Let's talk parenting taboos

So interesting!
Lets talk parenting taboos
My friend posted this and Josh and I thought it was so true and wished we would have watched it before we had Bo.
Their website is cool too.
Babble

Bo turned 9 months

9 months with my green monkey!

Bo has started to:

Add plums, ground beef, bread, Cheerios, chicken, little crunches graduates,

Want us to walk her every were
Throw (roll off her fingers) the ball for Pistol
Take the wood puzzle pieces off, the Melissa and Doug puzzle boards, all by herself

Know who her mommy and daddy are, and can say mama and dada to get our attention, or when you ask her, who is that?

Still thinks that ear infections are something she should have all of the time.
Is trying really hard to get her next set of teeth, you can see them, but they don't quite want to break through.

Feeds Pistol her food, she thinks it's funny, we agree, but we don't think its a good habit for our already over weight dog.
Feeding herself her own bottle
Shaking her head no to everything (I am certain she has no idea what it means, but it sure is cute when you ask her something and she shakes her head no).
Waves at everything; we love it when she waves good-bye to us at daycare

Some of Bo's favorite things so far are:

Pistol &amp Wrigley, she follows them every where

Splashing in the bath time
Stuffed animal tags (she would rather hold the tags on their butts)
Puzzles
Finger foods
Feeding herself her own bottle, don't try to help, she's very independent
Wave all the time

Things Bo doesn't like:

Growing teeth

Being changed, she's too busy for that

When we try to stop walking with her, she could go for hours.

She's growing up so fast

Breast-feeding

I have realized I have not talked about this much or even at all.

Let me start with how much I have enjoyed it, of course the first couple months were difficult just trying to figure out what to do, but once we both got the hang of it, I loved having those moments with her.

Then when I had to go back to work; I was able to pump three times a day, which produced enough for Bo to have the next day while my mom watched her.

Summer vacation hit and no more pumping, and a lot more quality time with Bo and I.

Then back to work, and Bo started eating solids.

This school has been so hard to pump at work, I just didn't have a consistent time everyday pump, so when I did I didn't produce a lot.  I think it had more to do with the fact that I was so stressed on trying to get it out in a short amount of time, then people would be calling or knocking on my door which just stressed me out more. 

So after a nice talk with my sister-in-law and her telling me that I need to do what is best for me, and that it was ok stop pumping at work and just feed her in the morning and at night.  I have been so much happier and less stressed.  It has also been so much more enjoyable to breast feed too.

However, last week I was crazy busy at work and worked way more hours then I normally do, which set my feeding times off, and I have started o produce less.  I am going to continue to feed her as long as I can, but I think our breastfeeding bonding time is coming to an end quicker then I wanted to.  

I have learned so much from this time around I think I will be doing things a little different the next time around.

Video Camera Clean Off

We have been so behind on updating things about Bo, she has defiantly been keeping us on our toes.  She is in to everything lately, and we have been trying to capture most of those moments.  So we thought it best if we just dump all the video's so you can see for yourself.

We have this ball machine, that Bo just loves.  She tries to catch all the balls, but is not successful.  However, that doesn't stop her from continuing to try.

We have been practicing walking, you can see by this video that she has gotten progressively better since the we started practicing 3 weeks ago.

Pistol has been waiting for this day since the day we brought Bo home from the hospital.
Bo has finally figured out how to give Pistol the ball, so adorable.

A couple weekends ago we got to spend some quality time with Jamie, Emily, Avery, and some other people at their house.  It is just so fun watching Avery and Bo playing together even if Bo is just sitting there enjoying Avery's great personality. If you listen closely about half way through Avery is talking about how she danced at the wedding, and she was flower girl then she giggles.  Too cute!

Tomorrow Bo turns 9 months, oh my!

Cleveland Wedding

Wait Stevi's not a Cleveland anymore...She's a King

This last weekend we headed down to Iowa for Stevi & Chad's wedding.  The last Cleveland to get married. Welcome to the Family Chad!

We headed down to Ames after work Thursday to spent some quality time with Mitch, Jess & the boys. We didn't get in until close to 9pm, so the boys were already in bed.  Friday morning we got up early and had fun playing with the boys before headed down to DeWitt mid-morning.

Ten minutes out of Ames, Josh had to pull over because we had a flat.  When we got out to look at it we realized that it wasn't only flat it was shredded.  Ugg, so we had to call Mitch and Jess, to form a plan, because Jess and I needed to be in Davenport to get our nails done with the rest of the girls.  Mitch ended up staying with Josh and Bo, so we could get there on time.  (The poor guys ended up having to stay there for almost 2 hours). We made it to get our nails done, and it was nice to spend some quality time relaxing with all of the girls before the weekend activities started.

My parents got there just in time for us to head to the rehearsal,  it was so nice to be able to leave Bo with them.  However before we headed to the grooms dinner we went to pick her up so she could enjoy the festivities with us.

Saturday morning I handed off our baby girl to my parents, and went to enjoy getting our hair done and ready with the girls.  Stevi looked so beautiful in her wedding dress. 

Then off to pictures and to enjoy this very special day with Stevi and Chad.

Maddox and Avery we so adorable

Stevi and Van =)

  Mr. & Mrs. King

After the wedding we got on the party bus and  headed to a few bars before the reception

On the Bus

Chris with her girls

 

At the RODEO

 We headed into the reception with the safety dance, and then it was time to for some fun.

Josh welcoming Chad into the family

 

The only family picture I took and it was after she was in her PJ's

Josh and his parents

The floors all yours

Congrats again Stevi and welcome to the family Chad, we love you both.

Daycare

Bo has been waving bye-bye to everything lately, but even more recently actually waving bye-bye to me when I drop her off at daycare.
It is so fun to see her develop these skills. 

Our Daycare is awesome!

We get a sheet everyday from daycare, with timelines of what and when she ate, drink, slept, diaper changes, comments, and anything we need to remember to bring the next day.  So, as I was looking over her sheet today, I noticed a comment on the side next to her super porridge "Puckered mouth and waved good-bye to the porridge".  I busted out laughing it was so funny.

We have slowly been trying to introduce Bo to her super porridge, and I'm not quite sure if she likes it or not.  I think she really just isn't used to the grainy texture.  I think she will get use to it, and learn to love it as we add more textures to her palette. 

So much Baby Food

Josh and I have been making all of Bo's baby food with the exception of her Puffs, and Yogurt melts.

So this weekend Josh and I got all of the supplies to make a TON of baby food.

2 Avocados, 4.33 lbs of Bananas, 2 lbs of Broccoli, 3lbs. Carrots, 1lb. of Chicken, 2lbs. Green Beans, 3.48 lbs. of Peaches, 2 lbs. of Peas, 2.42 lbs. of Plums, 3lbs. of Potatoes, 3.32 lbs. of Squash, & 3.70 lbs. of Sweet Potatoes. Total cost: $29.43 for 500 oz. of baby food. Price compare for same amount: Natures Best $93.65 saving $64.22: , Ella's Kitchen Organic $261.44 savings: $232.01 , Gerber $107.05 savings: $77.62.

The start of freezing Bo's baby food

 We also got the ingredients to make Super Baby Porridge from the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron  (Thanks Cathie for the great book).  For that we got, Barley, Brown Rice, Dried Black Eyed Peas, Dried Lentils, Dried Pinto Beans,and Dried Split Eyed Peas. Total cost: $5.81 for 91oz of ingredients.  Price Comparison Estimations: Gerber Organic Brown Rice Cereal $32.14 for 96oz; savings $26.33; Earth Best Organic $29.88 96oz; savings $24.07; Target brand Non-Organic Up&Up $17.40 for 96oz; savings $11.59.  

Side note: Ingredents in the Up&Up brand rice cereal: rice flour, tri-anddicalcium phosphate, soybean oil, soy lechithin, mixed tocopherols, electrolytic iron, zinc sulfate, alpha tocopheryl acetate, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid and cyanocobalamin.

(Black Eyed Peas, Pinto Beans, Split peas, Lentils, Barley, Brown Rice)  All ready to go!

To make 2 cups of this high protein super porridge will now be: 1/3 cup dry whole grain (brown rice or barley), and 1/8 cup dried legumes (lentils, split peas, black eyed peas, or pinto beans).  Stir 2 cups of boiling water, reduce heat to low cook for 10 min, stir frequently.  Once made it can stay in the fridge for 2-3 days or be frozen for up to a month.  So today we ground 1lb. of Brown Rice, and 1cup of all of the different beans, and a 1/2 cup of barley then we labeled them and we stored them separately. 

This should last us until Thanksgiving.

I'm so glad I have such an amazing husband that helps make home-aid food for our baby girl.  

Thanks Honey!