Baby Led Weaning Update

Three weeks in...

 Today's menu (a typical day):

- Still nurses the same amount - 6-7x day
- For breakfast: 3 pear slices and 1 cucumber stick
- For lunch: 2 apple slices and 1 cucumber stick
- For dinner: combination of apple and pear slices and 2 cauliflower stalks

Favorite foods:

- Cora has liked everything (as in she goes for each food with laser focus, jerkily brings it to her mouth, and goes after it)
- She is most able to eat pear slices because she can easily hold them and they melt away in her mouth and she seems to swallow them
- Apple slices and cucumber sticks are my favorites, because they are really easy for her to hold, the least messy, and she can gnaw them, taking in the flesh
- She also easily handles steamed or boiled cauliflower/broccoli and roasted butternut squash/sweet potatoes and is definitely eating them - these are just more messy!

Least favorite food:

- We both are frustrated by bananas: her, because they slip out of her grasp constantly, and me, because they keep falling on the floor, leaving a sticky mess behind.

Pros:

- This just feels like a logical approach to eating.  We put food in front of her and she is in charge for the rest of the meal.  We have to retrieve food from the floor at times, but otherwise, our meals are relaxed.
- Cora is always excited to be put in her high chair.  If we are heading into a nap or bedtime, she gets frustrated after 10 minutes; otherwise, she is content for up to 30 minutes.
- We are all having fun watching her discover FOOD!

Cons:

- The combination of Jack and Cora at a meal is MESSY.  Jack eats on a bench and tends to migrate around with greasy hand streaks and crumbs following.  Cora frequently knocks her food on the floor.  This leaves stickiness and small chunks of food all over the place.  Lots of on-hands-and-knees cleaning after meals!

Merry Christmas!

What an absolutely beautiful season of year.  Time to remember the birth of Jesus and the hope, love, joy, and peace that his life offers to the world.

We are enjoying celebrating with Jack and Cora.  Amidst the craziness of moving and being in my first trimester last December, I was really looking forward to this year's celebrating.  We decorated our tree, celebrated Advent at church, went Christmas caroling, went to Celebration in the Oaks (beginning what I think will be a special Landry family tradition), drank hot chocolate with special marshmallows from Aunt Claire, baked and delivered treats, and tried our hand at alternative gift giving.  Still ahead: spending time with both of our families and getting a sweet break from work to spend at home together!

So here's our Merry Christmas "card"!  We have several copies of Twas the Night Before Christmas and we found that if we stop reading, Jack would just continue on.  We decided to see how far he could go.  Turns out, pretty far!  Enjoy!

Experiencing life for the first time

This video captures one of the coolest parts of being a parent: watching your child experience pieces of LIFE for the first time.  I love exposing Jack to new things and watching his eyes light up in wonder.  Babies are equally fun as every day brings them into contact with something entirely new.  And how great to have video cameras!  Now we can rely on something more than our memories to preserve "firsts."

 

 

A few pictures from our life lately:

Shepherd Jack before our church's Christmas Pageant

Cora starts solids at the 6 month mark.  We're taking the Baby-Led Weaning approach.

No she doesn't really have enough hair for a bow, but I couldn't resist!

Cora at 6 months

Half a year tomorrow!  Time is definitely flowing faster in Cora's life than it did for Jack (at least from my perspective!)

She's not a child for drastic changes.  She has gradually changed some over the past month, but we'd still describe her as:

• Calm
• Sweet as sugar
• Happy
• EASY!
• Full of love and full of chub! :) 

A typical day for Cora looks like this:

*Wake once in the night to eat
*Wake once more to remind my parents I'm alive and to request pacifier be put back in my mouth
*I might wake between 5:30-6:30 but if I wake up early, I'm usually happy to just lie awake in Mommy and Daddy's bed and stare at the ceiling fan while they go back to sleep
*Get up and get dressed with Mommy, watch everyone eat breakfast (I got to join in yesterday and today with my own banana!), nurse before Mommy leaves for work
*Spend my morning with Ms. Rachel 3 days a week
*My days vary, but a mix of naps, tummy time, going places, and watching my brother.  Right now I have laser like focus on anything that comes within my reach and I grab for it and bring it right to my mouth.
*I like me a LONG nap after lunch.  3 hours at least, but if you keep the house quiet, I'll go longer.
*I'm always happy to see my daddy come home.  I adore everyone in my family and think my brother is hilarious. 

I smile, laugh, chew on things, stick my tongue out, and kick my legs to make my bouncy seat move.  I am getting pretty good at sitting up.  I'm not that interested in rolling over, but I can, and do it most mornings in my crib.  I am chill and happy to just observe and chew thank you!  (I now have two bottom teeth - they have caused me no tears, just a strong desire to gnaw on things.)
*I save my crying for when I'm tired or hungry and I start to get pretty of both by 7:00.  If you give me a bath, I immediately switch back to happy because I love splashing my legs in the water.  Nurse me and I'll go right to sleep.  Unless I'm overtired, and then I might make my dad pat my back for a while.

You are a joy to all you meet sweet Cora-bell!

 Oh and got to love the new nickname: "Cora-badorable"

Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy!

My baby is 3!  That sentence will probably start to sound really crazy in future years, but 3 is still a baby, right? 

Here is what my baby boy is up to these days:

- Just went down for a nap with his "bop."  A reminder to never say things like, "MY 3 year old won't still be using a pacifier."
- Uses words like "usually," "probably," and "along."
- Uses phrases like "I decided to...," "That will be so cool," and "I'm so excited!"
- Has cute ways of emphasizing his point.  Nods his heads, looks at you earnestly and wide-eyed, and, for example, today when he passed out a special birthday treat to his friends at school, puts his head inches from his classmate and says, "Tin, this is special popcorn.  It's called kettle corn."  When he doesn't get a response, moves from 5 inches to 2 inches from his friend and says "Tin, this is SPECIAL popcorn.  It's called kettle corn."

- Loves his baby sister - they communicate right now by laughing (giggling, chuckling) at each other and through lots of physical attention (Jack to Cora) and adoring looks (Cora to Jack).
- Is a cute middle man/interpreter.  We will be sitting in a small group and if he likes what one person is saying, he will turn to someone else and repeat it word for word, as in, "Daddy, Mommy said she will share a bite of her sandwich with me!" (with big, bright eyes, and a happy-go-lucky smile)

- Is a happy-go-lucky guy a lot of the time.
- Is WILLFUL, unique, odd, charming, and goofy, as I'm sure both Jacob and I were when we were little (are now?)
- Has a sweet soul.  Example: Jacob and I ate lunch with Jack at school today and sat through his class' goodbye circle.  They end with a hands in the middle cheer and today they said "Happy Birthday Jack!"  Well another boy is having a birthday in a few days and asked to have his name called out, so the class did.  Then another girl said let's do one more cheer.  The teacher said, "Jack, should we do Happy Birthday Jack again?"  To which Jack, replied, "No, let's say Happy Birthday to Tin" 
- Says "thank you" unprompted (sometimes) as in "Thank you Mommy" Always makes me smile :)

- Thinks all firemen and fire trucks are the definition of awesomeness. 

Jack's fire truck "cupcake cake"

Knows many local firemen by name, lights up to a hundred watts when he sees a truck driving down the road, and can spot a fire truck in a second no matter how hidden it might be in a picture/someone's toy chest/etc. 

You can imagine he was pretty thrilled when the local fire truck came to his birthday party!  We'd dropped an invitation off at the station earlier in the week, but I wasn't thinking they would actually come.  This act of kindness absolutely made my day as well as Jack's!

- The night before his birthday party, Jack slept with the cardboard picture of a fire truck that came in the package of the fire truck balloon we bought for his party.  Absolutely enamored is the best way to put it.

How could I have had any concept how rich my life would become by having this child?  December 3, 2009 was no doubt the longest day of my life, but the days since have been more vivid, more lived,  more colorful, and more meaningful because of this little boy.  I love him so much and am so proud to be his mother.

Happy Birthday Jack!