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.

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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!

Babababa

I got some good video of Lydia talking for daddy this morning. Mama and Dada are coming very soon!

The other big news of the day is that Lydia weighs 13 lbs 6 oz. We went for her 9 month check up today. She is still on the preemie growth chart and doesn't even register on the "real" one. We don't mind though because she's doing great!

How I Cooked It: Snow Peas

I've always wanted to try a CSA. This year when Yokna Bottoms Farms offered to deliver CSA shares to FNC (the company I work for) every Tuesday at 3pm, I knew I had to sign up. Cooking in the moment with fresh ingredients is one of my favorite things to do, so I thought it might be fun to share what I've cooked with the veggies from Yokna Bottoms.
So far I've had lots of lettuce and radishes for salads. Yum yum. We've also had an abundance of Chinese cabbage, and I've used it in many stir-fries with pork and noodle or tofu and mushrooms.
This week we had snow peas. Chip is under the weather, so I made Asian Chicken Noodle Soup. The recipe is one I've made many many times, clipped from Food + Wine. In addition to the farm's snow peas, I used four of the many spring onions we've gotten in our box. This soup is so good! Ready in 30 minutes.

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I Can't Believe It... 9 Months

Napping on an afternoon stroll.

Can you tell which sweater and hat are mom's favorite?

Playing with the baby in the mirror.

This month has brought on so many new behaviors from Lydia. I love this age so much. She's sleeping really well, eating all her vegetables, and is generally a very happy baby.

Lydia still fits in all her 6 month clothes and is wearing a few 9 month things, although they are a little large on her. She is still wearing size 2 Seventh Generation diapers during the day and Pampers Baby Dry 12-hour diapers at night.

Her appetite has really picked up since last month. She eats 4 or 5 ounces of formula when she wakes up. Breakfast is mixed-grain cereal and stage 2 fruit at 8:30 am followed by about 2 ounces of formula. She eats stage 2 vegetable purees mixed with oatmeal cereal at noon, another 4 to 5 ounce bottle at 3 pm, and more baby food at 5:30 pm. Sometimes in the afternoon she feeds herself some o-shaped puffs, but that's mostly for her to work on her fine motor skills, not for nutrition. I'm mostly buying the Earth's Best glass jars of food plus some Sprout foods. I haven't made any of the food myself yet, but I will try it soon. Lydia is cutting her top front teeth right now, so she should be able to handle coarser food any day now.

The big news is that as of three nights ago, we are no longer doing a dream feed at 10 pm! We are feeding her a 6 ounce bottle at 7:15 pm when she goes to bed, and so far she's slept right through until 5 or 6 am.

That wasn't the case all month though. That's definitely a new thing. For the most part Lydia was a wild sleeper this month. Most nights she picked up her fun habit of waking between 2:30 am and 3:30 am to babble a little bit and play with her toys. The good thing about this month's wake ups compared to last month's is that Lydia puts herself back to sleep this month. She wakes up, plays with her "Polly with the Pigtails" doll or her "Jesus Loves Me" owl, then drifts back to sleep. What an angel! The sad part about the nighttime routine is that recently Lydia doesn't want to be rocked to sleep. It kills me when this happens. I love getting to rock her while she drifts off to sleep in my arms. She smells so sweet from her bath, and those sweet baby sighs are the best. A few nights ago she started squirming and crying while I rocked, so I put her in her crib awake where she played with her toys for a few minutes then fell asleep. That happened three nights in a row, which is one of the reasons I dropped the dream feed those nights! I was scared I wouldn't get her back to sleep! Tonight she let me rock her though, so maybe she hasn't totally given up on our little routine.

Her babbling has definitely picked up this month. She loves it when I imitate her. I try to get her to imitate me, and sometimes she will, but generally she just looks back at me confused (and cute). We get lots of squeals and screams and lots of consonants, but no words yet. I think she's just beginning to recognize the word "Walle". She loves Walle and watches him constantly. She wants to be his friend SO BAD, but he still is not interested.

Lydia's efforts to sit up are going pretty well. She can sit on her bottom as long as she's fairly still, but the child is a wiggle worm and will suddenly decide to lunge forward/backward/sideways and fall over. I guess that's how all kids are starting out. I know I need to let her fall and knock her head some so she "learns" why she shouldn't do that, but that's hard to do! She isn't crawling yet, but when we are playing on her quilt she can creep and roll to whatever toy she wants. I keep showing her how to crawl, which I am sure looks hilarious. She'll get the hang of it soon, and I'm sure I'll wish she hadn't!

We've really been working on getting Lydia to nap in her crib, and for the most part, she's taking naps there now. Morning naps are no trouble at all. She goes down in her crib for 30 minutes to an hour. Afternoon naps are a little hit and miss, but when she gets to sleep good she'll sleep for an hour or so. On the weekends I am bad about snuggling with my little napper on the sofa instead of putting her in her crib. But I'm her mamma so I can spoil her like that!  ;P

This age is so wonderful, and my daughter has brought me so much joy! I know this phase won't last forever. Too soon we could be fighting a picky eater, a light sleeper, or temper tantrums, but for now I am trying to enjoy this wonderful period in our lives!

Eight months

This past month has been so much fun. We've taken Lydia so many new places, and she's doing really well.

On Saint Patrick's Day, we went to a music festival out in Taylor, Mississippi.

We've taken lots of walks in the park.

Lydia is still in size 2 Seventh Generation diapers, but she started soaking through them at night and waking up with damp pajamas, so we started using the Pampers Baby Dry 12-hour diapers at night. Those seem to hold a bit more pee. She's outgrown all except one or two of her 3-month onesies and pajamas. She mostly wears 6 month clothes.

Since last month, we've started feeding Lydia baby food at breakfast in addition to the food she gets at lunch and dinner. We added breakfast because she stopped eating a big bottle in the morning. She got to where she only wanted 2 to 3 ounces first thing in the morning (between 6 am and 7), so we added cereal and fruit at 8:30 am. She eats baby food (fruit or veg mixed with rice or oat cereal) at noon, another small bottle at 3 pm, and more food at 5:30 pm. She consistently gets tired at about 7:15 pm, so that's her bedtime. She eats a 3 to 4 oz bottle when we put her to bed. I am still getting her up for a dream feed at 10 pm. We have thought about dropping this bottle (and we have skipped it a few times), but she'll usually eat her biggest bottle of the day (5 to 5.5 oz) at this time. I really think she still needs the calories, so as long as she'll drink it, I'm going to feed it to her. My guess is that this bottle is the reason she pees through her night diaper.

In early April I pumped for the last time. I made it 7 1/2 months. I'm not happy with my decision to quit pumping. I actually feel pretty terrible and guilty about quitting, but it is one of those things that once it happens, you can't get it back. I would probably start back now if I could. My supply was fine. But, I started getting busier and busier at work and started having to skip pumping sessions there. Then, I started feeling like the time at home that I was pumping was taking away from time that I was actually interacting with Lydia. Then, the weather got nice, we started doing stuff away from the house, and I was really craving wine or beer in the evenings. One thing led to another, and I just decided on an impulse to quit. It was so easy to quit. My boobs really didn't hurt that bad. I didn't leak. I went from three times a day, to two, to one, to skipping a day. I think I pumped one more time because I had some knots from clogged ducts, then that was it. Waah :(

So, I have a small freezer supply that I'm keeping for a few months just in case Lydia gets sick. But now she's solely formula fed. Boo. I've had lots of people tell me that babies get most of their immunity in the first 6 months of their lives. That makes me feel good that I at least made it that far. I'm still bummed about quitting, though.

This month was Wonder Week 26 (based on Lydia's adjusted age), and Lydia really didn't have hers until about week 27/28. She was sleeping through the night really, really well until about week 27. Then she started waking up every night between 2:30 am and 3:30 just babbling her heart out. She'd keep it up for a good 45 minutes happily, then would start screaming for someone to come in there. We tried everything: feeding her a bottle, rocking her back to sleep, bringing her to the living room sofa to hold her, taking her to the guest bed to sleep, bringing her to our bed to sleep, then finally just letting her scream. None of it really worked. All she wanted was someone to play with. Then finally, a few days ago, she slept through the night again and has been since. She's slept through the night (7:30 pm to 5 or 6 am) five nights in a row now.

Her babbling has lead to an isolated incident where she sounded like she said something that slightly resembled, "Mamamamamama." Haha, I'll take it. My baby said, "Mama." I've barely heard a "Da" sound pass from her lips. Haha.

Lydia is still not sitting up on her own. I really thought she would be by now! She is getting really close though. She is really creeping now, too. Every once in a while we see her get those knees up under her, so I know crawling isn't far ahead. Maybe just a couple more months now.

I have been trying to get Lydia to take two longer naps a day (morning and afternoon) in her crib. It is so hard! Up until now her sitter has mostly held her during the day for naps, so it has been a transition for her and Lydia both. Lydia goes down in her crib so easily at night, but during the day it is a different story. As soon as you put her down her eyes pop open. If you put her down awake she just plays with anything and everything she can get her hands on for a while, then screams. I feel like consistency is the key here. We just need to keep doing what we are doing (putting her down in the crib) and eventually she'll get used to it and nap there.

Whew... That was a mouthful, I know! If you are still with me, I'll wrap up with a few pictures of Lydia at her piano. Her and dad like to make music together! A few weeks ago I put her down on her play mat about 5 feet from the piano. I went to the kitchen and not two minutes later I hear piano keys. Lydia had rolled over to the piano and was lying on her back with her arm outstretched, hitting the keys.