Gwyneth Eden: 8 Months

My favorite Instagram pic of the month.

8 months!  I think she gets more fun with every month.  She giggles, laughs, and understands more every day.  When someone has not seen her in a week or two, their first response is, "She has gotten so big!"  I can't wait to see at our 9 month appointment how long she is and how much she weighs.  It is surreal to me that we are very quickly approaching the 1 year mark.  I probably say this in every monthly update, but she still seems like a baby to me, so imagining her as a 1 year old is just crazy!  I remember going through all the clothes that were given to us and as I hit the 12 month box thinking, "No way will I ever have a baby that fits in these,"  This was especially true when looking at my 4 lb. baby!

Gwen's "Firsts": Co-slept for the first time!  While David was out of town for a couple days, I did not feel like getting out of bed every single time in the middle of the night.  We normally share the night time duties, so it was much easier to just have her in bed with me!  It was kind of fun, but I am also glad she is back in her own bed :)

She also played dress up for the first time.  Pirate Gwen made an appearance.  Time with cousins is always fun!

High of the Month: She is starting to mimic us (I think).  Honestly, most of the time I don't know if she is mimicking me or if I am mimicking her!  Regardless, it cracks me up and she is cute.  My favorite is when she blows raspberries or when she sounds like Darth Vader.  Who thought a baby sounding like Darth Vader would be cute?  It is adorable.

Low of the Month: Gwen got sick for the first time.  After a long day of running around, her forehead felt warm.  I took her temperature and it was at 102!  No wonder!  After a couple days she was back to normal, but the congestion and runny nose linger.

Something I Learned: If you are a mom already I am sure you know this, but I had no idea that doctors don't worry about a baby's temperature until it reaches 105 or over!  Dang!  I was all concerned about the 102 mark and started (mildly) panicking that this meant the emergency room.... I know.  I never voiced this drastic assumption, but she is little and I know I feel horrible when my temperature reaches 102.  I love that the pediatrician I talked with was able to make me laugh, explain everything thoroughly, and didn't make me feel like an idiot.  Thanks, Doc!

Facts for the Month: 

Newest friend: Naomi Haven!
Favorite way to sleep: On her belly

Things she loves:
     -Being held
     -Reading books
     -Bath time
     -"Talking"

Things she hates:
     -Getting her face cleaned
     -The Nose Frida
     -When we leave the room


And here are your monthly pictures:

Gwen tried to eat the sign for her new friend

This outfit lasted 36 hours.  New record.

Baby Food Making Party!

Since I am a stay at home mom (with the exception of the 4 hours a week I work), I don't bring in a whole lot of money!  While this is true, I feel like one of my responsibilities is to be wise with the money David makes and find ways to save money.  It almost becomes a game at times because, believe it or not, it can be fun to go way under budget on groceries knowing it was because I figured out a way to make that happen.

Most months we don't go way under budget.  Normally, its over :)  Add in baby items and that doesn't help anything!  One solution is cloth diapers which is a whole other topic!  The other is making my own baby food.  Let's be honest though, I am lazy.  I don't want to make baby food from scratch multiple times a day.

When a friend of mine suggested getting together and having a baby food making party, I thought it was brilliant.  It would accomplish so many things.  I would make all the baby food I would need in one night, hang out with friends, drink wine, and be "off" baby duty.

Here is how we did it.

Erin a.k.a Baby Food Making Pro, sent out an email with all the types of foods we would need:

-carrots
-butternut squash
-pears
-asparagus
-sweet potatoes
-zucchini
-blueberries (or blackberries)
-apples
-green beans
-plums
-apricots
-peas
-mangoes
-tofu

We divided the list among the three of us and bought our food.  Our guideline was the equivalent of 10 sweet potatoes, 2 big bag of carrots, etc.  We each just used our best judgement.

We picked a cooking night, met up, and got to work.

Some items, like green beans and peas, simply could be put in a steamer basket and go right on the stove.

Others needed to be pealed and chopped up like apples, pears, and plums.

To know exactly how to cook each item we used the book, Super Baby Food.

 Once they were super soft, in the blender and food processor they went!

We all brought as many containers as possible to transfer the food from Erin's to our own houses.  I brought every jar, glass container, and Tupperware I could find!  As the food was ready, it was divided between the three of us.

We kept working until all the food was done!  I think we stopped around 11:30 pm.  I was wore out.  Who knew making baby food was so hard?

If you are curious what you do with the tofu, you mix it with the blueberries or blackberries.  It turns out very pretty and purple in the end :)

Here is our final baby food loot:

I got home around 1:00 am, put my food in the refrigerator, and crashed.

The next few days, I slowly transferred the baby food into ice cube trays to freeze.  Once frozen, I popped 'em out and put them in Ziploc bags.  Make sure to label them :)  Carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes all look very similar!

Yay!  That's the whole process. Oh, and then thaw them out as needed and feed your baby!  I love saving money and knowing exactly what Gwen is eating.  It is great.

Gwyneth Eden: 7 months

We are at 7 months!  That means she is closer to being a year old than when she was born.  Man...  She is so sweet and fun!  This month brought lots of great things including Gwen's first Christmas.  With 6 days of parties in a row, she was a champ.

Gwen's "Firsts": This has been a big month for her!  We have been trying out lots of new foods and she is doing much better.  It almost seems like she enjoys it now!

Gwen also can officially row from back to belly!  One day I put her on her back and walked out of the room.  When I came back, she was on her belly!  She has been rolling over consistently ever since!

Shortly after leaning how to roll over, she began sitting up unassisted.  It happened over night.  I still put pillows around her since face plants regularly happen, but she can sit up for long periods of time.

Luckily for us, she is still very immobile.  I am 100% alright with this.  One day we looked around the apartment and I had sewing needles and pins scattered on the floor... we are not ready for crawling.

High of the Month: Watching her open Christmas gifts.  She obviously had no idea what was going on, but it was so cute watching her tear apart the wrapping paper.  I was way more excited about all of this than she was.

Low of the Month: I bet you can guess... sleep!!!! Her schedule has been so off since Christmas which is a lot of our problem.  She probably sleeps better than what I make it sound, but I have way too high of expectations.  In my world, I want a solid 12 hours without having to do anything in between bedtime and wake up time.  We will start the Ferber method soon to help things along, but finding a good time with our crazy schedules has been difficult.

Something I Learned: I will keep this vague and brief.  Baby food poop.... YUCK!

Facts for the Month: 

Favorite activity: Sitting up and playing with her new giraffe toy
Favorite food: Anything sweet
Favorite objects to grab: Christmas tree, poinsettia flower, my hair

Rolling over? Yes!
Sitting up? Yes!


And here are your monthly pictures:

Standing up!

Hanging out with Uncle Dillon on NYE.

Ornaments we made for family!  

Gwyneth Eden: 6 months

Gwyneth is now 6 months!  Half a year old!  She is now so big when I see a newborn, she seems gigantic.  I remember thinking how small my baby looked compared to others.  Not any more!

Gwen's "Firsts": Eating oatmeal cereal and carrots. Also, she was able to stand by herself while holding onto the exersaucer.  It might have only been a few seconds, but it was exciting :)  I think we have also consistently had her sleep in her crib for a month straight!  This is a big accomplishment.  You would be so proud of us, she even takes all her naps in the crib!  Last, she went to to Festival of Lights.

Daddy and Gwen about to go into the Festival of Lights!

High of the Month: What a happy, smiley baby Gwen is!  Rarely do we even need to give her the pacifier.  She uses it to fall asleep for naps and bedtime, but I would say most days the pacifier stays in the crib all day long.  I only take it out with us if I really need to make sure she stays quiet.

Low of the Month: Lack of sleep during the night.  We are slowly working on improving this.  We have her down to only eating once at night, but she still wants to pacifier quite a few times.  Once again, this too shall pass.  I don't mind feeding her one time at night , but I am a little more motivated to get her sleeping better since next weekend it will be our first time leaving Gwen overnight. 

Something I Learned: The Nose Frida is awesome.  Gwen has been congested a lot so we bought a Nose Frida a.k.a. the snot sucker.  Sorry, I'm a mom now and talk about gross things.  I will stop there, but if you want to know more just look it up :)

Facts for the Month: 

Favorite toy: crinkle book
Weight: 13.5 lbs
Weight percentile: 8th (still)
Size clothes: officially 6 months!

Rolling over? Still only belly to back
Sitting up? Not without some help
Any words? Just lots of squealing

I will leave you with some pics from the month!

Constantly trying to get her socks off.

Cousin Lilly wanted to hold her at Thanksgiving. So sweet!

My favorite thing to dress her in is animal print.

Gwyneth Eden: 5 months

Gwyneth is now 5 months old!  Seriously, I can't believe she is this big now!  She is quickly approaching 6 months, which is half way to a year!  I think she gets cuter every day and I love watching her learn new things.  I think she also gets more laid back as she gets older which is never a bad thing :)

Gwen's "Firsts": Seeing snow!  She also sat in a high chair for the first time.  Can't say it didn't happen without massive amounts of spit up, but she did sit in it!  Something about sitting makes her leave puddles of sit up.  She went trick or treating for the first time and it was adorable.  Gwen is so advanced she even held her own trick or treating bucket :) This meant Mom and Dad got some candy!

High of the Month: No more 4 month regression! The 4 month mark brought quite a few challenges with sleeping and overall fussiness.  Almost as soon as she turned 5 months on November 1, she had a more calm and "go with the flow" disposition.  Non-selfishly, we love seeing her happy and enjoying everything more!  Selfishly, this means we get more sleep and are less stressed!

Low of the Month: Poor baby has her first cold.  She is congested and has a hard time breathing through her nose.  Of course right before this showed up we restarted the crib transition.  You know what happens next, right?  Yep, back to the Rock 'n Play.  She sleeps and breaths much easier in there sssssoooo in a week or so maybe we will try the crib again.

Something I Learned:Transition your baby to the crib by 3 months.  Next baby we will have learned at least a couple tricks of the trade.  Everything tells you that habits start developing around 4 months, but I thought, "Well, our baby won't have any problems being flexible and adjusting to whatever we want her to!"  Babies definitely have likes and dislikes.  Gwen likes sleeping in a cozy, inclined setting and dislikes a big, flat crib.

Facts for the Month: 

Taking a pacifier?  YES!
Spitting up? Getting better!
Solid foods? In a month!
Favorite place to sleep? The swing.
Cloth diapering? Going strong!


Since I stopped taking weekly pictures, here are some fun ones from this month!

Gwyneth Eden: 4 months

Gwen is already 4 months old! What?!?!  My little preemie 4 pound baby is getting so big.  She is a super happy girl and we love her so much!  She actually was 4 months on October 1, but this kept getting past me!

Gwen's "Firsts": Rolling over!  This has become pretty fun when I attempt to get her to do tummy time.  She will first start fussing and then just roll over.  Even in the boppy she will attempt to roll over.  She consistently will roll over from belly to back and is dangerously close to rolling over from back to belly!  She also has slept in her crib for the first time!  She does not consistently sleep in her crib, but we are trying!

High of the Month: She is able to interact with us more every day.  It is fun to make her squeal and giggle.  She loves when we sing songs to her, especially, "What Does a Fox Say?"   Probably something about us trying to make ridiculous sounds is highly entertaining for a baby!  Since she is more aware of her surroundings, it is fun watching her interact with objects and people.  If you wear glasses, Gwyneth will instantly be your BFF.  So shiny...

Low of the Month: Gwen's sleep... She has started putting up quite a fight for all naps and bedtime.  We have tried every trick in the book at this point and with no luck.  At first it was encouraging to this, "Oh, its just a phase," but this has been going on for over a month.  Eventually this will get easier!  It will probably get harder at times too.  Oh, babies and sleep :)  Luckily she is cute, so I at least get to snuggle with her in the middle of the night, right?

Something I Learned: There is something called a 4 month regression!  It is amazing to me how much I knew about pregnancy before being pregnant and how little I know about babies.  You don't really need to know much about being pregnant.  As long as you have common sense, you can't mess up being pregnant!  You know, don't get drunk, don't do drugs, etc.  Having a baby on the other hand, there are so many things to think about!  Another thing I learned about is wonder weeks.  All these crazy things I have never heard about!

Facts for the Month: 

Weight: 11 lbs 2 oz
Favorite toy: her fist
Favorite activity: playing on her activity mat
Size clothes: still 3 months

I kept up with taking weekly pictures in her crib, but then one week I changed the crib sheet since she was actually sleeping in there and it didn't match the other pictures.  This bothered me and so I stopped :)  I still have lots of others of her to make up for it.  For her 4 month, I actually do have them all, but 5 month is when they will stop!

P.S.- Blogger would not let me arrange these how I wanted.  Nevertheless, here they are!

13 weeks

14 weeks

15 weeks

16 weeks

17 weeks

Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

Insta-ladas
(Instagrammed Enchiladas)

There aren't a ton of meals where I look forward to leftovers the next day.  You know, sometimes they don't heat up well or you just don't want to eat it twice in 24 hours.  These are a total exception.  I looked forward to eating these for leftovers all day.  I wish I was kidding!

I had these grand intentions of taking step by step pics, but Gwen kept needing her pacifier while she was "napping", so I don't have a ton of pictures. 

I got this recipe out of my good ole Betty Crocker Cook Book.  Everything from that thing is marvelous.  I appreciate that most of the recipes are twists on the classic dishes.  I would have never thought to make these with salsa verde (green salsa), but its so good!  Of course, you could make it with regular salsa (the red kind) and I am sure it would still be good!

Oh, I must add that these, according to Betty, are lower calorie.  According to me, probably not because I like way more cheese than her.

Here is the original recipe:

Chicken Enchiladas

Prep: 25 min   Total: 50 min   Servings: 6

1 cup salsa verde

1/4 cup cilantro sprigs

1/4 cup parsley sprigs

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 cloves garlic

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

6 flour tortillas

1 medium lime, cut into wedges

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray 11 x 7 inch (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Place salsa, cilantro sprigs, parsley sprigs, lime juice, and garlic in blender or food processor.  Cover and blend on high speed about 30 seconds or until smooth.  Reserve half of mixture.

3. Mix remaining sauce mixture, chicken, and 1/4 cup of cheese (or more if you like cheese).  Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture onto each tortilla.  Roll tortilla around filling and place seam side down in baking dish.

4.  Pour reserved sauce mixture over enchiladas.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.  Bake uncovered 20-25 minutes or until hot.  Serve with lime wedges.

There you have it!  Yum!  

For a side, I make rice and guacamole.  

The very first picture shown is make assembled, but not yet cooked enchiladas with mild salsa.  The blender pictures are with hot salsa.  Both were very good, but the hot was HOT.  Probably depends on your preference if you like hot things or not.

Hope you like them!  Enjoy!