And he's a hot mess

My 10 month old refuses to be my baby. Mr. Independence has decided that he is a toddler and teeth or not to leave him alone thankyouverymuch. Sad day for me =)  Here are some of the latest pics of our little mess.

all done.

 Got daddys hat and a basket. 

Easy peasy toddler meals

After a few weeks of this...

(aka batting my hand away if I tried to feed him and grabbing the spoon which in turn flung food all over the babe, the momma and the floor. Not cool, I am entirely to OCD clean to deal with that for too long.)
I got the go ahead from the doctor to ditch the baby food and go for table food. Surprisingly,  he makes less of a mess if I cut up table food and let him feed himself.  So I have embarked on figuring out a way to make sure he gets all of the good things he needs while letting him fed himself.

DISCLAIMER-
I am not overly concerned about food allergies, they do not run in our family and I personally do really agree with any of the hype except with shell fish. He's not touching fish until he's older.

Our first night of table food, I microwaved everything and I am not someone who does that. We never ate microwaveable food growing up and I when I first moved into my own place I didn't buy one. I know, what... people used to come over and look at me in shock you don't own a microwave?!?!? My answer- a waste of money and totally unnecessary.

Here's a list of some of the things I found that he loves that are easy but completely homemade.


Mac-n-Cheese with Mozzarella and Peas
Turkey Meatballs with black beans and peppers
Corn with Potatoes and a hint of Thyme
Quesadillas (this a great way to use the old baby food)
* I make fruity ones with goat cheese and veggie ones with cheddar
Roasted chicken, sweet potatoes and squash with cinnamon
Baby Greek- roasted red peppers, feta and cucumbers

I make a batch of these things and separate them into servings and then freeze part of them. It helps for days when time is an issue. If you want a recipe for anything let me know all the meals take around 30 minutes to make and require very few ingredients.

This Thursday I am going to be thankful

Stop. 

Breathe. 

Put. Down.the Spray Bleach.

You can fold the laundry in a minute. Relax

Everyday I am thankful for this man...

Who loves me through hormone imbalances, my OCD cleaning habits and burnt food. 

He goes to work everyday to make sure we have food on the table, diapers in the drawer and to pay a lot of money for formula because I hated breast feeding. 

 The love of my life, my perfect match.

I am thankful for baby belly laughs, there is absolutely nothing better. 

Hot coffee with cream and real sugar and trash tv... a mommy moment of escape. 

 

For the love of food...

Cause y'all all know I love to eat and with that love comes a love of cooking. And oh my god have I been rocking the kitchen lately. Which has been fun however rather destructive to the family dieting. But its all worth it and honestly isn't keeping us from losing, really.

Oprah killed it for me when she did a show about Food Inc, it was eye opening and totally screwed my coupon-cutting grocery shopping. I am now officially one of those people... I am officially WEIRD have strong feelings about the food that we eat. The word processed makes me cringe and I read labels all the time. I am without a doubt my farm-raised grandmother's worst nightmare.

I ditched Kroger this week for Trader Joe's and there was no party to grab snacks or flowers for, the only reason I ever went there. But, again that was before... before I became weird.

You may say  this is not new, you did make from scratch all EJ's baby food. And that I did and I loved every minute of it. and so did he. But currently I am making everything from scratch.

Pizza, dough and all, with a balsamic drizzle that was to die for. It was good, damn good.

See...

I have, also, made homemade salsa, hamburger buns, bread and the list goes on. So I have decided to share with you readers my quest for healthy, limited processed eating ON A BUDGET.  

If you like it let me know, if you hate let me know... comments they great fun to read and not to worry there will still be plenty on the life EJ, Craig and LA. 

getting into everything...

New Mom lesson never leave the dishwasher open, he can hear me open it and comes running. 

Or the pantry door 

Peak A Boo 

I can close doors now watch out...

For your laughing pleasure Craig broke the banister, like pulled out of the wall when EJ slipped away crawled up the stairs and locked himself in our room in the amount of time it took me to take the trash out. The banister died when we were running around our house looking for him. 

We are in for it. 

Holy Drool

Have I told you that if EJ's teeth do not come in ASAP I swear I am going to pull them down myself. We have been teething since he was 4 months think drool factory and random spurts of fussiness that send me running to A. the baby tylenol or B. the liquor cabinet... God bless a pacifier dunked in Jack.

We do find moments of humor in the midst of teething hell, like when my mom let him nom a lemon slice, he LOVED it ( it must be genetic, his great g'dad who he is named after would suck on lemons all day if it didn't destroy his teeth). Then all the sudden there was this look of shock and a scream and he launched the lemon slice across the room. Poor guy has a tooth trying to break through and the lemon burned it. I know I shouldn't find humor in pain but he got over it so fast that we laughed. 

At 9 months, we still do not have a single tooth. Not a one. Are you serious? His gums are so hard that he can eat table food with ease, he even ate an apple slice. Poor guy is miserable and we have hit rock bottom this last week. He yells all day every day, he clings to me and the drool soaks everyone who touches him. When I ask our doc about it at the last appointment, he paused, thought a moment and then smiled... I wanted to smack that smile right off his face..." LA, I have never had a child without teeth. They will come in."

Keep smilling buddy and why don't you come home with me and help me soothe our poor miserable baby.

Mommy my mouth hurts!

Can you believe it?

Its been a year! And what a year it has been.

A year ago last Monday, I joined Craig on the beach where together we stood in front of family and pledged to love each other through thick and thin. It was pretty all day and then it rained and then it cleared up and then it got cold. The day didn't quite go as planed but neither has the last year. But, together we stand one year later in a new house with a perfect child (yes, he is perfect in every way) and I can honestly say I love him more today than I did last year. Which I didn't know was possible.
Cheers to you my love and 100 more years of unexpected surprises and wonderful memories.

then 

& 

now 

Splash Tub

When the warm weather arrived last week EJ and I basically spent every waking hour outside. After watching him crawl the entire yard and even attempt to eat dog poo I decided we need to get something to entertain him in one place so I could sit some. This girl was a pool rat in my single days I would lay out by the pool and read a book every single chance I got. After walking around Toys R Us checking every outdoor toy they had. I decided on a splash tub and then got a few bags of outdoor toys. They were so inexpensive 15 bucks for both bags. They were pitched to be for the beach but we are creative and I figured sand or not EJ would love them. I was right as these pics show.

Warm weather brings the pollen and Atlanta is slammed with the pesky yellow dust these days. The last 3 or 4 springs I have come close to dying from sinus pain and issues. I was determined to not have a repeat year so I have been taking a mega dosage of sinus drugs for a couple of weeks. I may have pushed it yesterday when I cleaned out all of the front beds of our house though, so today is an inside day with lots of cooking and recipe tastings.

Check out the cutie pie walking...

So the computer was broken for weeks!

And thats where I have been. I am sure you all were looking daily and wondering where the Holmans went =)

But for the moment both computers seem to be working again... my mac died this time last year when craig spilled coffee on it. Prego LA could not handle it and threw said laptop into a drawer and it stayed there for a year even through a move. Yesterday, I got the nerve to take it in and lie to the mac man. "Nope, no liquid has ever found its way to this computer." Well I don't know what he did but it got it to turn on and eject EJs 3d ultrasound and it stays on as long as its plugged in. Very happy about having my pretty white mac back!

I will leave you with a cute easter pic of my little guy!

See mom its empty! I opened the egg and ate the goldfish!