Baby Gary turns 1

Well, we've been so busy lately I never posted anything about baby Gary's birthday.  He turned 1 on April 17th and we just had a little family thing with the four of us at home.  He got a few toys, one of which is a Mickey Airplane ride-on toy that I just had to have.  I made cupcakes for his birthday and I'm pretty sure he liked them!

He's been walking while holding onto things for a while (the table, couch, etc.), but just within the last week he's really started to make the effort to let go and start walking on his own.  He's doing pretty good, except for the occasional run in with the table.  He got a pretty good goose egg on his noggin on a table in Gary's office last week.  He is such a "busy body" and gets frustrated if he's confined and can't crawl or walk around.  He's just like his daddy!

Giggling and Clapping

Baby Gary changes so often that I wanted to show a few of the latest things going on at home.  Here's the first one - baby loves to play and be tickled.  Although what baby doesn't?

One of the newest things he's learned to do is clap.  He loves it when we clap and say "yay!" so he has learned to imitate, at least on the clapping part.

He's also been pulling up for a good while, even since before Christmas.  He could pull up before he could officially crawl, and he's been working on getting around the coffee table that he loves to pull up on.  He loves to move around, so he'll get frustrated if he's in his highchair or saucer too long.

Happy Friday!

Love my boys!

I am so proud of all my boys. They have been busy lately!

Caleb is doing great in school, and enjoys Cub Scouts and AWANA. This past Friday his school had an Awards Assembly. He received the Teacher’s List Award for having all A’s and B’s, and also the Spelling Award for doing so well on his spelling tests each week. He takes after me on that one. ;) Then later on Friday we had the Pinewood Derby with our Cub Scout pack. Daddy knows how to help make a winning car. :)    Caleb came home with second in the Wolves and third place overall.

Baby Gary has been progressing with several things. He’s been working on trying to crawl for a while, but as of a week or two ago, he can officially crawl now. It’s not really fast yet, but he definitely gets around. He loves to play on the floor and crawl around, and loves to pull up on the table and walk around it. He likes corn now and LOVES to eat cheerios! He gets excited when I pull the yellow box of Cheerios out of the pantry!

Gary has been busy at work this past week! On Monday, he took command of Bravo “Beast” Troop in 1-33 Cavalry Rakkasans. He works really hard and I’m so proud of him. He was excited about taking command and so far he loves his job. He has four platoons - I think each has roughly 25 soldiers, and he has 95 soldiers total. This is the troop that he will train and then deploy with later this year. Now that he is the commander that makes me the new FRG leader for Bravo Troop. I have some great ladies on my team to work with and I’m really looking forward to this role and helping the families.  This picture is of us after his Change of Command ceremony last week.

New Food Processor!!!

I think its kind of funny that I am this excited over a new food processor, but I am!!!  I got one for Christmas from my parents - it was the one I had asked for, but I didn't know how big it was.  I don't really need a 12 cup processor.  So after getting home and looking at it, I decided to exchange it at BB&B for a Cuisinart 7 cup food processor.  I was so anxious for it to come in, and I finally got it yesterday.  I was so anxious to use it.  Our little 4 cup food chopper just couldn't handle the job.

I've had some trial and error trying to figure out the process of making your own baby food.  Fruit is fairly easy.  I buy golden delicious apples (6), cut them up and cook them like my book says to.  At first he made hilarious sour faces, but now he really likes the applesauce.  Now I also buy canned pears and peaches and he seems to like both of those pretty well, too.  Three vegetables that have worked well so far and he seems to like are sweet potatoes, acorn and butternut squash.  All three of those are fairly easy to make, too.  I tried peas from the beginning, but their shell is hard enough that it was difficult to get them smooth enough.  Again, our little chopper (or wannabe food processor) couldn't get them smooth enough and he didn't like them.

While at my mom's house over Christmas, we used her Cuisinart food processor and saw a big difference in the food, which made me all the more excited when I got a new food processor for Christmas.  The food was smoother, more like something you'd expect to see in baby food.  The peas were still a bit chunky, but he ate them a little better.  Once we got home last week, I decided to try canned green beans.  I decided to cook them first on the stove, figuring that it had to work better being cooked (even though technically things like green beans and peas are already pre-cooked).  They came out pretty well and he ate them okay.  This weekend we ran out of vegetables for him (and almost out of fruit), so we got carrots, peas, potatoes, pears and peaches.  The carrots and peas were a bit chunky, so I don't blame him not liking those.  If you know what I mean by the "raking" babies do with their hands, he does this in front of his face when he doesn't like something.  I also tried the potatoes and he really didn't like them, which surprised me.  I think they were too thick, though, and he just spit them back out.  Fail.  Good thing Gary bought more green beans and an acorn squash the other day.

Now I have my new food processor!!!  I was so excited when it came in that I cooked some green beans and got the canned pears out.  OMG.  He ate all of the green beans I gave him (I'd say roughly 3 or 4 ounces worth).  The pears pureed so smoothly they looked almost like yogurt.  Of course he enjoyed those, too.  So then I decided to re-do the carrots, peas and potatoes.  Not completely, I just took what I already had out of the refrigerator, poured them into the processor and added a bit of water to each (more with the potatoes) and they turned out so much smoother than they had been.  I was so thrilled.  The potatoes actually looked like yogurt, too.  Success!!

So at dinner last night, I gave Gary about 2 1/2 ounces or so of potatoes and he ate all of it (although he gets distracted easily so it took some coaxing).  I gave him his cereal, which he always eats, and then some carrots.  He only ate a few bites of carrots, but I think he may have just been full enough by that point because he ate them okay - no yucky faces.  And of course he ate all the pears I gave him.

If you decide you want to make your own baby food, I'd say go for it.  It doesn't really take that much time, so if you work, that's okay.  I was surprised that it was so easy.  It is so much cheaper than pre-made baby food and I guarantee you it tastes better, and it has to be better in quality too.  I think Gary and I figured out one day that on average, it is at least half the cost of jar food.  It does take some trial and error, figuring out how much water to add, etc., but I'd say one of the keys is making sure you have a decent food processor.  It makes a big difference.

Have a great week!