Making Your Own Baby Food?

• So... it sounds like a big hassel.
• Like, you must be crazy to the store and not just buy the jars of baby food?
• You must have WAY to much time on your hands to be able to make your baby's food.

Wrong!

I'm not a big *organic food* health nut or anything, I promise!

But, seriously, this is SO much better for your baby, SO much cheaper, and SO EASY!

The reason it's better is because you know the state the food was in before you process it, you know what was added to the mixture, and you know how it was handled thereafter. Read the labels, many have additional preservatives, etc. in addition to the main ingredient and water.

For obvious reasons, its cheaper. Just to give you an idea- I bought a single butternut squash, the most expensive food I've bought at $1/lb. I chopped it, boiled it in water, pureed it in a blender, and froze single servings in ice cube trays. I had so many single servings cubes that it filled an entire gallon freezer bag full, and this alone would feed her for an entire month if not longer. One pkg. of baby food is approx. $1.50 for 2.5 oz. = about 2 feedings. The cost/feeding is $0.75. Now, my butternut squash was $3.57. And did I mention it filled a whole gallon bag full of single-serving cubes... 56 cubes to be exact. So, the cost/feeding is $0.06! That's a savings of 92%!

There is no magic to this.

You can use your leftovers after dinner... potatoes, green beans, corn, fruits, meats, etc.

Babies also love bananas and avacados, which don't require any cooking! Just pop them in the blender with some water and freeze!

So far I've made zucchini, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Months of food for only $6.16!

If you are someone who likes a "guide", then I would recommend buying "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. There are gently used copies for sale on Amazon.com for under $10. She is somewhat of an organic health nut, but what I was most interested in was her recommendations on when to start certain foods and her recipes. She also has other tips on frugal living with infants, etc.

So there you have it! Hope this helps someone out!

More Firsts!

This month is full of firsts...

First Cold/Ear Infection

Riley has had congestion lately... no big deal really, but to remedy that without being able to give her any meds, she sleeps upright in her baby swing, with the vaporizer going and vick's on her chest... and of course, routine use of the nasal aspirator... yuck! (Riley HATES!)

She was diagnosed with her first ear infection this Monday. Twice on Sunday she had a fever, first of 99.4 and the second time of 100.2. Tylenol took care of the fever both times, but I was curious as to why the fever came back, so I scheduled an appt the next day.

Apparently, she is teething, and during the night her gums are swelling, causing her body to secrete fluids. With the congestion she already has and the additional secretions from the swelling, some fluid wasn't able to drain out of her ear drum and got infected... :-( She was prescribed some amoxicillin, it is a yummy bubble gum flavor and she has NO idea she is getting medicine!

First Time Eating Veggies

Last month, Riley started eating rice and oatmeal cereal. Once those were pretty well mastered, Mommy decided it was time for more exciting cuisine. So far, she's had butternut squash and sweet potatoes, both of which she L.O.V.E.S.!

First Time Sitting in the High Chair

We tried the bumbo seat, and that worked for umm, maybe 5 minutes. She wanted too badly to lean over the side or reach for the spoon, and half the time she wedged herself in there kind of sideways...

Then we tried just sitting her on our lap to feed her. This worked better, you could control her position more, BUT... if she lunged forward suddenly and Mommy accidentally missed her mouth or if she decides to snack on your wrist inbetween bites of food, then you might as well take the bath with her afterwards, because that stuff is sooo sticky and icky...

Finally, we decided she was a Big Girl and could sit in the high chair! All it took was a simple phone book to give her a boost, and wa-la! Much better, she doesn't lean out the sides, no slipping down, and if she wants to knaw on the tray, then go right ahead! It wipes right off! :-)

First Time Sitting Up All on her Own

Last weekend, we noticed that she was showing signs of balancing herself while sitting up. She'd kind of sit in my or Ryan's lap, and would lean forward, then pull herself back and rest against us again.

So, while Ryan was gone last week, I practiced with her, and by Wednesday (I think...) she had it down! Well, for up to 45 sec - 1 min at least! Perfect, just in time to sit and open Christmas presents!

Sorry I don't have them up yet.... but be sure to check back for pics!

Having a Krissy Moment...

I know we've all had one from time to time. Blonde moments, brain farts, whatever you want to call them.

I thought this would be a good addition to the blog, especially with all the new parenting scenarios I could share!

I also will try to include tips/tricks I've learned... so maybe you won't make the same mistake I did! :-)

Anway...

So, right about the time I started back to work after maternity leave, Riley started sleeping through the night, 5-7 hours at a time. Which was WONDERFUL. Until... (please excuse my French!) damn Daylight Savings Time! I have tried everything to get her to sleep until 4 AM, but her little internal clock is set at 3 AM! Staying up late, eating more before bed, soothing baths, putting her in the swing at night.... nope, 3 AM.

So, after fighting this issue, oversleeping and walking into work late many, many times, I finally had my "Krissy moment."

Hmmm...Why don't I just go to bed an hour earlier and wake up with her?
Now, this means I put her to bed an hour early and risk her waking up early as well. But if I'm right, then I get 6 hours of sleep.

I wish I would've tried this a month ago.

She woke up at 3 AM sharp.

So there you go. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Move Out of the Way... It's BLACK FRIDAY!

Such is the atmosphere at 3 am on Black Friday.

It's everyone for themself. And don't expect them to give you the right-of-way when you're headed for the checkout.

Every year, my Mother-in-law and two Sisters-in-law wake up at the butt-crack of dawn, and head to Enid to shop till they drop. I've joined in on the festivities the last three years. I'm just glad this year I'm not pregnant.

So here's how our day went.

Alarm is set for 1:20 AM, just in case I want to snooze for 10 min. But no more than that, our shopping trip is in MY hands (as Shawnda tells me) since I am the one who set their alarm. Well, who needs alarms? I have a 5 month old. Riley woke up at exactly 1:18 AM, just enough time for her to have a quick midnight snack....

Afterwards, I woke everyone up, we get dressed and head out around 2 AM. ETA to Old Navy is 45 minutes. Too bad, we didn't get in line fast enough and they only had 25 #'s to hand out for the Wii game. Strike 1.

The next stop was JC Penny. Nothing big. Got our snow globes :-)

From there we went to Walmart. Now, they did things WAY different this time. Apparently you could get there as early as you wanted, put items in your cart, and check out as soon as it was 5 AM. A bunch of crap if you ask me. So, when we got there (At 4:55 AM!), most of the really good deals were gone. Probably for the best. I spent WAY too much money there anyway!

Now, if any Walmart employees, engineers, or execs ever read this, I'm telling you now, you NEED to have a better to coordinate the checking out process. The current method simply does not work. There are entrances on either end of the store. The line for the checkout on the end (right next to the entrance) ran lenghtwise, instead of straight back, blocking the entrance, and prohibiting any movement for those wishing to complete their shopping elsewhere, etc. Unfortunately, my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law were trapped in this scenario. For like 2 hours. It was a mess!

From there, went to Lowe's and KMart. And then, we had a BIG PROBLEM.

I wish I would've brought my camera.

You truly can't appreciate Black Friday until witness a group of girls with an SUV that is SO full, you have to pile stuff on someone just to get the door shut. Toys coming into the front seat, you have to hold onto them so that they don't fly and hit the windshield... and don't even think about trying to open the back door.... unless you have a death wish!

Well, we had 'er full by 7:30 AM.

No Kidding.

So Grandpa Lyndal drove up in Shawnda's Avalanche and swapped us vehicles.

And on we go!

Walgreens, Atwoods, and to the mall- Bath & Body Works, Sears, Famous Footwear, The Buckle, Butterbean, Dillard's, Claire's, and last, but not least, one of my favorites, Hobby Lobby.

We made it through the rest of the day without any major hiccups... well, except for one little thing. Turns out there is a spending limit set on my bank card. Didn't know since I've never exceeded it!

Well, I guess our mortgage hit our account on Black Friday as well. So, after that and my relatively large purchases at Walmart and Old Navy around 10:30 AM, I had to call and talk to the bank PRESIDENT to get a spending increase, because the day just wasn't about to end for me! We were just getting started!

I'd also like to add that this whole time, I was pumping and storing breastmilk. Yes, every 3 hours, I broke out the breastpump and cooler, listening to the sound that I am likely to never forget for as long as I live. Around 10 minutes later, I was done and good to go.

So last year I was somewhat nauseas and pregnant, and this year I was a traveling milk cow. Great. I can only imagine how next year is going to be!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy and *safe* Black Friday! I will be there again next year for sure!! As my sister-in-law Shawnda says, "Screw the turkey, let's shop for two days straight!!"

Riley Kate is 5 Months Old!

Riley Kate turned 5 Months old on November 20th, just before Thanksgiving!

Her favorite new toys is her left foot. It now comes up and goes in her mouth. Just PERFECT for holding, sucking, and drooling all over. So darn cute though :-)

She's doing SO well in holding her head up now. She can get on her tummy and stretch her arms out all the way, and hold her head up as high as she can go. Also rolling over CONSTANTLY! The days of laying her down and expecting her to be in the same spot I left her are OVER! Always squirming, rolling, and scooting... will be crawling in no time for sure!

She wasn't scheduled for a wellness check, so I wasn't able to record her length and weight. These metrics are becoming more and more evident every day. Every time I *HEAVE* the carseat into the Yukon. Seriously, I count to three, swing the carrier back a little to get a little momentum, and almost but not quite fling the seat and latch it into the base, all while letting out a loud "UGGGGHH!" There's also the fact that after 5 minutes of holding her, my arm is asleep. She is now wearing 6 month old clothes, and filling them out quite well. So, I wasn't so eager to have her weighed and measured. I'll tell you right now, she's big and weighs a lot. Good enough for me. LOL

Still has the cutest darn smile I ever saw. Melts me every time. Those cheeks are just amazing. Makes me want to lean over and give her kisses.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving was a little extra special, of course!

I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful baby, family, and life.

We are so very blessed.

We spent Thanksgiving this year three times! Great-Grandma Billie Lou's and Grandma & Grandpa Kilian's were on Thursday, and Great-Granna's was on Saturday. Of course, Friday was set aside for *SHOPPING!*

It was really good to get to see all of our families. Really good.

Here's some pics:

Big Girl Food

Riley's recently started eating "Big Girl Food!"

Thank goodness! Mommy FINALLY has a break on trying to keep her milk supply up with Riley's growing demand... This is a perfect solution. It only requires mixing a little milk in it, and it keeps her full for a LLLOOONNNGGG time!

Sounds easy, right?

HA.

HA.

HA. HA.

I have half a mind to call Mike Rowe in for his next episode of "Dirty Jobs." Mommy is always missing Riley's mouth, and when I do make it in her mouth, as soon as the spoon is out, the hand is in! Ha! So, ALL the food that just went in is now on her hand, and from her hand to the shirt, to the bumbo seat, to my hand again with the spoon..... And if the hand for some reason isn't immediately in her mouth, she'll grab the bib around her neck (which is supposed to be keeping her all nice and clean) and shove it in also!

Seriously, does anyone have Mike's #? :-)

I do love how it fills up her tum-tum... mmm mmm mmm!!

And BTW- as soon as I know the in's and out's, I am going to post "How to make your own baby food." A friend of mine supposedly has it mastered, from meats, to fruits and veggies. Saved 100's of dollars... I'm all for it. Anyway, I'll share that ASAP!

Working Girls

Riley, Ryan and I all spent last weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Skaggs' house in Lamont. It was especially good to visit since my brother-in-law, Todd and his girlfriend, Corina, came up from Texas. We hadn't seen Todd since he came to see Riley when she was born, so it was really good to get to see him!

Of course, it wasn't all play for everyone, and there was work still to be done. So, we all came out to help.... except I forgot my work clothes and cowgirl boots.

Darn it.

Besides, someone had to supervise... :-)

Riley & I, Kelton, Corina & Kinsey, Grandma Maxie

Riley Kate

Riley & I, Corina, Kinsey sitting on Daddy' farm truck

Uncle Todd

Miss Kinsey Kay Proctor

Miss Carly Light

Carly, Riley, and I

My hubby, Ryan

Ryan's ummm.... Pliers

Kinsey's Cowgirl Boots

Cowboy Kelton

Movin' cattle

Catching the cow in the chute

Moo!

Ear-tagging

Worm Medicine

Branding

And... Let's just say the Bulls don't particulary like this gadget

You can imagine why...

And with that being said, I'll leave it up to your imagination... kind of makes me feel bad for the bulls, but that's life!

Kinda hungry for a hamburger right now... ha!

BOO!

I know Halloween was like 2 weeks ago... but

Riley and I wanted to show everyone what we practiced on Halloween!

"BOO!"

(AAAH! That's Scary!)

(Evil Laugh- Hahahaha!)

Our Anniversary

Ryan and I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary last Tuesday the 27th. He took me out to the Rancher's Club steakhouse and then to the movies to see "Law Abiding Citizen." (which btw was a really good movie)

Just wanted to say I still think I am the luckiest girl in the world.

I love you!!

Plbbbbblllbbbbb!!!

Plbbbbblllbbbbb!!! Plbbbbblllbbbbb!!! Plbbbbblllbbbbb!!!

No, these are not typos.

This is the wonderful gibberish I get to listen to every day now. Riley has discovered how to blow bubbles and roll her lips. I had to share since, as with all the new things she learns from day to day, she REALLY gets a kick out of it!

There are no words...

There are no words to describe this next video.

A sound of delight that is so.... so... just HAPPY.

I love this video. It just cracks me up!

Enjoy!!

Riley Kate is 4 Months Old!

Riley Kate turned 4 months old on the 20th, and her health and weight check was today. She is now in the 75th percentile on all of her measurements! She is tipping the scales at 14 lbs, 2 oz and was 24.75 in long! Our little girl is sure getting big!!

She is beginning to get really playful and is sooo much fun! Our living room is full of pillows, blankets to play on, her play gym, jumperoo, bumbo seat... plenty of good stuff for Daddy to trip over!!! :-)

I have some cool videos of her to share. I know I've said it before, and I'll say it again, she is one active chica! I think just watching this video again made me tired! It's so funny though! She just loves her play gym!

She has discovered standing, and LOVES to flex her leg muscles. Mommy put together the Jumperoo that Aunt Shawnda let us borrow... Riley gets a kick out of it!

Some other good news... Riley has been discharged from PT this month! Mommy and Daddy are sooo glad to not have to worry about that anymore. No surgery, no collar, no more stretches, no more PT visits! It is so nice that Great Granna still comes to watch Riley once a week. Riley has so much fun with her, and by the end of the day, completely wears Great Granna out!

Still chewing and sucking on her fingers.... A LOT! I am willing to bet that 90% of the day the fist is in her mouth. And if she doesn't have her fingers in her mouth, the next best thing is whatever's closest- my hand, wrist, shoulder...

Her favorite spot in the house is definitely the changing table. I don't know why. Maybe its the nakedness, the fact that soon she'll have dry, clean britches. Who knows. But every single time I lay her down there, we have the best conversations, the most fun playing, and she is always, always kicking!

Mommy and Riley have spent the last few weekends in Wichita with Pa and Grammie since Daddy was away. The first weekend in October we went to Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Goddard, KS.

It was so cool. Located right in the middle of a housing edition, this property of 20 - 30 exhibits, had beautiful waterfall displays and included exotic as well as petting zoo type animals. Some of the exotic animals included lemurs, monkeys, giraffe, leopards, birds, camels, zebra, penguins, kangaroo, and one BIG rhino!

What was especially neat about this place was the contact you got to have. We didn't take advantage of this much since Riley was with us, but you had the opportunity to actually walk among most of the animals.

Of course, you couldn't enter the rhino's den. But the lemurs, camels, birds, were definitely friendly enough to have visitors around them!

The animal's caretakers would tell you fun facts and a little bit about the animals and what they like and don't like. Also, at the front entrance was a nursery with windows overlooking cages of all the baby animals! So cute! I wish I had pictures of them to post!

Here's some other fun pics from this last month.

Playing with Grammie

Sleeping in Mommy's old chilly basement bedroom from highschool

Going out to eat with Pa and Grammie

I'm still trying my hardest and doing my best to capture the moments. She's growing up and changing so fast. I told Ryan the other day, "At the rate she's going and judging by how much she likes standing, I bet she doesn't crawl long, she'll be walking REAL SOON." So there I have my guess in writing. I may be wrong, but I may be right though! We'll have to see!!!