Weekend Fun in Pittsburgh

Two weeks ago we went home to Pittsburgh and we always try to pack in as much as we can while we're there.  Brady as always was excited to see his Nana and Dubby at the end of the long drive.  They always make sure to have fun things and treats for him.  My dad picked him up a pair of wax lips and Brady thought they were pretty cool.

Saturday, we went to the Pitt game where they played Virgina.  They won and it was cool because they had just launched a giant rubber ducky into the rivers the night before and you could see it from the stadium.

My brother, Alex, and his girlfriend, Lauren, had also gone to the game and we all had plans to head to the Hofbrauhaus afterwards for dinner because it was Oktoberfest.  Andy, Brady, and I have been in Munich and seen the original Hofbrauhaus, so we were excited at the prospect of getting some authentic German food.

Time for beer!

Can you see the size difference between my dad's and Alex's beers?  Dad got the small and the waitress teased him that it was the kiddie size.

We ordered a round of pretzels hoping they'd be like the ones in Germany.  They weren't even close to the ones Andy makes, so it was a bit of a disappointment.

Seven Months Old - Izzie B

I remember when Brady was little, I couldn't wait for him to reach another month older.  With Izzie, they're coming so quickly that I'm getting whiplash!  I almost forgot to do her monthly owl sticker pic yesterday because I didn't even realize it was the 2nd and she was already a whole month older.  It's been a pretty tame month, but of course, Izzie is still growing and changing every single day!

It's been a pretty mild start to fall (with some days in the 80s and even 90s), but there have been a few days that fell into the 60s and we had to break out some warmer weather clothes.

The best part of any day is seeing her smile at me, simply because I'm her mommy and she knows nothing but love for me.

This past month she started eating solids.  It took a few weeks for her to get used to it, but she's now a very good eater.  She's currently having almost four tablespoons of rice cereal mixed with formula every morning and evening (she started with one tablespoon and wouldn't quite eat it all).

Mid-month, she started veggies in between her two cereal feedings.  So far she's had carrots, peas, green beans, and squash.  She gobbles these up as well.  She used to eat one cube (from the ice cube tray) and now eats two!

Now that we have the high chair upstairs, it's much easier to keep her contained when we need to.  If we need to eat or cook, she will sit in the chair with toys.  She also eats puffs so that keeps her content most times.

 Brady started school and that means that twice a week we have to get up at 7AM.  I'm not a morning person (Brady certainly is) and neither is Izzie apparently.  I fed her one morning and she fell asleep.  I was able to carry her downstairs full asleep and place her on the family room floor.  This has happened more than once.

Uncle Buks loves Tim Horton's and sent Izzie a teddy bear with a shirt that says I love Timbits.

 One of her favorite toys is the Thumper that Brady got for Easter.  It has a foot that thumps and she thinks that's hilarious.

She's been on the move for over a month now and is starting to pull up on things.  She's not quite got up to the coffee table, but if you sit on the ground, she'll pull up on your legs.

There are the occasional wipeouts still.

You can see her up on all fours in this pic.  She still doesn't crawl with her belly off the ground, but I bet by the end of the next month she will.  She's fully capable of getting from this position to sitting, though.

You'd think Brady gave her all of his old tips and tricks.  He used to crawl under there when he was a baby.

She got herself in by herself and out by herself.

She's smart and sneaky.  She loves to escape the carpeted family room onto the hardwood in the kitchen.  Andy put the carseat between the end table and the couch so she couldn't get out.  She went under the table and around.

There are two entries into the family room and one is too large to block off.  Andy piled up pillows to keep her in, but she crawled right over them.  If you catch her going for an exit, she squeals and goes faster.

 Brady is usually pretty good about playing with her.  One day I told him to give her some toys and he surrounded her with every toy she has.  She was not pleased at being boxed in.

Andy always says that the gender of the first child sets the tone.  You can see Izzie among the millions of cars in our house.  I guess if we'd had a girl first, we'd have dolls and princesses everywhere.

The kids hanging out with Andy in Brady's bed on a lazy Sunday morning.

 More cute owl clothes.  I can't help myself.

In August, I decided to start a small hobby business, named Izzie B Boutique (link on the right side of the blog).  I was seeing how I could easily spend a small fortune on accessories for Izzie and decided it would be easier to make them myself and sell a few to help pay for the hobby.  So far it's starting small, but doing well.  Above she is wearing one of the ones I made that matches several of her outfits.

Remember how she hated the swing, which was such a stark contrast to Brady as a baby?  Well, most days she wakes up from her mid-day nap way too earlier and is so tired and cranky still.  I plop her into the swing with music and she passes right back out.  Yesterday she fell asleep leaning forward which so reminded me of finding Brady like that many days when he was little.

 She's got a bit of a cold, but Brady was very helpful at getting her to smile for her owl sticker pics.

 No weight check this month, but she's seeming to slim out a bit with the constant motoring around and eating solids.  We moved her back into size 2 diapers to help prevent the almost daily blowouts in the size 3's and that seems to do the trick.  She has moved into most of her 6-9 and 6-12 month clothes, ready for fall and winter.

Deciding mid-photo shoot to browse the movie collection.

The comparison from months one to seven! 

Adventures in Making Baby Food

Izzie has spent the first two weeks on solids, eating rice cereal twice a day.  After two weeks of that, it was time to move onto veggies in the middle of the day between the two feedings of rice cereal.  With Brady, we bought all organic baby food jars and boy was it expensive.  He would go through 3 jars per day, so over the course of a month, it could cost $90 or more!  While I was pregnant, we were walking in a grocery store and Andy saw the jarred food and mentioned that he had heard of a lot of people making their own baby food.  He suggested we try it.  Since he does all of the cooking in our house, I told him I didn't suggest it because I didn't want him to have to do more work.  He said, you do it on the weekends and then you've got week's of food.  That was before she was born, and now here we are, time for her to start eating food.

The first batch was carrots and peas.  We had gotten a steamer at my bridal shower and had never taken it out of the box.  I can now say we've used it since for our veggies to accompany dinner.  Andy steamed the veggies, then threw them into the mini food processor.  He then placed them into ice cube trays (seen in the picture at the top of the post) and we let them set in the freezer before popping them out.  We've lost one of them because we let them set too long and when we twisted it, it broke in half.

 A week after Andy made the first batch, it was time for Izzie to eat her first veggies.  We started with the carrots.  She made a face when she got a taste of a new texture, but soon she was gobbling it up.

Andy's next batch was squash, green beans, plums, and bananas.  He boiled the plums for a few minutes to cook them.

He placed the plums in an ice bath after boiling them to loosen the skins.

Food processor time.

Of the four veggies, Izzie has tried so far, she only has balked at the green beans.  She still ate about half the bowl though.  Other veggies we plan to make for her in the future include broccoli, sweet potatoes, and avocados.  She has one more week and then she'll start having fruit in her morning cereal and with lunch.  The reasoning for her eating veggies for two week before starting fruit is because veggies aren't as sweet.  If they have sweet fruits first, they might not want to eat the veggies. We took this same approach with Brady and he still loves veggies to this day.