Can you believe it? I can’t believe it. Kaili turned 9 months old yesterday.

Friday we had her baby well checkup plus a couple vaccinations she was behind on. She took them like a champ {as always} with just a few tears, I admire her strength. Dr. Hansen said all is well. Her head is still in the 90th percentile with her body slowly catching up.  She weighs 15 lbs. and is 25 inches long. He told us to get rid of the bottles and to start her on sippy cups pronto. Now I get the task of finding the perfect cup and try to figure out how I want to make the transition, cold turkey or slow and steady.

Her fine motor skills are improving and she enjoys finger food over purees. Egg yolks are a favorite along with carrots, pears and bananas. Oh and of course the organic puffs, she loves them. Sweet potato and apple cinnamon are the only two she has tried but I am sure she could put a dent in the entire tube if you gave her free range.

Shane and I had our first night away together without Kaili. We took a wine train tour starting in Carlsbad and ending in Old Town. We met great people, became new wine members at Carruth Cellars and had a fun time. I did wake up at 4:00am missing her so I need to start preparing myself for our trip to Europe. I don’t know how I will handle being away from her for so long. I just have to remember that a happy wife is a happy mother and traveling makes me happy.

I took Kaili to our  local library’s  baby sign and story time last week to check it out. I would say she enjoyed herself, the bubbles especially.

The story time is supposed to be for babies 0-2, however I felt the stories Miss Jennifer read and signed were not age appropriate. Either way, Kaili sat quietly for the first story but was ready to play during the second. After story time we sang some songs and blew bubbles.

Since Kaili’s last cold her interest in pureed foods has diminished. I guess it’s time to introduce finger foods. Her fine motor skills are still developing and she can’t quite pick up small pieces of veg or fruits yet but she can feed herself baby Mum Mums.

She seems to enjoy the independence of self feeding!

That cold that she had seems to have made its way to me. The last 3 weeks we have had absolutely nothing planned and now that we have a fun weekend ahead of us, I end up getting sick. No Fair! ( <—- that’s for you Shane 😉

Yesterday my mom came down to visit  and allow me some time to hit the gym. While I was putting Kaili down for a nap, my mom asked me if I was worried about Kaili pulling herself up in the crib and potentially falling out since we hadn’t lowered it yet. “Nah” I said. She hadn’t even sat up in the crib yet so I wasn’t worried, “once she sits up I will lower it” I told her. Well, Kaili set out to prove Grandma right.  During Kaili’s afternoon nap, well what was supposed to be her afternoon nap but she wasn’t having it { and now I know why}  I went into check on her this is what I found.

Yep! This little monster managed to sit and pull herself up. We have now lowered the crib!

I could have just stopped at spicy parmesan eggs with garlic. Why don’t I alway cook my eggs with garlic? It’s amazing. However one does need the vitamins from vegetables and I had a bag of baby spinach waiting to be used. I thought about making a spinach salad or creamed spinach with it, but the eggs won that battle. I made this for myself so this recipe serves one, although you don’t really need a recipe to make an egg scramble right? So do what you do with what you want. This is what I did!

1/2 cup fresh baby spinach leaves

1/4 cup  mushrooms, chopped { any kind you want }

1/2 of a Serrano, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 eggs

1 Tbls. water

2 Tbls. Parmesan cheese { I used Messana grated }

In a small bowl, whisk eggs together with water until well mixed. Then mix in the cheese. Set aside.

In a medium non-stick skillet heat to medium heat. Add olive oil, serrano chile and garlic. Saute for 1 minute and then add the spinach and mushrooms, cook until tender.

Next add egg mixture to the skillet. Turn to med-low heat and mix eggs in with the spinach mixture. Cook until the eggs are done.

Kaili slept through the night last night so I am hoping that means this cold is on the mend. Phew! So we took a nice long walk ending with a trip to the park. My baby is growing up too fast.

The new year is here and it’s time to get serious about whipping back into shape. For me one of the easiest ways to lose some weight without giving up some delicious foods is to cut out carbohydrates.

This recipe is pretty self-explanatory however one might not know that store-bought taco seasoning has carbohydrates in it. It’s not a ton of carbs but it’s not the carbs we should be eating and why waste a few carbs on seasoning when you can waste them on whipped cream? So I used this taco seasoning recipe in place of good ol’ Lawrys   I didn’t take a picture of the seasoning because, well, who really cares about a picture of seasoning?

Low Carb Taco Seasoning

1 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine together. The end!

Taco Salad

1 pound ground turkey
1 1/2 tablespoons Taco seasoning
12 ounces iceberg lettuce, chopped
1/2 cup onion, diced
3 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
6 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 of an avocado (2 tablespoons per serving)

Brown the turkey; drain off the fat. Stir in the taco seasoning mix and 1/4 cup water. Build your salad as you like it. This was pretty delish and only a whopping 7 grams of carbs per serving.

For those of you that used to follow my cooking blog you obviously know that is has been  sadly abandoned since I was  put on bed rest last year. Since having baby K I haven’t found the time or really the desire to spend too much time in the kitchen. Now that Shane is gone most of the week, its’ hard to get motivated to make a new recipe just for myself, what fun is that? But lately I have been getting the urge to try out some tasty and healthy recipes that I have found on Pinterest and in my new { and old } cookbooks. So without committing myself to an entire cooking blog I have decided to use this blog for all things baby K, food, and our travels.

In other news, my sweet child has another cold. This one is the worst so far but luckily it’s   not debilitating. She is really congested in her nose and head and has a little cough. Friday night was an all-nighter, she couldn’t breathe or get comfortable. I have done all I can think of to help her, saline drops, suctioned the nose, elevated one end of her crib mattress, put the humidifier in her room and rubbed her up with baby Vicks. She has a minimal appetite for solids but takes her bottles just fine. It breaks my heart seeing her like this and not able to make her better. But all that aside she is still so happy, you wouldn’t even know she was sick if she didn’t look and sound it.

I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year.  Aside from this cold, the year is starting out just fine!

 

Kaili Sloan

8 months

LOVES

  sippy cups ~ standing up and sitting down~clapping and waving~ baths~bedtime~ spitting~ mommy and daddy singing with her.

This is such a great age. She isn’t mobile yet but so fun to be around. She has a sense of humor and can be a goof ball, especially when she is tired. She likes to wave and spent a good amount of time waving to the birds and dogs while we were in Oxnard. She just recently started clapping . She really likes it when we clap for her, especially after she shows off how she is learning to stand up. She could do it over and over just for the positive recognition.  She still rarely cries and loves her alone time. She eagerly goes down for naps and bedtime. Now that we are back on our normal schedule she is sleeping from 6-7 PM til 6 AM.  Spitting is the newest trick she picked up, it’s lovely.<—(sarcasm)

I am looking forward to spending the next few weeks at home, getting back to our regularly scheduled routine, Gymboree, spin classes and smothering my baby girl before she can crawl away from me.