Ringing in the New Year

What an amazing year 2013 has been! 

I have accomplished a lot for myself and for my family and I feel like have I been blessed with so much and have a lot to be grateful for. 

I love my beautiful family! I have an amazing husband who loves me a heckuva lot and even though I have some crazy ideas, I know deep down he supports me :) Our beautiful daughter recently had her first birthday and is now walking around whenever she can. She has 10 teeth and is such a ham! I am so proud of her and every little accomplishment she makes I just want to hug and squeeze her. I love that little girl! 

This year, we also announced that we are expecting baby #2 in May 2014!

We have been blessed with a beautiful home that I'm really excited to watch the kiddies grow in. I'm looking forward to spending times in the backyard in the summer and enjoying the neighbourhood together :)

We also purchased a van this past summer! Paid in full, and ready to go! We are definitely excited for some grand family adventures... We already took it on our first road trip with Ella to Canmore and Drumheller with Gramma and Grampa Boisvert and our cousins. The van proved itself worthy! hehe

Earlier this year, we've started cloth diapering (which I must admit I haven't done it 100%) but it really is quite fun. :) I also learned how to knit! Something I've always wanted to learn! 

I also had the opportunity to go to Maui with my dear husband this year. (His first time to the ocean!!) it was amazing and beautiful and we enjoyed every second of it!

All in all, it was a great year and I'm looking forward to 2014!

Of course, I'm not perfect and I definitely have areas I need to improve in so.....

2014 Goals: (well some of them!)

1) Be more strict with myself about budgeting and financial stuff.

2) Keep the house clean, tidy and organized (ALL THE TIME).

3) Be greener in household cleaning. 

4) Stay focused on the important things and be more appreciative of what I already have.

I just love my family!

LDS Homeschool Curriculum

I know Ella is a few years away from going to school but I found something that got me a little excited!

Justin and I have talked about it and we are leaning towards homeschooling our family. We want our children to be educated, but we also want them to be able to learn their own ways, not out of strict "cookie cutter" teaching. We also want to be able to teach them gospel principles through their academics. And of course, we want to have fun along the way!

I came across "Latter-day Learning: The Family School." It was formed 43 years ago to accommodate the needs of homeschooling LDS families (Like me!)

I was looking through some samples and the overall layout of the lessons are superb. The structure of each subject embeds fundamental truths about the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a recommended schedule that can be followed, but of course the schedule can be altered if needs be.

Anyway, it's just something for us to think about and I had to write it down before I forgot. :)

Link: www.latterdaylearning.org

Baby-Led Weaning

There is definitely not only way to raise and nurture a baby and I'm finding that if I keep an open mind to new ideas, it's a lot easier to help Ella grow.

At first, the introduction of solids was very smooth. But then, all of a sudden, meal time became a struggle. Ella would find no interest in her food and it became very frustrating for me. I decided to persevere through another week or so but still no improvement. And then, as her six month mark was approaching, it was brought to my attention that I needed to find a way to give her iron somehow (more frustration- since fortified rice cereal is not really an option for me) 

But after asking around, I found lots of answers but something else was brought to my attention- a term that I had never heard before, it's called Baby-Led Weaning. 

I wanted to learn more about this term so I researched a bit and I found that baby-led weaning is basically a way to introduce solids by skipping the purée step. Instead, you give your baby foods that she can pick up, hold and chew herself. 

It used to be advised to start solids at around 3-4 months but that changed a while ago to 6 months. But a baby changes a lot (developmentally) between 4 and 6 months so when they changed the age, the developmental stage wasn't taken into consideration. At 3-4 months, babies haven't developed the ability to chew and then swallow which is why its best to introduce pureed foods at this age. By the time the baby is six months she has developed better hand-eye coordination as well as the chew ability so she is able to pick up food and put it in her mouth and actually chew it. So you give the baby chunks of food about the size and shape of french fries. Of course, you have to use common sense so baby doesn't choke or something. For the hard vegetables, like carrots, I steam them until they're really soft.

Here's some links for more info:

http://www.babyledweaning.com/

http://www.babycenter.ca/a1007100/baby-led-weaning

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/blw/engels.html
http://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blwleaflet.pdf

So I actually tried this idea with Ella last week and I'm pleased to say it was pretty successful and a lot of fun! We got to actually eat meals together. There was no frustration and no crying. Ella seemed to really enjoy playing and exploring with her food. It was quite interesting to watch. It also sorta solved my iron problem because in the morning I give her some balls of my scrambled eggs :) So far we've tried scrambled eggs, bananas, pears, carrots, avocado, sweet potato and zucchini- all very successful!

I still think I'm going to feed her some mushy stuff. In fact, I gave her some sweet potato and apple sauce today and she ate it all which she has never done before! So I'm not sure if this baby led weaning helped that out but I'm just glad that something is working!

First "real" solids- scrambled eggs and bananas

SQUISH!

Happy Half-A-Year!

Six months have gone by,

My dear Ella Mae,

Six months you have grown,

You get bigger each day.

You are the quite character

With your smiles and your giggling,

You love to explore the world,

Crawling, rolling and wiggling!

You love to be outside,

In the warm sunshine.

You also love the water,

Splashing all the time.

You're quite a happy baby,

'specially when you eat food.

'Nanas, pears and scrambled eggs

Are mmm, mmm oh so good!

Everybody that we know,

Has so much love to give you,

You are so cute and cuddly,

They want to hug and kiss you!

Your cousins just adore you,

"Baby Ella!" they shout with grins,

And who could resist a hug,

From Lincoln, Hugo or Eden?

But my favourite part of all,

When is the day is done,

The front door opens, your face lights up,

For Daddy has come home!

Love you lots!
~Momma

<3

Uh oh!…

... I found new diapers that I LOVE! They are hybrid diapers, sort of like my Flip ones but are even better... :S This is definitely not good for my pocket book... Lol

I have been having leakage problems with my Flips so while researching how to fix this problem (which I sorta did) I discovered a new brand that makes a lot more sense to me... I am not sure why I did not get these before...

They are called GroVias and here is a small review.... (GroVias on the left, Flips on the right)

The Shells:
Compared to the Flip, the GroVia shells are skinnier and also have a layer of mesh while the Flips just have the waterproof PUL exposed. Also the snap system on the G's work side by side, while the snaps on the F's are stacked. When they are side by side, I find the closure is a lot more secure.

The Inserts:
For each brand of diapers, there are different options for the inserts. For the Flip diapers you can get a cotton/Polyester blend, organic cotton, as well as disposables (I think the disposables are silly...) The organic cotton is of course more expensive. For the GroVia diapers, there's hemp/cotton blend, organic cotton and disposables too. I liked how there was a choice between natural fibres and they were the same price.

The G inserts (soaker pads) have a more contoured shape that fits nicely to the baby. Also, they have a few more layers to increase absorbency. There's elastic gussets on the legs that prevent leakage. Theres also a water resistant layer on the back. The F inserts are very plain. They are thin, flat, wide are there isn't any water resistant layer. What I like about the G's is that they snap onto the shell whereas the F's just tuck into the shell... The GroVias pads are definitely more stable in there.

Who needs Starbucks?

As the beautiful summer weather is approaching, my cravings for cool refreshments are too! One of my favourites is Starbucks' double chocolate chip frapuccino.... However, they can be pretty expensive and they are super easy to make at home anyway!

1 cup crushed ice
1 cup of milk (I use coconut milk...mmm so good)
Handful of chocolate chips
2-3 tbsp of sugar
2-3 tbsp of chocolate syrup
Whipping cream, to top it off (optional)

Blend everything in the blender, top with whipping cream and drizzle some extra syrup and voila!

My personalized high chair

We found the perfect highchair at IKEA the other day. It suits my needs quite well: It's small, easy to clean, and for $25 I couldn't pass it up. It's not fancy by any means but that's okay. I think I am going to enjoy it very much.

The only thing I found wrong with it is that there wasn't a cushion or support that came with it and right now Ella is still a bit floppy. So I found the BARNSLIG support cushion at IKEA which fits nicely in the chair but the material it's made up is definitely not designed for sloppy, messy baby food. And although its machine washable, I'd have to wash it everyday which didn't really appeal to me...

So I decided to make a waterproof cover for it... I made the cover so that it can come on/off in case it gets really dirty. I used snaps, but you could probably use Velcro or even string to be easier.

It would be ideal to use laminated cotton for this project, but they didn't have any at Fabricland, so I found some PUL fabric. It's a polyester/polyurethane laminate that's waterproof, breathable and machine washable. It's actually the material that's used for most cloth diapers. I wasn't sure if it stains easily or not so I got one with a crazy print on it just in case. :)

I also got some ribbon to make loops for the high chair straps to go through.

It was a pretty easy fabric to work with. It's a bit slippery but you can pin it like normal cotton. I didn't really have a pattern- I just worked it from my head- but I think it turned out pretty good!

Total High Chair Cost: About $45

PUL fabric and some matching ribbon

The original BARNSLIG support cushion

The front of the finished covering

The back of the finished covering (snaps and all)

Ribbon turned into strap loops

How it all works together