Caught it!

Before his shots in his GroVia!

Last night, I finally caught Breckan laughing. I had to hide the camera because every time he sees it he just STARES and it distracts him so there is no image, but he sounds so cute!! There is nothing like laughter that makes the heart melt. I sure do love my little boy! On top of all that laughter, he slept from 8pm to 3:45am, 4-7am last night. Hopefully we will be able to continue this if I can get him on a schedule.

Breckan had his 5 Month check up yesterday as well. He weighed in at 14lbs 12 ozs, 25.5" long. He gained about 1.5lbs from last month's checkup, and was 1.25 inches longer! The doctor was concerned at first that he had a poor weight gain this month, but then he looked back at his charts and realized that he has been consistently gaining this amount from day one. At least we can now say that he is double his weight! I also talked to him about his sleeping habits and he said that he should now be sleeping through the night. He suggested the "cry it out" method. He explained it like this: He wakes up to comfort nurse. It's not out of hunger but because he wants comfort. We have to train him that if it's dark in the room, it is sleep time. Therefore, Mommy and Daddy will not be coming in. However, I have a hard time doing this. If he wants comfort, shouldn't I be giving him what he desires? I don't know, but I am going to research other methods and see what is best for us. I am planning on starting the sleep training on Friday, so we need some luck!

We are delaying vaccinations for Breckan, and are following the Dr. Sears schedule. We decided that we wanted to delay because 1. I cannot imagine him getting 6 shots at once and 2. It will give me peace of mind with all the autism studies, etc. Below is the normal vaccination schedule vs. the delayed one. We decided to not give Breckan the rotavirus vaccine or Hepatitis B (He will receive this when he is older though).

 As you can see, this schedule is much less evasive when compared to the typical vaccination schedule. Also, the MMR vaccine (Mumps, Measles and rubella) can not be given separately as described so we have decided to delay that until Breckan becomes school age.

5 Months. Really?

Our son is 5 Months as of Sunday. Really? I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It has been a life changing 5 months, but man, they sure did fly by. To celebrate, Breckan and I went out to Bru's Room with Nina, Ernie and Nina's mom to watch the Bears playoff game against the Seahawks. Yeah Bears! He did pretty well, considering all the noise! I realized that Breckan doesn't own a Bears onesie. I think we might have to invest in just ONE if they end up at the superbowl!

Out at Bru's room watching the game.

Breckan is been teething like crazy lately. At the bar all he was doing was chewing on his little rubber giraffe and drooling all over himself. You can see little white spots on the bottom center of his gums. It looks like they are coming in soon...

He is sitting up pretty well now too...which is AWESOME! We have to support him, but when he really gets into a toy, he will put his weight on that and hang out for a while. What a big boy! We will find out his 5 Month stats on Wednesday when he goes in for his monthly well visit.

Sweet potatoes were introduced this week. He seems to LOVE them, but then again, I don't think he has disliked anything that I have put into his mouth! LOL. He is one big fatty, accepting anything and everything I give him. Next on his menu....peas. We will see how well he likes those. HAH!

Chicken Paprikash this week...I think I might skip the homemade noodles. After all, I am a working Mom...how will I have time to make noodles?!

CAKE

Mark and I enjoying our night out!

Cake Playing on Stage

Mark and I ventured out on Friday night to see the band CAKE. This was the second time we have ventured out together without Breckan since his birth! (I know, crazy...) Anyways, we had a fantastic time. Even though I had my baby boy in the back of my mind all night, it was nice to get away and enjoy ourselves. After all, we need our couple time! The band was enjoyable and witty. They had a tree on stage with them and involved the crowd a little by asking us what kind of tree it was. If we guessed right, we were able to take it home. Well, I was the first one chosen to guess the tree, and I guessed FICUS. I was so wrong. I couldn't even tell you the name of the tree that it was, but all I know is you needed to be a botanist to figure it out! LOL.

Following the show we went to Bru's Room for a drink and food. Ironically, our waitress was from the czech republic (My Grandmother from my Dad's side is Czech) . I asked her if she knew about Chicken Paprikash and she sure did! I asked her how she made it, because many people use sour cream instead of evaporated milk in their recipes. However, my Grandmother always made it with the evaporated milk. She asked me if I used dumplings. Apparently over there, instead of the homemade noodles that my Grandma made, they make killer dumplings. Man would I LOVE to try those!! In light of this discussion with the waitress, I need to post my chicken paprikash recipe! It will be coming soon...

Homemade Organic Baby Food

Breckan has started solids as of his 4 Month birthday. We have introduced Bananas, Oatmeal, Carrots, Squash and Apples. The more research I have done, the more I realize that Organic is the way to go. I cannot believe how many things are sprayed on our stuff, and injected into our meats. I'm a little scared to think of all the hormones I have injested from the milk and meat I have been eating.

In all fairness, I don't plan on going all organic/hormone free. It is not in my budget and it isn't reasonable for me, considering all the food we eat when we go out! However, I am watching more carefully now, and I have decided to purchase as much as I can organically as my budget will allow. Therefore, I am making my own baby food for Breckan, all from organic fruits and veggies. (YUM!) I don't know about you, but there is an "aura" about Whole Foods, or a grocer of the like. I feel so much more "down to my roots" and natural just walking into the place!

We purchased the Beaba BabyCook Steamer and Puree-er from Babies R Us for the quick cook jobs for Breckan's food. My old boss, Teresa, used this for her son and she raved about it. Currently, I am making large amounts of food and freezing it, so the BabyCook is too small for those jobs. However, I have a feeling I will be using this more often when he gets older and I can make him a day to day menu. It is the coolest thing! You can place your fruits or veggies in there, steam them, and once they are done you can puree those same veggies in the same container as you steamed. Pretty nifty if you ask me!

Diapers Diapers Diapers, OH MY!

Breckan in his Sunbaby "Skulls" Diaper

Ladies and Gentlemen....GroVia has new prints. They came out in the beginning of January and I am obsessed. I just purchased the Owl Print and the Planes, snap closure from Kelly's Closet. I got a free one size diaper with my purchase too using code FREENEW! I can't wait to receive them! GroVia is Mark's favorite diaper, because you can use the shells over again, and snap in and out the liners. I like using these for when we go out and about, but I also like my pocket diapers like Happy Heiny's and Sunbaby.

Sunbaby diapers are from China, and they are the most reasonably priced diapers I have come across. At only 6 dollars per diaper (Including one insert), these adorable print diapers are irresistible. Check 'em out! I purchased 4 prints; cars, skulls, grid and techno. They are super trim and super absorbent!

Chinese Almond Pizzelles

From: Momma Finch 
This recipe calls for a Pizzelle press. They are FANTASTIC! If you love almond, you will love these. Ever since I was a child, my mom has made these thin, crunchy cookies that were a hit with everyone in the family! The pizzella is a traditional Italian waffle cookie and flavored with different flavors such as Anise, Vanilla, Orange or Almond. We prefer the Almond!

Ingredients:
3 Eggs
1 3/4 C Sugar
3/4 C Melted Butter
1 t Almond Extract
3 C Flour
1/2 t Salt
1/3 C Ground Almonds

Directions:
Beat Eggs. Add sugar, melted butter and almond extract and beat well. Add remaining ingredients and beat. Spray baking grids with cooking spray. Drop dough by small cookie scoop (About 1 T) onto the preheated grid. I like to roll my dough into balls and put them onto the grid that way. Bake for 60 seconds or so, until golden. Note: The griddle will stop steaming when they are close to being ready. Use a thin spatula to remove the pizzelles. Cool on a cooling rack.

Lately.

I haven't posted in a while, and I blame it on Breckan! Hehe. But in all seriousness, my life has become an overwhelming mess. The chaos is worth it, because I have the most beautiful baby boy alive but ever since I started back working, I have struggled to balance my social life, marriage, baby, job and housework. Something gives almost every week, but it seems to be more of the housework that is not getting done. How do Momma's do it?! I guess I am living proof.

Breckan is still waking up during the night, and I am starting to think he is overtired. All the sleep training information I have been reading seems to point to that. He seems to get sleepy at around 7, instead of 8 and I try to push him to 8. My plan is to put him to bed a little earlier for a few days, and see if that will help him sleep through the night. The information I have been reading says that a baby sleeps longer if he is not overtired. Ironic, huh?

Here are a few shots of the little man. He certainly is a thriving baby. I love him to death! He just started laughing and FINALLY hit the rolling over milestone. I couldn't be happier! What a champ.

New years Eve with a baby is definitely different than any New Years we have had in the past. We had Mark's parent's over for dinner and we smoked pork and chicken in Mark's new smoker he got for Christmas. After putting Breckan to bed, we hung out with Mark's parents and Mark fell asleep on the couch at around 11! At that time his parents left and Mark and I were in bed by 11:30. When the fireworks were going off at 12:30, Breckan decided to wake up and have a party in his crib to celebrate! I ended up feeding him and putting him back to bed at around 1.