Walking with her Walker

I haven't been online for a long time. Our computer had a bunch of viruses. We still don't have it back.. the lady who is working on it found a lot more problems.. so we bought a little notebook for Christmas.
Here is a video of Evaleigh using her walker. She is already much better at it than in this video. She can turn corners and maneuver it around objects on the floor.
She will sometimes stand by herself but she is still too cautious to take a step without us helping her or using her walkers.

Almost Walking!

I helped her use her walker toy yesterday and Joel did today. Today he got brave enough to let go and let her walk by herself and she did great! Sometimes it goes too fast and she plops down and she can't turn corners yet, but she's almost walking by herself!

Evaleigh Reading

Evaleigh loves to read! She will sit and read for a long time. Here she is reading in her highchair while waiting for her food.



She has 4 teeth now! On Monday I saw one top tooth. Then a couple days later I saw the other top tooth. They grow more each day!

Evaleigh's Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Evaleigh turned one on September 4, and her party was on September 5. I wrote this post a while ago but it keep getting an error. Finally today I copied the whole thing into a word document and copied and pasted and it worked!

For Evaleigh's first birthday we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party!
We followed the book for the menu and decorated the room based on the book.
This was her invitation. I also ordered cupcake toppers from the same person.
Joel's mom helped me to decide on The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a theme and my friend Mary helped with most of the party ideas. I also looked here for inspiration (number 81 is The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme).

It was a lot of work and we didn't get everything done, but it still turned out great! I read the book when everyone was there because most of the food had to do with the book.

This was our menu (with quotes from the book):

In the light of the moon a

little egg lay on a leaf.

We had hard-cooked eggs on lettuce (didn't have time to make deviled eggs).

On Monday through Friday, he ate through one apple, two pears, three plums, four strawberries, and five oranges.But he was still hungry.

(We paraphrased these next few pages into one sentence since it was all one dish).
We had a fruit salad with apples, pears, plums, strawberries, and oranges for the part of the book where he ate through all the fruit.

The next part of the book says,

On Saturday, he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese,one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake,

and one slice of watermelon.

We had brownies for the chocolate cake, the ice cream was in the punch, we had a dish of pickles, there were cheese and salami rolls (we used provolone and american), the lollipops were on the tables, cherry tarts, tofurky (italian sausage flavor) with mozzarella balls and mushrooms, cupcakes were with the cake, and a plate of watermelon.

The next day was Sunday again.

The caterpillar ate through one nice

green leaf, and after that

he felt much better.

We had a big green salad with toppings (cranberries, croutons, walnuts, almonds) and dressings.

We also added mini burgers (we left the bean burgers on home by accident!), hummus with carrots, bell peppers, and chips, and salsa with chips.

The bulletin board pieces kept falling off the wall!

For her cake I used a recipe here and I bought the book! (I think it's my favorite baby and toddler cook book.) I thought the cake was pretty good! The icing was cream cheese, organic vanilla yogurt, and some natural raspberry jelly. I think Evaleigh liked the raspberries the best.

The cupcakes were used from a recipe called

Baby Turns 1 cake from a really awesome website! It uses brown sugar so it's a little sweeter.

We used a digital frame to show pictures from her first year.








This is where I got all the decorations:
-I already mentioned that I got the invitations and cupcake toppers from design dream. I also found really cute invitations on kodak but they were more expensive and took too long to get to me and I'd still have to mail them out. Maybe a good idea if I had more time and money.

-I bought a 2-inch scalloped cutter and a 1 1/2 inch circle cutter on amazon.

-I found great party favors and ideas at the Eric Carle Museum website, but shipping was so expensive! I ended up getting ideas and then buying everything somewhere else.

-I got an Eric Carle party kit on amazon. I got mine for really cheap by looking at the other sellers.

-I got the border and bulletin board set from Carson Dellosa. I also got some birthday stickers here.

- I bought bubbles at Walmart and glued the cupcake toppers on to match the theme. I also bought twisty straws.

-I reused baby food jars by hot gluing a ribbon around them and gluing on a circle from the cupcake toppers. Inside I put jellybeans and lollipops. I bought washable markers, crayons (big and regular), and colored pencils to put in cups on the tables.

-I printed a coloring page for people to color from the Eric Carle website. I found other activities by searching online but I didn't use them. This and this looked great but I didn't use them for the party.

-I bought fabric from Fat Quarter Shop. The link is for all Eric Carle fabrics.

-We got balloons at a local party shop. We had some made into a caterpillar and others made into butterflies.

She loved opening presents!

Swinging in the Park

She loves to swing at the park!

Birthday Toy from Nanna

I have so many cute videos to upload.. I am way behind and she is growing so fast and doing new things all the time! Here is a video if her playing with her new birthday toy from Nanna. Joel said she played with it a lot today. And she's actually playing with it right now as I type. There is so much to do on it.



I have videos of her playing her drum and xylophone, swinging in the park swing and laughing, turning a light switch on and off, pulling books off a shelf, and more.. I hope to upload them soon!

Playing With a New Toy

I have a long post all about her birthday party but I can't get it to post! It keeps giving me an error. So in the mean time here is a video!

Playing

Evaleigh Crawling

I am finally posting another video! I have a bunch of videos from the summer but just haven't posted them. This one is pretty up-to-date. I took it this morning. But while I was uploading my pictures she crawled again even better! And of course I didn't have my camera ready...

She started getting her first tooth yesterday! I thought I saw a little white dot on her bottom gums, and when I put my finger in her mouth I felt a little hard point!

She is (finger) feeding herself really well now. She likes to eat bananas and puffs. Last night I gave her some small cooked pieces of green beans, potatoes, carrots, and peas. She made a face but kept eating them anyway. It was too much fun for her not to!

I go back to school on Thursday. It's been a fun, eventful, relaxing summer. Can't believe it's over! I didn't do half the projects I wanted to... but I always plan too much. We made a trip to Mexico which was great- Evaleigh's first trip out of the country and first trip to a beach and pool!

I have been working on the embroidery class I am taking. I almost finished one of the dolls I have in my last post. I got another pattern for crochet but I don't think I even picked up a crochet hook all summer... We've been trying a lot of new recipes and eating healthier. I got this book from the library: Eat to Live, and we are going to try his meal plan. It's a really good book so far! But it's going to be harder to cook once school starts.. I know why so many people settle for fast processed food even though it's unhealthy.

Well, now it's time for her nap!

Summer projects!

I have a long list of projects I've started and never finished that I plan to work on this summer, but I am also starting some new ones...
I am going to sew some dolls for Evaleigh from Wee Wonderfuls:

I plan on buying some cute fabric and trim from Super Buzzy!

I also signed up for an online class about embroidery! Wild Olive's blog is where I found it.

Evaleigh Reading

Here is Evaleigh reading a book. When we read to her, she turns every page, when we start it for her. She loves books!

Happy 9 months old Evaleigh!

Can't believe she's already 9 months old!! But she's not crawling yet and still has no teeth... soon enough...!
Here's a video from a few days ago.

Dadadada

Here's a video of her babbling "dadada".

Talking and Sitting

She can sit up on her own pretty well now! She also says more things such as "ning ning ning" like her cousin Tamsin!

Mouthy

Evaleigh makes funny sounds with her mouth....!

Toxin-Free Home

The Rookie Moms website has a great list of information for toxin-free homes.
http://www.rookiemoms.com/cheat-sheet-of-non-toxic-tips-and-eco-wisdom/

Here is the video from the Healthy Child Healthy World website:




Dr. Green is the author of a very interesting nutrition book I am reading right now, and he is part of that website! Here's the book on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Feeding-Baby-Green-Nutrition-Pregnancy/dp/0470425245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269899387&sr=8-1

Talking!

I just took this video of her talking! It's so cute! She wasn't doing this even a week ago!

Evaleigh in March

It's been a while since I posted and Evaleigh has grown! We've been feeding her solids about once every day ever since she turned 6 months old. So far she's had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, plums, butternut squash, and a taste of green peas. She seems to like whatever we give her.
She also just starting talking more. She has been making sounds for a while and screeching, but just last Friday she all of a sudden starting making consonant sounds. She is saying, "mamama"! And b, n, g, and sometimes d sounds, but no dada yet...
She is also now in size 6-9 months. It's good it's getting warmer because most of her clothes in that size are summery.
She still isn't really rolling over yet! She scoots around a little and rolls to the side but her arm is always in the way for her to roll without help. Although today I had her on her tummy, and I went and did something and when I came back she was on her back! I asked Joel if he turned her over but he didn't! So I guess she rolled over, but then she didn't do it again! But she does a lot better on her tummy and doesn't cry as much. And she can push herself up a lot better too. Whoa! Just as I finished typing that I watched her slowly roll over on her own!! She was reaching for a toy and then rolled to her back! Yea! And she just did it again! I got it on camera the second time to show Joel (he's at work right now).
She's reaching for everything now. She crinkles the pages of my magazine when I'm reading with her. She touches the pages of books when we read to her. When we say "mamama" to her she watches and listens and moves her mouth like she's trying to say it too!
She also reaches for her toes. Today she pulled off her sock and pulled on her leg warmer.
She almost sits by herself. She holds herself up pretty well, but needs something to help keep her balanced.
She doesn't have any teeth yet. She still sucks her thumb all the time, especially when she's sleepy or hungry.

Here's a video from earlier this month. Either she's supposed to be asleep or she just woke up, I can't remember, but she is playing with her toys with her feet! Cute!

Laughing Evaleigh

I have bad aim in this video but the sound is more important. I was holding Evaleigh and bouncing and holding the camera out to the side. She loves it when we bounce and sing! You can hear us (mostly Joel) singing and Evaleigh laughing. So cute!

naptime..?

I came home early today because of snow. Evaleigh usually takes her nap right about then, but didn't. After a while I fed her and she started to fall asleep so I put her in her pack 'n play... this video was taken shortly after...

Homemade Baby Food

I had a few sweet potatoes that I got on sale for a little while that I wanted to make into baby food. She'll be eating solids in about a month so instead of letting them go bad I thought I'd try my hand at making baby food. It was so much fun I can't wait to do it again!

First I washed and peeled the sweet potatoes (I read it's best to steam them and then peel them to get the most nutrients, but my recipe said to peel first).



Then I sliced them up and put them in the steamer basket. I put a little over a cup of water into the pot, boiled it, then simmered with the lid on.



I kept checking to make sure there was water in the pot and kept sticking a fork in the potatoes to see when they were soft.



When they were mushy I put hem in the blender with the water from the pot (full of nutrients!) and blended and pureed until all the lumps were gone. I had to add a little more water a few times.



Then I filled the trays. It had a wonderful texture!



Three sweet potatoes filled 4 trays!


Then I put the trays in the freezer overnight.




The next morning I had 48 cubes of sweet potato baby food!



I put them in a bag with a sweet potato label and the date, ready to be thawed and served! The bigger cubes are about an ounce of food.

I can't wait to make more flavors with all kinds of fruits and veggies! But I better wait, she doesn't even eat solids yet...

Voice Lessons

Here is Evaleigh practicing opera singing.

Toys

Look at how she carefully studies her toys and when she reaches for them she gets them! Her coordination is really improving!

January 2010

Thought I'd post a bunch of pictures to show what's been happening lately...

I ordered some things onnline, mostly at www.babyhalf.com: eco nuts natural laundry soap, a wet bag (we have a yellow one too) for the cloth diaper pail, two pairs of legwarmers, and the sweater is from Evaleigh's Nana.


This is Evaleigh's new keekaroo highchair put together. We also got a red infant seat for it. We got a great deal on amazon- $150 for the highchair and tray, which they no longer offer...



These alphabet wall art cards are for her room, but we still didn't hang them up...


Here is a signing kit. It was a great deal on amazon! It has a book, flashcards, a cd, and a signing songbook to go with the cd.


I started her green bean suit last summer before she was born, and haven't worked on it much since she was born. I realized she will outgrow it if I don't hurry! She even likes it! So I am going to work hard on finishing it soon!


I've also been cooking quite a bit in January. I didn't remember to take any pictures but I made these muffins filled with jam twice this month. They just went too fast to take a picture!



I found a neat recipe in one of my cookbooks for a winter stew in the crockpot. In the picture you can see leeks and parsnips- two vegetables I never bought before. It was fun learning something new!Here is the stew before I cooked it. I forgot to take a picture afterward but it looked like stew! It was yummy too!


I made homemade caramel corn.


I made homemade macaroni and cheese. This is before I cooked it.


I tried 3 times to make bread in the bread maker and it finally worked the third time! Which is good because I would have given up by then. The first time I didn't bring the yeast to room temperature first and the bread was all clumpy and weird. The second time I followed a bread maker recipe I found online that said to dissolve the yeast in warm water and add honey and let it sit for 10 minutes before adding it to the machine. Well, my breadmaker says to add yeast last on top of the flour, but it always mixes it right away so I thought I'd try it. Didn't work. Half the flour didn't even mix in. I finally followed a recipe from the bread maker book exactly and with room temperature yeast and it turned out yummy!

I also finally made potato-spinach gnocchi. It was on my list of things to make for a looong time.
First I cooked and mashed some potatoes, then added flour, spinach, and some other things to make a dough.


Then I rolled the dough into long ropes and cut little dumplings. I had to put them in boiling water for a few minutes.



It made pretty much! We ate some with a tomato sauce and put the rest in the freezer for later.


I have some more videos of Evaleigh talking and squealing and laughing and playing, but this post it long enough, Maybe tomorrow!

rattles and Eustace

She likes to have a toy in each hand now. Eustace was curious and came to watch. She blinks every time she bangs the rattle on the tray and makes a loud noise!

Photo Shoot

I have some cute hand-me-downs from my husband's sister. One outfit that my be my favorite is her size now but kinda summery... I don't think she'll still fit in it when it gets warmer so I dressed her in it and took some pictures today. Evaleigh is very photogenic!

Look at her toes!