Baby Led Weaning.

Baby led weaning.

So what does baby led weaning mean? It simply means no more mush!
We planted, tended to, grew, picked and pureed our sons food from the time he was four months up until month seven. It was then that I realized that he was far more interested in what it was that I was eating, rather than the mush that he was presented with. He even started protesting his purees. So I found this theory, why not just give your baby what your eating?

We piece and present his with whatever we put on our own plates and laugh at the mess it creates. But it does much more than just this, it promotes independence. He is exploring and learning with every single meal. The connections that it makes for him to do this at each meal is only furthering his development. He does not depend on the breast as much as he did in the past, however he still needs this. Since baby led weaning I have been able to comfort him in other ways rather than just succumbing to the breast.

To add to the list of benefits, he sleeps better. He maybe wakes once a night. It’s a miracle! Sleep is a breeze, he will wake himself up at night and feel confident enough in himself to roll over and put himself back to sleep. We never had to “cry – it – out”.

This also promotes YOUR health! If you are feeding your child whatever you are feeding yourself you are bound to create a healthier diet for yourself. You wouldn’t feed your seven month old a McDouble and French Fries right? I have learned and had fun researching tons of fun recipes to incorporate for me, my husband and Carter,

Eat on my friends!

-T

Sweet Biscuit Relief.

If you have been following us now for a while, you know well enough that we try to do everything as naturally as possible. Avoiding any chemicals and preservatives is our goal, without being absolutely crazy about it! Teething has tortured our poor and sleepless household now ever since Carter popped his two bottom teeth at just four months old. At almost seven months of age we are now looking at two more about to make their debut!

One of the many things that we have used to save our sanity is this sweet recipe right here.

A teething biscuit.
The pint sized cookie is made to be rock hard, so that infants cannot bite pieces of it off and potentially choke. The ingredients are all added in order to help soothe the gums (while still tasting appealing to the kiddos!) and the rough edges are there to help massage. Below is our little rendition of what we found was the easiest, cheapest, and most functional recipe:

Ingredients :+ 1 cup of rice cereal
+ 1 cup of whole wheat flour
+ 2 tbsp coconut oil
+ 1 mashed banana
+ 2 tsp cinnamon
+ 6 tbsp of water

How To:+ add all ingredients in a bowl, mix with hands until a doughy substance
+ put on cutting board and using a rolling pin, roll flat to about 1 / 4 and inch thick
+ cut our your own shapes or use cookie cutter
+ line cookie sheet with oild, place on pan
+ preheat oven to 425 and bake for 15 minutes
+ let cool
+ freeze for added benefit

Hopefully you find as much relief in this recipe as our family has, teeth on my friends.

– T

I Vow.

I had to share our vows. Why? Because I never want to lose these little pieces of paper that they are written on, and because I think that my husband wrote the sweetest words I have ever heard and I think that they are worth sharing.

Enjoy.

After starting with a prayer for God to guide him with strength, courage and knowledge to be the best husband and father he could be he said,
“On this day of celebration I wish to let you know that work will never come before you. These vows are written in a metaphorical sense of how I vow to dedicate all of myself to you Taylor.
My ears, attentive towards listening.
My eyes, to see your eternal beauty.
My arms and legs, the tool to provide for our family.
My mind, to be open to our evolving marriage.
My stomach, to enjoy “all” of your food, to be nourished by all of your hard work.
My feet, to be the everlasting support and balance to our family.
My mouth, never to stray from positive conversation, to remain thoroughly honest.
My hands, to always provide the hard work that has been instilled in me and to embrace you with love every day.
My heart, to always be open to fully surrender myself to you and Jesus Christ.”

This man is made of miracles.

-T

Motherhood and Modesty

One of the most difficult things that I have found in the transition from being a single young woman is finding my happy medium in being a wife and mother. I have donated the majority of my entire closet full of short skirts, crop tops and tiny dresses.

But it wasn’t easy.

I wanted more than anything to be able to fit right back into those clothes, and maybe after a while that could have been possible, but I feel like I have the responsibility to my son to look like I am his mother. Not his babysitter. Now as sad as that sounds, I have found immense amounts of joy in recreating my look and finding my happy place with the mommy body God has given to me!

I haven’t sacrificed anything. I haven’t lost myself. And I truly believe that my more modest set of clothes does me much more justice than any of my more skimpy selection ever did. I am a fan of big sweatshirts paired with fashionable leggings, skinny jeans, scarfs and my massive collection of boots. I love wearing maxi skirts with the right tank top paired with the perfect necklace.

In other words, no. I do not rock mom jeans and a turtle neck. Because I don’t have to.

I can wear all of these things, and look even better than my 18 year old counter part. Being a mother I sacrifice sleep, sanity and the occasional night out, but I have NEVER felt like I had to sacrifice my body in the process. Find your mommy sexy, your flattering middle ground, something that makes you look like YOU!

I have stretch marks, I have a pooch that will never go away with any diet on the market, I have hips, I have lopsided breastfeeding boobs. And no one would ever know it.

Motherhood and modesty, its a real thing. I promise.

-T

| dress by @junieblakeinsta | junieblake.com | pictured: Jana Modest Blue T-shirt Dress |

Simple Signs.

I worked in a preschool for 2 years back in the day (makes me sound way too old). I was the assistant teacher in the classroom with kiddos ages 11 mo. to 20 mo. and I loved all SIXTEEN of them. I guess you could say that’s where I learned how to multitask without flaw!

Amongst other things like art exposure and physical activity I was the driving force behind teaching my kids how to use American Sign Language. At first I found myself frustrated but within a matter of months I was astonished at the success and simplicity of this practice. There is something about teaching a child the meaning of a word, and how to use it before they even know how to speak it. Not only does it do absolutely incredible things for connections in the brain but it also helps communication between mom / caregiver and baby, in turn saving both from those terrible temper tantrums.

I have found that most of the tantrums I have been a part of in class (carter obviously being too young) have been caused by the inability of the child to effectively communicate his or her needs. They get frustrated and hell, I would too! By teaching simple everyday words to the kids I was able to understand what they were needing and after they mastered their signs the tantrums were few and far between. And yes, this was with all sixteen littles.

After falling in love with signing I enrolled myself in a few classes to better understand the possibilities and learned that on average, children who used sign language alongside verbal communication while growing up scored 12 points higher on an IQ test later on in life. What more could you ask for??

Carter, AJ and I have been using sign language since Carter reached four months. Already we have seen him understanding what we are communicating to him. We don’t expect him to sign back for about two more months but he is aware of what we are trying to communicate to him and that alone has brought us as a family much closer as well as kept us all sane!

Below is a few very easy signs that you can start with. Remember make things FUN. Be REPETITIVE. ENCOURAGE your child when you see them use or understand each sign, and never stop learning!

Mom and Dad:

MOM

DAD

These are pretty obvious signs to teach at first. One of the most effective signs of communication and something that may save your sanity later on down the road! 

Please and Thank You:

PLEASE

THANK YOU

We have been hitting these signs hard! Why? Because it is never too early to teach your children the importance of manners. 




More and All Done:

MORE

ALL DONE

I have always taught these signs in conjunction with one another, the kids used and abused the “more” sign while I found myself using “all done” all day!

Eat:

EAT

This sign was not only fun, but the easiest sign for me to teach. Children are always hungry it seems, imagine how much strife you can save yourself!




The best recourse for myself is always babysignlanguage.com, you can find a dictionary full of words that you can pick and choose from as well as tips and tricks and answers to just about every question that you can come up with. 


Happy Singing!


– T