Halloween

I meant to do this before our camping trip, but I didn't have time so... I rushed to find a pumpkin as soon as we got back! I didn't want to forget!



We had a hard time finding one because most places had sold out. When we finally decided to go check HEB, John looked like this.



We actually had a little drama at HEB. Sometime during the process of trying to decide if the pumpkin was going to big enough to fit him, we dropped Steven's wallet. With the help of the super nice HEB staff we found it again. I love the people at HEB.

Once at home, we headed to the back yard. Pumpkin carving is my FAVORITE part of Halloween.

















I knew the pumpkin had been at HEB a while because one of the seeds had actually sprouted! Kinda fun.


After we cleaned it out we tried if first without making holes for the legs. It was kinda difficult to try to explain to a 5 1/2 month old to sit with his legs crossed. It took a while, but I got him situated.





I love this face!


We tried it with the hat... John just wanted to chew on it so it didn't last long as a hat.









I let him explore the pumpkin lid while I cut out the holes...



Back in for what turned out to be my favorite picture. However, there were a lot of not so great pictures because he was a little upset that I took away his new toy.



"Come on, Mom, get me outta this thing."



We didn't want to waste the pumpkin when we were done so we tried to put the leg holes back in and carved something simple.



I love my Hubby!



I got to work on what makes pumpkin carving my favorite part of Halloween!



Steven got some "treats" set up for any visitors.



Which brings me to an interesting topic.

How to celebrate Halloween.

This was our third year to go camping on Halloween, and I really like that tradition. Here in Texas the weather is just perfect for camping around Halloween so it's very hard to pass up a camping trip when just about every family in our church goes. We both hope to continue the tradition, and this year we took some time to discuss Halloween... having John kinda made me want to pin down something.

We both get a little stumped when it comes to this holiday. It's not that we are totally against Halloween (obviously) but we aren't a fan of the evil stuff that goes along with it. It's easy to see how it developed into vampires, witches and other scary things. It was originally a holiday to celebrate the end of summer... harvest was over and longer, darker nights were ahead. The Celtics believed that the boundary between the death and living blurred and made a holiday around it. Later, with the spread of Christianity, Catholics started celebrating saints and martyrs to replace the Celtic holiday.

When discussing this with our friends this weekend, someone brought up this passage in the bible. Paul was explaining that you aren't going to be better or worse from eating or not eating food sacrificed to idols... but that you should exercise caution so that you didn't cause another brother to stumble. So, we have grace to participate... but we don't want to cause anyone to stumble.

I always like the idea of turning something bad into something good... so we took advantage of the four trick-or-treaters at our house and gave out tracts with our candy. I think we will kinda continue that attitude with our developing traditions as John gets older. My Mops table leader emailed me this prayer to do while carving pumpkins... but John was a little young for it this year.

We don't have a solid idea of what Halloween will look like for our family, but I don't want to shelter our kids from the world. So, we hope to take opportunities like these to teach our children to honor our Lord Jesus in all we do.

Camping... in the backyard.

We have a camping trip coming up and we weren't sure how John would do in a tent overnight. So, we decided to try it out in our backyard... just a few feet from the comfort of our beds.



We put John inside the tent to fall asleep and waited (while watching a movie on the computer) just outside the tent on the picnic blanket. Sorry, we have no romantic stars to gaze at in our neighborhood.





BUT... it started raining. So we threw the picnic blanket in the house and got into the tent with John. Unfortunately, he was still awake so we had to wait. It didn't take long for him to go to sleep, but when he did we were still awake... so back to the movie we went!




Movie ended and we joined John in sleepy land.



Pretty much a successful adventure. John did wake up an hour earlier than normal, but I'm still counting it as a good night. I actually think he woke up (and stayed awake) because he realized we were there to play with. I managed to get a decent amount of sleep.

I thought Steven was okay with it as well, but he thinks it would be best borrowing a bigger tent would can put a pack and play in for our upcoming trip. I think he was concerned about rolling over on John the whole night. Having a pack in play around may work out better for naps anyway... that is what he normally naps in.

Another discovery was that our backyard is not ideal for camping in. Our little street we live on turns out to be pretty busy... especially with college students that ride loud bikes in the middle of the night! Come on, don't you know there is a bunch of crazies camping in the backyard? There was also a dog that spontaneously barked. He quieted down around midnight, but it wasn't fun to be woken up by barking the first half of the night.

And lastly, we have pretty bright street lamp that shines into the backyard. I like it dark when I sleep so it wasn't as comfortable as normal... but it was camping and that lack of comfort kinda comes with the territory. On the upside, the weather (aside from the raining at first) was great and I even had to pull up my sleeping bag in the middle of the night. Quite cozy!

I think overall our little guy is a great sleeper. He slept through some light rain, a barking dog, a bright street lamp, loud motorcyclist and a flashing camera to take pictures of the experience.... I don't even know why I worry.

Crawling?

John is for sure mobile... but I'm not sure it's the standard "crawling" I thought it would be.

Grilled Pizza!

We're currently obsessed!

This was the first pizza we made. It was a chicken, spinach, sauteed onions & garlic, feta & mozzarella pizza. Here is Steven taking it off the grill...


The crust was prefect! Our stove just can't produce an authentic Italian pizza. On the grill, however, the pizza crust bubbled and even got slightly charred... just like in Italy. And even better, we did it outside so it didn't heat up the house! (I know, it's the end of October, but it's still in the low 90s here)

I had heard of grilling pizza, but didn't have the courage until I found this website. My friend had the first book and I borrow it from her. This book has changed the way I make bread. I really want the Healthy Bread version now (it even has Gluten Free Recipes, Mom)!

A friend asked me how much it cost to make a loaf and I calculated it because I was curious. A simple loaf of bread is only 20 cents! The same dough can be used to make a pizza crust... 10 cents for pizza crust! Unbelievable!!!

Making this pizza goes really fast. You can turn raw dough into a pizza ready to eat in 20 minutes. It's cheaper AND faster than a pizza out of a box... and tastier! I really wish I knew about this while in school!

This is how we've done it...

5:15 - Get dough out of the fridge, roll/stretch it out to a small circle (like a thick pita) and leave it on the counter to rest.
5:16 - Prep Toppings. Saute things and cook meats. Put cheeses, meats & other toppings on a plate to transport outside.
5:20 - Steven gets home and lights the grill (aim for a temperature of about 450).
5:25 - Stretch/roll rested dough into desired size (it will stretch very easily after it has rest for 10 minutes) and take it to the grill. Put the raw dough right onto the grill. Close the lid and wait for it to bubble up.
5:30 - After the dough bubbles, flip the dough over (uncooked side down). Quickly top the pizza and close the lid.
5:35 - Enjoy a yummy pizza!

The major thing that is different about this pizza is that you definitely can't over load the cheese. It doesn't take long to cook the dough, so the cheese won't have time to set if you overload it. I'm a big fan of this new style of pizza... my cheese loving husband it's as excited. Also, it's important to precook all toppings... but we already did that for homemade pizza so it's not a big change for us.

I mentioned that this book has changed the way I make breads and it is a change for the better. The idea is bread in five minutes (of prep work) a day. That doesn't include the resting/baking time so you kinda still have to be around... but at least you can fold laundry or write a blog post (he he) while the bread is resting/baking.

The best part is that for a little amount of work (5-10 minutes) once a week, you can have pizza dough or bread dough ready to use right in your fridge. Do you know HOW much you can do with pizza/bread dough? A ton! The idea that this dough can KEEP in your fridge for up to 14 days is liberating! Have something come up and can't get to the dough that night... no problem, just do pizzas tomorrow night. Don't know what to make for dinner... well, you have fresh yummy dough in the fridge; go make a pizza! LOVE IT!!!!

If you are really interested you don't have to have a copy of the book to start. There are a lot of recipes and ideas on the website, but I would still recommend a copy of the book; it really shows how much variety this dough can have.

Main Recipe (with instructions)

Healthy Recipe (with instructions)

Gluten Free Recipe (just for you Mom!... try it... I want a food review!)

Grilled Pizza Idea.

Bread While Camping?

Baking a loaf in a dutch oven.

Crackers! This is done on the grill, but could also be done in the oven.

Happy Bread Baking!

Tongue Tied

At John’s four month check up the doctor noticed something off with his tongue. He asked me if his tongue was tied. I kinda thought it was a joke, because John had just started to be more vocal and I was thinking, “Tongue tied? No way, this kid talks all the time!”

The doctor started to examine his mouth and began asking questions about nursing. Sadly, I decided to quit at one month because it was just too stressful. The doctor said that sometimes it can affect feeding, but since he was eating well and gaining plenty of weight he wasn’t too concerned. The problem is that there is too much connective tissue under the tongue and that it can hinder feeding and speech development.

I went home and immediately began to do some research about tied tongues because I was curious. One of the things that can happen is that babies “chew” instead of suck because their tongue isn’t free to move like normal. The nipple will become “squished” if this happens. It happened a lot to us and when I mentioned it to my lactation consultant she said if it wasn’t hurting then I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I think I was getting enough of the areola in his mouth so for the classic latching problems she sees I wasn't doing anything wrong. But, it always bugged me that that happened often... I just didn't feel like it was right, and I still have a feeling that it was because of his tongue.

The problem is very fixable so it kinda bugs me that we didn’t know and therefore try to fix it to see if it would increase my supply problems. The theory goes that if the baby can’t move his tongue freely then he can’t empty the breast properly… causing supply problems.

Our doctor referred us to a specialist that performs the surgery and he said that John has only a slightly tight tongue… with just a thin portion attaching the tongue down. He said that we could wait or we could get it done now, but he would most likely have to have it done at some point. Steven had his done when he was in grade school because of speech problems, so we elected to just get it done now before he starts speaking.

When talking with the specialist I tried to pick his brain about possible nursing issues while explaining our situation. He said he has performed several of these surgeries and just rare few affected nursing/eating. That was kinda discouraging because it means that my problems were probably caused by the PCOS. What’s bad about that is that I have no solution to fix problems caused by PCOS… so my odds of successfully nursing any child are low.

My hope is to nurse at least one child exclusively, but as soon as the doctor said that it most likely wasn’t his tongue, I had a feeling that that dream would never happen. I will still try hard with each of my kids to nurse them because breast milk is the best thing for them and it’s free and it reduces my risk for breast cancer … so it’s a good thing to strive for… even if it doesn’t happen very easily for me.

With all of the following kids we have (except adopted children) I will have their tongues check and clipped at any sign of reasonable doubt. The specialist said that that was a good idea and that he has done most at the hospital before the baby comes home. It’s not a risky surgery and it’s worth it for me to have the peace of mind and rule out any potential problems.

Now for this kid, he’s scheduled for his Frenulectomy next week. It’s a simple surgery that will take about five minutes to perform, so we will only be at the hospital for a couple of hours. It will be interesting to see how it affects eating, especially for that day. Everything I’ve read says they can almost immediately nurse/bottle feed/use a pacifier so I think it will be fine.

I noticed in our Chicago pictures that his tongue looked a little funny. I don’t think he can stick his tongue out like normal babies. I think this is what happens when he tries.

And I also tried to get a video of it before the surgery. The first two minutes are just video of John being cute... I think he's so adorable in the walker. I love the way he tries to stand on his tip toes like he's going to give a big speech. Love this kid!!!



I think from the video it looks pretty normal. I also think I’m a little paranoid about it and that I’ve only had one kid so I have no idea what “normal” is.

I’ll try to take some comparative pictures/videos but it’s not a top priority so don’t hold your breath. I mainly wanted to keep everyone updated with what’s going on with John and why I get so sad when I discussing nursing.

Nursing

Our nursing story was less than ideal… in fact, it was a disaster! However, I’m going to go through the details so that I will remember it with the next one. I figured posting it here is a good idea because I also plan on posting about John’s tongue soon and it will be a good back ground for everyone.

I was so heartbroken that we weren’t able to nurse! I thought that I would have a baby and nurse him… case closed… no biggie… after all I had seen tons of women do this, so why would it be a problem for me? I had a rude realization awaiting me.

The problem we had was a supply. I would nurse John for 40 minutes to an hour and then expect him to go to sleep at least for 45 minutes or so. John never did that. After nursing he would sleep for maybe 15 minutes and then cry again or start rooting around on whoever was holding him. I was so confused. Even more confused when he wasn’t gaining weight and they told me to nurse more frequently. More frequently? Really? I mean, do you want him to become part of my body again? And when am I suppose to sleep… or eat… or use the restroom?

When we were trying to make it work I was taking herbs (fenugreek & blessed thistle) and a prescription but neither increased my supply. I’m often asked how I know if my supply increase. The major reason was because John was never satisfied after nursing… the other reason was that I was pumping in between nursing to try and increase my supply, but I was hardly making any milk. We measured it over a 24 hour period and I made 6 oz… hardly enough to sustain a boy that could easily knock out 20 oz of formula in one day.

I had issues with doing both the formula and nursing thing because the formula would keep him so full that he didn’t want to nurse and nursing wasn’t nourishing him so we had to use formula. It’s a crazy cycle that drove me NUTS… and I was already going crazy because I wasn’t sleeping. What usually happened was that I pumped in between feedings to empty everything and keep my production up during the day. The idea of pumping every hour drove me crazy and was not a long term solution.

Looking back I definitely could have made changes to make things easier. Next time around my top priority is to figure out how to nurse and sleep. A good night sleep does wonders for my attitude and mental state. Second, I plan to not freak out and worry about my supply so much. That sounds like something quite easy… but for a seriously sleep deprived new mother, it’s asking a lot! I was really terrified when doctors started telling me to supplement. Not because I think formula is bad for my baby or that I didn’t want him to have “those crazy chemicals” but because it wasn’t what I planned. The major lesson I learned was too just be a lot more flexible. Formula is not going to kill your baby, in fact, it may be needed and it doesn’t make you a “bad” mother.

From various conversations I’ve had I think I can confidently blame up my low milk supply to PCOS. I’ve had issues (whether identified or unidentified) since I was a teen. The lactation consultant I talked to said it was due to lack of glandular tissue, which develops in those early teen years. I’m pretty confident that it was that (or maybe this tongue thing I’m going to post later) because I did everything that the doctor, lactation consultant and LLL leader suggested and my supply didn’t increase. It definitely wasn’t that we weren’t trying.

I am very sad that I wasn’t able to nurse, but I much more open to supplementing long term the next time around. Formula is expensive! And my kid has quite an appetite. Even if I can only produce 6 oz a day that is 6 oz less I will have to buy. When we were making the decision on what to do about John’s eating situation we weren’t concerned about money, we just wanted our kid to eat and gain weight at a normal rate. I guess that is why they say “you live, you learn!”

A Fun Day With Our Picnic Blanket

I finish the blue jean circle quilt. And it turned out to be a HUGE hit! Look how small John looks on this giant blanket!

We had a stack of about 19 pairs of blue jeans and I used every single one of them to make this blanket. I got the idea from this website. I was so tired of storing (and moving) the massive stack of blue jeans around, so I made it into a blanket. Amazingly enough I only used 4 old maroon shirts to make the inside of the circles. I still have all the pockets from the blue jeans so I was thinking I might turn those into a tied quilt later one (don't expect a post any time soon on that).

I didn't really measure or think through the dimensions of this blanket. I found something circular (Pyrex lid) and started tracing and cutting. Then I counted up how many I had and took out a few to make it even (16 blocks x 17 blocks) and started sewing. Turns out it's pretty close to queen size. And it's very heavy (and quite a beast to maneuver under a sewing machine)... but at least now I can say that I've made a queen sized quilt!

The heaviness is kinda handy. This morning, I took John down to the park to take pictures of it and even with all his squirming it stayed flat on the ground. It's perfect for picnics! And he loved being outside in the cool morning air.











Here is the back of the quilt. I actually like the way it turned out better than the front. We like it so much that we will probably display that side up when it's folded.



It's funny how you finish a project and then almost instantly get a new idea for the next project... it's like an evil cycle. Well, I really like the interlocking circle pattern this one made on the back and thought if John ever seemed remotely interested in baseball I could make a small lap sized baseball quilt similar to this one. Using a white/beige flannel instead of the blue jean and a red thread to sew it together. The back of the blanket would look like baseballs. Just an idea.



John had to make sure it passed the taste test...



Oh and it definitely did!



While at the park John practiced his crawling moves. He's getting close, but I think he still has a long way to go. He doesn't seem interested in sitting up without support and I think that is a key prerequisite to crawling.

He has pushing up mastered...



And he can pull his legs under his bum well...



so whenever he decides he wants to he could totally do it.

Here are some more pictures...

"Look how cute your chubby little face is."



Very concerned with the students getting onto the A&M bus...



"John, this is called posing!"



"Look at the camera, my friend."



We had fun exploring our new picnic blanket together.



The fun wasn't over, though.

Steven had a long lunch so we picked him up and grabbed some Herbert's (our FAVORITE when on campus) and headed to Tanglewood Park (another favorite!)



I really enjoy seeing Steven for lunch, but I don't think I'm the only fan in our household.

We all had a great time, and John even got in some naked man time (we are still battling that silly rash... but I think the end of evil yeast rash is drawing near).