Monday Meal Plan

Last week because of vacation and other plans, I only cooked once!  So I'm looking forward to cooking this week.  Here's our food for the week:

DINNER

Monday: ground turkey lettuce wraps (Ben will probably have tortillas) from Skinny Taste
Tuesday: Veggie pizza
Wednesday: Slowcooker Turkey Meatloaf, green beans, red potatoes
Thursday: Real burgers, fruit, Chipotle sweet potato fries
Weekend: Eating out since its my birthday weekend!!

Have a good week!

Pumpkin Patch

Last week, we went with some other moms and kiddos to the Texas Oil Ranch in Hockley, Texas.  

I mainly went to get some pictures at the pumpkin patch and enjoy the time with friends in the summer extra warm fall weather.  

This was my first and only good picture.

Once Caleb found the grass, he wouldn't look up again no matter what I did - dancing, screaming, clapping...nothing worked!  I think it was the first time he had ever sat in grass and it was apparently thrilling.  

So we had to separate him and the grass...

Flying baby pic!  Man, I love that kid.  

Monday Meal Plan

I love figuring out systems that work.  I'm not naturally organized so I have to rely on systems to keep me in line.  In teaching, I had figured a good planning system that worked for me - my paper agenda and sticky notes.  I felt lost without them.  I wrote down my to-do list and all my work events for the week.  My social calendar was on my iPhone synced with Ben's.

It's taken me a little while to figure out what system really works for me at home, but for now, I think I've finally found one that I like.  I tried a to-do list on my fridge but I would forget about it and would think of to-dos all the time when I wasn't by my fridge.  Now I keep them on my phone and that's working well.

My social calendar is still on my iPhone synced with Ben's but I had more I wanted to schedule - my small part time editing work and my exercise.  So I printed out the JDC monthly calendar and put it on my fridge with my meal planner and grocery list.  I'm enjoying this system for now and its pretty :).

Here's this week's food:

DINNER

Monday: Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sause from Skinny taste, salad
Tuesday: Turkey Burgers with Bible study
Wednesday: Lynn dinner out with friends
Thursday: Grub Rub grilled chicken, sweet potatoes and sugar snap peas
Friday-Sunday: GIRL'S (plus baby) TRIP!!

LUNCH

Ben: PB & Honey, double fruit, almonds, Oatmeal chocoalte chip cookies,
Lynn: Salad similar to this one from ST plus crock-pot chicken

BREAKFAST

Ben: Oatmeal muffins with chocoalte chips instead of blueberries
Lynn: Oatmeal with frozen blueberries, a little milk, and agave nectar

Happy cooking!

Happy 5 months Caleb!

Happy 5 months to my baby boy!  Where has the time gone?!  I am enjoying him more than ever.  His smiling and interacting is such a joy.

At 5 months, Caleb is...

Size: I'm guessing Caleb is up to about 17 pounds by now.  He's heavy...I know that.  He's out of all but a few 3 month clothes and on to 6 months or 3-6 months.  Anything 9 month or bigger is still too big for him.

 

Likes: Baby C is loving his new jumper we got him.  It's an Animal Krackers Jumperoo and I'm very pleased with it.  I  went to Babies R Us to find the one that I liked the best, watched Craig's list for it and got it for more than half the price.  He also loves all things that he can grab and put in his mouth.

I Love those sweet fingers.

Baby C is rolling.  Front to back and back to front.  

Dislikes: Naps in his crib.  Caleb is fighting naps like no other the past few weeks.  I'm trying different things - timing, music, stuffed animal, patting, crying (letting him cry...although sometimes I want to cry too!), etc.  Sometimes he just drifts off to sleep, but then other times I spend 20 minutes getting him to go to sleep and then he wakes up 30 minutes later.  Not sure what's going on.  That's really our only issue right now.

Working on/Milestones: This month, Caleb continued to work on rolling back and forth.  He hasn't figured out that its a way to move across the room yet, thank goodness, but I'm sure that's coming.  He's working on sitting up and can sit up with his hands for support and even a few seconds without his hands.  He's really wobbly though and easily falls over.  Also I'm trying to encourage him to scoot by putting toys just a little bit out of reach.  He works and works to get to them and sometimes makes it.  Don't worry...if he doesn't, I give it to him.

One thing we were working on last month that has really solidified is a schedule!  I can pretty much count on a set feeding schedule everyday which is just nice.  No more counting the hours on my fingers or trying to remember when he last ate.  We still have off days here and there but for the most part, he's consistent.  The daytime sleeping has not fallen into a good schedule, but that will be my focus for the next month.  Hopefully at 6 months, I'll have good news!

Eating:  As I said, sweet boy is eating consistently 5 times a day, every three hours, and then usually once, sometimes twice at night.  I decided to wait on rice cereal until after our girls (plus baby) trip to Newport, RI.  We'll do some practice eating solids with rice cereal a couple weeks before we start veggies and fruits at 6 months.  I can't believe we're already to that point!!  I'm excited, but also a little nervous that its going to get more complicated.  Nursing is just so easy and convenient now.

Sleeping: Fortuntely, despite the nap troubles, Caleb is sleeping really well at night as long as we've had a mostly normal day.  Two off days in a row and his sleeping is less consistent and he wakes up a few times in the night.  But right now, he goes to bed between 7 and 7:30, wakes up anywhere from 2-5am to eat once, and then usually sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00.  No matter when he wakes up, we eat at 8 and start the day.  It seems to work well.  I've enjoyed getting some more sleep, although now when he wakes up more than once, my body is not used to it anymore and I'm more tired.

I can't believe that in less than a month I'll have a 6 month old!  We're doing Caleb's 6 months photos at the beginning of November and I'm trying to figure out some cute outfits for us to coordinate.  We'll use these pictures as our Christmas cards.