Thanksgiving travels

First we traveled out to Amelia to see Grandpa and Grandma Riley! We ate our French thanksgiving meal and enjoyed time with a side of the family that we don't see too often.



Then we headed to Brown County Indiana to spend the weekend with Grandma Julie and Grandpa Tommy. We had a really great time of relaxation and, of course, shopping! We stayed in this rental house that was way out in the middle of nowhere. You could hear the wild turkeys gobbling anytime you went outside. Ian and Tom actually came back pretty quickly from their walk through the woods because they could hear gunshots getting closer... Didn't want to be dinner if you know what I mean. Here are some pictures of our weekend where we mostly laid around and did nothing!




We forgot the turkey, but we had a chubby baby!

First foods

Noah had his first taste of solids! He did really well. I think I was expecting it to be awful because I remember starting solids with Mary and it was way different than I thought it would be. I envisioned such a fun new thing for us! Me making food, Mary gobbling it down. But it's not like that. Most of it ends up on the bib for a while. This time I went in expecting that. So keeping that in mind, I think he did really well for his first time!

Go doah go!

Noah can roll. That's right! Me and the kids are over at my parents house today because Ian went up to a young life weekend. Mary, my mom, and I were getting ready to go to a craft show, and we were watching Noah try so hard to roll over. We were all saying Go Noah Go! I look over and Mary is crouching next to him clapping and saying go doah go! Just like the rest of us. It was so cute. I hope she is always cheering for him in life.

Anyway as we were leaving I told my mom that I just KNEW we'd come home and Tom would say, "he rolled over!" Well it happened. And then he did it two more times and I finally caught it on the third time. It was awesome. As in actually awe inspiring for me. God is good.

Wonder Weeks

Have I posted about this before? Not sure. But Yesterday and today have been so frustrating. Noah hasn't slept well (during the day, thankful still sleeping at night!) and he hasn't been super interested in eating. I thought they went hand in hand so I've fed him a couple times right before a nap to make sure he wasn't hungry...still waking up after 30-45 min! I'm just not used to it. Noah has always been a sleeper. Mary napped for 45 minutes EVERY nap until she was 7 months old, I was used to it.

Anyway, I heard about this research on mental development done a while ago and a book they wrote on it called The Wonder Weeks. Basically they studied a ton of babies and figured out when their big mental developmental periods are, and realized they are similar for all babies. Personally I thought this was kind of weird when I first read about it. How can someone possibly know that stuff? But I went to their website today and guess what? Week 19 is a wonder week. And guess what? Noah is in his 19th week. Coincidence? Maybe. But everything that happens in the "wonder weeks" has happened with Noah and this is SO unlike him. The author talks about (on the site, I don't have the book...yet) turning these weeks that can be so stressful into weeks filled with wonder and learning for your baby. That sounds so pie in the sky, but I'm trying to get on board.

So if your baby is being CRAZY, you might want to check out their site:)

Baby Food

I just got my baby food book back from my good friend Cari and she also let me borrow the one she had. We both agree that they are a good combo to have. I thought I'd share about them here in case anyone plans to make their own baby food. Even if not, Super Baby Food is a great resource! She has advice about buying commercial baby food too and what to look for. The other book I have is the Top 100 Baby Purees. The second book is nice to have, but it's not essential. It gives good ideas, but wholesomebabyfood.com is a great (free) resource that does the same thing.

Back to Super Baby Food. It is seriously a wealth of information on all things that will go into your child's mouth and stomach! She talks about liquids, solids, the growth of your baby, when to introduce new foods, how to cook different things, etc. I think it would generally be more of a reference book for most people, but I just love information about this stuff so I'm reading it from cover to cover. It's interesting to know which foods to definitely buy organic for baby foods and which it's OK to get the non-organic kind. Like bananas. The fungicides they spray on bananas leak through the peal because it is porous. This makes me want to buy all organic bananas all the time. I mean, for sure I'll get them for Noah, but I don't want to eat fungicides either! Another thing she mentioned was thoroughly washing the outside of all commercial baby food jars before you open them. I think this is a little bit overkill, but she just said you never know what is on the outside of those jars and you don't want to contaminate the food inside. So while that seems a little paranoid...I'll probably do it because now I'm just thinking of all the crap that could get into my baby's food! Ah well, we make most of our own anyways.

Silly kids

I LOVE that Noah has a "thing" that he does when he's tired. He sucks on his right arm or sometimes his hand and puts his other hand by his ear.

And Mary loves all of the things we have out for Noah. It's like a second time use for her 2 years later. Here she is in the seat we got from cousin Cara:

4 months old!

My baby boy is 4 months old. He's growing so fast! Literally, he has grown 5.5 inches in 4 months and has gained 8.5 pounds! At his appointment today he was 17 lbs and 26 inches. At least he's proportionately huge! I just love his chubby little self! I also learned something new today: during the first 4 months infant growth generally is more influenced by how they grew in the womb and environmental factors, after that their growth is more influenced by genetic factors. With his height our pediatrician asked how tall me and Ian are. When I told her we're both average sized people she said he probably won't stay in the 90th percentile his whole life, but you never know. Forgot to mention that most of the other men in both of our families are over 6 foot, but oh well:) We'll see how tall he is when he gets older right?

On to pictures:





Love those last three! They'll go in his book for sure:) I hope my kids like their baby books when they get older because I've spent a lot of time on them.