5 Months and Weekend Highlights

Olive is 5 months old as of May 28. She is doing great! We are loving her more and more every second. I took her in for her torticollis check and she does not need physical therapy, which was really good news. If you don't know what torticollis is, it's basically where a baby holds its head slightly tilted to one side more than the other, which causes the neck muscles to be shorter or tighter and can cause developmental inconsistencies in facial features, head growth, and spinal alignment. Phew. She is also a big girl! At 18.2 pounds, she's in 9 month clothing already and fitting very well into it. Yikes. Basically she's worn her 6 month stuff once.

We had our annual minus last year when I was no-fun-Noelle: pregnant and miserable Memorial Day party yesterday and it was lots of fun. It was great to relax and see friends we hadn't seen in a while. Both of our parents came over for the party, too. Olive had a great time and slept a LOT, which was a nice rest for us, too.

O knows who her parents are. She will sometimes cry initially when someone new talks to her or tries to hold her. It's kinda cute.

Olive also wrecked an outing for the first time today...Candace and I went out to lunch, took her, and she cried. Loudly. (Probably didn't help that the server was all up in Olive's business) I had the server box up my lunch before I could even take a bite and we left. Big thanks for my understanding pal! Haha.

We heard her giggle today a few times when I was kissing her cheeks and making silly noises. My heart totally melted. As did it when we took her "swimming" for the first time today...it's going to be a great summer.

Right before the meltdown.

She looks like such a little kid in this photo. Sigh.

Family photo

My parents, my daughter.

Brrr, Dad!

Nose picker.

This makes me happy. Look at that baby face.

Not happy about tutus.

Checking out the pool.

Puree to the Lord

I like making Olive's baby food. It's fun, and although I'm pretty busy with work/house/dog/hubs/baby/LIFE, it's still worth every second. I will briefly share my experiences thus far.

The website I used first to research and read up and baby food making and schedules and things of that nature is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I love this site and still regularly check it. Add it to your favorites now.

1. The goods.

• Small food processor (I decided against the Beaba Cook for a few reasons. a) I wanted to use this small appliance beyond the baby years. I'm not going to bust out the Beaba to make pesto for our dinner. That's just weird. b) It's way cheaper and the only noticeable difference/convenience I saw was that the Beaba steamed the food for you. It's really not hard to steam food. Really. Not $100+ worth of hard.) Necessary.
• Freezing Trays: I have a silicone one and a plastic one with a lid. So far, I like the silicone one better. It's a lot easier to get the cubes out and to scrape any puree out that may have gotten into an unused cube hole. Necessary.
• Ziploc Freezer Bags: for storing cubes after they're frozen. Necessary.
• Sharpie: for labelling the bags (what they are, when they were made) Necessary.
• Spoons
• Bowls
• Steamer Bowl: haven't used yet, but looks simple enough. Probably handy, but not necessary. Steaming could be achieved in a bowl with a little water in the microwave, or in a pot with a little water, steamer basket or not. I like it because I hate using pots/dirtying big dishes for little jobs.
• Mini Spatula for transferring puree into trays. Handy, but not necessary. Yet.
• Fresh & Freeze Containers: Handy, but not necessary. You could very well just thaw the cube in a regular bowl when you're ready to use it.
• Baby Cook Book: this was so impossible to resist, but not necessary.

2. The process.

• Steam food of choice.
• Add to food processor.
• Add a little of the water from cooking/purified water/formula/breastmilk to dilute slightly.
• Puree until smooth.
• Add to freezer trays. 
• Freeze 24 hours.
• Add to labelled Ziploc bag.
• Store in freezer until ready to use.
• Thaw for 10-15 seconds, stir, and test for temperature. Make sure food isn't too hot for baby.

3. The results.

• A royal mess, but that is to be expected when starting any solids! These bibs are amazing, machine-washable, cute, and waterproof. I love them!
• More poop.
• Healthy, fresh food for your baby.
• More dollars in your pocket for not buying manufactured foods.

4. The effort.

• More time, thought, energy...but just a little.
• It takes less than 30 minutes extra per week.
• Worth it.

Any questions, ask away!

Advice for New Moms or Soon-to-be New Moms...

I've been keeping a mental list of things that I wish people would've told me before I had Olive. I will list them here.

1. You're pregnant. Excited. Planning. BUYING. Don't buy clothing according to the age your baby will be for every season of the first year. I did and at this rate, Olive's 'fall' clothes are going on her in June. She jumped from the 10th percentile to the 95th. Yeah...don't go crazy with buying baby clothes too far in advance, no matter how cute that Christmas outfit is...

2. Laundry, cleaning, everything else really can wait. Give yourself a break. Snuggle that baby.
3. Speaking of laundry, stock up on laundry detergent. You'll be doing it every other day.
4. You will move faster and accomplish more than you ever thought possible. Be proud of yourself!

5. Showers used to be a daily occurrence. Now, it's a luxury that happens every 2-3 days, if you're lucky. (Especially in the beginning!)
6. You will find yourself making some really stupid, obnoxious noises in order to try to get your baby to smile or laugh. You will not stop making these noises for at least 2 hours.
7. Hire a cleaning lady if possible. Just do it.
8. Don't feel guilty donating/tossing any gifts or hand-me-downs that you aren't positive you're going to use. They'll never know.
9. It's normal for you to cry. Out of frustration, fear, love, joy, amazement, sympathy...it's ok.
10. You will take no fewer than 1 million pictures a day. If you post them to Facebook, you will get blocked and maybe un-friended, but you won't care. Look at that baby! ;)