Back to Blogging

Wow! I don’t even want to look back and see the last time I blogged. It’s been forever. I put blogging on the back burner because honestly, I couldn’t find the time. By the time TM decides to go to sleep I‘m so drained that I just didn’t make the time to sit down and blog.

I miss it so much! I really want to document what’s been going on in our lives and I seriously need a place to vent. I’m pretty sure Bert is tired of listening to all my issues and pretending to be interested in what I have to say. So this is my official re-entry into Blog Land, where I post all my problems for all the world to see – okay maybe just the few followers I have left! I love you guys and I miss keeping up with everyone!

So consider yourself warned. Expect random blog posts to show up in your feed about things that no longer pertain to my life. I’ll be editing and posting some drafts that have been patiently waiting to be shared with y’all and I’ll be catching up on everything that’s been going on in the Denton home.

In case you’ve forgotten us here’s a recent pic of the fam jam!

Flashback.....

I cannot believe my baby girl is a year old! I am super sad. She is growing up so fast. I'm working on catching up on blogging but Turner Mc broke our laptop and now the screen randomly falls off and it's hard to keep it on. So I'm trying to blog at my parents house.

Since she's a year old I thought I would re-post the birth story so we can all relive the day she was born. Yay us!!! :)

Part 1 and Part 2

Thanks for sticking with me! I love you guys!!

Turner Mc–10 Months

January 10th – 10 months old……

It’s crazy how fast time goes by. And how uninterested TM was with having her picture made.

She’s more interested in standing up and cruising around holding on to things and walking all over the house.

Weight: 16.5 lbs

Height: 27 inches

Clothing Size: Mostly 9 months clothes. She has a teeny butt and a lot of the pants are too big in the waist.

Diapers: size 2

Feeding: Her appetite has gotten so much better. She’s starting to eat a lot more and she’s not nearly as picky as she was. She still loves her some mac & cheese. Cheerios, fruit loops, bananas are also favs.

She’s nursing 3 or 4 times a day and taking formula on occasion.

Hair/Eyes: Blue eyes. Dark strawberry blonde hair.

Sleep: She’s sleeping mostly through the night. Other than when she’s been teething, she sleeps great. It hasn’t been hard to get her to sleep so that’s been great.

Naps are getting better too. She naps in the morning for about 2 hours and another hour or so nap in the late afternoon.

Favorites: She loves looking at herself in the mirror. She’s still loving books and bath time; her paci, the dogs, her activity table, and she’s starting to notice her baby dolls.

Fun stuff: Turner Mc is starting to take a couple steps. She’ll walk maybe 2 steps and then fall into your arms or sit down and crawl. And lets talk about her teeth. She got the top 2 and maybe a week later she got 2 more on top. It was crazy fast!

She’s starting to talk a lot more. She says Dayne, no-no, mama, da da, nan nan and kitty. She’s all about giving love. I can tell her to give her baby love and she opens her mouth wide and slobbers all over it!

She’s so much fun and she’s hilarious!

Turner Mc–9 Months

December 10th – 9 months…..

Weight: 15.15 pounds – she’s in the 5th percentile for her weight

Height: 27 inches – 50th percentile for height

Clothing Size: still wearing some 6 months clothes and starting to fit in some 9 month stuff

Diapers: size 2

Feeding: Let’s see….what does my child eat? Puffs and prunes. The end. Oh and of course milkies! Our pediatrician encouraged us to start feeding TM whatever we are eating as long as it’s soft. Since she’s so picky and she hasn’t gained much weight we are trying everything. She lives on prunes, puffs, and mac & cheese.

Hair/Eyes: Eyes are bright blue and her hair is a little thicker and darker to me.

Sleep: Sleep is the best it’s been. I’m finally starting to feel normal again!

Naps are a struggle but she’s starting to get on a schedule and it seems to be helping.

Favorites: The child LOVES books. She’s still loving bath time, her daddy, the dogs and cats. She’s really in to giving love and screaming loudly any chance she gets! She also loves brushing her teeth and doing anything I tell her not to do.

Fun stuff: She’s crawling all over the place! It’s so much fun to watch! She’s pulling up on everything and now that she’s mobile I never get any rest. I say “no-no” at least 737 times a day.

She’s working on some new teeth – the top two – so that’s fun.

That completes our 9 months…..I’m almost caught up y’all!! Thanks for being awesome readers and hanging around. You rock!!

Turner McCartney–8 Months

Whoops! You guessed it! I’m still waaay behind on posting these updates. I take the pictures and jot down the things I need to remember and then, nothing. I’m going to post her 8th and 9th month updates and then do her 10 month post before she turns 11 months on the 10th. Pinky promise!!!

Picture taking has become interesting. At this point she no longer cares to smile or cooperate.

Weight: 15.5 pounds

Height: 26 inches

Clothing Size: 6 month clothes and some 9 month pjs

Diapers: Still in a size 2

Feeding: Eating lots of baby food and puffs and nursing 3-4 times a day.

Hair/Eyes: Eyes are bright blue and her hair is a little thicker and darker to me.

Sleep: She’s sleeping through the night for the most part. Aside from a few teething issues sleep has been great!

Her naps are getting better and I’m learning the hard way that we need a schedule. And I am not the schedule kinda mom.

Favorites: Turner Mc is loving her daddy. A major daddy phase is going on. She also loves her paci, the dogs (especially Dayne), and the cats. She’s addicted to baby crack, I mean puffs.

Fun stuff: She crawls!! My kid can totally crawl! And she has TWO teeth! It seems like she just woke up with them one day. She was fussy for maybe a week. It wasn’t bad at all.

She’s extremely vocal and loves to scream and shriek as loud as she can. She says mama and da da and she’s been perfecting her Vietnamese. She’s the most fun and her personality is awesome!

Oh yeah….remember Thanksgiving?!? She was 8 months back then.

And seriously, I love y’all!

Baby Food Makin’–Part Dos

Part 1

I wanted to go in to a little more detail with the baby food making process. (per Meagan’s request) It has worked great for us and I want to make it an easy process for y’all if you’re interested in making your babe’s food. And seriously this is so against my personality. But with the baby came this intense desire to be semi crunchy and I’m rolling with it!

When we can afford it I try to buy organic. Anything with a thick peel or skin I don’t worry about. If you’re going to peel it, then I don’t see the need to be neurotic about buying organic. I try to get organic carrots and peas and things that aren’t peeled. Please note that the hubs quite possibly finds this obnoxious. Whatever.

I thought I would list some popular baby foods and tell you how I prepared them.

Sweet Potato: I find it easiest to boil the sweet potato. I’ve boiled it whole with the skin on – it’s easier to peel once it’s boiled. If you’re trying to save time you can peel the potato and cube it then boil. I would say boil for 30 minutes or until tender. You can also bake the potato for 1 – 1.5 hours.

Apple: I have steamed apples and boiled them. Either way works fine. Peeling the apple first seems to be easier. You can go ahead and cut up the apple to make things faster.

Carrot: Carrots take FOREVER to cook. I like to boil them until they’re tender. When you’re pureeing it takes a lot of added water to make a smooth puree. 

Peas: I buy frozen organic sweet peas. The best way to prepare these is to steam them. I use a steamer insert in a boiler on the stove. You can buy the microwave steamer bags but we are a little anti-microwave at our house. Peas don’t take long to steam. You’ll need to add some water to get your puree smooth.

Squash & Zucchini: Boiled is the easiest way to prepare veggies like this. Just boil until tender. These veggies hold a lot of water so the puree can be watery. You can also cut it up and steam it.

Pear: Steam your pear until tender.

Blueberries: Frozen or fresh blueberries can be covered with water and boiled for about 5 minutes. TM loves her some blueberries.

Butternut Squash: This cooks best in the oven. Cut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Put the squash cut side down in a Pyrex dish. Fill the pan with a half inch of water and bake at 350* for 45 minutes to an hour. This makes a great puree.

Peaches: I steamed both fresh peaches and frozen peaches and both worked great.

Prunes: I bought dried prunes and pureed them with some water. TM loves prunes. The puree is pretty thick so I would wait until your babe is ready for stage 2 foods.

The secret to making baby food is finding what works best for you. It can be time consuming but it saves money and you can control what your baby eats. Just make sure whatever you’re cooking is tender and you’ll be fine. If you have any questions just leave me a comment or send me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to help you out.

Turner Mc–7 Months

So waaaay back in October my little chick pea turned 7 months! Yeah I know.

Weight: 14.5 pounds

Height: 25.5 inches

Clothing Size: 6 months

Diapers: Still in a size 2

Feeding: We are full on baby food now and nursing or bottle 3-4 times a day. 

Hair/Eyes: Bright blue eyes and her hair doesn’t look as red to me anymore. It’s still blonde but a little darker in my opinion. 

Sleep: Who knows. At this point I don’t know how often we get up or what goes on in the middle of the night.

Naps are touch and go and I swear if the kid didn’t look just like her daddy I’d think she were someone else’s child. He can sleep like no other, but the baby??? She doesn’t need sleep.

Favorites: She loves her walker and will go all over the place in that thing. She loves the dogs and has a new infatuation with the cats. She’s very vocal and loves to scream and shriek as loud as she can. Bath time is still so much fun and she loves playing with the cell phone.

Fun stuff: No crawling and no teeth. It’s crazy! She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth and she can drag herself around now but no “crawling.” She’s finally figured out how to balance herself and she does awesome sitting up on her own without falling over.

She’s eating all kinds of pureed baby food and working on getting a couple teeth….I hope. She says mama and dada and a couple other foreign words. She does everything on her own time and will not repeat anything. It has to be her idea. I’m pretty sure she knows who we are but she isn’t calling us by name, just mumbling. Humor me and tell me that she says mama and dada and knows what she’s saying!

If you still actually read my blog then you are an awesome bloggy friend! I swear I’m trying to find some balance between mommyhood and normalcy. Work throws me off and I try to spend all my down time with Turner McCartney and John Paul. By the time she’s in bed for the night I’m a goner. I love you guys and if you’re still around let me know!