Z-ed Up

So, Mitchell had some sort of virus or who knows what last week. We had a day at home due to a 103.3 temperature on Monday, and due to a lingering cough the pediatrician put him on the liquid equivalent of a z-pack. He was supposed to take 1 tsp on Monday and then a 1/2 tsp for 4 days after that. Well...those steroids had the same effect on him that they have on me when I've taken them - he was all keyed (or z'ed, haha, pardon the bad pun) up!

He was not having bedtime at all when 7:00 rolled around, so I brought him back downstairs and just decided that we could watch him and let him wind down a little bit before trying again. He was actually precious and lots of fun to play with that night, even though we knew he wasn't feeling great. Long story short, he stayed up past 10:00 and I was having horrible flashbacks to the days when he was just weeks old. He finally went to bed and slept for about 6 hours, so it wasn't horrible.

But while we were waiting for him to get tired enough to fall asleep we thought we'd listen to some tunes - the boy loves him some music! John has an iPhone for work and the face on his had cracked, which necessitated a new one. He brought the old one home for M to play with, since he loves my Blackberry and I'm starting to worry about how much drool it has soaked up. It's bound to give out one of these days.

Here's a couple of videos of M playing with his fancy new toy!

 

Thank Goodness...

...for the car seat.  Far and away the best naps M ever gets.

TV Worth Watching

Have ya'll seen the new ABC show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution?  It is all about trying to education Amricans about the food they eat and how it is impacting our health.  This message is on his website:

I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It's time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food!



You live in an amazing country full of inspirational people and you have the power to change things. With your help, we can get better food into homes, schools and communities all over America and give your kids a better future.


He visits the American city that the CDC has deemed the unhealthiest in America (Huntington, WV) and I am sure that there is some creative editing involved, but I was blown away by how ignorant and resistant to his efforts some of the people featured on the first couple of shows have been.  Perhaps I'm biased; I love Jamie Oliver anyway, but it's made me sad to watch some of the attitudes he's been up against.  It's also sad that someone from another country has been the one to take up this cause...but I'm sure glad someone is doing it!  Check out this show...it airs on Friday nights at 9/8c on ABC. 

Here's a couple of links:  http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution/index

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution

And click on the picture below to go right to the petition:

 

7 Months Old!

Mitchell's 7 months old today and I just want to give a quick summary of what he's up to lately.

UP being the operative word.  He loves to pull/push up on anything (even if it's not really an appropriate resource).  The other day he tried to use another child at his daycare to push up on, which clearly didn't go well when the other child started to crawl away!  Luckily he's also a good faller, so when he takes a tumble he takes it in stride and keeps right on going. 

Actually he doesn't fall that often.  My mom and I were marveling this past weekend about what good balance he has.  He is able to raise and lower himself really well.  This helps because, like in the picture above, he usually has a toy in one hand that he is usually also trying to hang onto!

Here he is standing up in his crib (I mentioned this last month but never posted):

He loves to greet us in the mornings standing up.  If we happen to go in and he's sitting down (or heaven forbid, actually laying down IN BED), he scrambles to get himself over to the rails so he can get up and then reaches up for us to get him out.  It's about the cutest thing you've ever seen.  I hope to get it on video one of these days, but things never seem to go quite the same way when a camera is involved.

He is really loving being able to crawl around and explore more of the house.  This box provided endless amusement recently, especially since the flaps could be opened and closed repeatedly. :)

He has lots of nicknames: Turkey Legs, Moose, Mitsul, etc, but my new one for him is Bam Bam.  He takes great delight in making as much noise as possible, whenever possible.  We have concrete floors on the main floor of our house, and he loves to crawl to the edge of our rugs and bang whatever he's got in his hands on the bare floors.  It truly fills him with glee.  I've said it before, but he's all boy.  He'll occasionally bang himself in the face during this activity, but it rarely phases him.

He's just so busy in general, and a very happy child 95% of the time.  Even when he's not feeling well, or he's tired from not taking a nap, he still has an adorable grin on his face.  He's not yet exhibited any signs of separation anxiety, which I'm still very thankful for.  He's all grins when I leave him at daycare in the morning and many days I'll stay a few minutes after I've left the room and just watch him playing through the window.  He's always moving and he just has the best time.  We're so lucky have such a sweet, good-natured child and we love watching him explore the big world out there!

Here's a few pictures from playtime last weekend:

Look closely, you may see the long drool drip I managed to capture!

He crawled over this bar multiple times - it was like a never-ending obstacle course for him!

My little ray of sunshine....

Falling Down On The Job

So I haven't been cooking much lately that I can share on this blog.  The Junior League of Chattanooga is working on a new cookbook and I'm on the committee, so I've been testing lots of recipes of late, but I'm not really supposed to share them until we make some decisions on what will be in and what won't.  I've made some really good stuff, but have also have some dishes that I'd put squarely in the reject pile as well.  It's a daunting process (I'm actually on the committee that is responsible for all the text/non-recipe content of the book) but it's been fun so far and I can't wait until the finished product comes out about a year from now!

So, other than cooking lots of baby food, I've not got a lot of things to share.  BUT I do have a resource that I want to share.  Our local health food/grocery store has started a new menu planning series called Shopping with Charlotte.  They have an actual cooking session each week that goes through the recipes but it's during my work day so I don't go.  Luckily they have copies of the recipes and shopping list at the store and online, and all throughout the store they have labels with the items that are on the shopping list for the week. 

I've picked up the recipes for the last couple of weeks and there have been some really good ones.  I found the lists posted online so I thought I'd share them for those of you who aren't in my town but might be interested in another resource for easy, quick, nutritious meals.  Based on the source, I thought they might be a little too out there, but so far there hasn't been any tempeh, tofu, wheatgrass, etc!  I like that there are 6 dishes, so about enough for a week given some leftovers, eating out, etc., and nothing is extraordinarily expensive or exotic.

So go check it out if you're interested! 
Greenlife Grocery - Shopping With Charlotte

Easter Bunnies for a Bargain!

Got this cutie pie at a consignment sale recently: $18 with tags still on, Be Mine brand, bubble.  I cannot resist my child in a bubble outfit.  He has such wonderfully chunky legs that they really need to be displayed as often as the temperature allows. 

Of course I don't have any pictures of them here.  How about a close up of his sweet baby blues instead?

Cute T-shirt Vendor

This post was edited a bit from its original state after I re-read it and realized how many times I'd used the word "cute".  Clearly I need to take a page from sorority rush and refer to a list of adjectives before I hit the Publish Post button!

Hey friends,

Do you need to buy clothes for any kiddos?  They don't even have to be yours....

Check out this Etsy vendor that I found through one of my favorite blogs to stalk read, Fly Through Our Window.  This person advertises on Darby's site and she has posted pictures of the kids in the shirts on various occasions on the blog.  I always liked them, so I ordered one out of curiosity with regards to quality, appearance, etc.

We got our t-shirt about a month ago but as I'd ordered an 18 month size, I didn't really do anything with it at first since the weather has been frigid and I didn't think it would fit yet anyway.  Her website recommends ordering up a size, and since I wanted to get ours for the summertime anway, I thought it would be fine.

Well, the t-shirt itself really must run small, because I washed it recently with some other new things we had (did not dry it, thank goodness) and when I was folding it I compared it to some other shirts we have and realized that it was not that much bigger.  So I tried it on him and lo and behold, it fits him quite well right now.  The sleeves are a little baggy and it's a tiny bit long, but he's always had a little bit of a milk gut (makes me chuckle when it hangs over his diaper), so that extra room helps.  He looked precious in it the other day.  Now I just hope it will hold out to be worn for at least part of baseball season!

Sorry, no cute posed pictures where you can actually see him AND the shirt...if you know Mitchell you know thats's a virtual impossibility to get him to sit still if he's not feelin' it!

I rest my case.

But otherwise, I am, as the name suggests, smitten with this shirt.

She has some precious easter/spring ones, as well as great birthday ideas (cupcakes, numbers), monograms, lots of holiday options come Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas, and plenty of fun little icons that would be perfect throughout the year.  She has ruffled little girl dresses that would be so fun with leggings or tights.  Go check her out! 

Even though the shirt ran a little small for us, I do like the final results and I'll defintely order from her again!