a few more trash pile finds

just last week we found these all wood dressers in the trash pile across the street. we found a home for one of them and are keeping the other for our room redo. today i found these old windows and thought they would be perfect to make some sort of art to go above our bed. there are 4 windows total. i doubt we will use all 4 so if anyone wants 1 or 2 let me know. i am not sure how they will turn out, but i have a couple of ideas!

processed food fast

i know that i don't always eat the healthiest. sometimes the processed foods are the easiest, quickest, and cheapest. plus, i really like chex mix and wheat thins (which i guess are a bit better than potato chips). two things led me to trying this. first, i have some friends who recently went on a fruit and vegie (raw) fast, and they said they felt so much better health wise. secondly, we have recently watched a few documentaries on processed food and how bad it is for you and how most everything has corn in it! anyways, i am going to try it. monday through friday of this coming week i will only eat unprocessed food (including vegies so no canned!). my only exceptions are dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese). i will let you know how it goes...

a new obsession

what a mess

today was my first attempt at cooking and pureeing my own baby food. before this i had pureed bananas and avacados but they are both so soft that there is no trick in doing it. i went through 3 different methods before i was happy with the result. the food processor definitely wins out. i made such a mess but i guess there is a learning curve. i hope now that i {somewhat} know what i am doing it will get quicker and less messy. originally i thought i would make all of e.t.'s baby food, but have now decided to only make what freezes well and buy some jarred baby food too.

tay tay & the cat

emma taylor LOVES the pets! she is so excited every time she gets near them and wants to pet them every chance she gets. they might not be so eager to hang out with her though.

girly diapers

recently i have been looking for some new more absorbent diapers to use on emma taylor during night time. i met a girl in my neighborhood through a mom's prayer group who makes diapers and decided to give her diapers a try. they are All-in-2 diapers which means i don't have to stuff the inserts (they snap in!). well i love them! i also love that i now have a couple of girly diapers. all of her other cloth diapers are neutrals (green, tan, white). you can check out Macaroni Baby on facebook or her shop. i highly recommend these!

too big

e.t. is a bit too big for her bouncy seat, but she still enjoys sitting in it while mommy eats breakfast.

1-21-12

today was a big day. we moved from the bumbo into a booster seat, and we voted.

hanging around

real life glee

so i watch the show glee, and i love it. i have always loved musicals, and now there is a tv show musical. how great is that? last night i was commenting to glen how unrealistic it was. i mean, who stops and sings in real life? not to mention that everyone else around you joins in the singing (and they already know all the words to the song) or dance in the background (and have perfectly synchronized dancing). well with a baby you find yourself singing. a lot. or maybe its just me. emma taylor might grow up believing that her life is a real musical. i admit though i am not singing popular songs that happen to fit what is going on in her life that moment. how many songs could really relate to eating, sleeping, and pooping anyways? however, things seem to sound better when they are sung, and they are definitely funnier when they are sung. if you come to our house you might hear the occassional emma taylor song which might include "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" (yes this song only has one word), "one foot two foot red foot blue foot" (which makes no sense but she's a baby, she doesn't know), or todays favorite "emma taylor you smell like stinky bananas".

6 months of growing

6 months

emma taylor is 6 months! time is flying. she is getting quite curious about everything. she wants anything you are holding and will grab anything in front of her. she has started eating food. so far she has tried rice, oatmeal, avacado, sweet potatos, and bananas. she is officially sleeping through the night. about a week after she turned 5 months she slept through the night EVERY NIGHT when before that it was about 50/50! she takes 3 naps a day but some days protests the 3rd so i am not sure how much longer she will be taking that third one. she has decided that she no longer wants to roll over and still hates tummy time. she is, however, sitting up all on her own and loves it. she continues to be a healthy (and big) girl. here are her stats...

height: 27 1/2 inches (96%)

weight: 18 lbs 6 oz (87%)

head circumfrence: 17.5 inches (98%)

{the only picture with e.t. and straight legs}

{this is her new favorite position}

{sitting all by herself}

{within less than a week emma taylor is sitting up}

{and she is all smiles about it}

{holding on to her feet}

{you got to admit...this position is kind of impressive}

one man's trash

...is another man's treasure. we have a pile across the street from our house where people put all kinds of trash and other unwanted things and then every week it disappears one way (the trashmen) or another (us salvaging). i never thought i would be someone who would steal save someone else's trash. the other day someone threw out a little teal kid's adirondack chair. i am sad to say the trash people got there before i did, but yesterday we snagged these two dressers. we need a new dresser in our room, and free is awesome! i am not sure what we will do with the second one, but a free wooden dresser shouldn't be passed up on.

like mother like daughter

apparently emma taylor is picking up my expressions...i am not sure if that is a good thing.

an awkward family photo + a good one

this just made me laugh...

luckily, we got some good family photos too!

a few expressions

cake

while we were in greenville we got to celebrate emma taylor's half birthday! i can't believe that she is already 6 months. in honor of her half birthday, i baked her half a cake. too bad she couldn't eat it, but we sure enjoyed it!

meeting cousin abe

we finally got to meet our nephew and e.t.'s cousin this past weekend. k & h adopted him from ethiopia, and it was such a blessing that he got to come home for Christmas. i am so glad that e.t. has another cousin so close in age (less than 5 months)! i am sure that by next year they will be running around together and hopefully good friends.

angry birds

i have been asked so many times whether emma taylor's set of bird toys are angry birds. they are not. she loves these. they jingle and rattle. they have crinkly wings and feet just the right size to chew on. i would recommend them to anyone. plus they are pretty cute. like i have said before- i love anything that is the skip hop brand.