I did it!

> So I did it....I have not nursed my daughter since Thursday morning. Two Fridays ago (i think although the days are fuzzy) I stopped nursing Her during the day. As you know we were very routine based so it was before her nap. I offered her milk in a sippy cup and she took a few sips but then realized it was a substitute and not happy. I will have to admit, tho first two days were tough. I had to put her to sleep by letting her cry it out. Not fun! By the third day my mom was able to put her down without any crying and the rest of the week went well. We read a book and snuggle with her blanket and I can now put her down awake and I don't hear a peep.
>
> I was going to start evening weaning earlier this week but she was sick and not herself so I decided to hold off. She was feeling great on Wednesday afternoon so Joe and I decided that we should start Thursday night. We chose Thursday specifically so that we had the weekend to work together and in hopes that by Sunday when Joe wouldn't be here for bedtime that I could put her down without nursing. Thursday night was ok, she cried for a few minutes. Friday she went to bed ok, but she woke up around midnight and had a hard time going back to bed without nursing. It took until about 1:30. Saturday was HELL. She was so needy and was so grumpy all day. We did learn some things. She woke up upset and we fed her immediately. This helped. This morning we fed her as soon as she woke up and it helped with her mood. We also learned that not nursing has increased her already large appetite. Tonight, I put her to bed and all went well. She didn't even root. In place of nursing I sing her a song.
>
> So it's been since Thursday morning, so I would say I'm done. No, I'm not sad. In fact I'm happy and relieved that I made it this long. It was good while it lasted and I'm glad I did it, but I'm also thrilled to be done!

First day of preschool!

The move is done

Blogging will begin again as soon as I have internet but for now... The move is done, boxes still need to be unpacked and rooms still need to be painted. We are all getting used to life in the south.

fake tressel

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Eggplant Meatballs

3 medium eggplants
3/4 Cup parsley (more if needed depending on taste), leaves removed from stems
3 large garlic cloves, cut into thirds
2 to 3 C Italian breadcrumbs depending on consistency
1 1/2 C grated Romano cheese (from Arthur Ave if possible)
olive oil if necessary to add moisture to balls

1. Roast eggplants at 350 degrees for1 hour. To roast, cut in half, score and put a little salt on top.
2. Clean eggplant out from skin and put into large mixing bowl. Add parsley and garlic and process until smooth. Scrape sides down as needed. Process until consistency of hummus - chunky and wet!
3. Remove mixture and return to mixing bowl. Add breadcrumbs and cheese and mix well. Should be the consistency of meatloaf.
4. Roll into balls approx. 1 inch each - ping pong ball size. Place on sprayed cookie sheet
5. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes

Playing at the pool with grandpa

Pants on her head

Joe out her pants on her head this morning and she let him and then continued to let them stay on her head.

Playing in the pool

Today we went to a friend's house for a BBQ and had fun playing in the baby pool.

Nine Months Old

Here she is 3/4 of a year already! Wow - it really does go fast. She is army crawling around our house like a storm. Clapping is a regular habit and gets especially excited when we cheer and clap with her. She loves to open and close books, hold little balls, pull up on things and can easily go from laying on her tummy to sitting up. We often find her sitting in her crib playing after a nap. Speaking of which. She takes pretty good naps. A long morning one - around 9 or 9:30 that lasts for an hour and a half to two hours and then an afternoon one. Usually around 2 or 2:30, but this morning her morning nap started late and went long so who knows when her afternoon nap will start. Its almost 3 and she is still crawling around playing with her books.

She loves the dog although if he is in her way she will yell at him. He doesn't take her toys but is not happy when she takes his - which she loves. She enjoys splashing her hand in his water dish, even when he's drinking from it. She feeds the dog from her highchair and he occasionally lets a low growl out when she gets a bit too close to his breakfast and dinner. We have been trying to separate them during his mealtimes so as to discourage this behavior.

She sleeps well from 7:30/8pm to about 5/5:15am and if we are lucky for an hour to an hour and a half, she will go back to sleep after her morning feed. She only nurses three other times a day - before both naps and before bed. She is now up to three meals a day - yogurt for breakfast, fruit and oatmeal/cereal for lunch and veggies and cereal for dinner. I need to add in more meat but I will talk to the doctor about that at her next appointment.

Sorry if all this information is boring - I'm not good at keeping a baby book so I figure this is the only way to record all this information and not loose it before it all gets forgotten again.

Oh yea - and still only the two bottom teeth - one she got over mother's day weekend and one over memorial day weekend.

She got her Boobies painted....

Its a ComFest thing. All the ute girls and many of the not so cute girls will walk around the park tomorrow getting their boobies painted so I thought it would be cute if Kirsten did too. She is nine months old today after all! She also tried some of my corn dog (the corn part) and ate some grass. All ComFest staples for all that attend!

Berries

Look at all those yummy berries from breakfast today! Yup - all over her face!!!

Quilting Weekend

So while I was at the fabric store buying my binding, borders and backing for my i-spy quilt, I ran into a woman who told me about the National Quilter's Association show. It was this weekend and happened to be at the convention center. Since that is so close to my house I thought I would go over and check it out for an hour or two. You should have seen the quilts and the vendors. I didn't take pictures of the vendor booths because many had "no photos without permission" signs but I did photograph some of the quilts. Wow - those women have some time on their hands!

i-Spy Quilt!

So I have been obsessed with i-spy quilts for awhile.. After I saw this and this I just wanted one for my little one. I even considered paying $75 and buying one off of Etsy here. But I didn't. I was lucky enough to be able to sign up for one of Care's I-spy swaps over at Obsessively Stitching and got to make my own.


Now I have never really made a quilt before. I made a t-shirt quilt. But beccuase I so poorly put the binding on and didn't machine quilt it altogether (just hand tied it in a few places) I don't consider it to be a REAL quilt. This one though is legit. The only thing I didn't do was free motion quilting. I just quilted in diagonals and really liked how it turned out. Many quilting in my little basic singer is a chose. Quilts are heavy. I am glad I did it this way. I don't know if I could do a quilt any other way in my machine.

My in laws were/are here for Father's Day and they watching my little one while I spent hours - it wasn't as hard as I thought - to make this quilt. Here is the process and the finished results:

First I laid out all my i spy blocks to put them in some kind of order and to make sure I didn't have too many with the same color background next to each other.

Then I sewed pairs of fabrics together and then pair os pairs together to make rows of four. Note how in the above picture I used post it notes to mark my 1/4 inch seam. I don't think I sew very straight so this kept me in line - it totally helped! I read about how to do this on some blog but not sue which one. I consider myself not a self taught quilter, but a blog taught quilter!

I sewed the three rows of four together to make my 15 total rows. Then I sewed all my rows together to make my top

I didn't photograph the nex steps but I then added my green border, and quilted the three layers (the back, the batting and the top together) and sewed on my binding, first the back side with the machine and then the front by hand. It was a long weekend and I am glad myin laws were here to help because I hate having projects left unfinished because I do all my work in my kitchen since we live in such a tiny house. Here is the completed quilt.

Standing

My little girl is growing up too fast. This evening she was sick of crawling around the living room, but loved standing. I helped her get into a stand - she is not yet pulling herself up. She also needed my help to get back to a sit.

Crawling

So this past week my little one started crawling. She does an army crawl where she doesn't lift her tummy off the ground an uses her elbows and forearms to pull her around. She is pretty efficent with this and can really move!

Yes, that is a towel I had attached to her tummy - it helped to pick up some of the dog hair - you should see how much her belly picks up as she crawls around our house.

She loves to crawl into the dog's crate.

And is starting to show interest in climbing the stairs, although she has no idea what to do with her legs or how to get them up the stairs. It will be trouble once she does...

As excited as I am that she has reached this milestone, I don't think I was ready for it. It really does change your world with a baby and how they spend their time.

Mohawk

So the boy cousins in my family love mohawks...I thought that my daughter should enjoy them as well!

And in true rocker fashion, she is playing a musical instrument that needs a lot of banging.
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Also, after looking at it, I don't know that polka dots and mohawks really go together :)

I-Spy Swap

Care over at Obsessively Stitching posted the first 5 i-spy swapers. This gives me a look at the first 50 of my future squares. I can't wait for the rest of the fabrics to arrive in my mailbox and I can begin my first quilt. If you want to check out the fabrics she has posted thusfar, check them out and let me know what you think!

Breakfast of Champions

She ate some pancakes & blueberries for breakfast the other day. She enjoyed playing as much as she did eating...

Eight Months Old

(She puts everything in her mouth)

(she loves to eat the sign)

Today my little one turned eight months old. She has been sleeping better than at 7 months and is eating like a champ. She finished her last week of swimming with her Daddy on Tuesday nights this evening. I know that I will miss this time. She is currently struggling because she has an opinion about what she wants and doesn't want but only knows how to express her opinion in whines an cries. This gets tiring on mommy by the time daddy comes home.

She is still not crawling, but rolling well and getting on all fours, rocking back & forth. It's fun and exhausting to spend every day with her.