Brayden: Month 5

+ Smiles and "Chats" constantly.

+ Wants to move constantly. I definitely think he will be an early crawler/walker.

+  Favorite Toys are his jumper and Sophie the Giraffe.

+ Still toothless but drooling constantly and chewing on everything.

+ LOVES his sister. When he is fussing we will say " Charlotte can you read your brother a book" and he immediately calms down.

Playground

Last Christmas (as in 2014), my family chipped in to buy a playground for Charlotte. We purchased The Brookside set on Black Friday from Sam's Club and it was delivered to our house by a freight truck. ( The exact set we bought is no longer available but this one is similar both in design and price). Well let me tell you that thing sat, and sat, and sat in our garage until this summer when Tim was on break.

While I was at work one day on a Thursday in June (very pregnant I might add), I get a text from Tim with this picture...

 

While Charlotte was napping, he had taken it upon himself to start assembling the playground. Being almost 8 months pregnant, I was super nervous about him starting this and not being able to finish without my help. Especially after the instructions recommended 2-3 people for assembly. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Tim was actually able to do 95% of the assembly by himself.  

 

The next day, we realized before we could really continue with the assembly, we had to clear the grass out. Tim attempted to do this by hand but we quickly realized that we needed a sod cutter. We rented one from Home Depot for a few hours so he could cut out the grass. After it was all cleaned out and leveled, he laid two layers of weedguard down. This is to prevent weeds from growing through the mulch. We have this in all the plant beds around the house and while it isn't 100% effective, it does greatly reduce the number of weeds that are able to pop through.  This is what things were looking like by the end of day two!

 

Next, we had to pick out what type of border we wanted. This was probably the hardest part for us. We didn't want stone as we were afraid the kids would trip on in. We wanted something with a lower profile that would hold up well in the sun and also wouldn't break the bank. We also wanted something that we could "shape"... not a traditional rectangle. We ended up coming across Dreamscapes on Pinterest and after a lot of debating, we decided to give it a go. We ended up ordering their decorative stone edging in sandstone.

 

The product came in about a weeks time. It is very light-weight and easy to install. We have had it installed for 6+ months now and it is still in perfect condition. None of the pieces have moved or popped up. So we are really pleased with both the look and the quality so far! We decided to use traditional mulch for now. Rubber mulch got a bad rap recently. In addition to that, we didn't want to spend any more money on this project while we were still working on the house addition as well. Here is the final product:

Our swing set actually came with two traditional yellow swings but we purchased a "baby" swing in a coordinating color on Amazon, knowing that we would need at least one baby swing for the next few years. Charlotte LOVES her playground. While we do have a neighborhood park, it is so nice to be able to sit outside and let her play freely in the backyard. Well worth the 6 month wait! :)

How do you know when your family is complete?

This is something I have been asking myself, almost daily, since Brayden was born in August. It seems like so many of my friends "knew" that they were done and I feel so uncertain. It doesn't help that I get asked almost daily " Are you guys planing on more children"?

Before we had Charlotte, Tim and I honestly thought we only wanted one child. Literally, the day we came home from the hospital with her we both declared we wanted another baby within the next two years. Brayden fell exactly into that time frame, fitting our plan perfectly. When I was pregnant with Brayden, I started to think "Is this my last time being pregnant? Will I know after he is born that our family is complete?' The answer: I still don't know!

At first Tim was adamant about only having two kids, after all three is a game changer. But then the night before my C-section we had a noncommittal talk about not being sure that this was the last time we would get to experience all the emotions that come with a new bundle of joy! Now here I sit, 4.5 months postpartum, honestly thinking about another baby. Is this hormones? Am I crazy? Or are three kids in the cards for us?

There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each. This is a little bit that goes through my head almost every day:
+ If we have more kids, will we have to move? I love my house and don't want to move.
+Is is OK if kids share rooms?
+ I'll have to get a minivan (I have actually already accepted this as my fate with two)
+ Will we be able to vacation/ do fun things as easily with three?
+ I really love the idea of having a big family.
+ I want to be pregnant and snuggle one more newborn.
+ I have two amazing kids, why stop there?
+ Some days I feel overwhelmed by 2, will I be able to handle three?
+ If we do have a third, should we have them close together or wait till Charlotte is in Kindergarten?
+ Are the grandmas up for watching three kids?

I keep telling myself, I don't NEED an answer now. I don't have to know NOW... I am still young (enough). After all, I have an infant still. But my type A personality gets the best of me! So I guess my question is: Did you know when your family was complete? If so, how?

Brayden: Month 4

 

+ Weighs 17lbs, 1oz and is 27.25 inches long. He is a BIG boy!

+ Can roll from tummy-to-back and back-to- tummy.

+ Has started sleeping in his crib at night but LOVES our bed. If I want him to take a long nap, I let him sleep in our bed in his "zippy" and I usually get 3 hours out of him.

+ Has the best belly laughs. My heart melts when he is laughing at his sister.

+ Has outgrown the swing and Rock-N- Play.. slow down little boy!

Share Meal Ideas

I am late in writing this considering our last produce share is gone and we are picking up again this Friday. But we tried some new meals this go round- one of the best things about the share it makes me think outside the box and come up with new meals to incorporate the produce. This was our last share:

Apples: It is hard to tell from the picture but we got a bad of the smallest apples EVER. I am talking 3 bites and its gone small. While I had no idea how we were going to use these, Charlotte has been loving them. I washed them all and put them in the fruit bin in the fridge and she helps herself. They are perfect for a toddler!

Cauliflower: We used it to make Cauliflower rice fish taco bowls. This is a meal we have had before but it has been SO long that I had forgotten about it. Our cauliflower made quite a bit of rice so we actually had enough to make beans and "rice" for lunch the next day.

Broccoli: Although not healthy AT ALL we added broccoli to this recipe for Crockpot Pierogi casserole. I knew I was going to have a late night at work and needed something that would be ready when I walked in.

Kale, tomatoes and mushrooms- I had a butternut squash at home that needed to be used which I roasted. I also had some cooked sausage crumbles leftover. I sautéed the kale, mushrooms and tomatoes with onions and garlic. Scooped out and mixed in the cooked squash and sausage crumbles. Loaded everything back into the squash, topped with cheese and broiled for a few minutes. Tim and I both loved this meal. Its weird that often the most "thrown together" meals turn out the best. I will definitely be making this again!

Pears and grapefruit: Breakfast staples for me. I have been obsessed with pear and brie quesadillas. I use whole wheat tortillas, a pear, some brie and a dash of cinnamon. I press it together and eat it with one of the grapefruits from the share for an easy breakfast.

Red Peppers: One of my "easy" go meals is chicken fajita bake. I don't follow the spices exactly as listed here ( we like more kick) but here is a general idea. The nice things it is we typically both get dinner and a lunch for the next day out of this meal. Lunch is usually served over a salad versus on a tortilla.

The persimmons STILL are not ripe! I have been reading up on them and they are supposed to be delicious but the key is to wait till they are ripe. I have them stored properly and am waiting for them to soften!

Looking forward to a new week of ideas to plan out!

Brayden: Month 3

+ I seriously CANNOT believe my baby boy is 3m old already.

+ He is quite the happy guy: smiles and laughs.

+ He loves sitting up: propped up, in the bumbo, on our lap.

+ Needs to be moving.. He is not happy unless the car seat or stroller is in motion.

+ We don't have a doctor's appointment until next month but we think he is over 15lbs.

+ Charlotte has taken to calling him " Mr. B" or " Little guy" which I think is hilarious.

+ Is a total mama's boy!

Let's talk produce...

Let me start by saying, I think we eat pretty healthy. However, I also always think there is room for improvement. That being said, organic produce and meats are expensive! I have been purchasing organic chicken and grass fed beef at Costco since they regularly carry those for reasonable prices. While Costco does often offer organic produce, it is very inconsistent and the assortment is not that great.

A member of one of my "mom groups" started up a new local pickup site with Annie's Organic Buying Club. Tim and I wanted a way to incorporate more organic produce both into our diets and our budget.  I did a little research and decided we would give it a go  They offer lots of different size options and add on items. I like that you can order weekly or biweekly and there is no "contract". One of the things I like about it that it forces me to meal plan around what the share offers that week.

So far, we have been getting the 3/4share. Right now, I am signed up for weekly however, if there aren't enough people in your area for that week, you may get moved to biweekly which so far is the only con to me.  Anyway, this was our latest share.

So, how did we use our share this week? Here is a breakdown of my meal planning.

Pears- used them to make Pear and Almond Steel Cut Oats. This was my first time making this and everyone ( including the Toddler was a fan). The nice thing about baked oatmeal is you can make it ahead of time and eat it throughout the week.

Eggplant- I LOVE eggplant parm but don't like that it is fried. I adapted this recipe a bit and made a Baked Eggplant and Chicken Parmesan Casserole served with a side salad. We got dinner and lunch out of this meal.

Sweet Potatoes- Tim doesn't really "like" potatoes. He will tolerate them but I have been able to get him to eat sweet potatoes by making BBQ Chicken Sweet Potatoes. I also add caramelized onions and garlic on top. YUM! We also had enough for dinner and lunch for 2!

Zucchini- We have a Veggeti and often use it to make zucchini noodles. This week we mixed some shrimp into the mix!

Sweet Peppers- Used to make sweet pepper nachos. This was my first time trying this and they turned out AWESOME! We had this as our main dish with a few adaptations... we skipped the olives and I mixed the chicken with spicy Latin beans.

Cauliflower- I decided to FINALLY try a cauliflower crust pizza  after seeing it all over Pinterest. I will say that it was very tasty but the consistency was a bit off. I will try it again though. We served this with a side salad.

Apples, Bananas, Kale - lunches, snacks and smoothies. If the bananas start turning, we chop them up and put them in sandwich bags and throw them in the freezer.

Avocado and tomatoes- Salads, thrown in eggs. Charlotte LOVES avocado slices with her dinner. Tim doesn't like the consistency of Avocado but I can usually sneak some in the BBQ chicken sweet potato mentioned above. Sometimes he will even put some in a smoothie.

We pick up our next share on Friday and I haven't meal planned it yet. We also got a fruit add on this week which has persimmon which I have never had before but I am excited to try. So far, I am loving the share and trying to incorporate more veggies in our diets :)