Happy 6 months, sweet Quinn!

I am not sure how it happened, but it appears that Quinn turns 6 months old today! It seems like yesterday I was struggling with sleepless nights and getting the hang of nursing...ok I still get up 2 times a night with him, but it not as long now!

He is still learning to sit up, but can for a few mins at a time with more practice I'm sure he will get the hang of it. He has been trying to crawl for a month now...he just needs to figure out how to move his arms and legs at the same time! He is funny to watch, he rocks back and forth and moves side to side but can't actually go forward yet! He rolls both ways too.

We started him on solids at 5 months. I was trying to hold out until 6 months, but he decided one night to try to DEVOUR Keith's ice cream cup and spoon so he was ready. He started with some rice cereal and seemed to like it. He has since had: applesauce, bananas, oatmeal, sweet potato, avocado(which he wasn't a huge fan of), and carrots. Hopefully he will have more soon. He also has had a mum mum(rice husk) he devours those into nothing!

Soon he will be off running and fighting back against his brother if the next 6 months go just as fast as the first! He is usually a very happy baby and is always nosy! He doesn't like to miss a thing. He is unlike most babies and sleep in his carseat...as soon as the car stops or the seat stops he is wide eyed staring at you! He also won't nap much or for long if he is around other people. All he has to do is bat his extremely long eyelashes and smile with his cute dimples and well your heart just melts!

Happy 6 months my sweet sweet boy!

Preschool at home...

So I've decided that this winter or fall Avery will be attending preschool at least 2 days a week. I used to work at a wonderful program and really want him to get into it. It is more for the socialization and being away from me than the educational aspect, although that will help him too!

Recently, I've been participating in Muffin Tin Monday. So I decided to start doing theme weeks with Avery at home based on her themes. This week is the letter "a" as the monday theme is apples. Well I was supposed to get apples with my groceries this week, but they never came so after Quinn's dr's appt this week we will go get some!

After digging through the ENTIRE box of cookie cutters I finally found the letter "a" and could finally do a craft with Avery. He picked out some paint (yellow and blue) and he used the cookie cutter to make a prints. I also had a cutter for an apple and acorns so he used those too. he discovered that when you mix yellow and blue together you get green. then he grabbed the paint brush and mixed all his beautiful stencil work into nothing...so you can't tell we actually used the cutters.

we then talked about things that start with the letter "a" i was having a hard time coming up with more words, and avery yells out "ANTS" and also his name!

its fun to spend time with just my oldest while the babies nap. I hope to be able to do it 2-3 times a week, more if my creative brain allows and I have the time!

Muffin Tin Monday-Apples

well i decided to order my groceries this week through stop and shop' peapod. I ordered a bag of apples as this week's them is Apples, little did I know that the apples never came until I tried to cook with them last night. So I did what I could with no apples...

So here is what Avery had! The author of this blog had some GREAT ideas! She is so creative!

bananas(for the song "apples and bananas), apple and cinnamon cottage cheese, "a" ginger pancakes, and "a" pb&j. he then also stole my carrots and licked off the ranch dressing.

Wordless Wednesday

Not sure WHY I even bother with a bib...

Muffin Tin Monday(posted on wed)

A friend of mine shared with me this blog called, Her Cup Overfloweth. On this blog they had this MARVELOUS idea for Muffin Tin Monday.(if you click the link above it will tell you how to do it). I found the idea intriguing so I decided to do it and see if that would help avery eat a little better! This will also help to get my creative brain moving again..even if it is for my kids!

So I stopped by Michaels to get some silicone muffin cups...I don't know about you, but washing reg. muffins tins bugs me. So after I paid a small fortune for them I got a coupon...so I will be going to buy more next week. In the meantime, I just used some little cups I had at the house. This week there was no theme and we actually had Muffin Tin Tuesday as we were away on monday.

For lunch I went with a shape theme: goldfish(fish shape), bananas for circles, and star shaped cheese. He ate almost all of it except for 2 pieces of cheese and a couple bananas.
For dinner, I just basically gave him what we were eating, just in the cups. there is rice, beans/corn, cheese, dried fruit, goldfish, and what we were having mixed together. I figured he should get used to eating with all the flavors mixed too. Again he did very well!(lunch pic is on the bottom and dinner is on top) I can't figure out how to switch them!

Tasty Tuesday

I've been experimenting with some new recipes lately and here are the verdicts!

First up, Mega Turkey Nacho Dinner-we really liked this and it was VERY filling! i did add in extra zucchini. i also used gr. beef, added in a can of tomatoes for the romas, no avocado, and used diced jalepino's instead of the sliced. next time i think i will omit the chicken stock as it made it too "juicy". i also didn't layer it and yet we still had lots of extras!

Next, Citrus Curry CHicken-we both liked the unique taste of this dish. it does NOT make enough sauce if you want it over rice so i would double it. i think next time i will marinate it in the sauce as the chicken was a bit dry. i didn't cook it in the microwave but on the stove top. it was pretty simple too! i used chicken breast too.

We also tried, Fluffy French Toast, to me they weren't that fluffy. it was basically french toast with a thicker batter on them. they were still pretty tasty! Although it could have been the bread, i just used reg. wheat bread. I also used rice milk instead of reg. milk. My dinner guest did like them too! Just be fair warned...they are messy! I also added in a sprinkle of cinnamon!

Finally, Cranberry turkey loaf-we like this one as well...but i thought it needed more flavor. i did add extra cranberry sauce and it was def. moist! i used turkey flavored stuffing instead of herb(wasn't paying double for it!) the extra sauce made it taste better. im thinking ill add in some more s&p and poultry seasoning next time. maybe even some apple/celery too!

Drilling our kids?

Sometimes I think in this society we put too much pressure on our kids to be "successful" at such an early age. There always seems to be a competition between who's kid is better than the other...it goes on even if you don't want it too! I do try my best not to compare my boys to others and try to let things go when people compare them to their own.

As most know, I am licensed as a family daycare provider. It is a slow process...but would like it to be a little quicker as least right now when we could really use the extra income. Since we became pregnant with Quinn last summer, daycare took a back seat. I had 2 kids in my care at the time. *I will admit I didn't do much with the kids for activities in the sense of arts & crafts or had lesson plans(i had every intention too). My kids were all under 2 and one of them everytime i brought something out he would either eat it, destroy it, or walk across other's work. So I let it go. Plus I was ABSOLUTELY exhausted and sick from being pregnant. We sang songs, read books, and played with NUMEROUS toys. It was a little more relaxed at the time, but it was the best I could do!

I closed down for 10 weeks and lost both of the kids...which is some ways I am ok with(as one bullied my kid and had NO support from his parents on discipline) and the other little boy I just lost to another daycare...

This other daycare pretty much GUARANTEES that your child will have basic reading and writing skills before they enter kindergarten. To me and my philosophy with my kids(and Keith does agree) this is putting to MUCH pressure on the kids to learn this. In my view, daycare is more for the social aspect vs. the learning aspect. So it seems like more of the day would be spent on " structured learning" than learning through play and each other. These kids range from infant to preschool.

We have talked about sending avery to preschool come jan or next fall. but we are SOLELY sending him for the social aspect and to get used to being away from mommy before I just throw him into full day kindergarten. Plus he will be home an extra year. This preschool is where I used to work and the teacher is faboluous! Plus this will allow him to make friends and to have friends once he goes to public school.

I of course can teach avery his numbers, letters, colors, how to write his name, etc. But we do it through play...I don't sit here and drill him on these things nor do I say "ok avery is time to write your letters".

I just seem to think that they have so much to accoplish now once they get into formal schooling so why should be pressure them in daycare or preschool? Just let the kids be kids! Let them get dirty, pick fights, argue, and play. They learn so much from each other and playing with objects that aren't just paper and pencils.