Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes ended up being next in line for Mr. Kolbe. These actually evoked some funny faces, but I wasn't really able to capture any of those on camera. Bummer. He liked them alright though and I did get some cute pics.
New trick, blowing raspberries!
He seems to be enjoying his food so much that I think we'll start giving it to him twice a day instead of just in the evenings.

Sushi

We don't eat out that often. Like, we go out to dinner maybe once or twice a year, plus the handful of times we take the family out to the Mexican restaurant we really like or order in Chinese. So we have discovered a few meals that we (Aaron) likes to make at home that are more of the "eating out" variety. One is crab legs. We buy them when they're on sale and then put them in the deep-freeze to save for a special occasion. The other is sushi. Aaron has been perfecting the art of home-made sushi over this past summer and he really does a great job at it. It's such a fun treat.

Ready to roll it out: nori-wrap, sushi rice with rice wine vinegar, sesame seeds, spicy mayonnaise, ahi tuna (he gives it about a 20 second dunk in boiling water before slicing it thinly), cream cheese, cucumber and avocado.
The proud chef with his creation.
Serve with soy sauce and wasabi, pickled ginger, some edamame on the side and a nice glass of white wine and it makes for a tasty, light summer meal.

Honey-do

My honey has done several nice projects around the house for me lately, for which I am greatly appreciative.

The first, and by FAR most exciting... Hooks in the laundry room!!!!!!!!
We don't have any shelf space in our laundry room besides the tops of the washer and dryer, so space is of a premium. It's nice to have moved the things that were usually sitting on the dryer to the hooks. Plus they will be a nice place for jackets and coats come this autumn and winter. I am very. excited. about these hooks. Like, nerdily excited.

He also hung some blinds in the baby room. We have never been a fan of the shades (same style as the link, not exactly the same though) the previous owners put throughout the house. We were excited to find that the windows were a standard size, so we could just buy the $10 white vinyl blinds from Lowes. We both felt kind of badly for taking the other ones down (hence why we've waited so long) since nothing was wrong with them and we know they are nicer (and probably cost more) than the blinds we got, but we really do just like the look of blinds so much better. So there you have it. Here's a before pic (like way before, as in before we moved into the house and repainted), and of course the after. I'm tossing the old shades into the garage sale box for $5/a piece (we'll have 2 sets of white and 5 sets of brown-ish when it's all said and done, all 23" W by 64" L), so if you're interested holler! They really are nice, just not our style.
Then he cleaned the window-well out and cleaned the window in the basement. Cleaning windows is typically my department, but the thought of the creepy crawlies that were likely living in the window-well out-weighed my yearning for a clean window. It's so sparkly clean now though. Makes me happy. In a nerdy sort of way (again).So what did YOU do this weekend?

Yummy avocado

I was honestly hoping for some of those funny baby faces when he tried the avocado, and I really figured we'd get them being it has such a different taste than anything he's used to (namely breastmilk and banana). But he seemed to realllllly enjoy it, maybe even more-so than the bananas and rice. I will admit, it's a very pleasant taste, but I was quite tickled to see my little guy enjoy it so much!

Small successes V

1. After (almost) finishing reading A Mother's Rule of Life (I would highly recommend this book if you are a mother, by the way), I spent some time developing our own family rule (while using and familiarizing myself with Microsoft Excel 2010, which really is kind of another success in and of itself). I am really excited about this, and think it will help me (and all of us) grow in our spirituality as well as bring order to our home and help us offer everything we do to Christ as we go about our day-to-day routines.

2. Cleaned out and organized the upstairs freezer, leaving a spot for the pureed food I have begun making/intend to make for our sweet Kolbe.

3. "Succeeded" with Gemma (2.5 yrs) in the naptime department on the several days lately that she's had issues going down by keeping my sanity about me (read: patience with her hasn't always been my strong point, really trying to work on that), and thus helping her to not get upset and in the end fall asleep without fuss.

AHHHHH parenting. I have a feeling I will juuuuuust about have this whole thing figured out by the time I no longer have young children. ;-D But in all seriousness, life is good and I'm enjoying myself immensely. Head on over to Faith and Family Live! to read about others' successes.

Sweet siblings II

Kolbe's ability to sit up has made playtime for him and Gemma much more exciting. Gemma is really having fun with it. Her latest...she has me sit him in her room by the CD player so they can listen to "Whistle Man" (or whatever the favorite song of the day is) together. She will bring him toys and I even caught her reading Polar Bear to him the other day. So sweet. I put a pillow behind him, as he still tips back once in awhile, and Gemma decided she needed one as well, "for in case I fall over, mama." Ha!
I took this picture the other morning and thought it turned out very good of both of them together. Definitely print-worthy and give-to-the-grandmas-worthy.

Eating boy

Kolbe has really taken off with his eating. The past several nights he has eaten a cube-and-a-half of brown rice cereal mixed with half a banana. WOW! He is still nursing well also, for which I am grateful. I think we are going to try avocado next and probably sweet potatoes after that and of course some apples in time for Fall. We're all having fun with this new phase.

Feed me, mama (sporting his new One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish bib)!
Playing with his spoon after he devoured his whole bowl of food. He is quite the eager eater.

Some pictures

I realized it had been awhile since I'd posted any pics, so thought I'd remedy that.

Gemma. She will not let me do anything with her hair besides spray it down and comb it in the morning. No ponytails, piggytails, barrettes, nothing. I don't care a lot, and it really does look very nice that way. And while I know her hair would look super-sweet "done" as well, you pick your battles and this is just not one that I have any interest in fighting. But then she goes and does this to herself. Really? And you can't wear a ponytail?!! Silly girl.
Kolbe is sitting up really well now. I know he enjoys the new vantage point, and Gemma seems to be enjoying the fact he can sit, as well. Here they are playing with the stacking cups, which have hands-down been the perennial favorite toy at our house since the time Gemma was Kolbe's age. Build 'em up, knock 'em down. Hours and hours of fun.
The kiddos in their matching bumGenius diapers (we use these for overnite). Gemma hasn't wet at night for over a month, but she doesn't complain about it so we still put her in one just in case. I love how she is holding his hand in this picture.
Gemma with my water bottle. She loves drinking out of it. I think she looks like such a big girl in this picture. Definitely not a baby anymore.
Thanks for checking in!

Homemade Protein Bars

I'm always looking for nutritious snacks to have around - as we are quite snacky at our house - so when I saw this recipe on Money Saving Mom I just had to give it a try. They were soooooo easy, contained ingredients we had around the house already (except for the raisins, which are pretty optional in my opinion), and they turned out super-yummy! Thought I'd share the recipe here. Like I said, these make a great snack, and even a decent breakfast!!

Homemade Protein Bars

1 mashed banana
1 1/2 cups dry oatmeal
2 tablespoons flax seed, ground
2-4 scoops protein powder (I used chocolate flavored)
1/4 cup peanut butter (We use the healthier stuff, with omega3's and no trans-fat. I would think any nut butter (cashew, almond) would be equally tasty.)
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients but chocolate together well (mixture will be somewhat sticky). Line a 9×9-inch pan with foil and spread the mixture evenly in the pan. Melt chocolate on the stove or in the microwave. (If you choose to do so on the stove, don't burn it like I did. And if you do burn it, adding milk won't make it unburn. And it will smell. Bad.) Spread over the mixture in the pan.

Place the pan in the freezer for at least two hours. Cut into bars and wrap in plastic wrap and/or foil and store in the freezer.

Thaw slightly before serving.

Small successes IV

1. Cut out pieces to sew four size large diapers for Kolbe, plus purchased and prepped some flannel for more. He doesn't need the larges yet, but he will soon enough.

2. Ran some errands by myself this morning while my dear hubby watched the wee-littles. I am always amazed at how many places I can go and how quickly I can make it in and out when I am alone.

3. Printed out three months of pictures (Walgreen's has $.10 prints!) to put in our album. This is only a partial success though, because I still need to write on them and put them in said album.

Head on over to Faith and Family Live! to share in others' successes.

Whistle man

Gemma has really been enjoying Nursery Rhymes of late. She got this book from our dear neighbors when Kolbe was born, and has enjoyed it immensely (she has the whole thing memorized, in fact), and we've checked out a handful of others from the library that we've read many times over. When she was less than enthusiastic about taking her nap the other day (she very enthusiastically told me "I wake up!" after being in her room quietly without sleeping for about half-an-hour), I decided to pull this Wee Sing CD out of my bag of tricks. It is chock full of Nursery Rhymes (I used it when I taught, and we actually had the tape growing up and let me tell you, could my sister and I share some memories about it...), and sure enough she just loves it (and, for the record, she did end up falling asleep eventually)! Her current favorite rhymes are "Meow" (The Three Little Kittens) and "Whistle Man" (after begging for it for 10-15 minutes, it finally dawned on Aaron and I - at exactly the same time even - that she was talking about "This Old Man". We're still trying to figure out what Per Deem" is, so if you have any guesses...). Anyways, she has learned to hit the back button and will sit in her room during the day and listen to these songs over and over. And over. And over. And over. She does not tire of them. Well, come nap or bedtime, we will program the CD to repeat the song over and over (and over, et al, per her request) so she can basically just listen to it on loop. Problem is, the CD has a bit of narration in between rhymes, so before the song restarts, it goes through 10-15 seconds of this narrating. Well, Aaron was putting her to bed the other night, and she kept wanting him to get up and hit the repeat button, and he would gently remind her, "see Gemma, just give it a little bit and it will start back over on it's own." Well, smart as she is, this whole idea was apparently just a bit lost on her, because after he left her room - I kid you not - for the next HOUR, ever two-ish minutes when the song was over you would hear her scream out in anger, "NO, I want WHISTLE Man" and she would grunt and growl and scowl until - would you believe - the narration ended and her beloved song started over. And then she was fine. Each time. Every two minutes. For. An. Hour. The girl just didn't figure it out. Aaron and I were laughing sooooooo hard. Poor girl. I hated to get so much entertainment out of her 'misery', but doggone-it, it was so stinkin' funny. Hopefully you've found this as amusing as we did. Maybe you had to be there. But I wanted to be sure and get this down so I didn't forget. It was quite funny.

Homemade brown-rice cereal

Here are the instructions for making homemade rice-cereal (mentioned in my last post).

• Take 1/4 cup of dry, uncooked brown rice (I used long grain, but short grain would work fine as well) and put it in a coffee grinder (you can use a food processor, but from what I've read a coffee grinder or spice grinder will give you a finer end product)
  
• Pulverize it on the highest speed until it is a fine powder (you can't get it too fine)
• Bring 1 cup of water to a boil on the stove
  
• Add rice powder, turn burner down to low
  
• Immediately after adding powder to water stir vigorously with a whisk
• Put lid on and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring quite frequently
• Remove from heat and cool a bit, then run it through a food processor to really make it smooth (it was still a little lumpy before running through the processor, that's why I added this step)
  

It can be stored in the fridge for a few days, and freezes nicely in ice-cube trays for longer storage. We mixed Kolbe's with some mashed bananas. Since he's used to mama's milk - and that's pretty sweet - we thought this would help make a nice transition to the world of "big-people" food. I think this will be great to mix with other fruits and veggies as we broaden his repertoire in the coming months as well; a healthy way to add some good carbs and fiber, and a bit of protein too, to any dish. I'm looking forward to Kolbe's "food journey". I am approaching it much differently than I did Gemma's (my dear practice child). Ahhhhh you live, you learn.

Kolbe - 7 months

Kolbe is seven months!!! Hard to believe another month has gone by. He is doing well, although I think he's hit a little rough patch either due to teething (still just has the two teeth) or possibly a bit of a virus (he's had a fever on and off for a few days now) or who knows what. Those kiddos sure like to keep a momma guessing! His sleep has definitely been more interrupted and restless and he is a little fussy at times. He has spent more time lately sleeping (and awake) in "the honey" (mei tai carrier) snuggled next to me during the day, and spends more time sleeping with Aaron and me at night than in his crib. He still goes down in his crib around 8-9PM, but after his first waking (sometimes as early as 10:30 or 11) he usually joins us, and it's iffy whether he makes it back to the crib or not. I'm sure this time will pass soon enough and I'll be left wondering where my snuggly baby went. He has started sitting up a little more on his own, although still not well enough to leave his side for very long. I did feel comfortable leaving him long enough to snap a picture though!! He does better if he has a toy he's holding or focusing on. He has spent more time in the stroller and really seems to like the outdoors. Much as I like wearing him, in this 100+ degree weather that just gets a little warm for both of us! We go to the park more days than not, and he's always happy hanging out in the stroller or being held and watching his sissy. One of these days very soon he'll get to give the baby-swing a try!

Several days before turning seven months, Kolbe got his first taste of people-food (besides the bite he took out of the church bulletin a few weeks ago...) Anyways, he seemed to be wanting to nurse a little more often lately, and since he's sitting up well and all, I figured we'd give it a whirl. I made him some homemade brown-rice cereal (I'll do a post on the recipe in the near future, it was fun and easy!) and mixed it with a bit of pureed banana and some breastmilk. I wouldn't say he was terribly excited by it, but he didn't seem to dislike it either. He ate a good 6-8 bites and seemed to enjoy it alright. He even grabbed at the spoon while I was feeding him and tried to shove it in his mouth all on his own. He liked it well enough to open up for more. Messy. (note to self, buy bib) This food business is pretty cool. Such a big boy. He hasn't had anymore since that first little try. With his fever I decided he was probably better off just nursing as frequently as possible. We'll try more sometime soon I'm sure, and I'll be sure to update here as he tries new things (if for no other reason, than so I can have a record of it) ;-D

And here's the obligatory couch pic! Still not feeling 100% poor guy.

The purple queen gets a haircut

I've blogged before about the purple queen spike I planted with my begonias this past spring (click the 'gardening' tag below for previous posts). Well, as cool a plant as it is, it was taking over so I decided to give it a haircut. Next year I'll have a better idea of how to plant it and just let it grow, but for now I was tired of it taking over my begonias, and it was just beginning to look bad. Here are the before and after pics.
We'll see how much more it grows between now and the first freeze. Hopefully I can find this same plant again next year, because it is very cool. I've just learned not to plant it with other flowers in the future.

Catholic websites

As a follow-up to my last post about the Internet, I thought I'd post some of my favorite Catholic websites that I like to frequent for news from a Catholic perspective, daily readings, faith-building articles and Catholic teaching.

Catholic Exchange
The Catholic Thing
Catholics United for the Faith
Faith and Family
The National Catholic Register
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

There really is a wealth of good stuff out there, and this is just scratching the surface. If you have some favorite sites of your own, please share them in the comments section. Thanks!

Prayer and the Internet

The Internet. Great invention, yes? It certainly can be. I did a presentation for my Motherhood group several months back on how technology can play a part in our role as Catholic mothers. Or just Catholics period. Because it certainly has its place, but on the flip side of the coin, who of us hasn't just been totally sucked in? You log on to check your email, and 2 1/2 hours later you're not exactly sure what you've done, but you decide it's time to log-off and take care of, oh I don't know, things that actually need to be done like laundry and dishes and caring for children, only to realize you have yet to check your email. Yeah. Been there. But the Internet can and even should play an important role in our lives. If you'd like to read more about it, check out what the Vatican has to say here. I used this document as kind of an outline for my aforementioned presentation, and I really think it had a lot of good points. If you have a chance, I'd highly recommend giving it a read. Anyways, I've never been too much into the whole YouTube thing. Just another way to waste more time (as previously mentioned). However, a friend of mine posted this video earlier this week, and it really captivated me. And Gemma, too. I started playing it, and she came over and said, "mommy, I like that song," so she sat up on my lap and watched and listened. And has done so no less than a half-dozen times since then. I think we often forget what an integral part that music and the visual arts can play in our prayer lives, and this video (along with the Prayer discussion at our Motherhood group I mentioned in a post earlier this week) really reminded me of that. Prayer is so much more than just rattling off this or that memorized prayer, and it can involve all of our God-given senses. Even the sense of smell (ahhhhh, incense). Anyways, it really gave me pause watching Gemma watch this video. I mean, she was just enthralled. And I really was moved by the pictures of the Eucharist, it just kind of takes my breath away thinking about the universality of our Church and Jesus in the Eucharist and what-not, but to see it do the same thing for my two-year-old was really, really cool. The power of the Eucharist never ceases to amaze me. Happy Friday, everyone.

Small successes III

1. Got my new laptop up and running (with the help of my dad), and am realizing the task of learning Windows7 and Office 2010 is much less daunting than I first thought it would be. I'm quite enjoying it actually.

2. Typed out, laminated and implemented the use of some daily prayers for our family prayer-time.

3. Bought some 4T summer clothes on clearance for Gemma next summer. Seeing as how we have absolutely no 4T summer clothing, this was a start.

Head on over to Faith and Family Live! to check out others' successes.

Kolbe's sippy

I let Gemma (for the first time) share her water-sippy with Kolbe the other day. She thought that was pretty cool stuff, and Kolbe was pretty curious about the whole prospect of, well, something liquid coming from a place other than nursing. So I put him in Gemma's hangy-chair yesterday afternoon and let him have at it. The bit he got in his mouth he made some funny faces at, but he was very entertained. I prefer my kiddos to take sippies over bottles as they get older and begin drinking things other than breastmilk, so this is a fun way to "get acquainted." Enjoy the montage, I suppose I should have just taken a video!

Our prayer cards

Last week at my Catholic Motherhood group the topic was prayer. We had a great discussion and all shared some of our ideas on family and individual prayer. I took a lot of good things away from the meeting, it was a real blessing. I have been intending for way too long now to type out some prayers to say during the day and take them to FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's) to be copied on colored paper and laminated with their heavy-duty plastic; and this discussion was the nudge I needed to finally get it done. My brother-in-law, who teaches at a Catholic school, sent me the diocesan religion curriculum so I could double check I had the correct versions. If our kids are going to Catholic schools, I figure it would be wise to teach them the same versions of the prayers as the ones they are going to learn at school to avoid confusion down the road. I color-coded YELLOW (Morning Offering) for morning, GREEN (Acts of Faith, Hope and Love) for afternoon, and BLUE (Magnificat) for evening. I finally just memorized the Morning Offering myself, like within the past few weeks (it amazes me how much longer it takes to memorize things as an adult compared to when I was younger), and we'll be learning the Acts of Faith, Hope and Love and the Magnificat together, as those are prayers I never learned as a child. Here are our cards. If you are interested in making cards of your own, I would be happy to email you the document of the prayers typed out, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel! Just comment and let me know.

Helper sissy

Gemma loves to help. Kolbe was in his bouncy-chair the other day, and she proudly came and told me, "mommy, I got bubby some toys." Yep, she did. All of them.