embrace the camera: feet:)

baby food!

I've been enjoying making Carson's baby food. It is super easy and SO much cheaper than buying it ready-made. With this website and this cookbook as my guides, I've been cooking and pureeing away. All you have to do is cook the vegetable, put it in the blender, add a little water, and puree! Pour it in ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze over night. Then, label a gallon freezer bag and pop the frozen cubes inside. Each day, take out a couple of cubes so they can thaw. Easy peasy!

Now, if only convincing Carson to eat it were that easy....hopefully he'll get the hang of it before too long!

five senses: taste

One of the newest senses we’ve explored is that of taste! For the first six months of his life, Carson only tasted breast milk, vitamin D drops, and mylicon! But this month, that’s all changed! He’s experienced several new tastes, and it’s been fun to watch.

We've seen a little of this:(

a little of this:)

as he's tasted butternut squash,

sweet potatoes (with a side of toes!),

carrots,

and peas!

Lots of MESSY fun!

embrace the camera

This week I'm embracing the camera with my sweet baby boy! Oh how I love that smile:)

happy birthday!

Happy birthday to my dear husband!

Here are just a few of the reasons I love him, acrostic style!

Kind to everyone

Encourages and challenges me

Interested in learning and sharing

Takes time to listen

Honors God by striving to live into his image everyday

We celebrated with a date Friday night! We enjoyed relaxing conversation and a yummy dinner.

Carson was in good hands while we were away. He stayed with his first non-family babysitters, but really, the Cottrells are our local “family”, and we knew they were taking good care of him. He had lots of fun!

Speaking of Carson, watching Keith become a daddy this year has been amazing!

Here are a few of the reasons Carson loves Daddy!

Devoted

Always ready to play

Does so many different things to take care of him every day!

five senses: see

Another fun sense to explore is seeing. I’m amazed at the concentration and focus such a little guy has as he explores his sense of sight and learns about the world around him!

For a while now, Carson’s sense of sight has drawn him to look at bright lights and contrasting colors. He follows things he sees with his eyes. We have lots of fun experimenting with his sense of sight by playing peek-a-boo. One of the newest ways we’ve played with his sense of sight is with bubbles. He lies on his back, I blow bubbles towards him; watching them seems to relax him. The very best part of his developing sense of sight is the way he responds to things he sees. When we smile at him he smiles back!

He uses his sense of sight when we read books. Because our extended family all live in different states and Carson doesn’t get to see them too often, I made him a book reminding him of how much his family loves him with a page featuring each grandparent and aunt so he can see their sweet faces with his own and be reminded of how much they all love him!

His sense of sight is encouraging him to move, too! When he’s on the floor and sees a toy in front of him, he wants to get it! The problem is, right now, he goes backwards when he’s trying to go forward. Poor buddy. This can be frustrating, but I know his sense of sight is what’s encouraging him to move and it will be the thing that motivates him to master forward crawling before I know it. My baby boy is growing up quickly!

embrace the camera

My friend, Tara, introduced me to the anderson crew. It's a fun blog where the cute and spunky mama encourages everyone to embrace the camera every Thursday so that we have pictures with our kids, not just of our kids. Since I've had fun seeing everyone else embrace the camera, and I'm trying to be a better blogger, I decided to participate. This week, I decided to share a couple of my favorite Daddy/Carson pictures. Aren't they precious?! I love my guys:)

five senses: hear

Another way Carson is learning about the world around him is through his sense of hearing. He began hearing our voices even before he was born, so once he was born they were another way of providing comfort and safety. Talking, singing, and reading to him not only calm him down, but they are also how he begins understanding language.

talking

singing

reading

In addition to our voices, Carson enjoys toys that make noise. He likes things that rattle, squeak, and jingle.

I drink ridiculous amounts of peach tea, so I toss 3-4 of these handy dandy cylindrical containers in the recycling bag every week. I knew there had to be some way to repurpose them, because, after all, cylinders are the coolest three-dimensional figure:), since they’re the only one that stacks, slides, and rolls! Finally, I had an idea; these would make fun rolling shakers for Carson! I filled one with rice and one with pasta for two unique sounds and secured the lids with packing tape.

Then, I found some cute scrapbooking paper, cut it to fit, wrapped the shaker in paper, and covered it with packing tape (to protect it from slobber, of course!).

Carson's having fun exploring his sense of hearing (and touching and seeing, too) with these free toys! I wonder what other trash can become a treasure around here?!

five senses: touch

As a first grade teacher, one of my favorite units of study was the five senses. I always introduced the unit by popping popcorn, because it engaged all five senses. We heard it pop, smelled the buttery goodness, saw the small cloud-like pieces, touched the warm light-weight morsels, and finally tasted the yummy popcorn flavor seasoned with butter and salt.

Now that I’m a mama, teaching the five senses is even more fun, because everything is brand new! The first sense that’s been important to Carson is that of touch. Immediately following his birth, the cold air felt quite different from the warm moist environment he’d always known. Touch is what made him feel safe in this great big world. While we were in the hospital, Keith and I both spent time skin-to-skin with our little bundle of joy, and what a special experience it was!

Touch has remained an important way for Carson to feel safe and learn about the world around him. Snuggling, hugging, and kissing are all ways we show love.

Bath time is a fun way we engage the sense of touch in a totally different way! Carson loves to feel the water on his skin.

When it snowed, Carson got to touch a completely new temperature and texture!

One day, Carson and I had fun experimenting with flour. What a fun (and messy!) new way of engaging his sense of touch!

As I mentioned in the last post, Carson loves playing with placemats. He enjoys rubbing their rough texture. Similar textures he enjoys are carpet and the upholstery on our furniture. More great “toys” that have a unique texture are a bath puff and bath glove. They feel kind of scratchy. Sometimes while I’m getting ready, Carson lies on our bed and plays with Daddy’s shorts. They feel nice and soft and smell like Daddy!

I look forward to continuing to explore the five senses with my baby boy!

six months

feburary 2, 2011

17 pounds 14 ounces (55%)

27 inches (68%)

head circumference (41%)

Six months!! Happy half birthday, Precious Boy! We can hardly believe you’re half a year old. What a joy this half a year has been! We have LOVED getting to know you. Watching you grow and learn has been an honor and a privilege. We’ve already made so many precious memories snuggling and playing with you. This has been a month full of more growth and change. We had to put away lots of clothes that were getting too small. You are growing quickly and are now wearing size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothes. You’ve become a lot more mobile this month, which you’re enjoying! Because of that, we were concerned about you sleeping in your woombie. You were moving so much, and we didn’t want you to flip over and get stuck with your arms and legs zipped up. However, when you slept on your back without your woombie, you’d wake yourself up by moving your arms. That’s why we decided to start putting you on your belly to sleep, and it’s worked really well! You’ve been staying awake for longer chunks of time during the day, which is fun because it gives us more time to play! When you’re sleepy, you’ve started rubbing your eyes to let us know you’re ready for a nap, and you fall asleep more quickly than you used to. You love to move, and you’ve gotten really good at scooting backwards, which is sometimes frustrating to you, because you’re trying to go forward. You’ve accidently scooted under the rocking chair, crib, and dresser at different points while playing in the floor in your room! On Saturday, January 28, you started pulling your knees up and rocking back and forth, and it’s really cute! You make the sweetest sounds. You’ve started saying “mama.” I think you’re just experimenting with various sounds, but I pretend you know you’re saying my name! You’ve starting laughing out loud more often, which we adore! Daddy is the best at getting you to laugh! You like zurberts, kisses, peek-a-boo, stand up/fall down, and airplane. You love for us to sing and dance. You’ve continued putting things in your mouth, especially your fingers and toes. One day, you scared me because you were sitting on the kitchen table in your bumbo, and you escaped! You fell on the table on your belly, and it didn’t faze you a bit! I was so thankful you didn’t fall in the floor. From then on, we only use the bumbo chair on the floor in your room where there is carpet. Christmas came at a good time, because you’ve really begun enjoying your toys! You like to play in both your floor gym and jumperoo. You have a couple of toys that light up and play music that are lots of fun. You enjoy playing with your barn and farm animals and have started opening the gates to make the animal sounds all by yourself. You like rattles, stuffed animals, your stacking rings, and your puzzle. But really, you aren’t picky, you grab anything to put in your mouth and play with! One of your favorite “toys” is a placemat! You like to grab them off the table, rub their bumpy texture, and throw them on the floor. You still like being read to and are getting better at turning the pages. Reading books is one of the calm things we do before your naps. Because you’re staying awake longer, you don’t eat as often. You wait three hours or longer between nursing now. You eat about seven times each day. You still wake up once or twice during the night to eat. We gave you rice cereal a few times towards the end of the January, but you weren’t too interested in the new texture and flavor, so we didn’t push it since you still weren’t quite six months old.

We had more company this month. Aunt Laura got to come visit and stay for a whole week! She played with you and sang to you. While she was here we got a big snow. You’d seen snow before, but never this much. This time it was enough to play in, so we bundled you up to take pictures and so you could touch the snow! After a little while, you and Daddy came inside where it was nice and warm while Mama and Aunt Laura built a snowman. We had lots of fun with Aunt Laura, and we’re thankful she got to come visit. Only a few days after she left, she came back, but this time she brought Bobel and Reenie, so they could see you and so that we could celebrate Christmas together! It was a quick trip, but a fun one! You showed them how good you are at opening presents and got more books, toys, and clothes.

Life with you is so special, Baby Boy! We knew we’d love being parents, but you’ve made it even better than we could have imagined! It’s been an amazing six months, and we prayerfully anticipate many more precious months with you! We are so thankful to God for you!

We love you,

Mama and Daddy