Saturday, October 31, 2009

First Food

More twinner jammies.

Gus has been really interested in our food so we started rice cereal. He loved the spoon but wasn't particularly thrilled by the cereal.

One of Reese's favorite circle time books at school is Go Away Big Green Monster, so we had to buy it for home.
Reese had me read it 5 times in a row to him and Gus one day this week. I'm kind of bummed Halloween is over. We've really had fun reading our Halloween books the last couple of weeks.

1st Annual Pumpkin Carving

We carved our first Halloween pumpkin! Kyle and I haven't carved in forever and Reese never has. We maybe should've started with a painted pumpkin. Reese was not too willing to touch the pumpkin guts at first. We didn't have the proper cutting tools. But Reese warmed up to the goo and we made do with our exacto knife and a kitchen knife.Kyle is contemplating the cutting. Reese is coloring the patterns.

Reese scooping the goo with a spoon.

Hey, this is pretty fun!

The flash makes it hard to see---it's a ghost!

Seriously, have you EVER seen a cuter boy? I'm almost embarrassed to rub it in how cute our boy is!! Ha ha.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Gus is FOUR months old

Oops I meant to post this Monday. Gus turned 4 months old! He had a pediatrician appointment that day and got his shots--:( He wasn't too happy with that shocker, but he did dazzle everyone with his cute smile and shrieking laughter before the needles came out.

It is so shocking how quickly it has flown by. Those first few weeks thinking wow maybe it was a mistake to have more than one baby. Of course I spent most of every night sleeping sitting up with Gus on the boppy nursing on demand---which seemed constant and if I moved him he wailed. Now we have it pretty much under control. Sleeping through most nights sure helps. Gus and I are more coordinated at nursing now too. He's more sturdy, so it doesn't seem like Reese will break him just by looking at him!
He weighed in at 12 pounds 8 ounces. We think this is pretty chunky, though he is obviously not fat like some babies you see with visible rolls through their clothes. Turns out this is only 10th percentile for weight. At 2 months he was 25th percentile, so of course this sends a momentary jolt to a momma's gut. I was thinking she would say I have to wake him for a night feeding, or at leastscold me that I'm not feeding him enough. Instead the pediatrician said "LOOK how close together the 10th and 25th percentile curves are! I'm not worried at all!" The growth chart is actually not a measure of healthy weight and height, but a measure of all babies. So 90% of babies are bigger, not healthier. Though I'm a chunky momma now I weighed less than 100 pounds until I was 28 1/2 years old. I am just not going to have fat babies. All the clothes my mom kept from my brothers (early 90s) in size 2T are way too small for Reese, but in modern 2009 clothes he wears 2T with some room to grow. So as society as a whole gets bigger the chart moves and the clothes grow. SO the long and short of it is the pediatrician is happy with his size though I was surprised to discover our cow is in fact a peewee.He is 24 (and I think 1/4) inches. 50th percentile for height. So I guess he'll be like Reese in that we have to move up to the next size clothes because he's too tall for it without ever actually filling out the middle (though his tummy seems tubby.)He still doesn't have much hair as you can see.
Reese at this age also had not much hair. He was 9 pounds and 21 inches long. He had quadrupled his birth weight plus a smidge! (Gus is 10 ounces shy of doubling his birth wieght.) He grew 7 1/4 inches. I do not have photos from that far back stored on this computer, so this is the only 4 month shot of Reese I have...with a binky covering half of his face.
Don't you think he totally looks like Reese?

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from The Flourishing Mother 10/01/07
4 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 (15 ounce) can of pumpkin
1 1/2 cups canola oil
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tins or use paper liners.
2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, and mix in sugar, pumpkin, and oil.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Blend in the egg and pumpkin mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Transfer to the muffin pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove muffins from pans, and cool on a wire rack.

Reese LOVES to pour all the ingredients in and stir, but here he palmed a mouthful of chocolate chips and snuck them in.

I stole this trick from JessieLeigh at Parenting the Tiniest of Miracles. Put whatever you need to spray with cooking spray (I used Baker's Joy with flour mixed in) on the open door of your dishwasher. When you close it up and run the dishwasher all the overspray is washed away and none is on your work surface.

Gus watched us (except here he's watching Daddy) load the muffin tin with my muffin scoop thingy. Reese thought it was pretty fun.

Here he's saying/signing "more, more, more"

I told him no muffins unless I get a good smile.

We made some super yummy pumpkin muffins.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

So last week I didn't meal plan and you could really tell!!! This week we're getting back on track.
Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs with fancy garlic bread
Tuesday: Jambalaya (zatairan's with shrimp and turkey keilbasa)
Wednesday: Pork Chops, butternut squash, brussell sprouts
Thursday: pizza bagels
Friday & Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: teriyaki chicken, brown rice, peas

Last week the big hit was wild rice and sausage stuffed acorn squash from Cooking Light Superfast Suppers cookbook.

2 acorn squash, cook 4 minutes in microwave for easier cutting.
1/4 cup water
14 oz. low sodium chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6.2 oz long grain wild rice mix (i used uncle ben's)
2 teaspoons oil
14 oz sausage or bulk sausage style vegetable product
1 cup cubed golden delicious apple (i used jonagold)
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley chopped
1/2 cup shredded gruyere cheese

Cut squash in hlaf lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Cut side down in baking dish with 1/4 cup water, cover and vent, microwave 10-12 minutes.

combine broth, onion, pepper in saucepan bring to a boil,stir in rice and 1 1/2 tablespoon of included seasoning (throw the rest out). bring to a boil, cover, simmer until liquid is absorbed (according to your packaged rice directions).
heat oil in skillet over medium-high. cook sausage, add apple and garlic, cook 4 minutes. Stir in rice and parsley.

Spoon 1 1/4 cups rice mixture into squash, sprinkle with cheese.
YUM!

PUMPKIN PATCH

We stopped off at a pumpkin patch the other day. Reese was not really interested in picking a pumpkin. But we took a few photos.
He was pretty interested in the little gourds.
He presented quite an animated discussion about his gourd of choice, but we had no idea what he was saying.

Gus is 17 weeks

On Friday Gus was 17 weeks old. He is growing, growing, growing!
He has been working very diligently at trying to roll over.
So far no success at completing the task--that pesky elbow on the underside is in the way.He has discovered he likes food.This is after Daddy lick him lick a chocolate chip. He also likes gnawing on apple and red bell peppers. He was not a fan of crackers or pizza crust. SO I guess he's a produce and chocolate boy, not a carb-lover. (He didn't get any actual pieces free in his mouth, we just let him gnaw and get the flavor.)

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Friday, October 23, 2009

Battle Scars

On Sunday "we" pruned the pear tree and cleared out the garden. Reese got a big scratch from a twig or throwing rock hard green tomatoes.Candy Gram noticed Gus' sock fuzz but when we tried to pull it off we realized my hair was wrapped around 2 of his toes. I had to cut it off. It cut into 2 of his little toes.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Tunnel Mania

Costco had this cool playhouse, tent, tunnel combo that Daddy thought just could not wait for Christmas. Reese loves it. He goes wild, shrieking and laughing at top volume. He loves doing somersaults inside.


Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Preventing Swine/H1N1 Flu

Good tips to be had at one of the blogs I read: Amy's Finer Things. Check out some easy, sensible things to do to stay well during flu season.

Pumpkin Craft

Reese made a pumpkin! Now that we have it together with the new baby we are focusing on practicing skills with Reese. We worked on tearing the orange paper into small pieces--he has a hard time remembering to put his thumbs close together so he had difficulty getting small pieces.
He was quite enthralled with applying the glue. I couldn't convince him he needed use brute force to spread it around.

He wasn't overjoyed to have the glue stick to him instead of the paper when he tried spreading it with his finger.
It's quite intricate work you know.
The finished pumpkin---he was quite pleased with his work until the camera focused on him. He just refuses to smile!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Gus is 16 weeks

On Friday the 16th Gus was 16 weeks old. Wow--the time really flies.
He is trying out his skeleton jammies.
Reese & Gus waive "Hi"
He really likes sitting in the bumbo so he can see what his brother is up to.
He has very little shimmery blond hair you can see when he bends down a bit---very similar to Reese's 3 month old hair.
He has really discovered his hands.
He can yank all the toys on his bouncy seat to make them start the music. He is desperate to roll over but he can't quite figure out what to do with the elbow on the underside of the roll so he flops back. He laughs if Reese or Mommy look him in the eye. He laughs if Daddy boops his nose. He cries at everyone else. Sometimes he'll hold back and only poke out his pouty lip.