11 Months Old

Yikes! My baby is almost a year old! He has started so many thing this last month. I can't believe he's changing so quickly. We're slowly but surely moving into toddler-hood and I'm just not sure I'm ready. I love seeing him learn so many things though - makes a momma proud! I really don't know his weight and length but we'll get those stats at his 12 month check-up.

Let's see what all our little stinker has been up to...

-He started sitting up from a laying down position. He's always sitting up when I go in his room in the mornings or after he wakes up from nap.
-He's crawling! I call it a gimpy crawl. He uses one leg out and "walks" it while he drags other knee behind him. It's so cute to see him getting from one place to another. This also means he's into everything! I feel like "No-no" is my new favorite phrase :)
-We have a TOOTH! His first tooth popped through about two weeks ago and it's adorable! It's not all the way in yet so I can't really get a good picture of it yet. I'll be sure to post that when I get it.
-He's still nursing about 4 times a day. My plan is wean him at a year old so we will see how it goes. I want to do it slowly but I also want to make sure he adapts to cow's milk first.
-He's becoming a picky eater. He loves snack foods, cheese, crackers, puffs, cereal. However, we're having some problems with real foods. He eats a bite or two and doesn't want it anymore. This goes for potatoes, mac and cheese or any other "real meal" type foods. He also refuses some 3rd food baby foods. But I can always get him to eat pureed veggies or bite-sized fruits. Oh well, it's a working progress.
-He loves his musical table and will stand up against it and play for the longest time.
-He is very sensitive to loud noises and will get upset easily over them. When that happens he only wants Mommy :) I'm sure he will grow out of some of that though.
-He loves to ride around in his cars. He has an indoor push/ride car and an outdoor one. He holds onto the steering wheel and is ready to roll!

We're enjoying our first fall with Preston and his first Halloween is coming up! He was born 4 days after Halloween last year so we just missed it :) And his costume is adorable! We went to the Pumpkin Patch and Homestead Hollow with Preston this past weekend so stay tuned for more on those! In the meantime, here's two pictures of Preston in the "big car" and yes, we are parked and the motor was off :)

Bunko Menu & Recipes

I hosted Bunko at my house last night for my awesome group of girls and I wanted to share the menu and recipes. It was about 40 degrees last night (kind of crazy this early into fall) and we played outside. So under the circumstances I wanted to make sure we had some warm comfort food to "stick to our bones."

Our menu consisted of:
Chicken Spaghetti
Oven-Baked Green Beans
Legendary Lionhouse Rolls
Blackberry Cobbler


Chicken Spaghetti - I tried the Chicken Spaghetti recipe from Mommy's Kitchen and it was fabulous! It's a lot easier to just give you the link to her recipe instead of me typing it all again so here it is! Chicken Spaghetti

Oven-Baked Green Beans - I used a recipe that a friend and fellow bunko player made for us one night and it's still my favorite! And so easy! This is not an exact measurement kind of recipe. You just add to your taste.

You will need:
Canned Green Beans
Brown Sugar
Bacon Bits
Butter

Rinse and drain greens beans. Add to casserole dish. Add remaining ingredients to your taste. I usually add a few tbls of each per can of green beans. Mix together and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Stir and serve!

Legendary Lionhouse Rolls - This is also a recipe from Mommy's Kitchen. Can you tell I love her blog? This was my first time making homemade rolls and it was a long but fun experience. It's not hard, you just have to allow time for the dough to rise a few times. I made the dough and rolls early in the day and then put them in the refrigerator until time to bake. My first mistake was not taking them out in time to rise back up before baking. My second mistake was baking them on the lower rack of the oven (the top was full of chicken spaghetti). Therefore my rolls ended up a little less puffy and a little too brown on the bottom. HOWEVER, they still tasted great and I would definitely recommend the recipe. Next time I think they will be just perfect! Here's the link Legendary Lionhouse Rolls

Blackberry Cobbler - This has become my husband's favorite dessert since I made it the first time a few months ago. He made me promise to save him some to eat after Bunko was over. This is a great recipe for this fall and winter. I found it over at Allrecipes - love that website too. However, I did tweak the "putting together" process which I think is lots easier. I have included the original directions as well as my own notes on how I did it.

You will need:
1 cup butter or margarine, divided
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour*
1/3 cup milk, room temperature
2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar

In a 10-in. round or oval baking dish, melt 1/2 cup butter; set aside. In a saucepan, heat sugar and water until sugar melts; set aside. Place flour in a mixing bowl; cut in remaining butter until fine crumbs form. Add milk, stirring with a fork until dough leaves sides of bowl. Turn out onto a floured surface; knead three or four times. Roll out to an 11-in. x 9-in. rectangle 1/4 in. thick. Spread berries over dough; sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll up, jelly-roll style. Cut into 1/4-in. thick slices. Carefully lay slices in baking dish over butter. Pour sugar syrup around slices (syrup will be absorbed). Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Sprinkle sugar over top and bake 15 minutes more. Serve warm or cold. (*If self-rising flour is not available, use 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2-1/4 teaspoons baking powder.)

My Notes: I only melted 1/4 cup of butter in the pan and it is plenty. Instead of doing the jelly-roll style method, I opted for rolling out my dough into two sheets of dough the size of the pan. I put one sheet of dough on top of the melted butter in the pan, added the blackberres and cinnamon, topped it with the second sheet of dough and then poured the sugar syrup on top.

I hope you enjoy!

Ten Things I LOVE about You

Preston in his airbrush shirt from the beach!

We have made it to double digits...10 months old! In recognition of his age, I thought a list of ten things I love about my boy seemed appropriate. But before we get to that, here's Preston's current stats!

Eating is pretty much the same. He nurses about 4 times a day. He has increased his variety of table food though. Some of his favorites are string cheese, mini pancakes, frozen waffles (still frozen, feels good on his gums) and Ritz crackers. He still loves diced fruit too, particularly pears, peaches and apples. Some new ones are sweet potato fries, tortillas, and ravioli. He is very interested in everything we eat so I try and let him have a taste of anything appropriate for him!

On a good day, he has a morning nap and an afternoon nap. Some days he has no problem with both but other days (like today) he rebels and fights a nap all day long. I got him down for about an hour today and that's it. Hopefully we'll have fewer of these going forward because today was a bit rough on us both.

He can stand up against something for a few minutes at a time but then forgets his balance and plops down. He's getting better at it each day. He gets around a room but doesn't do your typical crawl. He is more of a scooter.

Still no teeth yet...maybe by next month!

Ten Things I Love about You, Preston Blake:
1. I love that you smile right after you sneeze
2. I love to hear your sweet voice "talk" through the monitor
3. I love to watch your chubby fingers reach and grasp hold of food/objects
4. I love that you reach to me for comfort
5. I love how you grab my hands to pull yourself to a standing position
6. I love how you stare at people
7. I love that you demand attention by yelling/squealing
8. I love seeing features of your Daddy and I in your precious face
9. I love that your arms and hands move nonstop
10. I love being your mother

Happy 10 months, Pookie!

Beach Boy

We just got back from our first beach trip with Preston. We went down to Panama City with my parents and my brother and family. Our whole Reeves clan was there minus my older brother, Shane. He lives in South Carolina and wasn't able to make it down with us.

Now, not only was this our first beach trip, it was our very first vacation with Preston. Until our trip, he had never spent the night away from home. Needless to say, I was stressing myself out big time getting us prepared. I started packing several days in advance and as a result, we ended up with 1 large suitcase, 2 big duffel bags, a beach tent, a pack-and-play, a full beach bag, a food supply tote bag, a full diaper bag, a shoe bag, a car ride bag, Preston's little backpack and a blanket and pillow. Yikes! We also had my parents riding with us in the car so their luggage had to go too, of course. Thankfully, my Dad and Blake are used to my ridiculous over-packing and managed to snugly fit everything into the Pilot. Whew :)

We left out at 4:00 a.m. Thursday morning in the hopes that Preston would sleep the majority of the drive down. I was really worried about him being confined so long but he did surprisingly well. After only one stop to the gas station, two naps for Preston, some snacks and juice and his favorite Nursery Rhymes DVD, we made it to PC by 10:00 a.m. He's such a good boy!

Our condo was wonderful. We stayed at the Splash Resort which has a mini water park inside. They have something for all ages. One end has a small splash pad for the little tykes, then there is a lazy river (mine and Preston's fav), two pools, and a water playground-type thing for the older kids. It was great because the lazy river was halfway shaded as well as one of the pools so there was not much worry for sunburn for the kids. The water playground was covered as well. My two nephews loved it there. However, there was one negative side to the playground...the huge bucket of water that dumped every two minutes or so. It was MASSIVE and when it dumped, A) there was so much water that anyone standing beneath could easily be washed away and B) it was incredibly loud and scary for little ones. We found this out the first day when we walked down there with Preston. He was scared to death! And he didn't forget it the whole time we were there. You could hear it from the beach and he would strain to see that it wasn't coming for him. poor guy. He also got scared of the ocean waves because they sounded similar to the bucket. Oh well, Maybe next year he won't remember it :)

As for the things he did like, he loved to play in the sand and he loved to splash in the pools. His favorite, as well as mine, was to float in the lazy river in our laps. It was so relaxing.

We had a great time with our family. We took some family beach photos and went out to eat and just relaxed as much as possible. Preston was a trooper but by 7:30 each night he was ready to get in bed. So, some of our dinners were cut a little short but we didn't mind. Vacations are definitely different with a little one but we wouldn't have it any other way. My parents stayed in with Preston the last night and Blake and I went out for a date night. We had some great seafood, play putt-putt and picked up some Dippin Dots, yum. However, we had our boy on our minds so we bought him a pair of squeaky shoes and got him an airbrush shirt. It has his name and a crab on it. You have to get an airbrush shirt the first time you go to the beach, right? We also picked him up a pair of Nikes that are just adorable. I can't wait until he's walking around in them.

We headed home Labor Day morning and made a stop at Peach Park in Clanton. We always stopped there on the way to/from the beach when I was a kid so I hope to do it with Preston each time too. It's so pretty there and the ice cream is fabulous. My Dad and I each got a double cone, one side peach and the other banana. Nothing much better than that! And of course I had to bring home some peaches. We took a few pictures by the giant peach and headed for home.

We had such a great time and I can't wait to go again. Stay tuned for Preston's 10 month update!

9 Months

Boy, nine months seems like a long time when you are pregnant...funny how that changes. It really does feel like I just had Preston. My fellow moms sent their kids off to school for the first day back today. I have a feeling that's going to be me before I can blink an eye...okay, no more mushiness. Now to the fun stuff!

We had Preston's nine month check-up on Monday. He currently weighs 22 lbs 11 oz (80%) and measures 28.5 inches (57%). Oh and his head measured 18.5 (not sure of the percentile on it). I was quite surprised at his percentages, given he has been in the 90th bracket of both weight and length since he was born. But the doctor said he was very healthy and looked great! And that's all that matters to us. No shots this time so even Preston enjoyed the doctor visit. He sat and listed to everything she had to say - he's very curious of people :)

Here is Preston's typical schedule throughout the day.
Wakes between 5:30-6:30 to nurse
Goes back to sleep until 8:30 or 9:00 (sometimes longer)
Wakes and nurses, then has his oatmeal
Playtime
Takes a morning nap around 10:30 or 11:00 for about an hour or two
Wakes and nurses, then has lunch. He eats a veggie & a fruit and has a little bit of juice/water or G2 (lower sugar Gatorade)
Playtime and/or running errands with Mommy.
If we are at home, he will take another nap around 4:00. Otherwise, he naps in the car while we're out. He prefers not to nap once we get home :)
After his afternoon nap, he has a snack while Mommy starts on dinner. Usually it's a pack of MumMums, puffs or some grapes in his mesh feeder (loves the feeder).
Playtime/cartoons with Daddy while Mommy finishes dinner
Nurses around 6:30, followed by his dinner. He has part of a 3rd foods meat/veggie or pasta/veggie along with a fruit or yogurt. He also has a little more juice/water.
Bathtime is around 7:30 and Bedtime is 8:00

Fun Facts:
-He loves to roll around and while on his tummy, he will "walk" his upper body around with his arms to get to a toy. I think crawling is coming soon.
-He can stand momentarily against an object, but still needs support
-Unless he has a toy in them, his arms are usually spread out wide and his hands are wiggling and waving. He's a busy boy.
-He loves to yell...and loudly. He demands your attention asap :)
-Riding in the buggy is a new fun adventure. I think he likes it better than his stroller. He takes in all the sights.
-He reaches up for me to pick him up. Heart melting :)
-Has a touch of separation anxiety when I leave the room. It's not too bad if he's preoccupied with someone/something.
-He loves our cat and dog and squeals and laughs when they come near him. I have a feeling they won't be coming around him once he gets too mobile...
-Loves electronics, including cell phones, remote controls and the laptop. I just bought him a toy remote which he is slightly interested in...until he spots the real one.
-Hates Chicken noodle baby food
-Does very well feeding himself puffs or yogurt melts. It's so cute to watch.
-Also does very well holding/drinking out of his sippy cup.
-Table foods he has tried: baked potato, mashed potatoes, watermelon, bananas, mac n cheese. In his feeder he's had grapes and apples. We're working on trying more. We just recently bumped up to some 3rd foods.
-No teeth yet. I'm sure they will be coming soon.
-He loves cartoons on Nick Jr. He drops everything he's doing if the t.v. comes on so he can see what's show it is. He already has favorites.

I guess that's about it for this month. I'm posting one of his nine month photos taken by Ann Wade Parrish. She always does an awesome job for us. They turned out wonderful! I'll post more later, it just takes forever! New recipe post below.

Cheeseburger Pockets

We tried this one tonight and it was incredibly yummy! The recipe makes a lot so if you have a small family, I recommend cutting it in half. This is a very inexpensive meal so it would be a great for a crowd when you have a small budget.

You will need:

1 lb ground beef
2 cans Grands Biscuits (8 biscuits in each can)
8 slices American Cheese

Preheat oven according to biscuit package directions. Brown meat and season as desired. I used seasoning salt, black pepper, garlic powder and dried thyme. Roll out biscuits. Spoon a few tablespoons of meat onto one half of the biscuit. Top with 1/2 slice of cheese. Fold over the remaining half of the biscuit and seal with a fork. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Tips/Suggestions:
Chopped onion is an option to add while browning the meat
I used sliced cheddar cheese instead of American. It's your preference.
I used homestyle biscuits instead of flaky. They may not hold the pocket together as well.

Spontaneous Pneumothorax

What a mouthful! That's the term told to me by husband's doctor when he phoned to explain why he was admitting Blake into the hospital - a collapsed lung. Here I am cleaning the house, fully aware that Blake is at the doctor's office for some chest pain. He had begun to feel the pain the night before, along with a cough and headache. We both thought he might be coming down with pneumonia. Wrong. I couldn't believe it when Blake told me the diagnosis. I immediately freaked out and got upset, not knowing what this meant. This is why the doctor called me to further explain. Basically, there was a "pocket" of air outside of the lung which causes it to collapse. It is termed "spontaneous" if there is no underlying problem to cause the collapse (i.e. injury or lung disease). The doctor assured me the problem could be corrected but Blake would need to be admitted for observation to be sure nothing got worse. I don't care what anyone says, when I'm told my husband is being hospitalized for an illness that affects his breathing, I'm going to be scared and upset. God is so good though. As soon we I hung up the phone, I prayed for Blake and for peace of mind to get us through this situation. I felt so helpless but God reminded me that he is in control and would get us through this.

Blake spent a day and full night in the hospital, wearing an oxygen mask. The goal of the oxygen was to help the escaped air around the lungs be reabsorbed more quickly. Thankfully, this worked for Blake. Otherwise, they would have placed a needle in the lung to try and remove some of the air. Blake's X-ray the next morning confirmed it was getting better. The doctors told Blake there is no timeline for full recovery. They said as long as the pain did not get worse, he may expect to feel pain and discomfort for a while. It's also possible for this to happen again, though there is nothing specific he can avoid to prevent it. However, Blake was instructed to take the rest of this week off from work and no work-outs for a month. The latter was the toughest blow for Blake. He and I have been doing the P90X program for the past two months and besides the benefits of the exercise, we really enjoy doing it together. He has lost 30 pounds in the last four months and I'm so proud of how hard he has worked for it. But the most important thing is keeping Blake healthy so a month is not that much time in the long run.

So the three of us have been laying low this week and getting Blake to rest as much as possible. I love taking care of my two boys :) Side note: I really felt I needed to be with Blake in the hospital so we experienced our first night away from Preston. My parents graciously spent the night at our house while we were gone. I was afraid Preston would not do so well away from his crib so having them at our house gave me more peace of mind. And he did great! I'm so glad he was such a good boy for his grandparents. We sure missed him though!!!

We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers received for Blake. We have such wonderful family and friends!
Stay tuned for Preston's 9 month update!