Baby Food

Drew started baby food a couple of months ago now...we had a little interlude when he had croup where he didn't do anything but nurse, but we've been through rice and oatmeal so far (he likes oatmeal much more than rice!) and I have been trying different organic, store-bought foods.  I made most all of Wade's baby purees, but I wanted to try out some combinations with Drew, so I started with some organics from the store.

Well, today I made my first purees for the little bee.  I made sweet peas (plain), blueberry mango, and roasted pear/banana and froze them in cubes.  I had some extra pear/banana that didn't fit in our freezer trays, so I gave him some tonight for dinner.  HE. LOVED. IT.  Seriously, this was good stuff.  Easy-peasy recipe, too, from a new favorite site, Weelicious.  Even though he was a little overly tired, he couldn't stop looking for more.  I tried it while I was making it and it really is delicious (and made the house smell yummy while I was roasting the fruit, too...bonus!).  I'm thinking it might have to be a go-to topping for yogurt and oatmeal for the rest of us actually since I'm sure Wade and Craig will like it, too :)

I can't believe I forgot how easy it is to make baby food - I'm back on the horse again!  But for when we do eat on the run, I'm a huge fan of the little pouches (Plum Baby, Ella's Kitchen, Happy Baby, etc), especially since now boon makes spoons to screw onto the pouches for super easy on-the-go feeding.  Their foods are yummy and don't have any un-pronouncable words in them - just the fruit or veggie. 

All for now.  Bath time :) (Wade, not me)

Wade loves ducklings

We had pictures with ducklings a couple weeks ago - SO CUTE!!  Drew was curious about them, but Wade absolutely LOVED them.  It took a few minutes for him to warm up and want to hold them, but then, watch out, he was chasing them all over the place.  Check out the pictures at the online gallery.  password is duck15.

http://rsutherland.zenfolio.com/ducklingscollins/h469f36c#h469f36c

Silly, Tired Beamer

This is how we found Beamer sleeping the other day...see his tongue sticking out? And yes, he does have his head on a pillow.  This dog knows how to get comfortable, that's for sure!

Where's Daisy?

Can you find her?

Bird Dogs

We took the dogs down to North Carolina this past weekend for a Weimaraner Rescue Fun Day.  We had a blast!  Drew came along, and Wade stayed with Mema and PopPop for the weekend.  They had a great day planned out at Ross & Rosi's farm and taught the dogs how to hunt!  They had live quail for the dogs to learn with and both Daisy and Beamer got to get a taste of bird hunting.  Beamer was incredible - he took to it so easily and was a real natural bird dog!!  Daisy seemed to be a little more scattered and lost interest.  She wanted to go for the kill and didn't have the patience to track them down as well.  But she did find a couple of them.  I need to download the pictures from our camera, so stay tuned, pictures to come later today or tomorrow!  We got a few really good ones of Beamer on point.  I think we're hooked and will try to keep at this for Beamer at least!  Who knows, maybe we'll be inspired to enter him into some hunting trials and see if we can earn a Jr. Hunter award :-)

Other than that, we are nursing 2 sick babies right now.  Drew has croup and it's pretty awful.  I'm guessing he caught Wade's cold and cough, and that's how he ended up this way since his little system can't handle it the same, but I'm not sure.  We have been doing some steamy bathroom sessions to help him breathe easier and are running humidifiers all the time.  I've been sleeping with him, at first out on the couch, and then last night we had him in our bed with us since I don't want to be too far from him just in case.  I know that will be a habit to break, but it's worth it.  It comforts him to be close and he falls asleep against me listening to my heartbeat.

Here are some pictures!

Beamer on point:

Daisy in the field, heading out to find birds:

Us :-)

Hands Full...getting ready to head out

Our teachers all in orange

Breakfast. Biscuitville. Yum.

Tired baby...waiting for the master hunter demo after lunch

Tired Weims...watching the others in the field

Drew's Hat

So I have finally gotten started for real on my knitting.  Meghan got me an awesome baby hat book and all the supplies umm....like 2 years ago....and I finally got started a couple of months ago making a hat for Drew.  I just finished it and am (ahem) so proud of myself :)  I had a few trial runs, dealt with some dropped stitches, started over a few times, but it was so worth the time it took to teach myself when I see sweet little Drew in his cute blue hat that I made all by myself!  Next up (I think) is a yellow cotton beanie for Wade.  I want to try some new things, do some decorations on the hats, try new patterns and styles, I'm so inspired right now, I will need to jump right on my next project to keep my momentum and inspiration!  I'd like to teach myself to crochet next since there are some cute little decorations that you can crochet and then apply to a basic hat for lots more fun.  Am I brave enough to try a striped hat?  I have all summer to work on some of those for the boys - my goal is to knit them both a candy cane striped stocking hat for Christmastime.  That was the hat that I fell in love with that made me want to learn to knit in the first place :)

So without further ado, here is Drew modeling his hat this morning!! (excuse the spit up on the shirt!)

Going Green

Well, I made the leap.  I've been thinking about venturing into the world of cloth diapering for quite some time now, but finally decided that I would really give it a try.  After some research, I decided to go with the hybrid diapers - meaning I can use either a cloth (reusable) insert or a biodegradable/flushable/disposable insert.  I picked the gDiapers.  It's a bit of an investment up front, but a little less than the all in one diapers since there's a cover, snap in liner, and then the insert.  Usually if it's a messy one, it gets on the waterproof liner but spares the cloth cover, so we don't need as many of those.  So far, we have 4, but I'm planning to get 2 more.  I think I'm going to get some for Wade as well and start cloth diapering him as well in hopes that it will be a good step towards potty training...(fingers crossed).  Drew can always move up into the size L after Wade's done with them!!

So, what do I think?  I really like them!  I thought for sure I'd prefer the flushable inserts, but the cloth is actually not as messy or scary as I had thought it could be.  I'm thankful that Sarah, our nanny, was game to try it out with me on both of the boys.  And I really do think that they look so cute with their cloth diapered butts :)

Look how cute these are: