Tag Archives: parenting

This Month In Jen: April 19

May 6, 2019

It has been about a year since I’ve done these updates. I kind-of miss having these generic posts of fun stuff. There is more to my life than just food (I mean KIND-OF lol) And I’ve been kind-of busy posting clothes on Poshmark to make some extra cash that I’ve been ignoring posts on here. So I thought this would be a nice little break.

Reading: I’ve been reading Modern Tarot by Michelle Tea. I am becoming more and more interested in the idea of secular witchcraft, and more interested in the history, ritual, and all the emotional wellness. I am really enjoying Modern Tarot but I am not sure if it is a practice that I am really clicking with. Maybe it would help if I got a beautiful deck that I loved, but for now I shelled out the $20 for a classic. If anyone has any deck suggestions I am game.

I also have been watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Netflix, and thought wouldn’t it be fun to read The Book Of Lies by Aleister Crowley? lol jk Just alone turning the page and seeing the full title made my skin crawl from the pretentiousness. In case you are wondering the full title is Which is also Falsely Called BREAKS. The Wanderings or Falsifications of the One Thought of Frater Perdurabo, which Thought is itself Untrue. Liber CCCXXXIII [Book 333]). I am actually enjoying the poetry, though I think the book my library has might of mess up the spacing and such, so the overall effect is a little distorted. I think I am more excited to read the angry reviews on Goodreads when I am done. lol

Crafting: I am starting to feel a crafting bug again. I FINALLY finished my gift to my friend’s baby Thorin. It is a beautiful cross stitch of Flatus Maximus from the band Gwar. You might of seen it in my Sept 17 post, but now it is framed and I finally shipped it out. The parents loved it, and now I am finally trying to work on other crossstitch projects for Wolfie, including his Christmas stocking that I haven’t been able to finish two years in a row.

Eating: I’ve been trying to cook from the Superior Burger Cookbook, but having some hard time. There are so many great looking recipes, but it uses fresh produce that I’d rather wait for my CSA to open back up for. It really is a book I’d like for my shelves. But my biggest complaint is the recipes instructions, at the very least it really reflects similar thoughts to this article (The Case for Very Long Recipes). There is a lot of personality in how the recipes are written, and sometimes it throws me off. In the blogging world recipes are kind-of suppose to be quick and easy and most of the personality is found in the blog post, right?

Watching: We just finished the most recent season of the Great British Bake Off. It was a great season and I fell a little in love with Kim Joy. I started to follow her on Instagram and she is getting me inspired to put a little decoration into my bakes. But don’t get me wrong, I really loved Rahul.

Otherwise Jon and I have been watching an episode or two of Adventure Time right before bed. He really likes the continuing stories, but they are sprinkled throughout the series. I told him he kind-of just had to watch the whole show to get the full plot lines. So that’s what we are doing.

Also, Sabrina as mentioned above.

Wolfie: Oh boy is this kid growing up fast. He is on the edge of mastering talking. Every time I read him a book he repeats the last word I said back, sometimes remembering words to books. He even managed a full sentence the other day! I was so impressed. He asked to “Eat apples at Kyle’s House”, I felt a little bad that he couldn’t lol

He is also becoming a daredevil pro at climbing ladders. I have a feeling I will be hitting a point soon where I can let him loose at the park and I can leaf through a magazine or book while he plays. Which would be awesome.

He is also taking HUGE leaps. We switched him from a crib to a bed. We have been avoiding it because of the fear he will never stay in bed, but when we asked if he wanted a bad he was so excited. We switched his crib to the bed setting and he was just so excited to sleep in the bed he rushed through his bath (unheard of) It took awhile to really get use to it, he woke up in the middle of the night often but finally assimilated. Now we are working on potty training. We are on day two, but he loves it. So we will see how that goes.

Oh and he got his first haircut. His curls were going wild and we had a family wedding coming up. So I thought it was time to get a cut. He seemed pretty upset by it so I might wait next time till he wants a cut, but he suddenly looks so much more adult. It is a little crazy. When did he grow up all the sudden?

Garden: My garden is practically back to square one. I could cry. It was always pretty sad to begin with so I can’t complain TOO much. You see I live in a row home in a private development. Which means I own everything inside house walls and the windows. I technically don’t own the land outside of it, and I pay dues to help with the up keep of the grounds. In semi-good news, the landscapers took out a bunch of ugly bushes, the bad news is that they took out plants that I did NOT want them to take, including a lilac bush and two blueberry bushes. I am mainly ticked about the blueberries though.

There are a few glimmers of hope. The one blueburry bush KIND-OF survived and so did the hops vine I bought. Barely hanging on. There is a balloon flower still kicking. The cilantro seeds are doing well, as always. Also there were some Easter plants for Wolfie of poppies and strawberries. They are growing inside and will be transplanted soon.

Other Shares: If anyone is interested, please check out my Mother’s new blog about baking with whole grains. She is pretty new to the food blogging game, but I think some readers from here would find her page interesting.

There was an interesting article shared by The Full Helping about the historic hippie vegetarian restaurants in NYC. I love seeing the evolution of vegan food, and sometimes there are old trends that should resurface. All the descriptions of seaweed made me drool. lol I never good sea greens nearly as much as I should.

What’s your highlight this month?

Posted by Jennifer in This Month In Tags: aleister crowley, cross stitch, gardening, great british bake off, kim joy, michelle tea, modern tarot, parenting, rahul, the book of lies, this month in, this month in jen, wolfie

6 comments

Children Books suitable for Vegans and Vegetarians

February 11, 2019

Before going having kids, I didn’t think much about if a kids book is “vegan” or not. It seemed like it wouldn’t be much of an issue. But it quickly became obvious that children’s books aren’t very vegan friendly. So many are centered around farms, zoos, and circuses. Then you have the problem of what the characters are eating. Guys it can be exhausting to say that the hungry caterpillar is eating a slice of daiya cheese.

So, I have a very small collection of books that I read and have a vegan/vegetarian message. I will keep on posting as I read books that I think fit the category, but for now I have a short list. Starting with Ruby Roth.

V is for Vegan by Ruby Roth

Go to any vegan parenting board and ask for a book suggestion and you will be flooded with recommendations for Ruby Roth. It is easy to see why, most vegan books just can’t compare. There are lots of self published books on the market, but they aren’t that great. Ruby really has a talent for writing easy to read text that has rhythm and flow, and the illustrations are beautiful. Roth has released more books, but this is the only one we currently own and is a great books for little ones as it helps teach the ABCs, and the text is pretty short for each page. We started reading this to Wolfie before he turned 1!

T. Veg: The Story of a Carrot-Crunching Dinosaur

This is a book I saw at the library and knew I would have to check it out. It might not be the best first book, it has a fair amount of words, and a considerable amount of pages, but makes a great edition for toddlers who notice they are eating different food from other kids. T.Veg tells a story about a T.Rex who loves veggies, but all the other dinosaurs think he is weird. The story telling has some great rhythm and the illustrations are bright and colorful.

Bear and Chicken by Jannie Ho

I love this story, though I don’t like some of the descriptions that I’ve read online. Many summaries put as a humorous tale, but it comes off much more heart warming. The story is about bear, who comes across a chicken who is frozen in the snow. He brings chicken back into his home and takes care of him. But when chicken wakes up, all he is worried about is being eaten by a big scary bear. It is cute and adorable, and I love the illustrations. Just like Ruby Roth, Jannie Ho has a great talent for both writing and creating art. And I would even say it is a great read for little kids, if they can sit down for a longer story.

There are more stories to share, and I will be sharing a list of great franchises that are vegan friendly as well. So take a look.

Do you have any favorite story that talks about compassion with animals?

Posted by Jennifer in Book Review, Parenting, Reviews Tags: bear and chicken, book review, book reviews, books, jannie ho, Katherina Manolessou, kids, parenting, ruby roth, Smriti Prasadam-Halls, T.veg, v is for vegan, vegan, vegan books

7 comments

Wolfie: Month Eleven & Twelve

January 29, 2018

Things have been so busy that I couldn’t write the Month Eleven post. Heck I didn’t even have time to write the Month Twelve post! This kiddo is over 13 months old at the point. All I can say is thank god there are no more of those stickers left. I carefully saved all the stickers when he was little, but quickly it became obvious that he rips them off and makes them all crinkley. There is no month 12 photo because we took the photo, and when I tried to transfer the images from the camera to the computer I realized I didn’t have the memory card in the camera. By that point I was done with those photos. He just squirms around too much. Next time, I probably won’t do the whole laying on their back thing.

FOOD: We are pretty much living off of solid foods. I keep being told he eats a lot- but does he? I think it might be an illusion? People are surprised when I say he eats a whole banana for breakfast, an oat cake, and milk from nursing) but it makes sense because it ends up being 260 calories (minus the breast milk). Some sources say toddlers need 900 calories a day- and if he eats that much every meal, that comes to 780 calories, leaving 220 calories for snacks. Okay maybe it is a lot because I am still nursing. Whatever. He seems healthy.

DEVELOPMENT: Last time I posted Wolfie was walking but couldn’t get to a standing position by himself. He was able to do this month 11, and now is running with confidence. Recently I saw my cousin who is 9 months old, and it was funny seeing him crawl and how “floppy” he still looked. I don’t remember Wolfie looking this way when he crawled, but he probably did.

PLAY: Suddenly Wolfie is getting how to “play” with his toys. There are so many toys that would have an actual goal but he would just take them and suck on them or clang it together with something else. Now he seems to try and actually interact with the toys. He goes over to his toys and makes them play music so he can jam out (even if the tunes are weak.) He is starting to mirror things I do. Like I was playing with his new barn toy putting the animals into their stalls. He then started to grab anything he could and shove the animals in the stalls. Nice try but I don’t think the horse, chicken, and 2 pigs can fit in one spot.

GROWTH: So we went for his 12 month visit and Wolfie is now big enough that he stands on the scale! Whoo! And he now keeps his clothes on- meaning he is now getting big enough that ounces don’t make that much of a difference. So he weighed at 22 lbs 14oz (getting close to 23!) in the 75th percentile. His height keeps going up at 2ft 7inches in the 89th percentile. But his head is super tiny- 22nd percentile.

TALKING: We got Mama and Dada down. And I think he is saying more, but it is hard to understand when you intuitively know what your kid is trying to say (combined with his inability to properly say the word.) But we have had some glimmer of talking. Somedays I can see him try hard to say words, and some days out of the blue he will say a word, then never again. For example one morning he said “brown bear” and handed me the Brown Bear Brown Bear book. Jon thought I was crazy until Wolfie said it again. We haven’t heard him say it ever since. My Mom claims she heard him muttering it to himself the other day…

SOCIALIZING: Now that Wolfie is interacting with other people more, it makes him seem like a “real kid.” I am guessing that he will be very outgoing since he never really seems to be going through a “mommy phase.” I think there was one week where he didn’t want to be left alone with anyone else (poor Justine got stuck with a screaming babe for 2 hours SORRY!) but aside from that he is doing well. He was very interested in everyone at my family get together for Christmas, and wanted almost nothing to do with me during his birthday.

He is now also playing with other kids. I’ve been taking him to the library since they have a big interactive kids section. If possible I try and take him to story time, which pretty much means kids play afterwards. It makes me nervous, I have kind-of no problem letting him play and learn his own boundaries, but then I feel like I am doing a bad job. Plus, I can already see that Wolfie is fairly assertive, and I am more afraid of him pushing someone down or pulling a stranger’s hair.

SLEEP: I didn’t really think there would be much else to say but his naps are FINALLY coming into place. Oddly I think it is because of consistency. We finished up our share at our CSA so the morning nap didn’t get disrupted. And my Mother got knee surgery done so she hasn’t been able to watch him. As a result I was able to get a schedule going for him. It has been the best. There has been ups and downs with the naps, and there was one day he woke up at 5 (what the heck!?) but he has been pretty awesome. I am constantly watching out for when he is growing out the morning nap, but that isn’t happening anytime soon.

Posted by Jennifer in Parenting Tags: baby, baby led weaning, bbcakes, birthday, month eleven, month twelve, one year, parenting, wolfie

6 comments

New Years Goals

January 6, 2018

ALMOST got a gift from the William and Sonoma’s Hater’s Gift Guide. Alas, you can only hate on the monogram old fashion/low balls, not the monogram mugs. ^__~ PS I use this mug all the fucking time.

Hey everyone! Remember my last post talking about how rough things were kind-of financially (ie a new car and a large vet bill?) well our washing machine broke on New Years Day! HORRAY! Also Wolfie definitely has a cold. Great way to start the new year right?!

Well, I use to always make a post making various goals for the new year. 2014 was mostly about getting my butt into gears to work on the blog- back when I kind-of did some fashion posts. While 2015 I actually set some specific goals. So that meant that 2016 I reflected on if I kept those goals, or not. But I never posted anything for 2017 because of being busy with Wolfie, but also because of Post Partum Depression. So in that vain I will reflect on my 2016 goals-

Work out More Often – Not really. I think I had a good string going for awhile, but then I got pregnant and had a baby and well, you will see below

Start Practicing Yoga and Meditating – Nope. Not even close.

Stop Late Night Binge Eating – Not really, mostly because once I started to nurse I would have to cram calories in my mouth so eating a late night snack became common place again.

Read 28 Books – I got close! I read 24 books.

Start trying to get pregnant – accomplished

Buy a second couch – This never happened in part because my husband REALLY wants to get a new one. He has been dragging his feet about getting a second hand couch from the restore. Little does he know this meant that he won’t be getting a second couch until our child(ren) are less disgusting.

Hike More – Aside from the whole baby thing- I think we hiked a little more? I definitely took much more frequent daily walks

Visit a new vegan restaurant with Alexa once a month – This didn’t happen at all.

Watch a Movie Once a Week – This didn’t happen at all either

Start working towards the goal of being a Dietitian or Wellness Coach – Hey look another goal that didn’t happen! As I did more research about becoming a registered dietitian I became more confused if it was something I wanted to do. I am still kind-of confused of what direction I would like to take my career.

Goals for 2018

Workout and Run More Often

Surprise, surprise. This makes the list again. But unlike my previous goals, this one REALLY is essential. I have pretty much cut out exercise from my life and that is bad. I was at one point walking everyday about a mile or two around the neighborhood, but stopped since it has been really cold. Recently I had a few nights where I tossed and turned for hours getting only 3-4 hours of sleep, and I never had that problem. I am fairly certain it has to do with extra energy (a long with other stressors)

Photograph More

I was thinking about doing a Photo a Day challenge again, but I already forgot to take a photo on day one. Oops. But I haven’t been using my SLR camera much, and I would like to start using it again and playing around with the settings. I’ve gotten out of the habit since Wolfie is a little handful. Maybe start a photos of the month post?

Have a Cup of Tea Every Night

This was actually a goal from 2015, and I think it would be nice to bring back. It is nice a relaxing and will help curb my habit of a late night snack. It is important to get rid of the late night snack because I am not nursing a whole lot less.

Get a New Job

I have been wondering what to do for a living for awhile now. I went to school for Film, thinking I would spend my life working on movies and such. But I decided sitting in front of a computer wasn’t what I was passionate about, and there was a lot of competition in the field. And even now I can’t decide what I want to do. I love food but I know it is market that is hard work. I love my job as a framer but it doesn’t pay the bills, and I can never REALLY work full time there. So I am going to try to either get hired at another place, or find another source of income as self employed.

Try and Lose Weight

This has been a topic that I’ve been thinking a lot about. I try and be very body positive and fat positive. I am not fat, but I try and keep negative fat talk out of my language. But I can’t help but want to loose some of the baby weight I’ve gained, and maybe some more. I have so many clothes that I don’t fit into anymore, and that bothers me. I know I am not going to fit into everything, but I would like to try to loose some. I won’t be going crazy with the dieting, and some of my goals are well intentioned. I want to work out more (read above) and eat more healthfully, which I kind-of don’t anymore. These are my two main ways of trying to loose weight, so that’s good right? I am also going to work on not putting myself down if I fall short on this goal.

Read 20 Books

I think I always set book goals because of Goodreads. I like to read but I am a slow reader. I thought I was going to read SOO many books in 2017 because of nursing. But that didn’t happen. Instead of reading while nursing I was more likely to play games and scroll instagram on my iphone. But now that I am sleeping more regularly I am getting in more reading time before bed. So maybe setting the goal of 20 books isn’t so crazy. If you are curious you can check out my reading summaries from previous years.

Goodreads: 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009

Bake at Lest ONE Successful Cake a Month

See not that devoted to the whole diet thing. XD As mentioned I wanted to continue my American Cakes concept for Vegan MOFO (maybe doing some American pies) so I want to get a jump start so I don’t go into a sugar coma when it comes time. I have a few I already have ALMOST ready, just need a few extra tweaks and photos

More Cookbook, Restaurant, and Recipe Reviews

I might not have THAT many new restaurant review since I am a little broke, but I can do more recipe round ups and cookbook reviews. I miss doing them, plus it really helped me make the most of my cookbooks. I have a few I haven’t even TOUCHED since receiving them. Making these reviews help me delve deeper into them.

Be More Patient with Wolfie

I’ve been very quick to get angry lately with Wolfie. It might be because he secretly has been sick for the past two weeks. Regardless he is getting older and how I react will seem normal, and therefore he might grow up to be more short tempered. Ugh. Being a parent sucks, being accountable for your actions. Plus, if I am lucky, we might do potty training this year so… that will need lots of patience.

Update this layout!

My husband and I say it every year- make a new layout- update the blog- do more with it. And we never do. THIS WILL BE THE YEAR! I want a new layout that looks a little more professional. I also want to up my SEO game, because I write posts that I DO WANT PEOPLE TO READ. Sometimes I don’t care about hits and traffic, but then there are few posts that I think can be really helpful to people and I wish they could find them. I don’t want my layout to be 100% cookie cutter, but I would like to have look a little cleaner, plus I never really finished editing this layout to begin with.

So what about you guys? Any plans or goals for 2018?

Posted by Jennifer in The Girls Tags: goals, goodreads, new years, parenting, reading, resolutions

10 comments

Wolfie: Month Ten

October 16, 2017

Holy Cow! I am on time for once with these monthly baby updates! Wow! Just a few days off of the 13th, which is perfectly acceptable to me. So let’s start with the most obvious part- since it is Vegan Mofo- THE FOOD.

FOOD Little Wolfie keeps gobbling up food. I finally joined a Vegan BLW facebook group. And you might see some BLW recipes in the future… maybe. Try and post some baby dishes, and meals that are easy to eat with a baby (the whole point of BLW is that you are eating the same stuff as each other) Sadly, the last week Jon has been working late, so little Wolfie has been eating separate dinners from us. Hopefully we will get back on track this week.

The cost of avocados went down, so I got these small size avocados in bulk from Trader Joe’s. Wolfie wasn’t sure what to make of them at first. He ate one half, and when I gave the other half he threw it on the floor. WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH HIM?! Just kidding, he EVENTUALLY ate the other half later that night.

MOVEMENT This kid is walking. Pretty well too. It started with him “crying” while walking. This baffles me. If you hate it- why do the walking? He then decided it was better to hold my hand while walking back and forth. Then once he felt more confident, he has been walking back and forth all on his own. It is pretty crazy. He still hasn’t figured out how to stand up without using something to pull himself up, so I guess that is the next big thing.

GROWTH Clearly he is growing more than last time, I don’t have any actual numbers. But scarily he is already grown out of his infant seat! If you don’t have a kid, and don’t live in the USA, here is a quick baby seat breakdown. They first start in a infant seat, they usually pop in and out of a base. Then after a year they move to a convertible seat that shifts from rear face to front facing. Then after two years you move the baby to face the front. Then after a certain point they move to “booster” seats. Wolfie will be moving to convertible seat, facing rear. So crazy.

TALKING He is starting to be a little motarmouth. I think overall he still talks less than other babies, but he is learning lots of pointless fun stuff. He has learned how to smack his lips and buzz them together.

Wolfie- luckily- is able to understand words. He has said “all done” a few times and I am pretty sure has said Dada and Baba for Dad and bottle. He also knows the word/phrase “change you diaper,” breakfast, eat, nurse, and banana. Hmm… I guess we know what his world revolves around.

TRAVELING My husband and I don’t travel much. I read blogs about how parents take their first vacation with their baby. I think the last time Jon and I took a “vacation” was for a wedding… and vegan doughnuts. So traveling with a baby isn’t likely. Except- for my mother. She had her knee replaced and needed some help while my Dad was working. So we stayed overnight and it was annoying. The sleeping overnight wasn’t so bad, it was just having to change diapers on the floor, bathing in a new area, nursing was a struggle, naps weren’t likely, etc. In fact I left earlier than expected because he was so cranky.

We also took a trip to my Grandmother’s house on Long Island. This was a big trip- taking several hours to drive up. To make things worse- I forgot the pack and play, so we had to skip the afternoon nap. oops. My Grandmother also didn’t do any form of baby proofing, not even taking some hornet/bee spray off the floor. It was pretty exhausting keeping a constant eye on him. But we got through it. And we get to do it again probably for Easter.

TEETH Oh gawd it was bad. The first two teeth weren’t so bad. I thought if all the teething would be like this- no big deal. But the top teeth were a nightmare. They all kind-of came in at once, and Wolfie was a wreck. The bottom two kind-of had holes appear for the teeth to fit through. The top teeth looked like they “ripped” through the gums.

Nor have they come in the right “order.” They sort of skipped around, but it looks like pretty soon- by next month maybe- he’ll have four teeth on the top. Very weird.

SLEEP Maybe I should just stop talking about his sleep? Or maybe I shouldn’t. I mean my life REVOLVES around his sleep right now. AND IT IS AMAZZZZING right now. Sure I complain a lot, but hey I know I have a good thing going on right now. Wolfie is now sleep almost 12 hours! Goes to bed at 7, wakes up around 6:30! I am now setting an alarm to wake up at 6. Amazing. He is even taking really long naps right now. Total difference from when he was an infant.

Posted by Jennifer in Parenting, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2017 Tags: blw, month ten, parenting, teething, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2017, wolfie

4 comments

Wolfie: Month Nine

September 19, 2017

I know what you are all thinking- didn’t she just post one of these things? Yup- but it was practically a month late. *ugh* I know I am just terrible at this right? Well, if all goes according to plan, this will FINALLY be done relatively on time… *crosses fingers*

Let’s start with this photo- terrible right? He just won’t stay still. How do people do it?! I see all those trendy milestone blankets, but this kid will not stay on his back. I think the last photo involved Jon standing by holding Wolfie down till I started to hit the shutter. Oh well. You get the point. The kid is screaming and large. Moving on.

FOOD: Eating like a horse still. But we had some major break throughs! One being that HE ATE A LIL BB BURRITO! Yey! It was the cutest thing ever and it actually made some foods easier for him to eat (aka rice)

Wolfie is largely disinterested in my boobs. I mean he still likes to nurse, but I think sometimes he likes formula better simply because he can feed himself. He at one point was trying to figure out how to feed himself with my boobs. See I use a shield which is a small piece of silicon that makes it a fool proof latch for babies. He has ripped it off my boob, and tried sucking on it. Eventually he has figured out that there is something with the combination of the two, then he tends to stare at my nipples and pinch them. Baby. Listen. Stop it. It is weird.

MOVING: Oh man is Wolfie into walking… well at best as he can. He has been mostly “cruising.” No, he isn’t picking up men for casual sex, as my husband jokes, he is using tables and chairs to hold himself for walking. If he isn’t holding onto the couch or coffee table, it is usually the alligator walker we got as a hand me down. Seriously that kid just goes back and forth and back forth of the living room.

Naturally all this movement means there is a lot more thuds. I can now tell when he wakes up not because of screaming but because I hear the back of crib banging on the wall. He also has lots of little dings and bruises from trying to walk when he is exhausted.

GROWTH: Still tall and skinny. The most recent visit to the Pediatrician came with these stats-

Weight: 19lb 7oz (48%)
Length: 2ft 5in (80%)
Head: 17.52in (34%)

Not too different percentage wise from the last visit. And the scary thing is that I was looking at his numbers to clothing sizes and pretty much his weight is in 6-9 month clothing and his height is clipping towards the 12-18 month clothes. Huh?!

The visit also showed that he has a slightly low iron count. The doctor said that he thinks there was a mess up with the tests since Wolfie doesn’t SEEM anemic. So that means I have to get back into the habit of giving him his vitamins again. Just incase.

And that’s more or less it. I am only covering about 2 weeks worth of life for Wolfie, so you know, not much to say.

Posted by Jennifer in Parenting Tags: blw, month nine, nipples, parenting, wolfie

3 comments

Wolfie: Month Eight

September 13, 2017

What a month. Wolfie is becoming a little person instead of a screaming lump. And in usual fashion I am very late with this post. Instead of pretending like I am going to just talk about the past month- I will be talking about the past month and a half because HE IS JUST DOING SO DARN MUCH!

SITTING
This is probably one of the first things Wolfie learned how to do this month. It has been a frustrating struggle. He can sit up and that was good enough for awhile. Then he was getting frustrated that he would get stuck either sitting up or laying down.

Well, one day Wolfie was napping while Jon and I were trying to get some things done around the house. The monitor went off, and Jon questioned as to whether or not he should get him. I made an off-the-cuff comment

“meh, he sounds fine, let him play a little by himself.”
Jon replied with “okay…. oh….”
He got up and showed me the monitor. My response?
“Oh… yeah… you should get him”

All you could see on the monitor was Wolfie’s big bald-ish noggin because he’s figured out how to hoist himself up!

CRAWLING
My last note was “just about to crawl”… mark that down to “nailed it”! It has been so nice to have him be able to move around and gain some independence. Here is how his evolution in crawling has progressed:

Butt scooting, pretty much moving around in a big circle, confined to a 2 foot radius
Sort of crawling- getting about 2 “steps” in before throwing in the towel
One day you realize you didn’t have to pick up Wolfie for the last 30 minutes. OH SHIT! he’s crawling!
Crawling starts out with dragging one leg behind, kind-of looking like a bug with a leg torn off.
He figures out how to keep his knees in contact with the floor, now can crawl long distances
Screw knees, let’s use our feet! now his butt is high in the air as he crawls
Stairs! Yup, this little munchkin climbed up a small step at Grandma and Grandpa’s house…Eep!

Wolfie is now so excited that he is able to crawl towards Toulouse. It’s really funny because he crawls all the way across the room, exhausting himself, then when he starts to get close to her, Toulouse just casually and calmly gets up and just walks away. Better up your crawling game Wolfiecakez.

TALKING
After so many months of being really quiet, Wolfie is starting to babble with intent again. For a long time we thought his first word would be “hi” since he kept making an “H” sound with various words. But, now I think “UP” may end up being his first word. He often says something sounding very close to “up” with his hands up in the air, looking to get held. It is hard to say since he will randomly say it totally out of context though.

He has also learned how to blow out air so we can move our hands over his mouth. You know, like that racist Native American stereotype? It’s only cute because there aren’t any racist undertones when Wolfie does it. It is pretty darn cute when he grabs your hand to make the noise. But he has moved on to making the noise himself with a balled up fist and (on rare occasions) his foot when in the car.

STANDING
This kiddo just wants to walk. The first comments I got when I posted a video of Wolfie crawling were ones about how he just wants to stand. I am pretty sure he has been wanting to stand since he was in the womb (so much kicking!) He is getting increasingly better at standing. He started holding himself up by playing with his jungle toy, but had a hard time grasping the idea of how to accomplish that without any toys around him. Then he started to understand that he could use tables and chairs to stand up too.

The next step (clearly) is pulling himself up. He has no problem using me as his own personal ladder. He’s really started to nail it, to the point that it’s never phased me. Almost everyone excitedly asks if I knew he could pull himself up, and I just shrug my shoulders. Meh. Not impressed. Sure you can use my squishy body to pull yourself up. Until… yesterday morning he started to try and pull himself up from sitting to his knees. After some major encouragement from me, I motivated him to pull himself to a standing position! WHOOO! This morning I even caught him using the glider. So now his crib has been lowered again to the absolute lowest setting, and his video monitor has been moved very far away to keep the cord out of reach.

HAND-EYE-COORDINATION
For awhile Wolfie was clapping but with one palm open and the other in a tight fist. Now he totally has the whole clapping with both palms opened. In fact, the other day I heard a solid “clap” sound.

He is also starting to understand the whole waving thing. But I think it is mostly for himself. Rarely he will wave hello or goodbye. But he has learned to let his arm go limp to make me shake it when out and about.

His little pincher grip is getting better. If you hand him a small piece of food, he will clamp it with his pointer finger and thumb. It’s adorable! Oddly enough any advancement with his hand-eye-coordination seems to revolve around food. When he plays he seems most interested in trying to stand, crawl, walk, etc. Not play with toys.

EATING
I think awhile ago I made some joke about ways Wolfie is like an ACTUAL dog. Add this to the list- he has been trying to pick up and eat his spit up. OMFGFDHJ*@#UEJ@## SO GROSS! Spit up is already bad, but he just finds way to make it EVEN WORSE by going for it. You know, like spreading it around with his feet, or chunks of his food. STOP IT! I know you are reading this blog, baby!

So far the only food he hasn’t really been diggin’ has been chickpea-egg-like things. I made vegan omelets and little savory bean muffins. Both he happily ate the first day, but then didn’t care after a day or two.

Just eating peaches with Aunt Alexa… naked… on the kitchen floor

Otherwise he has been LOVING peaches, but sadly, I think we are going to be done with them soon. By the time we go to the orchard again they will probably be all gone. This kiddo could probably eat two whole peaches in a day if I let him. Bananas are another favorite. I think my favorite part of BLW is making lil bb versions of normal food. I got to make ADORABLE little naans. And after going to Vedge, Jon wanted to have some recipes from the Vedge cookbook for his birthday dinner. It was so stinkin cute plating fancy food onto a small baby plate.

HEALTH
It finally happened- Wolfie caught a cold. Back in the day, I am thinking around 6 weeks, Jon got a cold, then I got a cold. IT WAS AWFUL! But somehow Wolfie didn’t get sick, but I remember it was really rough trying to get through the day.

I remember taking Wolfie to the library and him touching all the toys and putting things in his mouth. I was nervous but I didn’t want to be that paranoid parent. Sure enough- he got sick… and so did I… and so did Jon. I woke him up and thought

“your nose is really runny… is this a cold?”.
Answer: yes.

It mostly sucked because it messed up his sleep schedule (which means it messed up our sleeping). He would either nap for 2-3 hours, or only 10-30 minutes. One night he woke up 3 times during the night, bringing back horrible memories of the really early baby days.

I also got flashbacks of the sneaky snot swipes from watching my niece Morgan. She got sick much more often from being in daycare and having allergies. Oh did I mention Wolfie was teething while sick? So there were just constant waterfalls of snot and spit. Have I mentioned how disgusting children are?

TEETH
HE HAS TWO NOW!

The bottom two teeth came in about the week of turning 8 months. Not much else to say other than read the previous paragraph.

SLEEP

I remember being so nervous that Wolfie would never nap longer than 30 minutes. Gosh it has been such a crummy experience when he was young with napping. Sleep at night- thumbs up. Sleeping during the day, tears.

Aside from him getting sick, naps are getting so much more regular. It started with secured morning naps. Then after getting sick, it seemed like something switched, and he decided “yes, these naps rock” Now I know that I can get two naps in, the morning being much longer than the one in the afternoon. This is the only reason why this post finally getting up …*sigh*. It is nice to have some peace and quiet during the day.

Posted by Jennifer in Parenting Tags: baby, baby led weaning, crawling, month eight, parenting, pulling up, sitting, standing, talking, wolfie

4 comments

Wolfie: Month Seven

July 27, 2017

Holy cow! This month has flown by. It really has me reflecting on how much has changed in the past 6 months. I remember dreading breastfeeding. I am glad I stuck it out, although I don’t love it, it is much cheaper and simpler than formula. I remember feeling such disconnect with little Wolfie when he was a floppy, wrinkly, newborn, and the days when I was so desperate to get out of the house.

Now I am always amazed by how much Wolfie moves around. I love it when he rubs his face into my shoulder, even though that pretty much means he is toast and needs a nap. He smiles so much more, drools less, burps on his own, and most importantly poop a lot less often. He sleeps through the night, naps twice a day, and I get some time to myself. I don’t think I will look back at month one to four with too much nostalgia. But I think I will be thinking of the “good ol’ days” when looking back on these months.

So let’s talk about what the heck Wolfie has been up to. Well, he is becoming a serious foodie. He is getting the whole bite-chew-swallow thing. Before there was a lot of biting off food, then spitting it out for the next bite. Some were swallowed, but I mostly ended up with little bits of kohlrabi and apple all over the high chair. It wasn’t until the one day when Wolfie was eating half a banana and half a pancake that I noticed a shift in his eating. When I cleaned up, I didn’t find a million chunks all over the place. Meaning he ATE MOST OF THE MEAL! Crazy! He hasn’t complained at all with any of the food I’ve given him. Curry, rice, veggies, fruit, pickles, all good. I love how a lot of what he eats depends on what we get from our CSA. It automatically will switch things up for him. Pretty soon we will take him to the orchard and he can start trying out stone fruit. And he can finally find out what Peaches are since I sang that song to him so often as a newborn.

Photo by Wendy Ringel

Making it out to our CSA has been something of a challenge. As Wolfie has gotten older he has gotten into the habit of napping at 8 in the morning. Our CSA opens up at 8, which causes us to bring a cranky baby to pick up our produce. Ouch. We would let him nap, but with the summer we like to go as early as we can before it gets hot. Next year should be much easier since he will most likely be taking naps in the afternoon. It’ll be more fun for him then, he’ll be able to “pick” produce, and walk around. Right now he is just carried around by me, or his grandparents. But he sure loves looking at the piggies. I am sure there will be tears in the future about what happens to the pigs.

Last time I didn’t include Wolfie’s stats from the doctor’s visit. Well, he is now 17lbs and 1oz- in the 68th percentile. His head is 43 centimeters, in the 72nd percentile. And finally his height is 2 feet and 3 inches- making his height in the 93rd percentile. So I apparently have a very long and skinny baby. In fact I did some searching to get an idea what size clothing he should be wearing and found that his weight is in the 6-9 month clothing but his height is in the 9-12 month clothing. His feet are just much too long for his footed jammies.

I will have to say everything is starting to feel like those ooey-gooey “he’s growing so fast” moments. He is sitting by himself without my help though I need to prop him up still. He is now itching to start moving around, and I am seeing the end soon to being able to walk away from him and knowing he will “stay put.”

*sigh* But that is why I started to make these monthly posts. I knew everything would be moving fast. So I am glad I trying to stick with this.

Posted by Jennifer in Parenting Tags: baby, baby led weaning, month seven, parenting, wolfie

2 comments

Wolfie: Month Six

July 2, 2017

I swear everything is moving super fast. Wolfie is on the edge of moving around. He is starting to roll around more- but mostly when I walk out of the room or when he is alone in the crib. My guess is that he knows I’ll hand him some of his toys? But then again he isn’t very good at rolling off his tummy, so there were a few times he woke up in the middle of the night and I had to roll him on his back again.

Wolfie can now sit up by himself (once you prop him up). He loves sitting up while playing. I no longer need to be right behind him – though sometimes he wobbles too much and falls down. Thank goodness for the sitting because he now wants to stand up less. Yey! Less work for me.

The other day we went to a friend’s 30th Birthday Party and there were lots of babies. I was a little surprised how much Wolfie just wanted to hang around the other babies. He was clearly taking notes because the two older babies were crawling. At the party he kept trying to get on all fours but wasn’t sure how to move. In fact he still was trying it at home, and actually keeping his tummy off the floor. So who know, maybe crawling will happen in the near future?

Sleeping is getting better. He still cries when we put him down for the night but it is immediately stops when I leave the room. Maybe I’ll start reading a book before leaving for the night to try and soften the transition. Sadly, we had to do sleep training for naps. I put it off and put it off and kept Wolfie in his small rocker instead of the crib for naps. Then a heatwave hit right as I was trying transition. I didn’t want to use the rocker since it wouldn’t help in the heat. He also wasn’t falling asleep in my arms because he was too hot, not that it mattered because he almost always woke up when I placed him in the crib. It was sooooo terrible. But once the heatwave went away, he fell asleep in the crib by himself. Now he has similar reactions as going to bed- crying when I am in the room, but starts putting himself to sleep when I leave.

And now the sleeping is a LOT more consistent. It has been a sigh of relief for us, since we know he will STAY asleep at night. I remember for the first 2-3 months having to swap baby duty so I could try and get enough sleep. Now if I am getting up in the middle of the night it is at 4 in the morning. And I am not pretty much always getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep.

Loving solids! I was a little worried about starting him on solids since the recommendations are now to wait until they a six months old, but I figured why not. If it seemed to be a bad idea I would take a step back and wait. So far no digestion issues and he seems eager to eat the purees. I made some awhile ago from produce from last years CSA crops- butternut squash, turnips, and parsnips. All are getting the baby seal of approval.

Then I flip flopped and read Baby Led Weaning. So I ditched the purees and went for “adult” foods. It has been interesting since 95% of the food rarely gets into his mouth. So maybe there will be a what we ate coming up soon.

Posted by Jennifer in Parenting Tags: baby, baby led weaning, blw, month six, parenting, wolfie

1 comment

Wolfie: Month Five

May 29, 2017

What a crummy start to this new chapter of Wolfie’s life. The Monday after turning four months there was a gloriously perfect day! Wolfie slept for an hour and half in the morning and in the afternoon, and slept through the night. The next morning I woke up to people working my roof. The guys start from 8 in the morning to 7 at night. It was AWFUL! I was starting to get into a groove with Wolfie, wake up at 7, eat, play, eat, sleep after 2 hours. But it was more like eat, rush around packing things, eat, run to my in-laws, unpack, eat, try to sleep, fail, eat, play, eat, try to sleep, fail, eat, get fed up, go for a ride, well you get the idea. And getting home wasn’t so great. Wolfie wasn’t bothered by the banging, but they were working on the roof while I was rocking him to sleep! They are done and we have a nice new roof so I am happy.

Wolfie celebrated his first Easter. We aren’t very religious and Jon and I have a particular irk about Easter. So we had a low key Easter dinner with his parents. We tried to dress him up a little but he spit up on his clothes right as I took out the camera. haha. It should be interesting how we handle the whole Easter thing next year when he is a little older.

Wolfie’s sleep as always is all over the place. At one point he was falling asleep all by himself at night and IT WAS AWESOME! He was even sleeping through the night. Then he randomly decided he wanted someone to walk him to sleep, and he would wake up in the middle of the night. I eventually told my husband that something had to give. I couldn’t be up at night AND struggle to get him to nap during the day. He also getting better as staying awake in the car and the stroller. Eek!

So we had him cry it out. It sucked the first night. It took an hour and ten minutes of crying before he fell asleep. The only good thing was that unlike most babies, he cried a lot less the second night. Now he mostly does a protest squawk then starts dozing off. We also had to do this since he wasn’t a fan of the crib. We are still working on the transition as we try and get him to sleep in the crib for naps. Ugh.

The worst was the heat waves. His head would sweat while I rocked him to sleep then stick to my arm when I put him in his bed. This caused him to wake up and then get no sleep. AWFUL! Since we are trying to get him to sleep on his own, one night he cried for 45 minute which was odd since he was starting to just sleep without any crying. We had to feed him some cold formula and bring in the BIG fan in his room. Instantly fell asleep after we did that.

And since the heatwave was so bad we started him on solids. Pretty much he didn’t want to breastfeed because it was way too hot to be held. When I would go into cooler rooms he just wanted to look around. It was so frustrating. At that point it JUST hit 5 months so I thought- why the hell not? And you know he really liked it.

In my usual fashion I forgot to keep working on this post as the month went by. Ack! So the past few weeks are much fresher in my memory. The food- the sleep- mother’s day- first CSA visit! So I will let this post be insanely short.

Posted by Jennifer in Parenting, The Girls Tags: baby, month five, parenting, wolfie