Woah! 10 Months!

I'm so late writing this post that Lydia is already halfway to 11-months now. Lydia turned 10-months old on June 16th. We've been on vacation for the past week, so I have a good excuse for why it has taken me so long to get this post together.

Having fun with the IKEA bead roller coaster that Ginger gave us.

Gosh, the tenth month has been a great one for us. It was really rocky in the beginning with Lydia continuing to not want to be rocked to sleep and me continuing to want to do it. But, I think we've worked it all out. Lydia still lets me (or Chip) feed her a bottle at bedtime. Some nights she is okay with being held and snuggling with mamma or daddy for a while, but others she really wants to flop around in the crib and get comfortable, so we put her down. She usually goes right to sleep. For the most part she's still sleeping through the night most nights with the occasional night (maybe twice a week?) where she wakes enough that one of us has to go in there and help her go back to sleep. 

She loved napping in her swing for months, but our girl loves to sleep on her stomach now and is outgrowing it.

We haven't changed her napping or feeding schedule at all since last month. The only change is that she is drinking more - about 6 ounces in the morning, afternoon, and evening and 3 ounces with b'fast, lunch, and dinner. We have introduced meats and stage 3 baby foods along with some real food like pasta, wheat bread, crackers, cantaloupe, watermelon, blueberries, kiwi, grapes, and chicken. The funniest thing I've discovered so far with foods is that Lydia loves garlic! She is definitely her mother's child! We can sprinkle some garlic & herb seasoning on just about any vegetable, and Lydia will gobble it up. We also add cinnamon to sweet potatoes or squash quite often, and she loves that.

All this eating has definitely put some weight on our girl. She is about to outgrow some of her 6 month clothes and will be graduating to 9 month pajamas. My guess is that she is at least 14 pounds by now. She's still in size 2 diapers. Memorial Day weekend and the following week Lydia cut all four of her top teeth one after the other. When she cut the first top tooth we were visiting my mom for the weekend. What a nightmare! Lydia cried a bunch with the pain and because she was in a new place. I felt bad for my mom because Lydia was is a really foul mood for most of the visit. She was up to six teeth on June 16th, and has cut two more since then. 

I've got some video of Lydia rolling around that's pretty cute. I'll upload it one of these days. She's sitting up really well now. She still hasn't pulled herself up to sitting, but I see it happening any day now. 

I have vacation photos to post soon, too! Very soon, I promise!

We put Lydia in her swimsuit and in the baby pool. She hated it! The water was too cold.

Armadillo Drama

This is what my side yard looks like... every single morning.

This winter we got this area of our yard sodded with zoysia. The previous owners had put wood chip mulch all over the area and had a playset. The mulch had really broken down and the area was covered in weeds. Zoysia does pretty well in part shade, so we thought we'd try it out. The lack of sun has been the least of our worries. Pretty soon after the temperatures started warming up we'd go out in the mornings to see our sod pulled up and turned over. An animal was flipping it over looking for worms and grubs. After a little research, I determined that it is an armadillo.

At first we started with a havahart trap placed strategically in the yard. That didn't work. Then, I found a co-worker who had a trap from thearmadillotrap.com. That one didn't work either. I kept telling Chip that "we" needed to build a funnel or chute to direct the animal into the trap. I fully meant that he should build it. I have no idea how to build an armadillo funnel.

Then, I got smart. I noticed some temporary fencing at a home construction site. One trip to Home Depot later, and we have the materials to build an armadillo chute.

I am hoping that this stuff will serve two purposes. 1) Keep the armadillo(s) out of my side yard long enough to let the grass put down some strong roots. Then I won't need to keep the pesky pest out. 2) Funnel the armadillo into the trap.

I'm sure my neighbors are going to love looking at this in my yard every time they drive by. I'm hoping the armadillo doesn't just dig under it. Here's hoping we have a rodent to relocate here soon!

How I Cooked It: Carrots

We got carrots in our box from Yokna Bottoms Farm two weeks in a row. The first week I snipped off the green tops and put the carrots in the fridge. When I got them the second week I still hadn't used my previous batch, so I thought... Time for carrot salad. My most favorite carrot salad is this one, heavily modified from two different carrot salad recipes in "The Art of Simple Food" by Alice Waters.
Ingredients:
6-8 little carrots, grated using a food processor
1/2 teaspoon each of ground cumin and coriander
juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Optional: 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro
Directions:
Toss the grated carrots with the cumin and coriander. Add lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, and herbs to the carrots and toss gently. Taste for seasoning and add salt and lemon juice as needed.
I served the carrot salad over mixed greens, also from YBF, with the chicken with mushrooms in Madeira wine sauce from Come On In.

- Posted from my iPhone using BlogPress

Photo Session: 8 Months

Chip and I took Lydia up to Collierville, TN  on Tuesday, April 23rd for a photo session with Erin Dahl. I was so happy with the "newborn" session that Erin did with Lydia, and the 8 month session was equally as good. I had multiple outfits picked out, and sent pics of them to Erin so that she could coordinate some back drops and props. I was so excited when I saw the cute things she had picked out for us to use.

First of all, the suitcase that coordinated with Lydia's yellow sweater. I got it on Etsy from the Yorkshire Knit Wit. Love it.

Erin had this adorable lace bonnet for Lydia to wear. Just my style... very vintage!

She also had this awesome teal velvet chair, grey tulle tutu, and pearl tiara for Lydia. I love how it all came together.

Last I put Lydia in this fun summer dress with lemons and blue seersucker on the sleeves. Erin had put together the perfect backdrop and splash of color to bring out Lydia's eyes.

We had a great day at the photo shoot. Lydia was teething and kept chewing on all the props, so it is a feat in itself that Erin got any photos at all. She's so talented!