A Sad Thanksgiving

I would love to report that Lily's First Thanksgiving was a wonderful day, but that just isn't reality. My grandma passed away this morning (Friday) and while she held on thru Thanksgiving, the day was very subdued with people coming and going from the hospital. In true Smith Family form, we managed to have some good laughs, good conversation and great food, but lying underneath was the sense of the inevitable. I can't speak for everyone, but I was sure praying the phone wouldn't ring. We are all very sad, but I take great comfort in knowing my grandparents are now reunited. But it doesn't change the fact that Thanksgiving might not be my favorite holiday anymore.
I had a lot to be thankful for this year, despite my grandma being sick. I am grateful for my beautiful daughter, who more than she will probably ever understand, was a comfort and distraction to a grieving family. Because we were grieving already. I am thankful that I have such a wonderful family who understands each other so well. All we had to do was glance at each other, and we knew what the other was feeling. I am thankful that my mom was able to host Thanksgiving like she has for as long as I can remember. Because two months ago when she was sick, we weren't sure what our plans would be. I am grateful for my husband, who fits right in with my family. And I am grateful for the past ten years. It was ten years ago, the Saturday after Thanksgiving that Matt and I met. How far we've come!
It is a sad time for my family and we have some tough days ahead, but I am grateful and thankful for all the people in my life who are here for me and my family. We appreciate your love and support.

A Good, But Busy Weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend this weekend. It started on Friday when Lily and I met a friend for lunch. We had a nice lunch and then went and saw Aunt Stephie's classroom and then went to my parents house to hang out and eat pizza. Lily and I ended up spending the night because I was too tired to drive home. And the super-obsessively worrying husband of mine wasn't too keen on me driving home. It is only an hour drive, but I decided not to fight him on it and just spend the night. On Saturday we just kind of hung around the house and then Matt decided we should have a last minute date night. He called his parents to see if they could watch Lily, and two hours later we showed up at their house with Lily, dropped her off and were off to dinner. We went to a Greek restaurant and had a really good dinner. We were stuffed, and it was a little expensive, but we hardly ever go out. We had it timed perfectly because we got back to my in-laws right before bed time so Lily wasn't thrown off schedule. Today we went over to our friends house to watch the Bears game. It was nice because we got to see some friends that we don't see too often. We all have babies and as the babies get older and more accustomed to bedtime routines, it makes it harder and harder to get together in the evening. We came home and Lily was just a bundle of energy. She seriously played in her exersaucer for about an hour and 45 minutes. She was having a blast!
Of course, with such an eventful weekend, I didn't get any grocery shopping or house cleaning done. In fact, I would be in bed now, but I need to wait for a load of diapers to finish rinsing so I can hang them to dry before going to bed. I usually throw them in the dryer, but decided to see how long they take to air dry. So tomorrow will end up being my errand/cleaning/laundry day. Luckily I don't need to do too much in the way of grocery shopping. I just need to get some ingredients for my Thanksgiving contribution and a gallon of milk. I figure the rest of the week we will just eat out of the freezer and pantry and then, at the end of the week, leftovers!
I know this isn't a super exciting post, but heck, life isn't always that exciting!

A Question for My Fellow Cloth Diapering Mamas

This is a question for anyone who reads my blog who has or is cloth diapering a baby. Has anyone noticed a correlation between crawling and cloth diapering? Lily isn't crawling yet. While I am not really concerned, I was wondering if anyone has noticed a delay in crawling because of cloth diapers. I know all babies develop and reach milestones at different times, and I know that not all babies ever crawl, but the hubby thinks that maybe the bulk of the cloth diapers are impeding her ability to crawl. She pushes up really far with her arms, and she can swivel in all directions. She is a very efficient roller and gets where ever she wants to go really quickly. I haven't really found any info on the web about this, so I thought maybe some fellow cloth diaperers may have some insight?

Thanks!

It Was Bound to Happen

Our furnace is older than me...it is the original furnace that was put in when the house was built thirty years ago. Every year, we pray and pray that the furnace will fire up and this won't be the year we have to pay to have it fixed, or worse, replaced. And since every year we are dreading what may happen, we put off starting the furnace as long as possible. We waited this year until this past Sunday, November 16. Now before everyone jumps all over me saying it has been too cold with the little baby at home, we bought a really kicking space heater which actually makes our rooms almost too warm. During the day I just turn it toward the play room. Anyway, on Sunday we turned on the furnace and were pleased that it worked! And then, it happened...we noticed that the fan was running but the air was cold. The pilot light was lit, but the burners weren't igniting. We decided it was time to bite the bullet and call someone in. We had done some minor repairs the past couple years, but this year we didn't want to take any chances. The company we called had someone over within a half an hour, which was awesome! $427 later, and we have a working furnace...for now. When I asked the guy what the life on older furnaces is, he laughed and said we're there. Furnaces are considered old at 10-12 years. But, on a positive note...these dinosaur furnaces are less technical, and therefore have fewer things that can go wrong. He said a majority of service calls he goes out on are for the newer models with all the electrical gadgets. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we make it through the winter. While I was fully expecting to hear that our furnace needed to be replaced today, I wasn't really prepared to fork over $2500 or whatever it costs for a new furnace.

Lily's Six Month Portraits....Almost Two Months Late!

Her Favorite Toy

I am not really concerned with gender specific toys. This may be because I have a little girl, so I think it is probably less of a "big deal" to those who are concerned with gender specific stuff if a girl plays with a truck as opposed to a boy playing with a doll. Really, I could care less about "gender specific" stuff. Lily wears blue sometimes, and sometimes gets called a boy. I have even made it a point to get her neutral color hoodies, snow suits, pjs, etc. just so if next time around I have a boy, I will already have that stuff. But I digress...Lily's absolute favorite toy right now is her little work bench. It was a hand me down toy and this girl loves it! She is so smart too! There is a little cabinet that you pull open and the phone is in there (see, she is a girl!) and she goes for that right away. There is also a little lever that you pull and balls come out - I think it is supposed to be a drill press, maybe? She has that figured out too! She will spend hours playing with her work bench.
She is also partial to her little dump truck, which was also a hand me down. It may be that it makes noise, but she really liked it before mommy figured out that it took batteries and made noises. And I am sure it pleases Matt that she also loves her little elmo guitar (yet another hand me down!) that is cute at first, but actually quite annoying. I am usually, however, able to tune out the guitar when she has her little hand pushing the same button for what seems like an eternity!

Baby Food

A while back I said I would let everyone know how making my own baby food is going. In a word, FANTASTIC! It is super easy, super inexpensive, and really comforting knowing exactly what Lily is eating. I have made a variety of fruits and veggies, and she seems to love them all! Like her mama, squash seems to be her favorite! She also seems to prefer veggies to fruits, although I have only had one incidence of her not wanting to eat, and that was just strange. I pureed a banana for her, which she has previously loved, and mixed it with a little baby oatmeal. She was not having it at all. I decided I would defrost a cube of sweet potatoes for her, but she wasn't really into that either. Must have been a fluke, because she has loved sweet potatoes since. We haven't tried bananas again yet.
Like I said, it is super easy. I just buy a bunch of whatever - apples, pears, acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet potatoes - and steam them, mix in a little of the steaming water, and freeze in a silicon mini-muffin tray. I also was freezing in ice cube trays, but I bought some super cheapo ones since we use our regulars ones for ice. I should have known what the quality would be when I got three for a dollar. They cracked and broke when I tried to get the cubes of food out! I then put the cubes in quart size zip top freezer bags, and done! I can pull out a different variety of foods for her dinners. Yesterday Lily dined on sweet potatoes, green beans and butternut squash. I do use frozen green beans. And I have some frozen peas I am going to try. Everything else is fresh. Tonight Lily had some fresh acorn squash which I baked and then pureed, and oh my - did she eat it up! I think she would have eaten the whole batch if I would have fed it to her!
We also tried some plums last week, and lets just say I may keep a small batch for any constipation issues, but otherwise we will be avoiding those. The diapers were absolutely no fun! I haven't done too many fruits...mainly just pears, apples and bananas (and the unfortunate plums) since it is fall and everything is pretty much out of season.
And not only is this inexpensive and easy, but I don't have a million little jars in the recycle bin every week! Lily really is a green baby!

Thanks Aunt Laurie!

Pictures

All I can say is thank goodness for digital cameras! Since I think every dang thing my kid does is adorable, I would be broke developing all the pictures I take!












And this is just a sampling of the 80 pictures I took in two days. For those who print pics off my Walgreens account, I am working on getting new ones uploaded. Check tomorrow!

Me and the Chickie, part 2

Just thought I would post this picture since it is another decent one of me and my chickie!

Baking

For some reason I feel compelled to post about my cooking endeavors. I have always cooked, but never really baked. Well, I can make a mean chocolate chip cookie, and somewhat decent brownie from a mix, and a pretty poor representation of a cake, but I have never baked anything that required yeast. But I love french bread. This may sound weird to anyone from my past, when I hated, yes hated, all bread. Anyway, I decided to look up a recipe for french bread and found one that seemed pretty easy. Click here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Bread/Detail.aspx. I made it this evening to go with a home made lasagna (another rather ambitious dish!) It turned out awesome! It made two loaves, which is very convenient since I need a loaf for tomorrow's dinner (butternut squash and leek soup). I am excited to try some more baking now that I know yeast isn't that scary!
As you can see, the one loaf is nibbled. Of course I had to try it before serving it to Matt. Unfortunately it was so yummy I had a hard time restraining myself and probably would have eaten the whole loaf if I had not been on the phone with my sister who kept me in check by constantly telling me to save it for dinner. Thanks Steph!

Halloween

We had a pretty nice Halloween this year. Matt took the day off and we carved pumpkins. Of course, we had had our pumpkins for about three weeks, so two of them had started to rot, leaving us only the big daddy pumpkin and a baby pumpkin. But our front stoop is small, so really it was okay...four pumpkins would have left no room for trick or treaters. Except I am a little ticked that we spent so much at the pumpkin farm. Next year we will just get cheapo pumpkins from the grocery store.
Matt had the house all decked out, complete with a smoke machine and he was dressed up in a scary costume to scare the trick or treaters.
There were quite a few screams and a couple times he had to take the mask off and calm some kids down. He had to give a few kids quite a bit of candy to calm some of them down. I am still waiting for some parents to come knocking on our door telling us how their child has been having nightmares.
Lily was dressed up as a chickie, of course.

She was freakin' adorable, but not the biggest fan of the costume, so sometimes she just wore mama's devil horns.
After the trick or treating was over, we went to a friends house for a Halloween party. However, the party started at seven, which is Lily's bed time. She took a little snooze and then was a trooper at the party for about an hour and a half. I was astute enough to recognize she was getting sleepy and got her home and in bed before any major melt downs.
I am looking forward to next year when she will be big enough to trick or treat at a couple of houses. Hopefully the houses we go to won't have any crazy masked men answering the door!

The Baby Aisle at the Grocery Store

On Saturday evening we went grocery shopping. I know, I know...we are soo exciting. I couldn't believe how many other very exciting people there are out there - the store was packed. Anyway, while we were shopping, I decided to take a stroll down the baby aisle. Just for fun. Also to get an idea of how much baby food costs. And it occurred to me, we probably aren't like a lot of people with 7 month olds. We don't include the baby aisle in our normal grocery shopping. Since I still breast feed, we use cloth diapers and wipes, and I am making my own baby food, we don't have to buy any baby stuff in our normal grocery shopping. No diapers or wipes, formula or baby food.
Now I am absolutely not saying I don't buy baby stuff, because I certainly do. I rarely make it out of Target without something for Lily, like clothes or a new toy, or a sippy cup. But those things that I buy are wants, not needs. I don't need to go down the baby aisle for things that I need to care for Lily. It is actually pretty cool because I kinda feel like the whole baby thing is only as expensive as I want it to be. And I did make a purchase from the baby aisle...more freezer storage bags for breast milk.