9 Months!

Love Bug,
You are 9 months old! You are such a chatterbox. I forgot to mention this last month but you have been saying da for a while now which makes for a nice dada, and you have started saying ba and ya and I’m almost hearing a ma! We still need to work on that last one. You have been crawling for a few weeks now and it’s amazing to see you develop more and more everyday. You are pulling up on the windowsill, the coffee table, the hearth, the couch, the stairs, and anything else you can get you hands on! You’ve also begun to “cruise” around holding onto the furniture or me or your daddy’s hands. This month we have been doing swimming lessons twice and week and you really love the water. You go under the water just fine and it doesn’t seem to bother you. This summer is really hot so we haven’t been spending much time outside unless we’ve been in the water so you’ve been swimming a lot! You eat 3 meals a day of pureed fruits and veggies and still take a few bottles each day. You are still taking two long naps and I LOVE that I can predict your nap schedule each day. You take your morning nap about 9:15 and your afternoon one around 1:30. You go to bed anywhere between 6:30-7:00 each night. Sometimes you sleep the entire 12 hours until 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning but more often than not you still wake up around 4:00 for a quick bottle and then you’re back to sleep. At the doctor today you weighed 21 lbs and are 28.5 inches tall. You are getting so big! This month you got your DOC Band off and finished PT. You were great with both and I’m so happy those things are behind you. Your head looks great and the therapist doesn’t see any indication of your Torticollis. This month you’ve also become very attached to your dad or me. You are having a lot of separation anxiety when we leave you with other people. I know this is normal around this age but I hope it passes at some point. This month you also went with your dad to your cousin’s 1st birthday party in Saratoga Springs. Daddy said you did great on the plane rides and had a great time with the Rubacks in NY. I missed you so much, but I was so happy you had a good trip! We are going to start feeding you tables food this month. Yikes! You are getting so big! I can’t wait to see what is in store for you this month. Love you baby.

Cooking!

Yep, you read that right. If you know me at all you are probably a little bit surprised. I will admit, so was I! As I've written about about before Dave and I have decided to make B's baby food. It's been pretty easy I must say, but I also must admit that Dave does 75% of the cooking most of the time. He's great that way!
After a yummy dinner at the Grove this evening we ran to HEB to grab LOTS of fresh fruits and veggies to make some new meals for B. We bought items for 5 different meals, but only made 2 tonight (yes, I helped too!). We will make the others throughout the week.

Here is our stash


1st we made the "Very Blueberry and Apple" recipe


Here is how we did it! 1st rinse the blueberries (1 cup) and peal the apples (4)




Cut the apples and remove the seeds and core


Combine the apples and blueberries in a pot and add 8 oz of water. Cook for 8 minutes on high heat (stirring once).


Pour everything into the blender and puree until smooth



Pour puree into ice cube trays. Cover and freeze.



Then we made a Papaya Banana recipe


Cut the papaya in half and scoop out the seeds (we used 2 meridol papayas equalling about 5 pounds)


Cut into pieces and remove the skin (like a watermelon)



Peel and cut 3 bananas


Cook the papayas on high heat for 4 minutes


Add the bananas and cook for 1 additional minute while stirring


Pour into blender and puree



Pour into ice cube trays. Wrap and freeze.



I know lot of people use food processors to puree the food but we find that the blender works just fine for us and we already had one so it was free! After the cubes have frozen we pop them out and keep them in labeled Ziplocks. I must say I was a bit skeptical at first but it is fun seeing B eat food that I know is fresh and heathy.

Crawling!

Yesterday (7.11.11) Bennett really started to crawl! A few weeks shy of 9 months he has really figured it out. This is a BIG deal for us because we have been working on this skill for a few months now. He has been going to physical therapy for about 2 months and has been getting closer and closer each week. He has been "army crawling" for a few weeks now, but yesterday was the 1st time he he crawled on his knees for more than one or two seconds. I'm so excited for him!

Here is a video from yesterday (I'm hoping this works the 1st time : )