Milestone Alert: 12 months

Well, we did it! Our baby survived an entire year without us royally screwing her up! Time to celebrate! Let's have some cake.

This month, we took Norah for professional pictures instead of taking one on our living room chair. They turned out really well and of course they suckered us into the ultra deluxe package.

Here are some more shots from the session:

 As far as Norah's schedule goes, it hasn't really changed too much.

Breakfast at 7:30 am 
4 ounces whole milk
Whole wheat pancakes or french toast
fruit (ex. cut up bananas)

Nap for about a half hour around 9:30 am
4 ounces milk when she wakes up
small snack like yogurt or crackers

Lunch at 12:30 pm
4 ounces whole milk
1 package of Gerber Graduates toddler food (Example: Gerber Graduates, Mac & Cheese with Chicken & Vegetables )
a vegetable or fruit (whatever daycare is serving that day - the last few days it's been corn or green beans)

Nap around 2 pm (sometimes this one doesn't happen and she sleeps for about 20 minutes when we get home from daycare)
4 ounces whole milk when she wakes up
another snack like the one above

Dinner at 6 pm
4 ounces formula
Whatever we are eating for dinner cut up into small pieces (Example: Last night we had tortellini and meatballs so I just cut them up and let her eat while we ate)
Fruit Yogurt melts

Sleep at 7:30 pm

As you can see, we've cut out formula for good. YAY! We've also made the switch to straw cups instead of bottles. DOUBLE YAY!

Happy Birthday, Norah!!

Birthday Party Invites - Under the Sea

Now that everyone has safely received their invitation, I thought I'd share it with the world.

So how did I put this monster together? Well, each one took about an hour start to finish. First, I traced and cut out the octopus pattern. After all the octopi were cut, I glued one on top of the other in reverse. This creates the eight legged look.

I ordered the card stock from Cards and Pockets because I couldn't find anything that inexpensive in my local stores. Since it's two pieces, I had to mount the blue card onto the pink one. Before I did that, I printed directly onto the blue card using my home printer.

Of course, I did not have any good fonts on my computer so I did a quick internet search for "free sailing fonts" and found these.

Once the cards were printed and glued together, I attached an octopus to each. Then I went back and attached googly eyes for a fun effect. At that point, it felt like it was still missing something. I stared at it and wondered what I could do to punch it up. Then I remembered I had a bag of foam board sea creatures that I purchased from A.C. Moore. The pack came with these little starfish that were just perfect for a bow on the octopus' head.

While everything was drying, I addressed the envelopes and then stuffed them.

NOTE: If you make this invitation for yourself, take it to the post office. The foam board I used made the invitation too thick to be processed as regular mail and needed extra postage. ($0.66 if you're wondering!)

Stay tuned next week as I leak some other ideas I have for Norah's birthday bash!

Weekend Recap - 3.4.13

This weekend was pretty low key for Norah. We spent Saturday getting haircuts and buying all sorts of yummy baby food.

For most of Sunday morning, Norah was either playing or zooming around with her (not so) new walker that a friend lent us. She really loves walking with that thing, but she gets total jelly legs when we try to hold her hands and stand her up. She has the strength, she's just a total chicken!

 

Sunday afternoon was a girl's day for me, so Norah spent some time with Dad and her grandparents.

Food wise, Norah was not much of an eater this weekend. She didn't finish her breakfast either day, and she downright refused to eat her carrots at snack time. Since her first birthday is fast approaching, we're starting to wean her off of formula and on to milk. The whole weekend she did half milk, half formula and she drank it out of straw cups! This is some real progress. Soon we'll be done with formula and bottles! YAY!!!!!!!

Have a great week, everyone!

Baby Book of the Week: Newbery Edition

Yesterday's post was getting a bit too long for my tastes, so I decided to bring the reading fun to you over two days. Today I'll talk about the Newbery Medal winner and honorees. Note that these books are for older readers (the books below range from ages 8 and up), so use your own judgement when reading to your little ones!

"The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." [Source]


The 2013 award went to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, about a gorilla named Ivan who befriends a baby elephant named Ruby. Newbery Medal Committee Chair Steven Engelfried says this about the book: “Katherine Applegate gives readers a unique and unforgettable gorilla’s-eye-view of the world that challenges the way we look at animals and at ourselves.”

Three other children's books were awarded a Newbery Honor, as well - Splendors and Gloom, Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, and Three Times Lucky.

Missed yesterday's post? Click here to read about the Caldecott winners.

Books Mentioned Above 

Title: The One and Only Ivan
Author and Illustrator: Katherine Applegate and Patricia Castelao
Pages: 300
Format: Hardcover

Title: Splendors and Glooms
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover

Title: Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
Author: Steve Sheinkin
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover

Title: Three Times Lucky
Author: Sheila Turnage
Pages: 312
Format: Hardcover

Baby Book of the Week: Caldecott Edition

This week Norah and I are reading classic Dr. Seuss: Yertle the Turtle. Like most Dr. Seuss books, this story has a lesson - even the little people wayyyyy at the bottom of the pile have rights. It's a great thing to learn, and one I'm sure we're explain using this story when she begins to understand a little better. Right now, it's just fun to read the rhymes!

In other book news, the Caldecott and Newbery Awards came out.



The Caldecott Medal "was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." [Source]



This year, the award went to This is Not my Hat, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen. Caldecott Chair Sandra Imdieke had this to say about it: “With minute changes in eyes and the slightest displacement of seagrass, Klassen’s masterful illustrations tell the story the narrator doesn’t know.”

Caldecott Honors also went to Creepy Carrots, Extra Yarn, Green, One Cool Friend and Sleep Like a Tiger.


Even though work is crazy right now, I still managed to get in some reading of my own. I finished a book called Unravel Me about a 17 year old girl with the power to kill people with just her touch. . It is a sequel and it ended on a cliffhanger that has me frothing at the mouth for the next book in the series.

After that, I started Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I am only about 6% in, but so far it has me guessing. It is written in first person and switches between the current story narrated by Nick (the husband) and the past - also written in first person, but told through the diary entries of Amy (the wife).  This style makes me want to keep reading to find out what, if anything, Nick is hiding about the disappearance of his wife.

Please stay tuned for tomorrow's post where I'll talk about the other big winners this week: The Newbery!

Books Mentioned in This Post

Title: Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
Author: Dr. Seuss
Format: Hardcover

Title: This Is Not My Hat
Author and Illustrator: Jon Klassen
Pages: 40
Format: Hardcover

Title: Creepy Carrots!
Author and Illustrator: Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown
Pages: 40
Format: Hardcover

Title: Extra Yarn
Author and Illustrator: Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
Pages: 40
Format: Hardcover

Title: Green
Author and Illustrator:Laura Vaccaro Seger
Pages: 36
Format: Hardcover

Title: One Cool Friend
Author and Illustrator: Toni Buzzeo and David Small
Pages: 32
Format: Hardcover

Title: Sleep Like a Tiger
Author and Illustrator: Mary Logue and Pamela Zagarenski
Pages: 40
Format: Hardcover

Title: Unravel Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Pages: 461
Format: Hardcover

Title: Gone Girl: A Novel
Author: Gillian Flynn
Pages: 419
Format: Hardcover