My foodie baby

My baby girl is addicted, yes already she has an addiction. It's amazing how in only 9 months you can become addicted to something, but since her addiction is anything but harmful we have agreed to go with it. She is addicted to breastfeeding. She likes the idea of real food but actually eating it is another story! She loves to play with it and then throw it on the ground! I'm a very clean person, don't really like being dirty, don't enjoy getting my hands dirty so the idea of letting Ava explore with food was not what I had in mind. I was much more for putting her in a high chair, putting a cute bib on her and feeding her some yummy organic pureed food with a spoon. But the more I became exposed to baby led weaning the more I realized the importance of how we exposed her to food. I don't want and won't have a toddler who won't eat this, and won't eat that! I am determined to not have that issue and I know many other people who have kids that way so I know it is possible. I want to help Ava avoid being my age and craving sugar and having several foods she won't eat. I was fortunate to grow up in a home that being a picky eater was not a choice! Oatmeal was a common breakfast and I didn't like it! But thanks to my Dad's persistence I now eat oatmeal as a common breakfast! And I LIKE it! Jeremy was raised the same way, I am again fortunate because he will eat anything! I have many friends who cook around there husbands likes and dislikes and that isn't an issue in our home.

So, back to Ava eating! She wants NOTHING to do with anything that resembles baby food! She is 9 months old but has only ever had a few bites or baby food as we know it, and those were a battle to get down! After reading more from the above baby led weaning article and other's on the same topic I decided to give up the baby food battle and just start on real food. Ava only has 2 teeth, although we can see the top ones so any day those should pop out! She can't chew much but will gum the heck out of any raw veggie we give her! We don't do baby teethers we give her fruits or veggies to gum on. I also steam organic veggies down and add a little organic butter and she loves them! We eat mostly organic but I make sure the foods we give Ava or all organic. The first 2 years of a child's life is SO important in developing her immune system and deciding if they will be a healthy child or a sickly child. I plan to be very strict with her eating for that period of life. I want to make healthy real eating normal to her.


Last week at mom Mom's Ava tried some rice pasta (she hasn't had gluten or wheat in any form and I don't plan to expose her to those for a while) with some tomato sauce and venison. Venison is a great way to basically get organic free range meats for free! My family is full of hunters so venison is easy to come by. We stripped Ava down to her diaper and let her go to town! She played with it, put it in her hair, ate it and had a blast! I love watching her develop and explore the world of real food!

Weekend In The Mountains

We took a quick weekend trip with some new friends to Colorado to do some skiing, lots of fun was had by all! Emily and Allan have a little boy that is a month younger then Ava and Ava loves the company! They were so funny together and exchanged lots of kisses and cuddles! They both kept us laughing with there cuteness! We took my 16 year old sister along to watch the babies so we could all ski together and that worked out perfect! She had her hands full but handled it well!

We had great conditions for skiing and got in a full day which was enough to wear us all out! The boys did some night skiing Friday when we got there to get warmed up a little for Saturday. We stayed in a nice little condo that we could walk to the lifts which is totally the way to go!


Thanks to our new fun friends Allan and Emily for helping this trip happen. We had so much fun and are loving our new friendship with there sweet family! Oh, I forgot to mention they have an adorable 3 year old named Claire who Ava adores! Claire stayed behind with family while we traveled.

So much to say...

I have so many things that I want to post about these days...but...I have a little 8 month old who has the characteristics of a raccoon and is currently taking every ounce of my time and energy. When she is napping, which by the way we have made HUGE strides in the sleeping department, I usually use that time to put back everything she gets out and keep my house and myself looking decent. So, until I take the time to post more here is the reason I haven't posted more.

Ava's favorite activities are pulling anything out that seems to have a place it belongs and playing with anything that looks like it might NOT be a toy! As you can tell she takes her job very serious?

2009 In Pictures

January – We started off the new year in a new state! The end of 2008 brought us back to TX, so we spend January adjusting to our new home and I started working at a Starbucks in the area (I had transferred from NY).

February - My hubby and I went to San Antonio to celebrate our birthdays, Valentines Day and a little babymoon. It was wonderful!

March - I had a wonderful baby shower to help us celebrate the soon arrival of our little bundle. It was so much fun and I was so blessed with all the fun little things for baby girl! The reality begin to set in even more that this was happening!

April - The 30^th was my due date, but I had a feeling we would have a May baby. April was filled with lots of excitement and lots of lasts before our world changed forever...for the good of course!

May - My life changed forever when our precious Ava Caroline was born. Ava's delivery was the hardest thing I have EVER done, but by far the most rewarding thing. I had a wonderful home birth (all natural birth!) and was surrounded by the people who love me the most. Ava arrived May 3rd and we spend the rest of the month adjusting to life with our baby girl. I celebrated by first mother's day with a 1 week old baby too! That was the best mother’s day gift possible!

June - We made our first trip back to NY to visit family and introduce Ava to them. She did wonderful and was a travel pro! I got my nose pierced, something I have wanted to do for a while just lacked the nerve to do it. We continued to fall more in love with our baby girl every day!

July - I don't remember anything major about July, which I am sure is due to the lack of sleep that July held and the brain cells that I loss due to that! Ava continued to grow and change and was smiling and laughing more and more...oh and she started getting some hair!

August – Ava and I took our first road trip together to Oklahoma to visit a dear friend and meet her new baby boy! We also took a trip back to NY for family camp. Ava loved 3 days in the outdoors!

September – Our baby was mobile, she could roll scoot and get wherever she thought she needed to get. Her personality continued to developed more and more.

October – Ava begin to try and crawl in her 5^th month, she would get up and then fall back down and do that over and over again! The last week of October she got it….and hasn’t stopped since!

November – We took our 3^rd trip back to NY, Ava enjoyed it more then ever. She was crawling so it was a new adventure for her! She also got 2 teeth! On her 6^th month birthday we discovered it! It changed her face and her smile into looking like a big girl! We ran a 5k on Thanksgiving, a first for me! It was fun and hopefully the first of many!

December – It was like re-living Christmas all over again from a child’s eyes watching Ava in awe of the paper, bows, lights and anything else shiny! Ava had no clue what all the excitement was about but we had fun! We had a white Christmas, which hasn’t happened since 1926 so it was a big deal! We spent Christmas in DFW with my family but missed Christmas with our Tallo family.

I cannot imagine 2009 being anymore amazing and feeling anymore blessed looking back on it!

White Christmas

We had a white Christmas in Texas! What fun memories were made, we will never forget Ava's first Christmas and the first white Christmas since 1926! Here is my big family that we spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning with. It was so fun! Sometimes loud and a little chaotic but thats's the way we like it! Lot's of laughing and fun stories. I am so thankful for each of these people I get to call family. I am blessed!

The Nutcracker Ballet

This weekend my sweet husband and I went to see the Nutcracker at Bass Hall! It was wonderful!! There are so many things I love about going to the ballet....getting all dressed up, seeing everyone else all dressed up in holiday attire, the gorgeous Bass Hall and just the idea of going to the ballet is so classy to me. I am one of those fortunate girls, my husband loves stuff like this. His mom trained him well! I don't have to beg him to take me and he doesn't complain and dread going. He wore a suite and I wore a little black dress...ok it wasn't that little..but it was as little of a black dress as I will ever wear.. We left Ava with my Mom and off we went! What a fun evening! I think we might make a tradition of it. Oh and how fun will it be in a couple years when we can take Ava? She will love it I am sure!

We wanta wish you a merry Christmas....

Here is a snapshot of our life the last couple weeks. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving started out by us running (well Ava rode) a 5k, my first one! I was happy to finish but will NOT report my time! Ava is gaining a love for food. She isn't real interested in and would prefer bits of our food over anything that resembles baby food or is fed to her with a spoon. She is crawling all over the place and attempts to stand. She turned 7 months old last week and is my little buddy! We have a blast together during the day and I LOVE the excitement she shows when her Daddy comes home. She is a true joy to us both and we cannot imagine our life without her!

Merry Christmas! Take some time to enjoy those around you and give a little extra love to your family. It's a season to celebrate the gifts God has given us and what greater gift then families to love!