Tilly - 8 Months

 

Oh my goodness.. these pictures are getting near impossible to take.  This month she was trying to climb up over to top of the chair.. along with trying to flip over the side!

 

 

 

Month: 8- February 21, 2015

Height: Not sure on this until her check up next month

Weight: 15.1 according to sitting her on my scale.

Diaper Size: Finally moved up to Size 3, which is so nice since that is when the nighttime diapers start.  This baby pees like crazy at night!

Clothes Size:  Still all in 6 month.  Some tops are getting a bit tight, but the 9 month are so much bigger.  Hopefully we can start switching over to them shortly.

Sleep:  The same here.. 8/8:30pm-7/7:30am with 2-3 naps a day. Most naps are an hour to 2 hours.  This girl is a fan of sleep! (thankful mama here!)

Morning snuggles with Mama once she wakes up

 

Eat: She was doing good still.. her average of 25-26oz with a 6oz in the morning and 5oz every 3 hours after. Well, then she got a horrible cold and went on a hunger strike. This baby is tiny and has no room to miss a meal, so it was a bit stressful.  She would scream and throw a fit anytime she saw her bottle and one day only had around 11oz total. ugh.  Thank goodness after 2 weeks of building it back up she is pretty much back to her normal routine, plus around a jar to a jar and a half of food.  I think my child has the smallest stomach in the world because she could care less about food and doesn't like to eat much.

 

Likes:  She loves her mama and daddy, that's for sure! She loves playing and climbing on EVERYTHING now.  She also loves to follow us where ever we go.. that baby can turbo crawl. She loves to just crawl into the hallway and sit there and play with her hands, it's too funny to see her sitting there all alone just grinning away.  She loves her veggies way more than fruits, but is not a fan with anything that has peas.

 

 

Target fun!

 

 

Dislikes:  I forgot to mention this last month, but she is pretty much scared of anyone except Lance or myself.  She is in turbo stranger danger mode and will cry and get terrified if anyone else holds her.  Not fun. She also is scared of loud noises and will start crying. I guess we just aren't loud people, ha, so she isn't used to it. She's not a big fan of most fruits, I think she doesn't like the bitterness.

Firsts:  She had her first REALLY bad cold. I have never seen her so sad and pitiful, it was horrible.  Thank goodness it's almost completely clear. She also started being able to get in the sitting position on her own this month.. which means a lot of falling backwards and smacking her head on the floor.  Luckily she seems to have a nice, hard head! :)  This also means that she now sits up in her crib when she wakes up.. along with standing up and banging on the side until I come get her! haha  She has started to try and wave, it's the cutest thing ever because she gets so excited! She finally got the hang of putting food in her mouth and actually chewing. I am starting with the puffs for practice.  I did have to start with breaking them in half since she tried to inhale the whole thing and might have choked on a few.. oops.  But she is taking whole ones now and chewing.. woohoo!  And she is finally getting the hang of her sippy cup and not just using it as a chew toy.. gotta get ready to get rid of that bottle as soon as the time comes! I'm the mean mommy and don't like any attachment to items. ha

Also big news here.. finally at 8 months old her first tooth is breaking through on the bottom!! It doesn't seem to bother her. No change in sleep or fussiness. She's also never been a drooler and hasn't started.. yet.  We will see how it goes as she gets more.  I've felt it about a week and finally am seeing it pop through some, it seems to be taking forever!

My poor baby on her worst day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our little Valentine

 

 

Extra Updates:  We are just moving right along! I love watching her grow and learn new things constantly, though this crawling/pulling up has brought on a whole new world.  A much, much more stressful one.  She is such a happy little baby, but with a 16 year old teenager living inside.. she has got some sass and boy will she let you know if she doesn't want to do something.  I'm assuming she gets this from me.. oops! :)

 

 

Overall she is such an amazing baby and we feel so blessed every day that she is ours. I can't even imagine life before her.. and how sad that her 1 year is in 4 months.. ahhh!! Time to start birthday party planning! :)

We love you baby girl!!
 

 

 

Foil Wrapped Chicken Veggie Dinner

So I said I would share any great recipes I came across, and I knew I would definitely be sharing this one.  I made this last night and it was super easy and turned out delicious!  You can mix and match this a ton of different ways, but I will post how I made ours.

Foil Wrapped Chicken and Veggies

Ingredients:
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (I used thinly sliced ones)
Red, Yellow, and Orange Peppers
Red Onion
Tomato
Garlic (I used jarred chopped)
Fresh Basil Leaves
Carrots
Vinaigrette Dressing (I used Zesty Lime)
Aluminum Foil

Tear off enough pieces of foil to completely cover each chicken breast and veggies.  Chop up enough vegetables for each wrapped chicken and divide. Lay chicken on your foil sheet, top with garlic, pour on enough dressing to cover chicken, top with veggies, and then place 1-2 basil leaves on top.  Wrap up completely and place on cooking sheet.  I made 4 servings, enough for dinner and then lunch the next day.  Cook at 325 for 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. 

 

 

Once complete, I just scooped everything out and left most of the dressing in the foil to toss.  You can either keep the veggies on the chicken and eat it together, or move them to the side to eat as your "side". I think it took about 10 minutes of prep.. super fast, easy and delicious!


I would also like to throw in my new gadget I got recently that I am obsessed with! The one I got retails $40 at JcPenney, but with a sale and coupon I ended up getting it for around $15.  It makes slicing your vegetables a breeze! I LOVE it!!

Purchase HERE.  It is on sale now and they have a $10 off $25 code for in store and online!

 

 

Enjoy!

Quick, Healthy Recipes & Ideas

So around 3 weeks ago I decided to start meal planning and eating a bit better. We never really eat "bad" as in fast food or tons of fried things, but were bad about getting processed items.  I really wanted to try and start eating clean.  I mentioned before I have some leftover "baby weight" (can I still call it that 7 months later? ha) I want to lose, so I figured this would be a good start.  So far I have lost about 4 1/2 lbs in 3 weeks just from diet.  Now it's time to add in some exercise, boo! haha 

When searching for recipes, I try to find ones that are mostly natural foods and most importantly, simple! Now some of these do have packaged items, but overall most of them are pretty healthy.  I am just going to share a few I have tried so far that were a hit.


First off we have been making these about a year or so, and I love them! Simple and delicious.  Mini pizzas! 

Ingredients:
Any type of pita or tortilla, though I like FlatOut brand products.
Lite Laughing Cow Cheese
Shredded Cheese (not a must)
Olive Oil
Spinach
Tomato
Garlic

Neither Lance or I are big fans of pizza sauce, so we always make the "white pizzas", but you can easily add marinara to this if you like.

Bake the Pita for around 5 minutes, take out and add all above toppings (the olive oil is our sauce), and put back in the oven around 8 minutes. Simple and delicious! Also very low on calories!

 

 

 

Next, I made a Shrimp Pasta with Zucchini Noodles and roasted radishes.  This whole meal was under 175 calories.. INSANE!

 

I got a Vegetable Spiralizer for Christmas (yea, I asked for this haha) I spiraled (is that a word?) some zucchini, and then sauteed them in a bit of olive oil. I added a few chopped yellow peppers I had left over from another recipe as well.  Then, I cooked the shrimp in a skillet with a few different spices and added it to the noodles once heated.  Now, I was a bit nervous about the radishes, because I normally don't like them.  I saw them on a cooking show where they promised they didn't taste like a raw radish this way, and they were right! I really, really liked them!  All you do is chop up your radishes, cover with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.  Once you take them out of the oven, sprinkle with lemon juice and you're done! They have more of a potato taste this way.

 

(I didn't notice the picture I took was blurry until after I ate all my food.. oops)

 

 

 

Third, I tried this simple chicken marinade idea and the flavor was very good.  Overnight you will marinate boneless, skinless chicken breasts with the following:

 

2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tbsp. parsley flakes

2 tbsp. lemon juice

 

Cook at 350 for 30 or so minutes, depending on thickness and size.  I served these with a side of fresh broccoli chopped and baked with a bit of olive oil and salt/pepper.  The chicken is also something you can prepare and then freeze in the marinade until you are ready to thaw and eat.  Great freezer meal idea!

 

 

 

 

Fourth, I tried an Orange Chicken crockpot recipe.  This one I didn't have all the correct ingredients so I'll put exactly how I made it, since I liked the taste!

 

Orange Marmalade (I just dumped in the whole jar since I knew I wouldn't use the rest for anything)

1/2 cup of BBQ

1/4 cup Honey ((it called for 3/4 cup of Honey BBQ sauce, but I improvised since I only had reg))

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast chopped into large pieces

 

Cook on Low 3-4 hours.

 

I'm sure if you dumped the sauce all over these once you took the chicken out it would add a lot more calories, but I just picked out the chicken and only had the sauce that had soaked into them.  I really liked this recipe, even though Lance didn't like the orange flavor (he doesn't like anything fruit flavored ha).

 

Mainly we try to use recipes with a baked meat, mainly chicken or fish, and then a side of fresh vegetables.  We also like to get the Turkey Tenderloins that are pre-seasoned and bake those- which is 2 nights worth of meals! I can tell a difference in not feeling so bloated since eating more clean.  It has also been a HUGE help with the meal planning. I plan out my weekly menu on Saturday, and then make my lists of needed ingredients for my Sunday shopping trip.  It helps save money, not waste food, and makes the nights so much faster and more organized.

 

I also try to drink as much lemon water as I can, eat fresh for breakfast (avocado toast with lemon juice, yogurt, fresh fruit, special k with skim milk) and lunch (salads, fruits, veggies, leftover meats from dinner), and not snack.  I recently bought some Ezekiel bread (made with sprouts and not flour) that is supposed to be much better for you and doesn't have any crazy preservatives. You have to keep it in the freezer though unless you can eat it all within just a few days.  I also found Silk Almond Milk now makes a coffee creamer, which I am so excited for because I know how HORRIBLE and chemical filled those yummy coffee creamers are.  I see so many people focus on low calorie foods, but they don't realize how many chemicals and fake things they are eating just to get low calorie.  I will eat more calories/fat if I know that it's actually an overall healthy option.

 

I am definitely not a pro at this, nor do I eat good all the time. I just thought I would share a few tips and tricks I am trying to focus on more this year.  Sometimes you just want a yummy, chemically processed cookie.. and that's ok. (I'm human.. it's not the end of the world).  I am still trying out new recipes weekly, so I will post more as I find ones worth sharing. I am making some hummus crusted chicken tonight that I am pretty excited about!

 

 

Hopefully this can help if you are looking for some healthier, quick options. :)  I am always open for ideas you have tried, so share away if you have any recommendations!!