playdough

Joey loved poking and pressing his little fingers into this new texture. I made Koolaid Playdough for Joey. Out of the 4 different colors (red, blue, green, yellow), he liked the red the best. My favorite is listening to the noises he adds to any activity.

weaning

great breastfeeding blog

I am in LOVE with nursing my active toddler. I am SO thankful God has provided my family with the financial options for me to have a break from working in order to nurse my toddler.

breastfeeding myths make me laugh.

Baby Joey will be 16 months soon. Having Joey 'self-wean' and cut out his own nursings at his own time. Currently, he asks for breastmilk sometimes after falling or making an ouchy, sometimes before his one long nap, most times before bedtime (but never falls asleep attached anymore), often once in the early morning hours, and when hurting. This is a dearly loved time with him.

The kicker is I will need to return back to work before Joey is going to be done weaning himself. My heart is torn. Every feeding has become more precious. The middle of the night tap and grunt, tugging on my shirt, the foot in the face as he tries to get closer to me, the little finger tracing the circle around my belly button....really weaning started when I gave him solid food at 7 1/2 months. This will just be another curve in the road of our breastfeeding relationship.

God has perfect timing and I need to have faith that weaning my child will be in God's timing too.

sweet potato pancakes

I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Pancakes and *had* to try it.
the original recipe went something like this (as I am frustrated that I can't find the website/blog): 1/2 cup baked sweet potato, 1/4 coconut flour, 3 eggs, cinnamon, 1/2t vanilla; use coconut oil to fry in pan

Here's what I ended up using: 1 1/2 sweet potatoes (closer to 2/3 cup baked and smashed), 1/4 cup unbleached flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup whole milk, 1/4t cinnamon, 1/2t vanilla. made them in my non-stick pan. OMG! So delicious! Joey ate almost 4 pancakes with a side of peas, applesauce, and cottage cheese. They were so sweet and were perfect with a bit of butter.

The batter makes them a smidgen too dense. Next time I make them I'm going to thin the batter down more with milk and turn them into crepes!!! add a bit of butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar...!!!! Can't wait to get some more sweet potatoes.

baby photos

I finally got a baby book done for Joey.

The best part is it was a buy 1, get 2 free deal. Saving money always gives me a little high.

pool on the farm

every 50 acre farm needs an in ground pool; or at least I'm glad my parents think so. going to share some photos and videos of our fun week at "grandpa Joe's"




Joey loved watching Grandpa Joe mow the yard on a tractor and loved being pushed around on his tractor


we also liked learning how to jump in the pool.


but didn't like when mom wasn't with me in the pool, but Joey was still cute!



we got our volleyball on.


Emily played so much volleyball that as she was sending a volley back over in a game with 10 year old, her wedding ring flew off over 10feet. The ring was found 2 days later past 6 feet of pool decking, past 4 feet of river rock border, past the black vertical aluminum fence, and into the grass. So thankful the ring was found!

We have a little water bug forming and love my Joey.

adventures at the Botanical Garden

Joey and I went to the St Louis Botanical Garden earlier this month. We wanted to post some photos up here.



He loves water, and we of course were attracted to every water fountain.





He called the statues of sheep, dogs. Duh, of course they are dogs; i see 4 legs.



He wanted to know about everything!!! pointing at things for me to describe.

breast milk donation

What do I do with the leftover human milk in my freezer? Approximately 45ounces of white liquid gold already pumped. Joey will not drink it from a sippy cup and never has taken a bottle when I'm around; he likes it from the 'tap'. :)
So I search online for milk donations. I can't find anything local to just give milk away. I find requests that milk is 'urgently needed', but you have to have over 100 ounces. There's Milkshare.org where you can donate locally by state, but I still don't know. Having to prove I don't have HIV/hepatitis/nasty habits, takes out the benevolence of sharing my sacred milk.

I can't stomach the idea of throwing it away.

And then I find this blog!!!!
Perfect timing on the idea of donating. Knowing that donation centers are going to Prolacta Bioscience really takes the altruism out of the situation.

I guess I really want to know who gets this treasure of mine. I'm sharing something very personal, so I guess it needs to be done in a personal manner if at all.

Or i'll just add it to his smoothie with the extra serving of veggies he doesn't eat...

****update****I found a home for my milk. I'm so happy.