7 Months Old and Some Autumn Memories 2011

Even though the Fall season still has a few more weeks left in it, in my mind as soon as Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas decor is up, winter is here to stay.

But here are a few fun things we did to celebrate the season:

We ate yummy pumpkin doughnuts from a nearby bakery.  And since the weather that day was so glorious we made an impromptu excursion to a local pumpkin patch.

The real kind.

The kind where you ride in a horse drawn wagon on a farm to get to the pumpkin field.  The kind where you have to use shears to cut your pumpkin from the vine.  None of this setting up shop in a parking lot at a grocery store, throwing some hay down on some parking stalls, and throwing pumpkins on the ground for kids to pick up.

We played in the leaves.  Lots and lots of leaves.  We raked the leaves … several different times.  We can’t get enough of our backyard.  We even found some tiny frogs and a slimy salamander while raking.

We celebrated Thanksgiving by cooking up a feast in our new house.  My sister, her husband and her three sweet kids came to town to help us celebrate.  Sadly I didn’t take a single picture of the time we spent together, but at least we created lots of fun memories.  However, I do have a picture of the amazing artwork Cory made in his first grade class of a turkey.  The project was inspired by Eric Carle.

And now that Halloween and Thanksgiving have come and gone, it is time to celebrate Christmas.

Little Ari is 7 months old today, so I took some pictures of him in front or our tree … yep, it went up the day after Thanksgiving.  I can’t get enough of the holiday season, and by holiday season I mean the entire month of November and December!

Now that he is 7 months old, he can mostly sit by himself.  I say “mostly” because with a hardwood floor, we have to be pretty careful he doesn’t topple over.  And now that he has been eating solids for nearly a month, you would think he would love food.  Nope, not so much.  But we are working on it .

6 Months Old Already

Our “little” Ari is now 6 months old.

Though I don’t think we can quite call him little.  When he had his six month well child visit, he weighed in at 20 lbs 6 oz and he was 28 1/2 inches long.  He is the average size of a 12-18 month old.  [However, believe it or not, Cory at this age was even bigger, by about 2 pounds!?]

Regardless of his size, though, he is still my Little Sweetness.

Ari loves to snuggle.  He loves to socialize.  His smiles and his laughs simply melt your heart.  If I am ever grumpy or in a foul mood, Ari can always cheer me up when he flashes his grin at me.

Ari is normally a happy and smiley guy, though this past week has been the exception.  Sprouting two bottom teeth, getting shots and then having a few late nights from Halloween activities have made him a bit fussy.

He loves to grab things, especially paper and hair.  He likes to put things in his mouth, but he also likes to pick things up and then drum them/bang them on the floor or table.  He loves to coo and talk.  He is learning how to sit.  He can sit stably by himself for at least a minute.  Tummy time is still not his favorite thing in the world, but he tolerates it here and there.

Ari just started solids this last week.  He’s not much into it, though he is slowly swallowing some food as opposed to letting it pool in his mouth while he fusses.  It’s kind of cute to see him attempt to “chew” … he ends up talking and cooing more than chewing.

Ari enjoys bath time.  He loves to kick and splash his feet in the water.  He also likes to play in his exersaucer and sit in his Bumbo seat.  He adores looking at himself in mirrors and he likes to chew on his Sophie giraffe.

For the most part Ari is a good night time sleeper.  He goes to bed about 7 p.m. and wakes up the next morning around 8 … though he normally eats twice during that time.  I get him up for a “dream feed” around 11:30 at night and he also wakes up to eat around 6 am.  But then he talks to himself and goes back to sleep when I put him in his crib.  He also normally wakes up happy in the morning. I forgot that babies can do that.  When Eli was little, he normally woke up crying.

But I will be honest.  I am still trying to adjust to being a mother to four special, remarkable and incredible spirits.  A lot of the time things can feel a bit out of control.  It is difficult to juggle so many schedules and immediate demands.  I find myself feeling chronically tired and exhausted which then makes my motivation to do anything nonexistent. And because of this, I then find myself being the grumpy and yelly mom … though I am working on that one.

Right now I am just trying to be extra patient with myself and my family.  I am trying to remember that when you have a nursing baby in the home, that things are going to operate a bit differently.  It’s OK to say no, it’s OK to let go of things and it’s OK to feel like you are not accomplishing a whole lot.  And I am trying to remember that I only nurse my little ones for a year, and before I know it, their streak of independence is going to be here to stay.

But there is something sacred about having an infant in the home.   The special spirit and light they exude is miraculous.  So for now I am trying to keep this quote at the forefront of my mind and to abide by its wise counsel so I can embrace the present time I am blessed to have:

“I feel to invite women everywhere to rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass.” ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Halloween Memories 2011

Before October 31st actually hit this year, the tune I was singing was I do NOT like Halloween.  In fact, I even declared it to be my least favorite holiday.  And yes, I even told that to the kids.

This year it just seemed to d.r.a.g. on and on and on.  Church parties, school bashes, friend parties, etc.  How many times do I need to dress my kids up in costumes so they can get candy?  Have I ever mentioned how I rarely dressed up when I was a kid?  Have I ever mentioned how un-creative and un-imaginative I am?  So when it comes time to create or even buy costumes for my kids it is like I have two left hands.  Thankfully they haven’t minded being the same thing for the last several years in a row.

Little Eli wanted nothing to do with dressing up.  Though next year I bet I can get him to wear a tool belt so he can be a handyman. (I only had this great epiphany after Halloween had come and gone.)

Is there a Scrooge equivalent for Halloween? If so, that would have been me … at least before Halloween actually came.

However, after enjoying the excitement of the holiday with the kids and some dear friends this last Monday, I realized I do like Halloween.  At least the ONE day of Halloween.  Back in the day when I was little, we celebrated Halloween on one day only – October 31st.  There was none of this lets celebrate for at least the 10 days before the holiday even hits.  We would have a parade at school, perhaps a class party, most often a church party after school and then that evening we would go trick-or-treating.

Anyway, I truly did enjoy making my kids a little Halloween card for them to find the morning of.  And I really loved going trick-or-treating with them in our new neighborhood.  As silly as it sounds, it was almost magical, especially since there were SO many kids out with their families.  (One house said they get about 200 trick-or-treaters every year.  Holy smokes?!?)

A haunted house kit we made together as a family.  We may or may not have made it the day after Halloween because there were so many other activities going on.  

I loved seeing and feeling the excitement my kids had as they raced door to door (mostly with good manners) to holler trick-or-treat and collect their goods.  I even had some good laughs when by the end of the night, the kids were being overly silly.  After saying Happy Halloween and thank you for their candy, they would then serenade the unsuspecting door answerers with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” That always drew a big smile from the people handing out the treats.

So even though I have realized I do kind of like Halloween in doses, I still don’t dig the gory, creepy and dark aspects of the holiday.

Thankfully we are now onto the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.  Bring it on!  I love this time of year!

Barbara’s Bakery All Natural Puffins Products GIVEAWAY

Back at the end of September, Barbara’s Bakery – a company that specializes in making scrumptious all natural products,  you  might know them better as the makers of the Puffins cereal line – invited the whole family to our local zoo for a special Barbara’s Puffins All-You-Can-Eat Blogger Breakfast!

I am not quite sure how I was lucky enough to get invited to this intimate event [there were maybe 6 other families in attendance], but I am not complaining in the least bit.

Not only did they treat us to a most delicious breakfast where we ALL contentedly sat and ate [which if you know my picky kids is a feat in and of itself!?!], but they then sent us on our way to enjoy a free adventure day at the zoo … after they gave us plenty of free cereal, snack bars, tote bags, cute Puffins stuffed animals for the kids and yummy Snackimals for us to munch on.

Eli and Cory enjoying their afternoon at the zoo after
fueling up on Puffins cereal.

One of the reasons I have fallen in love with the Barbara’s Bakery products is because they are 100% natural and they only use wholesome ingredients.

What does that mean?

It means they use no refined sugar, no hydrogenated oils and no artificial food additives, flavors or preservatives.  Sometimes when companies make products like this, though, their food tastes like cardboard.  You won’t have that problem here.  Their foods are so tasty you will still have to practice portion control and moderation.  Another added bonus is kids love their products as well. They are wonderful snacks to keep in the diaper bag and in that emergency stash in your car.

Many of their products are also:

• Dairy Free
• Low fat
• Wheat free
• Gluten Free
• Cholesterol Free
• No sodium
• Low sugar
• Kosher
• Vegetarian
• Vegan

My all time favorite cereal flavor was the original Puffins.  It has the perfect crunch and just the right amount of sugar – not much atat all – which helps keep my chronic headaches away.  Keri savored this one as well.

Randy loved the Honey Rice and the Peanut Butter flavors while the boys clamored for the Peanut Butter and Chocolate variety.

The Barbara’s Bakery product line also has the following:

• Granola Bars
• Multigrain Cereal Bars
• Fruit and Yogurt Bars
• Fig Bars
• Snackimals [Sweet natural cookies in the following flavors - Double Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, Vanilla, Snickerdoodle and Wheat Free Oatmeal]
• Cheese Puffs

Trust me, you will find it hard to stop munching on the double chocolate Snackimals and the White Cheddar Baked Cheese Puffs.  And plain cereal right out of the box is also quite fabulous!

But onto the good stuff.  How can YOU win your own free Puffin Appreciation Kit?  

Here’s how:

• Simply leave a comment on this post before the end of November 8th and tell me which one of Barbara’s Bakery products you would like to try.
• One winner will be selected and they will have 2 days to respond to the email I will send them.

For further entries, you may do one or all of the following.  However, for each item you do, please leave a SEPARATE comment.

• Tell me something you are GRATEFUL for … anything … after all, this month is all about Thanksgiving.
• Tweet about this giveaway with a link to this specific blog post.
• Make a status update on your facebook page with a link to this specific blog post.  This will earn you 3 extra entries.
• Write a blog post with a link to this specific blog post.  This will earn you 5 extra entries.

I can’t wait to  share the Barbara’s Bakery products with you!  Puffins rule !!