Not about the baby

Just kidding. What else does my life revolve around lately?  Ok, I have had other thoughts about what to blog but I've forgotten most of them. However...

Meal Planning.  I want to get back into this. When I have a solid block of time to organize my recipes and sort them. I intend to capture our top 20-30 meals and make "weekly" plans of 4-5 meals (accounting for leftovers, etc).  That way I can just rotate through the "weeks" and we can eat mostly whatever is scheduled for that week. One fish, 2 chicken, 1 red meat or pork meal - etc. I'm OK with repeating our biggest favorites so I would imagine I could get perhaps 10 weeks out of this strategy.

Babysitters. LOVE IT when you get the right ones. I stole mine from the other moms at church. She grocery shops for me during nap time. Then she comes home and does whatever food prep I might need. LOVE HER. The other day we had a date and John was nursing when she came in. He immediately popped off and smiled at her, kept leaning back (horrible nursing behavior) and smiling some more. That was the end of that meal.

Nursing. Sucks. I want to quit so often. But, its close to free, so, I carry on. Lately John has been a bit of a pill and I'm hoping its just a phase. In my mind, everything will suddenly be perfect when we "start on solids" like everyone seems to suggest will solve everything.  I know this will not be the case, but I'm excited to start anyway. Like maybe I snuck a teaspoon of cereal in some milk today and gave it to him. Maybe he loved it.  Maybe.

BSF. Bible Study Fellowship.  I love the women in my group. Its hard to make "friends" at BSF but studying the bible together really is great. They have shown me SO much love through tons of prayer and even recently, meals as I continue to get over this infection I've had for several months.  (Nothing to worry about, Grandpa! I'll be fine!!!!!!)

5 Months. 14 pounds. Sitting up assisted, but would prefer to stand. Would greatly prefer to bounce. Won't bother rolling over unless the toy is REALLY worth it.  Talked up a storm over Christmas and now is mostly silent as a mouse except when we really get him laughing. 6 month clothing. (After taking 3 months to even get INTO 3 month clothes, here we are out of them 2 months later.) Loves bathtime. Sleeping 6:30p-7a +/- 60 minutes.  Mom and Dad are loving having nights to ourselves again. Although eating, baths, and bedtime by 6:30 seems really early - I'm barely off work by 5! I've been doing a dream feed around 10 and he is still waking up at least one extra time to eat...until last night when I let him cry it out for 10 minutes and he fell back asleep at minute 9. You can bet we're trying that again tonight now that he's proven he can do it! Yay.

And, pictures...

All dressed up for GG's 90th Bday Party. Snazzy!

Parent Fail: My kid has his own iPad mini apps. Only used when he wakes up before 6:30 though. Or if he is really whiney and I need to delay bedtime a little bit. He has this Twinkle Twinkle app and an aquarium display app.

New closed mouth/chewing on lip face he makes ALL.THE.TIME. Usually accompanied by some spitting.

High quality nursing moves. Thats his head under the blanket, if you're wondering. He'd rather eat blankets than nurse most of the time.

We've been going on a lot of walks in a new stroller someone gave us - so much to see!

We start early with Cribbage on my side of the family.

Entertaining our child while waiting for some food...

Favorite toy: Jumperoo.

Learning how to stand up in his Pack and Play...great...and more closed mouth smirks!