Gaby's 7 months old!

Back with her 7 month letter, but in the midst of summer, play dates, and work outs, THIS happened:











7 months old! Crazy to me how quickly this snuck up on me!  And here's a few more:




And the comparison shot between Santi at 7 months and Gaby at 7 months old:


 I can't get over how similar they look...same eye shape, same smiles, same cheeks, same noses. She's just the lighter version of him!
 

Pinterest Challenge revisited

So I'm revisiting my Pinterest Challenge. Things got off track when, well, you know, life happened. When you have two small children under the age of three, things sound great when you plan them out, but the reality is that there are some days you're so tired, it's all you can do to make it through the day. Or the last thing on your mind is making a craft from Pinterest.

I've taken a hiatus from my personal Pinterest Challenge, but wanted to get it back up again. Summer is just about over, fall and winter crafting is gearing up, and that also means that there are more inside days, and less time to soak up the sun. Meaning it'll be a little easier to get some things done, right? Also, my kids are older now, Gaby is sleeping through the night (mostly) and I'm not a zombie all the time.

So this month I tackled something simple. I'd seen this bow holder tutorial awhile back, and since I have what seems like a million clips and bows (along with what I've made myself...go on, check out the link at the top of the page for the gaby&kate Etsy store!) I needed something better to organize them other than the basket and little bag I'd been using. I liked the look of the one in the tutorial where it had space for the bows and hooks for the headbands, but I felt there were too many hooks for my taste and needs, so I decided to use larger hooks so I could use less of them.

I had an old frame from some multi photo frames I'd had in college. They were brown and I only have black frames up in our house, so I'd intended on painting them to put in the hallway, but decided to use one for this project.

So there was the first piece...the frame = FREE! Loving it already. Additionally, I had some white paint left over from doing touch ups on some areas in the house when we'd moved in, and since all of the frames in Gaby's room are white to match with her furniture, I knew that was the color I wanted this bow holder to be since it would be hanging on the wall with the photo frames in her room. Second piece...paint = FREE!

So for this project you will need a few things:

1. Frame (you can use one you already have, buy one from a place like Target, or get it from a thrift store. You're going to sand it and paint it the color of your choosing, so the color it is in the store doesn't matter, unless you happen to find one that is already painted in the color you want.)

2. Paint (wall paint works, but craft paint is good as well.)

3. Sand paper to sand down the frame if it's not the color you want it.

4. Hooks - you can purchase a box of them at Lowe's or Home Depot or Target for relatively cheap. I had some that I'd bought to hang some mobiles in the kids rooms, but I think a box of 20 cost me about $2.50.

5. Ribbon - grosgrain works best, and I found that at least an inch was good for me, but you could also do a thinner width to have more ribbons on the frame.

6. Small finishing nails to tack the ribbon on with.


So here's where I started - I had my frame in this lovely (er, gross) brown color. I sanded it to smooth out a few rough spots, and to help the paint adhere better.

 I chose three hooks and screwed them into the bottom of the frame, evenly spaced. Then I got to painting. I had to paint about three coats so that the brown was no longer visible through the white paint.

 Here's a side view of the hooks on the frame. Pretty simple, but be careful not to screw them in too close to the edges of the frame as it could result in cracking the frame.

 Once my paint was dry, I took ribbon (I used a 1" pink grosgrain) and nailed it into the back of the frame at the top and bottom while pulling it taut. Make sure you use shorter finishing nails so they don't poke through the frame in the front. Once I had attached the ribbon, I hung it on the wall in Gaby's room and added all of her clips/bows and headbands to it. I never thought I had as many as I did until I put them all on here. And I've got a few more that I couldn't fit.

So there you have it, the simple, finished product. It hangs on a small wall right next to her closet so I can just pick out her hair accessory when I've chosen her outfit for the day.

Baby earrings

So we decided to get Gaby's ears pierced this weekend. I didn't get mine done until I was 11 years old, but I thought about it and realized I'd wanted them earlier. I also remember being in middle school and being jealous of classmates who'd had their ears pierced as babies. I was such a girly girl from a very young age, perhaps because I had two brothers. Don't get me wrong, I would play with them outside, in the dirt, and play sports with them, but I also really loved dolls, and reading fashion magazines and things like Teen, Seventeen, etc. from when I was really young. But I didn't get makeup until my 13th birthday, and then it was things like clear mascara (who even knew they made that?), clear nail polish, etc.

I really just wanted to be able to use a curling iron, hairspray and makeup early on, but wasn't able to  because my parents wouldn't let me. With Gaby, I'm not about to push her into these things (there will be no baby beauty pageants in our future!), but I'm going to let her get pedicures as a treat with me when she's younger, or manicures, or wear makeup (within reason) if she wants to when she's in middle school. And now she has her ears pierced, so she can wear earrings, and we'll buy her jewelry on our trips to Peru and for birthdays and holidays.

Here's our little peanut with her new bling:












 

And one more of her in my favorite dress which I call her cupcake dress. 

Gaby's 6 month letter

7/28/12

Dear Gabriela:

It’s hard for us to believe, but you are now 6 months old! We have NO idea where the past 6 months went, but we know you’re changing and growing SO fast!

You’re really becoming such a little person, with definite likes and dislikes. When you’re happy, you give us this big goofy smile, and we can’t help but smile back at you. You are loving solid food even more, and have tried mango, banana, blueberries, pear, applesauce, chicken, carrots, peas and corn. We’ve also given you MumMums, which you love as well, although you haven’t grasped the concept of you holding it to eat it, but you love chewing on them when we hold it for you!

You’re more aware of your brother and his toys, and you will try to pick up his cars and other things. He’s not really a fan of sharing, but he’s getting used to it. You’re really good at sitting up and very solid. When we put you on your tummy, you now try to crawl rather than roll over.

You’ve graduated completely from the sleeping wedge, and slept for a little while in a sleep positioner in the crib, with a swaddle. But the pediatrician suggested we remove the positioner and swaddle, so we moved you into a sleep sack and gave you your taggie blanket as your soother and you’ve been able to fall asleep when we put you down awake very quickly.

Here are some more things that you’re doing:

• Playing with your ABC cow and your baby doll regularly
• Snuggling with your taggie blanket to go to sleep and comfort you when you’re out
• Eating solid foods for 2-3 meals a day and breastfeeding about 4-5 times a day
• Wearing some 3 month size clothes, as well as 3-6 and some 6 month sizes
• Wearing size 1-2 diapers and your largest cloth diapers
• Waking only once, maybe twice a night
• Taking one long nap (2-4:30pm) each day, and if we’re home you’ll nap for about 2 hours in the morning, but if we’re out you’ll nap for about 30 minutes in your car seat

We’re amazed at how quickly you’ve grown, but we’re excited at all of your changes. Before we know it you’ll be crawling and then walking! You’re getting ready to take your first (and second!) plane ride as well as your first international trip. We can’t wait to see what those trips bring!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

 

 

 

 

 

Gaby's 5 month letter

A little late, but here is Gaby's 5 month letter!

6/28/12

Dear Gabriela:

You are now 5 months old!! You are constantly changing and doing new things! You started solid foods and love them, although definitely have your preferences! You also decided that you didn’t want to roll from your tummy to your back but that you would skip that skill altogether and you would sit up instead. So a week before your 6 month birthday, you sat on your own for the first time and have gotten better and better at it each day.

You’re still refusing the bottle and the pacifier, so we’ve basically given up trying to give them to you. You are now sitting in the stroller without the car seat adapter.

Here are some more things that you’re doing:

• Sucking your thumb and fingers constantly – teething, although no teeth are coming in yet!
• Blowing raspberries when you’re happy and also when you’re mad.
• “Singing” when you hear music
• Wearing some 3 month size clothes, as well as 3-6 and some 6 month sizes although those are really big on you!
• Wearing size 1-2 diapers and your largest cloth diapers
• Waking only once, maybe twice a night

You smile whenever you see us, and really light up when Santi is around. You will smile and coo at him. We love spending our days finding out who you’re becoming, and can’t wait for each month to see how much you’ve changed!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

 

Happy 4th of July baby!

 

New high chair!

With her big brother, wondering what he's doing

 

Napping but she worked so hard to get that hand up there and then fell asleep!

 

What's Gaby eating?

We recently started Gaby on solid foods! She's on purees, just like Santi was, and she LOVES it all, but definitely has  her favorites! Since I did a post on what Santi was eating, I thought I would share what Gaby has as favorites too!

So far, she's tried: blueberries, mango, pears, applesauce, bananas, peas, carrots, yogurt, corn, and chicken. We also mix them together and she loves blueberry pear, mango banana, and blueberry banana as well as what we call "peacorn"...which is just peas and corn mixed together.

We have an electric food mill from Kidco that we received as a gift from my cousin and aunt when we had Santi which is great.



Easy to use, and easy to clean (very important with young kiddos around!) It's dishwasher safe and makes for a quick clean up.

We also have OXO Tot food containers to store the purees in and the Fresh Baby ice cube trays with lids (we use the Fresh Baby trays to freeze the cubes for later use.)

  
 


Here are some of Gaby's favorites:


Blueberry/Pear Puree


Ingredients:
1 cup of blueberries (I use fresh right now since it's berry season, but you can use frozen as well)
1 pear peeled and sliced into cubes


Directions:
Place blueberries in a saucepan and heat on low until berries start opening and releasing juice. Add to food mill along with pear cubes. Blend on high for 1-2 minutes until desired consistency. Place in individual containers or ice cube trays to store.



Banana/Mango Puree

Ingredients:
1-2 whole bananas, broken into pieces
1 mango, peeled and sliced into cubes

Place mango pieces and banana pieces into food mill and blend on high for 1-2 minutes until desired consistency. You may add 1 tbsp. water or so if desired. Place in individual containers or ice cube trays to store.


PeaCorn

Ingredients:
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
2-3 tbsp. water

Directions:
Place corn and peas in saucepan and add 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5-6 minutes. Strain peas and corn and place into food mill with 2-3 tbsp. of water. Blend on high for 1-2 minutes until desired consistency. Place in individual containers or ice cube trays to store.

What's Santi eating?

So I've had some success with a few recipes that Santi really loves. For anyone who has a toddler, when you find things like this, you make them as much as possible! So I thought I'd share here on a few that are his favorites!

Banana Bread/Muffins


Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 overripe bananas

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan (or muffin tins if you are making muffins).

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add butter (room temp or I pop it into the microwave for about 15 seconds to soften it up) and brown sugar and mix well. Add eggs and bananas (mash them up a bit if they need it) and mix until well blended and the ingredients are nice and wet. Pour batter into loaf pan or muffin tins (this makes 24 mini muffins and 6 large muffins if you want to mix or 16-18 large muffins.)

3. For bread loaf: Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

For muffins: Bake in preheated oven for 20-23 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and then place on wire rack to completely cool.

_________________________________________________________________

Spinach Meatballs

Serves: 6   Serving Size: 4 meatballs

Ingredients:

½ cup egg substitute or 2 egg whites

¼ cup Parmesan cheese

½ cup whole grain bread crumbs

¼ tsp. garlic powder

¼ tsp. ground black pepper

1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

1 lb. lean ground turkey

Directions: In large bowl, combine all of the above ingredients until well blended. Shape into 1 ½” meatballs. Spray nonstick pan with cooking spray. Brown meatballs on medium high heat. Keep moving meatballs so they are brown on all sides. Cook on low for about 15 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with 1 cup of whole wheat pasta and sauce if desired.

Product Raves!

So I have been doing some research lately on parabens and what they do to your body and your skin, which is your body's largest organ. As a result, I've been really careful about what I put on my skin lately. I didn't want to throw away some of the things I had that were partially used, so I decided to finish them up and replace them with some paraben free products.

In WA state, we have a great store called Bartell's where you can get the normal drug store things but also a lot of organic, natural skin products. I was in the other week getting some prescriptions, and happened upon the skin care aisle. I was just about out of my cleanser, so I decided to pick up something new and paraben free. I picked up Avalon Organics Lavender Luminosity Skin Cleansing Milk and liked what I read, plus the scent was great, so I decided to give it a try.


It was on sale for $9.99 too, so I figured it was worth a shot. In the past, I've had issues with cleansers that were creamy and not soapy causing me to break out, so I wasn't sure if I'd like this. I've been using it for 2 weeks now and I can tell there is already a HUGE difference in my skin. After my pregnancies, my skin was completely different. Really dry and oily in places. I had to use moisturizer twice a day after washing my face. This stuff is amazing. My skin is always moisturized but not greasy. I only use a tiny bit of moisturizer now in the mornings, but at night I have no need for it. It helps my skin retain its natural moisture throughout the day too. And no break outs. And, dare I say, it's making the fine lines I had around my eyes seem to disappear a bit?

I also picked up some Yardly Soap to use in the shower. It's light, the scent is nice and it leaves my skin nicely moisturized (and no parabens!) I will definitely be keeping both of these products into my regime!