Wordless Wednesday

Excitement

Look what finally arrived at my doorstep yesterday..

Needless to say I'm super pumped.

Jesa World

 So the latest news in Jesa World is eczema.  Yes we made yet another trip to the doctors office last week.  She has had this circular patch of dry, scaly skin over her left eye for over a month now.  She has also developed some kind of rash on her belly and under her chin. We had tried Vaseline and lotion on it but it just wouldn't go away.  I called the nurse's line at her ped. office just to ask them what they would recommend putting on it.  I was determined not to freak out or get worried, I just wanted some suggestions.  The nurse told me that any kind of "rash" needed to be seen by a doctor because it could be a number of things.  So we took her in to see Dr. Cooper.  Seriously, this child is going to begin to think the doctors office is her second home.                                                                                    
  He looked her over and said he was almost positive that the one on her face was eczema and he wasn't sure about the other on her belly, but thinks it has something to do with the fact that she has been drooling buckets the past few weeks.  He told us to keep her as dry as possible (we have been going through so many onesies) and for her forehead to use hydrocortisone twice daily and then intermittently use Eucerin cream.  We've been doing that for about 3 or 4 days now and her forehead is almost completely healed.  The rash under her chin is still there, but getting better.


In other news, we have been working with her on sitting up by herself. I got her to do this:

...for like 15 seconds straight the other day.  You have to get her legs positioned the right way to help her balance.  I think the cloth diapers are hindering her a bit because they are so bulky but she's getting there.

Baking with Baby

We are big peanut butter lovers in this house.  My husband eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches like it's going out of style and like it with apples and in my banana & peanut butter, protein shake. So, of course one of our favorite goodies is Reese's peanut butter cups.  I mean, peanut butter and chocolate, how much more awesome do you get really?  Being one that likes to bake I decided to find a recipe and just make my own.  Let me tell you this recipe is awesome.  The finished product tastes just luck the real thing. I've made these twice this week (one for home, and one to take to work.)  The best thing about this recipe is that it's super easy.  And, I had the best helper of all.  This was actually our first baking project together.  The first of many I'm sure  =)

The Ingredients:  

1 pk Graham crackers -crushed 

2 c Powdered sugar 

3/4 c Margarine  (or butter)

1 c Peanut butter plus an additional 2/3 c peanut butter (I use the natural PB, but use what you have.)

1 c Chocolate Chips 

 

First thing you do is take the graham crackers and get them good and smashed.

You can do this in a blender to get it really ground up, but baby hands and mouth work somewhat too.

Next, you melt the butter and margarine and add 1 Cup of the Peanut Butter.  Mix that until it's incorporated.  Then add the crushed graham crackers and powdered sugar.    Once it's all mixed together press it into a 9X13 inch pan.  

  Next comes the chocolate.  If you have a problem decided between milk and dark chocolate.  Just ask the 6 month old.  She will for sure tell you. 

Melt one cup of chocolate chips with the additional 2/3 cup of peanut butter and pour over the graham cracker mixture.  

Put in the refridgerator until the chocolate is set.  

Enjoy!

REESE'S Bars     

1 pk Graham crackers -crushed 

2 c Powdered sugar

3/4 c Margarine or butter

1 c Peanut butter plus additional 2/3 C peanut butter

1 c Chocolate Chips

 

Melt margarine (or butter) and peanut butter. Add crushed crackers and sugar. 

Press into 9x13 pan. 

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips with 2/3 cup peanut butter.

Spread over the top. Cool and munch

My Lifesavers as a Mommy.

           All moms have their things.  The things that work for their child to get them to settle down if they're crying or being fussy.  The things that work to keep their child asleep through the night.  The things that might sound silly to everyone else but for some reason just seems to make their child happy.  Jesalyn will be six months old in a couple of weeks (where has the time gone!!!) and as I look back on those months, there have been several things I have used to calm her, but there have only been three that I have used from the day she was born and are still using today.  These three things really have been lifesavers for me.  Without them, I probably would not have made it.  Lets just be honest.  Jesalyn has not been an easy baby.  Jarrod jokes that she's more like our second or third child.  "Your first one is suppose to be easy.  Suppose to get you used to the parenting thing, prepare you for other children."  Let's just say IF we have any more children, we are going to be rockstars after raising our little JesaBear.  Please don't get me wrong.  I'm not complaining. I love her more than words can describe, and I would do it all over again, but she has been a handful.  =)  But as I was saying, the following three things have been cornerstones for our parenting.

This is the sound part of her mobile.  We haven't really used the actual mobile part, but we've replaced the batteries on the sound part more times than I want to think about.  There are three settings, but Jesalyn has always liked the nature button. It basically is just the sound of ocean waves rising and falling.  We use this at night when she is sleeping.  It's set to a timer ,but she got to the point where after it went off at night, she would wake herself up. Luckily it comes with a remote.  Just picture groggy parents sitting up, every 45 minutes, eyes still closed, pushing the button on the remote and falling back into bed.  That is us, every night.  Yes, it stinks waking up so often but it keeps her asleep and we don't have to actually get out of bed to rock her back to sleep.   She's starting to be able to sleep without out, thank goodness.  Last night we only had to restart it three times. 

Every night, before we but Jesalyn in her bed, she gets swaddled.  When she was first born she was too small to fit in an actual swaddler so we used blankets.  She would always fight it at first but once we finished and got the last little material tucked in, she calmed immediately.  This is suppose to be good because when babies are in the womb they're all tight and snug, so while we would never want to be bound up like this all night, they acutally find in comforting.  Any time we put her to bed without out it she would wake herself up with an arm or hand.  This is also good because it also acts like a blanket. It keeps her warm without having to put anything additional in the bed, which is a big no no when they are still babies.   She has gotten to the point where she tries to wiggle her hands out of it now.  It's so cute when we wake up in the morning, all you see is this little girl all snuggled up with three little fingers sticking out of the top.

 And last but not least.  Remember above where I said it might sound silly to everyone else, but works for you child???

*               *                *

Yes, this is my TV with static on it.  You would not believe how many times we have had to use this.  Apparently, inside the womb is really loud and kind of sounds like white noise, so the sound of static is somehow comforting to a baby. At least that's what they say.  I also read somewhere that babies can't listen and cry at the same time.  They have to choose one or the other.  Whatever the reason, this works.  I promise.  Back before we figured out Jesalyn's issue with her formula this channel would be on the TV for hours.  It actually became a verb in our house.  Jesalyn: crying and screaming   Jarrod: "Where's the remote?  Can you 21 it?"  21 is our static channel. As soon as this channel came on she would immediately stop crying and just look around.  While we don't use it quite so often nowadays, there are still instances when we will.  There are nights, or days, when she has gotten herself so tired she can't sleep, and she's just restless.  We'll flip it over to 21 and within seconds her eyes roll to the back of her head and she's out.  This also works with a hair dryer.     Disclaimer:  this trick will not work if your baby is in real pain. While it calmed Jesa down with her tummy problems with the formula, when she was really hurting she chose the crying over the listening.   

A day at the mall

So yesterday after I got out of a doctor's appointment, we decided to take advantage of my half day off of work and enjoy the weather.  What better way to do that than going to the mall!  We bought a smaller stroller (we didn't want to take the jogging one, plus the first time we used it we found out the tires were flat.  Seriously?  Brand new stroller...flat tires...not cool.)  Anyway, we weren't sure if she was big enough for it, because it sits up kind of vertical but we thought we would give it a try anyway.  Jesalyn loved it!  I think she enjoyed all the people and action going on.  Plus, what girl doesn't like to shop a little =)

We stopped in at Target and you know I had to look at the clothes.  We found the most adorable dress for Easter:

  I tried it on her and it's way too big in the top.  She has such tiny shoulders.  I'm going to try and see if they have a smaller size tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!  It's just too cute for her not to wear it.

Diaper Bags and Ducks

So, I have been on the search for a new diaper bag.  The first one I bought was just something I picked up because I was tired of finding all these adorable bags I liked but couldn't buy because they were like $300.  Seriously, diaper bags are ridiculously expensive.  So I found one at JC Penny's and bought it.  It only took 1 trip out with it and I knew it wasn't going to work.  It was way, way too small.  It came with a larger one, but that one was way too big.  But I dealt.  I used the small one, dead set on not wasting money on a larger, much cuter one.  Well, three months into it, the zipper broke (because I was trying my best to get what I needed into it and then making the zipper zip.)  This was the perfect excuse to go diaper bag shopping again.  I still refused to spend a ton of money though.  So, last weekend we were hanging out at Target (it was a nice day and we needed to get Jesalyn out.)  I walked through the purses and saw these bags hanging up.  No, they weren't diaper bags, but by golly it was just the right size and for $12.99 the price was perfect.  Plus, it was much cuter than most of the "decent" priced diaper bags I had seen.  So, I picked it up and bought it.  I also had a gift card, so I didn't pay a penny.

And I just so happened to have a little money left on my gift card and needed a new purse and found this:

I must have been in a black and white mood that day but I love them both.

And y'all know I have to have a picture of Jesalyn up.   I think she's been teething because she chews on Everything and she drools so much that the entire top of her outfits get soaked.  Anyway, she does this thing where she bites down on her gums and she looks just like a duck.  Jarrod and I laugh so hard when she does it.  I tried to get a picture of her and got one last night towards the end of her doing it.  Sorry it's a little blurry. She was moving.

Wordless Wednesday

5 Months old

First Cereal

After talking with our doctor, we decided it was time for Jesalyn to try her first bit of cereal last night. Enjoy!

 

Mommy let me chew on the spoon while I was waiting for daddy to make my food

First bite (notice the un-messy bib) I loved it!

 

"Don't be stingy dad!  Get in my mouth" 

 "Not fast enough.  Let me help you"

 

"Never-mind, I'll just do it myself"

 

"What?"

Needless to say, she loved the cereal.  We couldn't get in her mouth fast enough.  She cried every time we took the spoon to the bowl to get more. At one point, Jarrod put the spoon in her mouth and she used her fingers to scoop the cereal into her mouth faster.  So funny.  So I guess it was hit.   My little girl is growing up =)

Mommy (or Daddy) Question

When did y'all start adding food and/or cereal to you baby's diet.  Jesalyn has started waking up again in the middle of the night just to eat.  She'll wake up, eat 6 ounces and go right back to sleep.  I've always heard this was one of the signs that it's time to start adding a little bit of cereal.  Plus, she's going to be 5 months next week and I thought that 4 months was around the time to do it.  We're suppose to see her doctor next week and go over adding food, but I thought I'd get y'alls opinion.  At what age did you add it? Did you start with cereal? And how much?
Thanks!