on your hands! After much hand crampage (for lack of a better term), we finally had the finished product on our hands; some amazing mason jar votives (there will eventually be candles in these)!

I'd say these turned out great!

Tonight we hesitantly got started with DIY project #2, while still feeling the effects of those scissors from the night before. This was another very simple decoration, just somewhat time consuming getting all of the fabric ripped down to the strips that we needed. After lots of sweating while sitting out in the front yard getting everything cut down to size, we were both happy to get back in under the air conditioning to start putting everything together finally.

The backdrop

While you wait...

If you want to get a feel for what type of wedding this is going to be you can look at both our Pinterest's and Instagram. We update those daily. 

Michelle: Instagram/Pinterest
Tyler: Instagram/Pinterest

:)

We're gettin' HITCHED!

So as many of you probably know now.... me and Tyler are getting married!!!! We are beyond excited to enter this new part of our relationship.

We decided to make this blog that way we can look back and remember our engagement since it will go by so quickly. We also wanted to keep our friends and family updated with any plans or if you just want to stalk us from time to time :)

We hope that you will enjoy this just as much as we are going to!