BLW Awesomeness!

The Man and I were just talking last week about how glad we both are that we decided to give baby-led weaning, BLW, a chance. I really can't imagine doing it any other way.  I have babysat a lot of babies that were fed jarred/pureed baby food and in my opinion BLW is way easier and makes a lot more sense.

Jackson is an amazing eater.  The kid can shovel it in and frankly I have no idea where it all goes...ok thats a lie since he is now in 12 month clothing and has the energy of a wild beast. The Man and I are pretty impressed with how well, how much and the way he eats. He doesn't eat the skins on pretty much any food. Yesterday he ate an entire pear himself and would spit out the peeling.  Green beans he turns into straws because he sucks the insides out and spits out the outside.  He also doesn't eat the peelings of grape tomatoes or apples.  Clementines we give to him peeled but then he only eats the flesh of it and spits the other part out.

Going out to eat is a breeze.  Jackson sits in the high chair and we share our food with him.  When Josiah's parents were here last month we went to Olive Garden.  Jackson ate the following: some dehydrated pears, a few pieces of lettuce, 3 tomatoes, 1 breadstick, 2 lasagna frittas, a couple pieces of chicken & noodles from my alfredo and a piece of cheese ravioli. Granted there was a huge mess on the floor and on him but he enjoyed every minute of eating all that delicious food.  When we go out to eat and make a huge mess like that we usually tip our waiter/waitress a little extra :) No ones food ended up cold because they had to entertain or feed the baby and Jackson was all smiles and giggles at the table because he was included in what everyone else was doing....it was FANTASTIC!

I haven't been very good at posting about our journey but there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about. Everything is going so well.  We don't buy baby food. We do buy way more fruits and veggies than before but that is good for all of us, not just Jack. Meal times are no big deal in our household, 9 times out of 10 Jackson is eating what we are at the same time as us. He has even started 'talking' to us during meal times.

Enjoying an apple

Blueberry muffin for breakfast

He is pretty excited about this muffin! 

What was left of the muffin after the beast was done 

Sometimes if he plays his cards right he gets to have a snack in the living room in his chair...this is either an apple or a pear for a morning snack/late breakfast

He LOVED the cucumber, raspberries, yogurt crisp bar & rice cake breakfast!

 Chicken, red pepper, strawberries & carrot rice cakes for supper...yum!

I really need to work on getting pictures of meals other than breakfast. The only food we have found that he really doesn't like is broccoli.  We keep giving it to him in different ways hoping that pretty soon he will start to like it but so far its a no go.

Walk this way...

Jackson is getting the hang of his Melissa and Doug walker that we got him for Christmas. He gets a little distracted and sometimes needs us to push it head for him but he does walk/dance with it for a little while.

Out with 2012 and in with 2013

Since it is already 2013 and I have been pretty awful at blogging this past year I thought I would do a little recap of 2012 to send it on its way and bring in 2013

January:

~ the Man came home from being deployed overseas for 5 1/2 months

~ Rented an apartment online without ever looking at it or the neighborhood it was in scary stuff that ended up turning out really well for us!

February:

~ booked a moving truck & packed up all of our stuff to move across the country

~ drove from California to Maryland in 4 days at 34 weeks pregnant

~ the Man became apart of the Navy Reserves instead of reenlisting as active duty Navy

March:

~ Started my job in its new location I kept my same job but transferred from CA to MD, so different people to work with

~ the Man got enrolled in college for the summer

~ We bought a new car

~ the Man found a job

~ the moving truck delivered all of our stuff

April:

~ Celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary well kind of, we had planned on going out to eat and to the movies a couple days later but I decided that our new apartment was a disaster and not ready for a baby to come home to yet so we stayed home that night and then I ended up going into labor

~ Welcomed the most amazing little boy into our lives

~ My mom came out and visited and met Jackson for the first time

May:

~ the Man's parents came out and visited and met Jackson

~ My dad & sister drove out to visit us and deliver a few things from WI

~ the Man started his college classes

June:

~ Celebrated my 27th birthday with a visit from two amazing friends! Still can't believe you pulled off that surprise

~ My maternity leave ended

~ Nicki came out to babysit for a couple weeks until the Man and I were on opposite shifts

July:

~ the Man switched from days to 2nd shift

~ the Man finished up his summer college classes

~ Jackson started to laugh and smile when he thought things were funny not just when he was sleeping

August:

~ Took a vacation to Wisconsin

~ Jackson's first plane ride

~ Jackson was baptized

~ Celebrated the Man's 26th birthday with friends in WI

September:

~ the Man started the fall semester of college

~ the Man switched to working 3rd shift

~ We took Jackson to his first baseball game, the Brewers played the Nationals

October:

~ Jackson and I flew to WI by ourselves

~ Celebrated my Mom & Bill's wedding

~ Jackson turned 6 months

~ Jackson's bottom 2 teeth popped threw

~ Jackson started to eat real food

~ Jackson started to crawl and with that get into EVERYTHING

~ Took Jackson trick-or-treating for the first time

November:

~ Celebrated Thanksgiving with new friends in MD

~ Jackson started pulling up on furniture and moving around it

~ Welcomed our niece Dahlia to the family we cannot wait to meet her!

December:

~ the Man finished the fall semester of college

~ we celebrated our first Christmas as a family of 3

~ the Man's parents came out and visited for Christmas

~ ended up signing a lease at our current apartment for another year
~ Jackson's 3rd tooth popped threw

I know that I probably missed a ton of milestone's and things that have happened this past year.  Overall 2012 was a pretty amazing year filled with tons of ups and a few downs.  I know both Josiah & I are looking forward to see what 2013 has in store for us and our family.

Happy New Year to all of you and your family's. Here's to family, faith, love and new adventures & opportunities in 2013!

Funny Stuff Here

So the Man has dabbled with blogging before and I actually really enjoy reading his blog posts.  He is great at writing! way better than I will ever be  But he has never really stuck with it.  Well recently he has decided that he is going to start another blog in an attempt to actually continue blogging and maybe even get paid to do it.

Here is his first entry and I find it quite funny!!  I hope you all enjoy it as well :)

Im Living With An Alien: History:

Photos: Jackson, Jackson & more Jackson

 He LOVES picking out books for us to read to him!

He gets so excited when he stands up and gets something by himself!

 He loves to climb over our legs!

I can't believe this little guy will be 8 months in 2 days!! 

I was trying to get a video of him laughing while we were playing peek-a-boo but as soon as he saw my phone he stopped...I will have to try again when Josiah is around.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Addiction

This is only the 2nd or 3rd year that I have ever shopped Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales but let me tell you so far this year has done the most damage!!  First of all Amazon and its Black Friday, Cyber Monday & Top Holiday Deals are like crack...everyday the Man and I check out what deals are going on and then we check back multiple times a day to see if they added anything good and check the prices on things that caught our eye.

Only 2 of Jackson's gifts were not purchased on any of the deals mentioned above.  And 2 of his gifts combined costed us a whole whopping $1.00 because of the $30 in Kohls cash we received for ordering another Christmas gift that was super cheap! So needless to say Jackson is getting way more gifts than we planned on giving him and we still are way under our budget we set!!  I actually just purchased what I think is his finally gift from an Amazon Top Holiday Deal: its a Melissa & Doug Deluxe Chomp & Clack Alligator Push Toy, regular price $49.99 it was on sale for $35.87 and the Amazon Top Holiday Deal was $26.99. That's 46% off from the regular price!!

the Man and I also came across other deals that we didn't need but totally wanted: Clothes from Express, Victoria Secret & Kohls; Le Creuset 8-piece set from Amazon; a variety of Blu-Rays from Target & Amazon and a few other things that I know I am forgetting about.

Needless to say Amazon really needs to stop with all of these deals!!!

On the Hunt

Last week I think sometime we received a letter from our apartment complex about resigning our lease. At first I thought it was crazy to get something already since our lease isn't up until March 1st but after reading the letter it states you must give them 60 day written notice if you are not resigning which would be December 31st...holy crap that's just around the corner!!

Back to the point of this letter, it also informed us that our rent would be increasing a minimum of almost 8.5% we would have to sign a 12 month lease for that increase, any other lease agreement would result in a higher increase.  When I first read this I was floored....almost 8.5% increase, thats f'in insane!!  I know that the area we live in is extremely expensive compared to other areas we have lived but that is a huge increase.  As it is we probably already pay more in rent than most of you pay for your mortgage...typing that made me a little sick.

Bottom line, the hunt is on for a new apartment.  We are hoping to get something in a safe neighborhood with a yard or at least a park for Jackson to play at and if we are lucky a place that has storage!  Storage may seem a little odd to want but currently we have totes filling every closet and also sitting randomly throughout our house it's annoying!

Hopefully I will be able to post soon about a new place but if not I guess we will just suck it up and pay the 8.5% increase.