The weekend

Dad and Ginny came to visit this weekend and we had a good time. We got a couple good pictures that I wanted to share. Thanks for flying to Lubbock to see us.
A rare shot of me with my son instead of behind the camera taking the pictures.

Some recent pictures

Our new pet

Our new kitty...
Oops, he heard me. Going...Going...Gone.
We have a cat. This cat lives in our backyard. We did not buy this cat, or rescue it, or choose it. In fact, Chad doesn't like cats and is allergic to them. A while back a piece of fence broke off of our back gate, and I guess that is how the cat gets in our yard. I think he sleeps under our shed. It kind of grosses me out, and Chad and I were discussing ways to get rid of it, and then it occurred to me that I haven't seen a single mouse since this cat has been around. We used to catch them in traps in our garage, and I have caught more than one in our house (Nasty I know.) But I haven't seen a mouse dead or alive in a long time, maybe over a year, so I think we'll keep this cat around. We don't feed him and I know he stays in our backyard so he's got to be eating something and my guess is that it's mice. I guess I should go out and thank him. I've decided to name him Archie, since I love that name and Chad wouldn't let me name Ezra that. Blog readers, meet Archie. Archie, blog readers.

Some pictures

In case you can't tell what this is, he likes to chew the front of the swing (and shopping carts, and laundry, and anything else he can lean into)

Pictures from the week

Ezra got his first playing in the dirt experience when he went outside with Chad in the garden yesterday...needless to say, he liked it.Ezra has 4 teeth now...two on top and two on the bottom. In fact, since those two top teeth have come through, we have had our happy baby back until the next tooth decides to make its appearance I guess. We went ahead and got him a toothbrush because he HATED having his teeth/gums cleaned with a wet rag. He loves his new Elmo toothbrush.
I think I mentioned before that Ezra is now able to maneuver himself around the house in his walker...we have all hard floors so it's pretty easy to do. Lately, he has discovered cabinets, the kitchen trash can (and how to pull it so it will dump over), the dishwasher, plugs, his bookcase in his room (and how to pull the stuff off of it), etc. etc. The walker is my best friend (because it keeps him happy the longest) and my worst enemy (because he gets into so much mischief in it). This newfound freedom of his has given us a little taste of what he is going to be like when he is truly mobile...and we are scared. This is the same child that will contort his body as much as he possibly can to get to anything within reach when he is in a shopping cart, including the stuff in the cart behind him. He is so curious about everything around him.

Paul and Carolyn came to visit last weekend and brought Ezra this toy that sings the chicken dance and flaps its wings. He really likes it as you can see. At the last minute I decided to take it with us for our family pictures on Thursday in case Ezra needed a little extra coaxing to smile...and I am so glad I did because it worked. Although now, I am having nightmares about the chicken dance.Stay tuned...soon I will be able to point y'all in the direction of our photographer's blog for a sneak peek at our photo session. I am excited to see how our first "real" family pictures turned out.

Levi

I've got some pictures of Ezra I need to post, but Chad has the laptop and I'm on the old computer so those pictures will have to wait. In the meantime, I just wanted to say that I am SO excited to be an aunt again...for the 9th time! Levi Casey Montandon was born last night at 9:07 p.m. weighing in at 6 lbs. 14 oz. (same as Ezra's birth weight!) and 20.5 inches long. I can't wait to get my hands on that little baby. You can go here to see a couple pictures. I thought he looked like Ava's newborn pictures, but Emma says he really doesn't. Guess I'll just have to see him in person in a few weeks and judge for myself! We are so excited for Emma & Shawn and big sisters Elle and Ava.

This week's menu

I haven't posted any recipes in a while, but I wanted to share what I am doing this week because I like the idea so much. My sister told me about this blog, and as I was looking through it the other day I found this post. In case you don't want to take the time to go over there, the idea is this: roast a whole chicken the first day, eat part of it, then use the rest of the cooked meat for 4 separate, different meals the rest of the week. We just finished day 3. So far, each of the recipes has been delicious, with just the right amount of leftovers (1-2 meals' worth). Here's the menu:

Marcella Hazan's lemon roasted chicken with carrots and potatoes
Chicken picadillo with rice and black beans (our favorite recipe so far--wish we had more leftovers of this EDIT: I have now made this recipe twice. I liked it MUCH better the first time when I used already-roasted chicken that I had chopped into small cubes. The recipe tells you to grind the raw chicken in a food processor and cook it with some of the other ingredients, but I recommend cooking and chopping the chicken first and then adding it in. Also, I used On the Border salsa the first time and I liked that better than the Target salsa I used the second time. It made the dish less watery.)
White chicken chili
Sesame noodles with chicken (Another edit: I've made this dish twice now. The first time, I only had enough noodles for two helpings. The second time, I doubled the noodles and now we have yummy leftovers. Also, I used Chinese noodles found in the extremely tiny Asian foods section of Wal-mart, and I think it was a lot better using these than spaghetti. This is now my favorite recipe of these 5.)
Chicken curry

The blog claims that you'll spend $26 for all the meals combined, but I can't attest to that because I just shopped for the ingredients when I bought the rest of our groceries and spent way more than $26, but I can say that so far I am 3 for 3 and that RARELY happens. Also, I like the idea of not wasting anything, and I LOVE the idea of a grocery list being made for me. I tend to make a large meal, and then we are eating on the leftovers for days, and we both get so tired of it that I end up throwing food out, which I hate. It might seem like it's kind of boring to have chicken 5 days in a row, but the recipes are so different that I haven't even noticed that it's the same protein...plus it's much better than spaghetti for the 7th time in a row. And, the meals are healthy. I might get two chickens next time, but this time I'll be using boneless/skinless breasts for the last meal. And finally, try the chicken picadillo recipe, even if you don't make all of them, and don't bother grinding the chicken--I just chopped it really small and it worked great. I posted a recipe a while back for Moroccan meatballs, which were yummy, and this recipe reminds me of that. It has raisins and cinnamon in it, which kind of takes it out of the Mexican category for me and more North African. I just made brown rice and black beans and Chad and I both mixed all 3 things together and just ate it like that. Also, I should say that when I asked Chad today if he was going to eat the leftovers, he said yes, that he had been looking forward to them all day (which made me kind of sad...I was hoping he'd say no so I could have them. Yes, we were fighting over leftovers). The post also said that you could make a stock from the bones, which I will do next time. Then, you can use that stock for the white chicken chili on day 3.

I realize this is not a revelatory concept and that people have been using one chicken, roast, etc. to stretch their food dollars for years. I was just excited about this one because each of the recipes (so far) is SO good, healthy, and fits our "eating style"--meaning, it's all stuff that both of us like, which is not an easy task if you are cooking for more than just yourself.

Tonight, I am making oatmeal cranberry scones from another budget food blog (I think this person is a vegan so I don't use her recipes as much). If they're good, I will freeze them so we can have them for quick breakfasts.

If any of you try these, let me know how you like them!

The weekend, making baby food, teeth

This weekend Ezra and I drove to my mom's house and Ezra stayed with Granny while I spent the weekend with some friends to celebrate my friend Sara's upcoming wedding. Ezra had a great time, and I don't think he tired my mom out too much. I didn't get any pictures of the two of them together, but Erin & the kids came over and I got this picture of Kellen, Ezra and Bonnie. They love posing for pictures:
Ezra has become a pro at moving around in his walker. He can walk forward, backward, turn, etc. to get to where he wants to go. Here he is after realizing that he can open the cabinets in my mom's kitchen:
Changing subjects...I have started making my own baby food, for the sole reason that I just don't want to spend the money for store-bought food. I thought it would be complicated, or take a lot of time, so in case any of my friends out there are interested in making food for their babies, here's what I do.

1. Cook the food. I research how to cook whatever it is to preserve the most nutrients. Here, I've baked a couple of sweet potatoes. I also use frozen veggies and fruits if they're not in season (edited to add: it is really important that you cook produce to kill e.coli. In the case of the blueberries below, I boiled them to get them soft before I pureed them).
2. Blend the food (with a little added water) to desired consistency. Here, I've pureed some blueberries. Obviously I didn't hold the lid down tightly enough. Usually I don't make this big of a mess--I just happened to do it with blueberries on my white countertops.3. Pour purees into ice cube trays, freeze, and store in freezer bags. Below I've got peas and corn, ready to be heated up and eaten.
4. Feed baby. (We're back to blueberries now. This kid has liked every food I have offered him, except bananas.). It is so easy and hardly takes any time at all, unless you have to bleach your counters after blowing up blueberries in your blender. :) I calculated that I'll be saving about 2/3 the cost of what we were spending on commercial baby food, so about $30-40 a month.

This last picture was taken this afternoon during a tough time for Ezra. He cried off and on all afternoon and never took more than a 30-minute nap until he finally went to sleep tonight. He would stick his entire fist in his mouth and just chew. I think he'll be getting more teeth soon. One just broke through on the top, so I imagine the one next to it is close behind.

The last weekly weigh-in

I finally hit my goal weight. As of today, I am .8 pounds below my goal weight, which is 5.8 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. I am so excited! I already quit Weight Watchers, which was a huge help. I am still working out on a regular basis because I have that 15K coming up in April that I am training for. Well, thanks for coming with me on this journey. It was all the way back in September that I said I would lose 30 pounds, and it took me a while, but it finally happened. From the time I went into the hospital before I had Ezra, I've lost a total of 54.6 pounds (including a 6 lb. 14 oz. baby:). Slow and steady wins the race. I really think that for me it was all about accountability. So thanks everyone, for the encouragement along the way!

Eight months

Ezra won't be eight months old for another few days, but we will be out of town so I thought I'd blog about it before we leave.

At eight months, Ezra...
-is sleeping through the night (7 p.m.-7 a.m.) and takes 3 naps a day
-hates having his diaper changed because he wants to be flipping over, turning around and grabbing whatever is behind him on the changing table
-loves smiling at anyone who talks to him
-has learned how to walk around the house in his walker
-is sitting up on his own and loves just sitting and playing with his toys. Sometimes he still topples over, but he doesn't cry about it and just continues to play while he's on his belly. Also, the sitting up thing is great because now he can sit in a high chair and in a grocery cart on his own.
-eats about 4 times a day--milk, oatmeal/rice cereal, and baby food and a few cracker/snack type things
-has started making lots of consonant noises (d, b, m, etc...in case you forgot what a consonant was)
-acts like he wants to crawl when he's on his belly, but still hasn't figured out how to get up on all fours
-has officially moved up to the "big" carseat...no more infant carrier (Chad and I were about to get hernias carrying that thing around)
-still has just the two bottom teeth, but I can see a tooth on the top that is about to break through (maybe this explains the drool in the last picture)

I think that's about it...I'm sure there's more stuff, but when I actually sit down to record it, I can't think of it all. These past few weeks seem to have really been big milestones as far as Ezra realizing that he wants to be able to "do" stuff, so I don't think it will be long before he is crawling and just being more curious about everything. Next month we'll go back for his 9 month check-up, but my guess is they will say he is long and skinny. Happy 8 months!

Fun with the Parrishes

Ezra LOVES spending time with the Parrishes. Toni, Charlie, and Anna Beth sit next to us in church every Sunday, and from the time he was born, Ezra has loved being held by Miss Toni on Sunday mornings--he would even fall asleep in her arms when he wouldn't let anyone else rock him to sleep. Toni gave me some pictures of the last couple times they have watched him at their house, and it's pretty obvious that he loves them. Here he is sitting on Charlie's lap while Charlie plays the piano:
Toni, this was the only picture I could find of you on this CD and it is of the back of your head. Anyway, here's Toni and Anna Beth introducing Ezra to their cat, Pansy. I think that's her name anyway. Pansy's getting a closer look, and Ezra's going in for the kiss. I love that Ezra gets to spend time with other people's pets--that means we don't have to get one for a long time. Here are a few shots of Anna Beth and Ezra that I thought were really cute:

Thank you, Parrishes, for loving our son as if he were your own! We are blessed to have you in our lives.

3/16/10

This is going to be a post with a lot of miscellaneous stuff, but let's start with the real reason most of you read the blog...to see pictures of Ez. Can you believe he is almost 8 months old? (Check out those blue eyes...we think they are going to stay this color but I guess they can still change.)I just love this face and those cheeks.I walked in one day after I heard Ezra wake up from his nap and this is how he had his legs. He wasn't bothered, just laying there chillin'. Ezra recently saw his first episode of "Sesame Street." He loved it, of course.
Know what else this kid loves? Pulling hair. And his mom. And his many A&M t-shirts.
He also gets excited these days when he spends time in his bouncer that dad & Ginny gave him for Christmas. No, I mean SUPER excited.Ezra gets almost as excited about jumping as I get when I get behind the wheel of my new ride...Thats right, ladies and gentlemen. Chad and I are the proud owners of a brand new 2010 Toyota Sienna. This is actually a picture of a 2011 model, but I didn't want to spend 20 years googling a picture with a high enough resolution to not be pixelated, and I wanted to show the color to those who care, so this is what you get. Yes, go ahead, call me a soccer mom, that's fine. Frankly, I don't care what you call me, as long as I can open the sliding doors with the push of a button, fit all our stuff when we go to camp for the summer, be able to fit 3 people (or children) in the second seat and still be able to fold down the third seat for cargo space...you get the idea. We've had it for a couple days and I already love it. I'm sure Chad loves it too, but he probably wouldn't admit it in public.

And finally, I realize I haven't updated a while on my weigh-in situation, although I have been keeping up with it on the side of the blog. I am one pound away from my goal weight, so at this point I'm 4 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. Suh-weet!

Gracie Tidwell

15-month-old Gracie Tidwell was taken off life support and passed away at about 11:45 this morning. You can read about Gracie here. Please pray for peace, comfort and strength for the Tidwell family.

The weekend

Ezra and Gramme at Emma and Levi's baby shower
Ava and Ezra-cousins

We had a great weekend! Ezra and I flew into Austin to go to my sister-in-law Emma's baby shower. Levi will make his presence known in a little over a month, and I am so excited that Ezra will have a cousin who is fairly close to him in age. We flew in on Thursday, and the flight went without a hitch. Going through security was quite a production because of all the stuff (stroller, carseat, carry-on, taking shoes off, testing the bottles to make sure I hadn't put explosives in them), but it went fairly smoothly. We flew out at 6:30 in the morning and Ezra was asleep before we even took off and slept the whole way. PLUS, the flights both there and back weren't full, so they let me take the carseat on the plane and that gave Ezra a place to sleep, because he is awful at falling asleep in my arms. Anyway, we landed in Austin, got our rental car, and were on our way! The first stop was breakfast at Magnolia Cafe with dad and Ginny. Then, I had a couple places to stop and shop while I was in the south Austin area, and then we were on our way to Georgetown to Shawn and Emma's house. Thursday night I got to have dinner at Chuy's with my friend Sara, and then Friday I went shopping pretty much all day. Ezra made it with me to REI and Target, but then I thought it would be good if he spent some quality time with his gramme while I went to the outlet mall. :) Saturday was Emma's shower, and the hostesses did a wonderful job. We flew back Saturday afternoon. The two pictures above are ones that Emma sent me because I did not bring my camera. I had to pack light, and packing light means not being able to take a large SLR with you. I might need to invest in a small camera to carry in my purse and take on trips. Anyway, I love that picture of Ezra and Ava. Ava adores Ezra and she is so sweet with him. She will make a wonderful big sister.