Beach Baby

Hello World!

I wanted to share our short, but very sweet trip with you.  The picture below pretty much defines how we felt spending time with Puff and Briana on the beach (pure joy.) Harvey has been on EIGHT airplanes now.

Here are a couple tips I have for my other traveling mamas out there.

- Babywearing!  I love that they let you walk straight through security wearing your little one.  I can even collapse my stroller by myself when Harvey is in the Ergo.

- Gate check your stoller (or stroller/carseat combo like I have.)  It's free!  

- Pack a new toy just for the plane. (Or an old one they haven't played with in a while)

- Snacks. And save them for the plane, even though it's tempting to use them during your 2 hour layover.  I bring Puffs for Harvey (His absolute favorite at the moment are banana cookies, but  they are messy so those are only for desperate measures ha)  

- Transfer your diaper bag into a backpack. 

-Accept some help from strangers.  Now I'm not going to pass my kid off to someone I don't know, but if someone offers to break down my stroller, give me an aisle seat or entertain my baby playing peek-a-boo a few minutes I'm going to accept it with a smile.  There are still some kind folks out there.

Okay, so now it is time to begin the beach pix overload . . .


Harvey & Puff

Happy Boy

Harvey & Briana

Selfie with my favorite peeps.

Harvey & Me

So I will leave you with one of my favorites.  This is the face you get when you tell your baby not to eat sand.

A day in the life....

We wanted to share how lovely our Saturday was with everyone.   :)

We started off bright and early at the Nashville farmer's market. We left with sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini, honey (mommy's fav), eggs, cheese (hot pepper- Derek picked!) and green beans.  some fresh milled Sunday Morning Pancake Mix.  Harv loved the pancake samples and not to mention they are oh so healthy!  I can't wait to start making these for breakfast on Sunday mornings- just in time for Father's Day tomorrow.

When we got home we decided to let our little water baby play in his kiddie pool.  He has been "singing" in a high pitched voice when he is happy lately.  I love hearing his little voice more and more.   Isn't his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hat too cute?!? We think so.

Then he decided to do some exploring around the house.

Dexter says Goodbye!

Summer Baby!

I find myself taking so many pictures of Harvey on my iPhone.  I wanted to share some of my favorites from this month (too many to choose from, so I had to make a collage for you haha!)  I never thought I would become one of "those parents" whose Instagram turns into nothing but an online scrapbook for their baby.  Okay, well I hope I'm not that bad haha!  This 8 1/2 months has been flying by so fast.  Harvey has started army crawling all over the house.  Even though he doesn't do your typical crawling on his hands and knees, it is hard to keep up with the little monster- he is really fast!  He has also started pulling himself up and every morning we go into his room he is sitting up in his crib.  It seems like the next time I turn around he will be walking....  This is all happening too fast :'[ tear tear!

If you didn't notice, I made the last line of photos some Harvey "bloopers" from the month. The first one is Harvey totally in love with a banana he is eating from his mesh feeder.  The last picture is when I let Harvey hold the puffs while shopping... Big mistake haha!  The second one is my all time favorite though- I love the ultimate grump face, I can't help it!

Harvey has become quite the little water baby!  He loves swimming in Puff's pool.  We also have a kiddie pool in the back yard that we enjoy sitting in during the humid Nashville summer days.

Another one of Harvey's favorite summer activities is going to the zoo.  This weekend Daddy got to join us!  He loves riding in the ergo carrier, especially when it's on his Daddy's back. You can't see it in the elephant picture, but Harvey has a big grin on his face (it's hard to see the elephants in the distance!) We even got to pet a baby kangaroo.  Can't wait to see what other adventures this summer holds for our happy little family!

Say hello to Harvey's best friends!

I wanted to share these pics of Harvey and his best buds, Dexter and Bowser.  Dexter and Bowser were our babies before Harvey came along. I am not exaggerating at all, they had their own puppy stroller, car seat and everything!   And I promise they still get their own special attention.  We take walks with them almost every day and occasionally take them to the dog park (even though they end up ignoring the other dogs and make friends with the other humans haha). Bowser (the white one) is a little more timid so he tends to keep his distance, but it's so sweet when we find him cuddled up close to Harvey.  Dexter loves attention, so he definitely steals the most kisses.   




Here is a picture of Harvey holding his first painting from his music class. This week at mommy and me music class the theme was "Bach and Babies."  We listened to one cheerful piece and one somber piece from Bach's collection while painting to see if there would be a difference in the paint strokes.  I think Harvey was just excited to have his first painting experience!  Then he started ripping/eating the paper haha. This has inspired a friend and I to try edible finger painting with our boys soon. I think it's going to be a messy, but fun experience for them!  But the whole painting thing explains why Harvey is in overalls without a shirt on today.  

Okay and I just had to share this little picture from class.  I think it is sooo funny because I look overly happy/excited and expression on Harvey's face is like "this lady is crazy!" 



BYE-BYE!

Beautiful Sunday

Be prepared to be flooded with pics of Harvey and me playing outside today.  We had a wonderful weekend and it was the perfect day to hang out and relax outside with the fam.  We take a walk around our neighborhood almost every night, by request of our dogs, Dexter and Bowser (I promise they will be next in line to have pictures posted!)  Also if Harvey is having a fussy evening, something about being outside really seems to calm him.  He also loves to be pushed around in his smart trike-  I think he feels like a big boy because he's not confined to his stroller.  If you can't tell from the pictures (ha) I am so in love with my little boy.  I can't believe he is going to be 8 months this week- ahhhh time flies!

We have a fun and busy week planned ahead!  Going to the zoo, story time at the library, mommy & me music class (this week is the Bach and Babies class+painting) play dates with friends....  We will post more pics soon so everyone can share some of these adventures with us!

Baby Food Time!

This morning we are making some baby food purees.

At first, the thought of making Harvey's baby food seemed really intimidating.  But it's actually a quick simple process that saves us a ton of money and I really enjoy doing it!  The baby food pouches that I buy occasionally can be over $1.50 each and Harvey is currently eating 3-4 a day (that adds up!)  I love making him a wide variety of fruits and veggies- from kiwi to beets to kale to apricots.  He loves everything... except for green beans.  Unfortunately, I can't sneak that one into any of my blends!

Here are the few simple steps I use to make my baby food. 

1)  Wash!  I love cleaning my fruits and veggies with my Young Living Essential oils!

2)  Steam!

3)  Blend!  The key to using the baby bullet is to shake it while blending (it took me forever to read the manual and figure this out- it makes life much easier!)  Depending on the consistency I am going for I occasionally add water, prune juice or breast milk to make it thinner.

4) Store and Freeze!  I usually make batches of food to last 2-3 weeks, even though I have read baby food lasts up to 3 months in the freezer.  Every night I pop a few of the frozen purees in the fridge so they will be ready the next day.

It's that easy! Today I made a berry yogurt (pureed blueberries, raspberries & plain greek yogurt), a carrot/apricot/apple blend and a broccoli/kale/apple blend.  

Harvey approves!

Happy Mother's Day

I'm so happy to be officially celebrating my first Mother's Day as Harvey's mommy! This time last year I was pregnant, but since we kept the gender a surprise until the end we had no idea that we would be parents to our sweet little boy, Harvey.  Today was the perfect day- snow cones with my boys and swimming with some friends.  The only thing I would have changed was being able to travel and spend time with my own special mama.

I want to use this blog as a place to share all of Harvey and me's adventures.  Even though they may be simple everyday tasks for most people, I enjoy every little thing we get to do together!  If its going to the zoo,  attending mommy & me music class or even just going to the grocery store.  It's hard not to take 100 pictures a day of my little cutie so I need a place to share them with everyone.

Happy Mother's Day! 
Love, Harvey & Me