Life, Love, and Rockets: My First Christmas

The holiday season kept us plenty occupied this year (hence the timing between posts!). I worked Christmas Eve and Day this year, so we packed up and headed to Joplin the evening of the 25th. We celebrated with both our immediate and extended families during our 5 day stay. I had quite a bit of fun shopping around for useful Christmas presents for Declan this year (baby bowls and spoons, a highchair, and bigger clothes). We were so excited to watch Declan open presents (i.e.- play with the boxes/paper/bows) that we nearly forgot to take any pictures! The very few we did get were blurry and poorly lit at best :( It occurred to me that we hadn't taken pictures when we got to the very last present... Matt grab the camera, record, and take some pictures quick! Either way, Christmas was special and it was nice to enjoy it with our families close by.

Christmas art

My first snow!

Checkin' out the snow from my window.

Christmas Eve

1 of only 2 blurry Christmas pictures

Declan had slowly been more and more hungry after normal feeds, grabbing at our food, and eyeing us during mealtime in a way that made you feel terrible to eat in from of him. So at 5 1/2 months we decided to start on a bit of cereal to prime his belly for the good stuff to come. Rice cereal mixed up with breast milk was our first venture into solid foods. He took to eating really well! (No, I'm not surprised at all. Have you met my boy?) Rice cereal down the hatch, no problem. On to oatmeal the following week, not so sure about this one. Texture is a little more grainy, different flavor. But he eats it anyway, even if he acts suspicious about the whole thing.

First taste of rice cereal...

...pretty good. More please!

Yum yum!

Anticipating moving on to baby foods, I bought a food processor and a baby cookbook with my Christmas money. Let me just say how excited I was to start making my little guy his very first foods!! I was surprised by how QUICK and EASY it was. I made the equivalent of 40 jars of baby food in under 2 hours :) Prep, cooking, pureeing, storing, and clean-up! We now have sweet potatoes, butternut squash, zucchini, green baby peas, apples, and pears all ready to go in 1oz portions in the freezer :) Not to mention the bananas and avocados can be readily fixed with no prep. This momma was waaaay to excited this morning to wait any longer. (The baby food has been in the freezer for a week now!!) He'll officially be 6 months old this Wednesday (January 23rd) and of course I work. I'm only off 1 day then back to work Friday. Feigning concern over a food reaction that I would want to be present for, today was the day we made the jump to delicious and nutritious whole pureed foods.

Cut up...

Steam...

Puree...

Freeze...

...Store!

Veggie or fruit?.... give with cereal or alone?.... eating a veggie for breakfast? (well I wouldn't!) I had already given in to cereal before 6 months. I had debated not giving cereal at all. I wanted to be that mom who achieved exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months before interrupting with solids. The healthiest option, right? Well, when babies are hungry and they give you those big, sad, why-won't-you-give-me-some eyes, and are trying to steal anything they can grab off the dinner table.... well I gave in. Sweet potatoes for breakfast. He wasn't quite sure about the new flavor at first, but took to it pretty good. It seems the more times he's exposed to it, the more he likes them. Yay! It's so fun to watch your child do all the "firsts", big or small. It's this great sense of joint adventure between him and us. So blessed by this little boy who has already made our lives so much more than we had known was possible.

Six months pictures in the laundry basket will be on Saturday, then coming your way :)

Declan Fun Facts:

-He is really finding his voice and becoming even more vocal. His latest thing is to yell and shriek as loudly as possible to his great amusement (not so much to other restaurant patrons when eating out though...)
-He sleeps on his tummy most of the time now, with feet pulled up under him, arms tucked under his belly, and his little behind up in the air :)
-He still makes his frownie face and cries when other babies cry or when they get loud (maybe that's how he discovered his new vocal talent?)
-I THINK I may have seen him sign back 'milk' to me the other day, but I haven't been able to get him to repeat it. So maybe just a random fist clenching....
-With solids in his diet now, Matt and I are sure to point out whose turn it is to change his poopie diapers! Peee-yeww! (Matt literally gags during diaper changes. I wonder where Declan got his Drama King attitude from?)
-He loves to play in his exersaucer and practice standing while in it. This is where most of his yelling and shrieking occurs.
-Not so fun fact, his reflux is just as prevalent as ever. I was really hoping for his sake (and for our washing machine's) that this would be coming to an end. Maybe next month :/
-Not so fun fact but funny story to everyone but me, I was the first to get barfed on IN THE FACE! (I was sincerely hoping this was going to be Matt.) Big time disgusting. Huge barf lands on my mouth and nose. I immediately clamp down my mouth which in turn means I inhale the stuff through my nose (which burns by the way) as is proceeds to run down my neck and into my hair THEN continuing on to my shoulder and the floor (of course I was holding him up in the air). In the shower I realize that I can taste it in my mouth too. I'm sure some got in there as well. I couldn't brush/rinse/swish/spit enough. Blech!
-Best fun fact of all... his laugh is too die for! (see video)