Four months old

Here we are now, four months later, and I swear it could have been yesterday! I know I say that every month, but it is just so true. I can't believe how much his personality has changed over the last month or so. Long gone (hopefully?) are his fussy, colicky days and all that remains is a happy, sweet, smiley baby. We actually went to our friend's birthday party this weekend and several people commented on Jonas' calm demeanor - it was so refreshing to hear that for a change! In the first 10 weeks of his life, people would've held my squirmy, fussy baby, handed him back, pityingly cocked their heads to the side and said, "Oh, he's colicky, isn't he?" Now he is just the most pleasant little baby to be around!

Stats

Height: 27.5 inches, 99th percentile

Weight: 20lb 9.5oz, 100th percentile

Diaper size: That sweet little bum just started fitting into a size 4 yesterday!

Clothing size: 9 - 12 months

Likes: Still loves laying on his play mat and bath time, playing in his exersaucer and pushing the animal buttons, being tickled, shaking his rattles around

Dislikes: Being held in the cradle position, napping in his bed, the period between bath time and clothes being put on

Special notes: There were so many exciting and fun things that happened this month, I'm not really sure where to start. About 2 weeks ago, he started rolling over from his tummy to his back. He also started sucking his thumb, which happens to be the cutest thing ever! He consistently sleeps from around 6:30pm - 6:30am every single night; every morning I wake up to his sweet coos and squeals and as soon as I walk in, I'm greeted with the biggest smile. And, oh man, the raspberries he has learned to blow are just hilarious. He now has the dexterity to hit and grab the toys that hang from his play mat as well as grab and rattle toys sitting in front of him. About two weeks ago he started eating baby oatmeal and it was just like nursing - he acted like he'd been eating from a spoon his whole life. I roasted and pureed some sweet potatoes for him yesterday and he ate them up so quickly!

One month old.

Two months old.

Three months old.

Homemade Pop tarts

I mentioned last week that I made some homemade pop tarts, and man, were they good! They were so delicious in fact, that they disappeared within about 4 days.

I subscribe to emails from the blog Money Saving Mom and I kept seeing these pop tarts on her weekly menu planning post. I am a pop tart fanatic (for the first 12 weeks of my pregnancy with Jonas, I totally craved the chocolate ones) and so the idea of making my own was quite intriguing...

Here is the recipe (with a few of my little changes) in case you get the sudden urge to try them.

Homemade Pop Tarts
3 1/2c. flour (I used half whole wheat/half white)
1 tsp salt
1 c. melted butter
1 c. plain yogurt (or in my case, 1 c. fat free sour cream - tastes the same!)
Jam/jelly flavor of your choice

Mix the first four ingredients together.Knead dough and roll out on a nice floured surface. Cut dough into the shapes that you would like - I did mine like a regular pop tart, albeit bigger! I used a pizza cutter which made it extremely easy to cut!

Fill half of the rectangles with jelly, but not too much or else they will seep out/explode. Top the jellied side with a non-jellied side, crimp with a fork and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. This recipe made about 12 pop tarts, though the original creator of this recipe says it makes 15-20, so you can tell mine were pretty big!

Sit down with a cup of coffee and enjoy.

He got it from his mama

It's funny to see what traits and characteristics your children get from each parent. For example, Gabriel's face could have been stolen from one of my baby pictures. There is no mistaking him as my child. Alas, he has also picked up my nail-biting, finger chewing ways and inability to sit still for long periods at a time. Yet he has Adrian's height, humor and propensity for making one stinky fart. And Jonas, that boy is all Adrian, down to the nose. I'm interested to see on which end of the personality spectrum he lands.

Today we have officially we made it through week one of preschool and it was anything but easy. In fact, it was quite the doozy for both of us. If there was one quality of Adrian's that I had hoped would be reproduced in Gabriel, it would be his ability to adjust to any situation. He is never at a loss for words and makes friends so easily. I swear he could make friends on a deserted island (although who knows if that friend would take form as a displaced volleyball or maybe a fallen coconut).

I, on the other hand, suffer from anxiety. Not so much that I need to medicate myself (although that might make it easier for me to ease into situations), but enough to where I feel very uncomfortable and will look for an excuse to a) leave early from a given situation, b) not go, c) text (or fake text) through given situation to appear as though I have so many better things to do. Which is why I've RSVP'd at least 6 times to events with the local mom's groups and have found 6 different reasons not to attend.

I digress. It has been very apparent through this experience that Gabriel suffers from a combination of my anxiety/nervousness and a serious case of the mama's boy syndrome. On his first day, he cried the. entire. time. There's nothing that makes you feel lower as a parent than when you show up after four hours, expecting to find your baby playing cheerfully on the playground when in fact he is standing next to the teacher holding her hand and wearing his backpack that contains his blankey while sobbing uncontrollably. They say he cried for me all day.

It literally took all of my effort not to demand a refund, stuff him in the car, and take him home, never to return to that place because he is too young/not ready/I'm not ready and can't handle change. But you know what? Although he had a hard time today getting there, he went. And then when I picked him up, he was fine. According to the teacher, it was a 75% better day than yesterday.

He'll be fine. It might be uncomfortable and hard and scary and nerve-wracking and I may or may not keep myself extremely busy so as not to think about it, but then one day, it won't be. And it will all be worth it because I think we'll both learn a thing or two.

Meal Planning Board

I told you I would get to this, didn't I? One of my favorite things to look at on Pinterest has been meal planning boards. I'm not really sure where my obsession comes from since I am awful at meal planning, though I've been really trying to get better because when I do actually plan ahead, I save myself about a million trips and a lot of back and forth in the store.

After perusing awhile, I stumbled across this and my heart skipped a beat. It was perfect. Beautiful. All of the colors! Ahhh, must have. So I set about gathering supplies. I had several things on hand, but there were a few things that I had to go out and get.

Here's my list:
-Calendar white board - Target, $9.99
-Second white board to hold additional magnets - on hand
-Magnetic roll - Home Depot, $3.99 (My HD had it cheaper than shown on web)
-Photo paper - Dollar Tree, $.99
-Ziplocs
-Permanent markers
-Nails for hanging

Step One: Print out labels using free printables.
Step Two: Cut all printables to size. This gets really boring. Really fast.
Step Three: Separate all colors into their respective groups, place in ziplocs and label.

Step Four: Pull out labels from each category and label foods that you eat often. I also added a separate category for meals that are less generic such as sausage, onion and pepper sandwiches, lasagna, enchilada casserole, and garlic chicken thighs with potatoes. You may want to store your recipes in one place for this, whether it's on your blog, a recipe book or a photographic memory - your choice. I prefer my recipe book from my mom.

Step Five: Attach magnets to the back of each strip of paper. My magnetic strips had stickies on the back and all I had to do was cut whatever sized portion of magnet I wanted from the roll. Very convenient and easy.

Step Six: Organize on your board. Very tough, I know. It's even color coordinated to make it easy!

Step Seven: Hang in desired area! Mine is going in my hallway, where I'm going to try to build a command center-typeish area. I'm really digging this:

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Step Eight: Meal plan! Okay, I haven't really gotten to this step yet, but I will! I swear! Either way, I'm loving my new meal planning board. I hope it makes it much more convenient for us all to be able to take the reins for meals if need be, because everything will be right in front of our faces.

Hope you enjoyed my little DIY sesh!
(Linked up with Romance on a Dime!)

Tell me about it Tuesday #7

Do you currently have any DIY projects going on?

I have so many, I just can't finish them all. I just started this and I'll be posting it soon:

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We also got the hardware for this to go in our bedroom:

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And I redecorated my kitchen sink ledge because it was still donning Christmas candle decor:

Show me some pics or send me a link. What do you have going on? 

(Maybe I'll get inspired to finish the ones I started 

and start some new ones!)