Puny Pals

Heather, one of my good friends from Price, recently moved to South Jordan with her husband and son. This is great for two reasons:

1. She's only 5 minutes away now, so we can hang out.
2. She has a baby who is just 7 weeks younger than Eddie so they can be friends.

Of course, when you're only 4 or 5 months old, being friends isn't really the same as when you're 23. But we still take advantage of the situation. So here are a few pictures of our cute boys, Eddie and Taylor.

Enjoying joint tummy time (Taylor likes this a lot more than Eddie does)

Even though they're 7 weeks apart, they're still nearly the same size

The Adventures of Frugal Fanny

Dave's sister Cheryl has an over-producing peach tree in her backyard and decided to use some of the peaches to make baby food. She kindly gave us a bag full of frozen pureed peach cubes. This inspired me to start making baby food for Eddie. It's actually really easy to do. I must give credit to one of my new favorite websites: www.wholesomebabyfood.com. This website has instructions on how to make all sorts of baby food, as well as age recommendations for each type of food.

During our last grocery-shopping trip, I bought some pears and mangos (since they were on sale) and I spent about 30 minutes yesterday preparing the food. All you have to do is cook the fruit or veggie somehow (steam, boil, bake, or roast), then puree it until it's baby food consistency. Then you freeze it in ice cube trays so you have handy serving sizes. You can keep homemade baby food in the freezer like this for months! I never thought baby food was expensive until I did some calculations. One tiny jar is 40 cents at Wal-Mart, but I spent about $3 on pears and mangos and made about 40 ice-cube size portions. Perhaps this makes me a "Frugal Fanny," but there are worse things. I just hope Eddie likes mangos...

The Airing of Grievances (Eddie-Style)

I felt kinda bad for Daddy, since not very many people took up his offer to air their grievances, so I decided to make my own list. It took me a little while since I had to learn how to read and write first. Here goes.

1. People who can't tell that I'm a boy
Mommy and Daddy dress me in obviously boy clothes in an attempt to avoid this problem, but it doesn't always work. Honestly, how many girls do you see wearing shirts with skateboarding monkeys on them? I know I have beautiful porcelain skin like a certain teenage vampire, but come on. Plus, if I were a girl, I would be wearing a headband featuring a flower the size of a cantaloupe.

2. Clothes that advertise my lack of size
I'm aware I'm not as large as say... Daddy... but do all the clothes my parents buy have to feature the word "lil" or "little" on them? I've got "little captain" pajamas, a "lil buckaroo" onesie, "little monkey" overalls, "little cutie" burp-cloths, and the list goes on. Didn't you people ever listen to Yoda?

3. Strangers who use me as a conversation starter
No, I'm not grumpy, I just don't like to share my perfect smile with strangers in Wal-Mart, the doctor's office, the elevator, the parking lot, etc. Mommy should just attach a sign to my car seat that says, "Yes, I'm a boy and I am 4 months old. I am aware that I am very cute. You really don't have to tell me about your grandchildren. I'm sure they're almost as cute as I am." That would save a lot of awkward conversations.

4. Mommy and Daddy's dinner time
Why is it that every day around 6:00 PM, Mommy and Daddy don't want to pay attention to me? I keep yelling at them, but all they do is hand me a toy and go back to shoveling food in their mouths. I usually win about halfway through though, and one of them is forced to abandon their dinner and pick me up.

5. The hypnotizing/brainwashing effects of my "dealie whirler"
For those who are unaware, my "dealie whirler" is a toy that Mommy and Daddy put me under, and features all manner of twirling, whirling lights, colors, shapes and sounds. Try as I might, once it starts, I cannot look away. I'm worried if I stare at it long enough, I might just forget all my recently acquired reading and writing skills. Mommy and Daddy don't care though, they are too busy playing Ticket to Ride for the umpteenth time.

Rice To See You

At Eddie's 4-month check-up, the pediatrician gave me the okay to start him on solids whenever I thought he was ready. Well, I didn't think he was ready until my gallbladder was gone, so on Wednesday after I had been home from the hospital for almost a day, my mom and I decided to give rice cereal a try. He really liked it, even if he couldn't keep it in his mouth very well. He got frustrated after a few minutes because he was hungry and it just isn't as efficient as his normal eating method.

On Saturday, Dave and I decided we finally needed to buy a high chair so that we would have a suitable place for all this new eating Ed would be doing. After a trip to Babies R Us, we came home and set up his stylin' new Graco Contempo High Chair. I mixed up some rice cereal and Dave got his camera ready to document the moment. Apparently I made the cereal a little too runny because Eddie thought it was great to get the spoon into his mouth and then blow, spraying both of us with cereal. It ended up in his eyelashes and hair and all over my arms. Eventually he settled down and ate, though he still hasn't figured out exactly how to keep the food inside his mouth. He doesn't seem to mind though.

Four Months Old

Eddie is now four months old! I took him in this morning for his check-up and thought I'd report on his progress. This time he only cried a little bit when they measured his head, but it was enough that they weren't sure if they got an accurate measurement. If they did, then his head's a little small for his body (29th percentile). He weighed in at 15 pounds 1 ounce, which keeps him in the 52nd percentile. He is now 26 inches long, which moves him to the 86th percentile (he was 70th percentile two months ago). So he's long and just keeps getting longer!


He is a healthy boy and the pediatrician said I can start him on real food whenever I think he's ready (yeah, like I know). I guess that means we'll need to buy a high chair. Fun times! He does still hate tummy time, but luckily the doctor said not to worry too much about that. I'm sure Eddie will be very glad to not be subjected to such torture every day.

Bumbo Bum

Many of you loyal readers may remember my insane pregnancy dream involving the Bumbo. If you don't, check it out here. Well, I am happy to report that Dave listened to my instructions and didn't put our naked newborn in the Bumbo. But now, Eddie is big and strong enough (and clothed enough) to sit in it for a little while before he gets mad.


In other news, as I was looking over the photos I took of Eddie yesterday, I realized that he does look a little bit like me and decided to whip up my own comparison shot to compete with Dave's (try not to be too impressed with my skills in Photoshop).


Of course, the resemblance might be attributed to our pudgy cheeks.

Just Some Photos

Here are a few photos we took of Ed this past week that I wanted to share.

Pretending to be an Orioles fan

Sporting his new jeans

Using Drag-aroo (half dragon, half kangaroo) as a pillow

My Alarm Clock

Eddie is a morning person. Lucky for me, he has started sleeping through the night almost every night. That means that by 6:30 or 7:00 AM, he happily wakes up. Most mornings, I wake up to hear him in his room jabbering away and doing his little cough-laugh. He is content to just lay there in his crib, kick his blanket off, and blow spit bubbles. Then when I walk in, he greets me with a huge grin. It's a nice way to start the day. If only naps went as smoothly!

Tyrannosaurus Ed

Yesterday, Eddie and I participated in an outing with the Barton cousins to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. Apparently every Tuesday in August is $2 Tuesday, so we (and every other mother in Utah and Salt Lake counties) decided to go see the dinosaurs yesterday. I knew I was in for something special when it took me 10 minutes just to get from the beginning of the I-15 off-ramp to the end. Then I pulled up to the museum to find the line of mommies and strollers stretching around the building.

Once we got inside the building and everyone took their potty breaks, we got into the exhibits. It was crazy in there. Just our group had three strollers and 8 older (by older, I mean ages 2-9) kids with us. So the four adults spent the time trying not to lose the children, and the children spent the time trying to get lost. Amidst all the chaos, we did manage to see some dinosaurs, which were pretty cool. Eddie was a little over-stimulated and while he was in his stroller, he just kept looking at me and half-heartedly crying. I ended up carrying him through a good portion of the exhibits and pushing the stroller one-handed.


It was a fun trip and I would recommend the museum to anyone who likes to look at dinosaur bones... just don't try to go on $2 Tuesday. My favorite part was the Supersaurus, which was ridiculously huge (hence the name). Eddie's favorite part was getting some peace and quiet at his Aunt Cheryl's house after our excursion was over.

Thumbing His Way

At first I was hesitant to give Eddie a binky because I didn't want to have to go through the trauma of getting rid of it at some point. I caved the first night we were home with him and he wouldn't stop crying at 1 AM. Ever since then he has been a binky-boy. Mr. Binks has gotten us through a lot of rough times and after seeing the struggle that Rob and Kirsten had trying to get their thumb-suckers to give it up, I was happy to have a binky-boy. When Eddie discovered his hands a few weeks ago and that he had control over them, he started sucking on his fists, which I thought was harmless enough. Within the last two weeks, Eddie figured out how to get his thumb out of his fist and realized that it is the perfect size for sucking.


We've tried to discourage him by removing the thumb and replacing it with the binky whenever possible, but he doesn't go for it. As you can see in the photo, he passed up a perfectly good binky for a chance to suck his thumb instead. Of course, he's still working out the kinks. He hasn't quite figured out what to do with the rest of his fingers while his thumb is in his mouth, so sometimes he stabs himself in the eye. You would think that would make him like the binky more. It certainly never stabbed him in the eye.