Emealz to the rescue

One of my least favorite things is meal planning. I have the hardest time planning good, healthy, and economical meals. I wish you rec'd a manual on this when you get married. A couple of years ago I found out about Emealz....it is a web-site where you pay $5 a month and they send you a weekly dinner meal plan with recipes and grocery list. It is customizable to the store you shop at and they use recipes for that week that go along with the stores discounts. I also chose a meal plan that serves 2-3 people so you save money by not having too many leftovers which is great b/c my husband is not big on leftovers. Thought some of you mommies out there might want to check this out ....i LOVE this and to me it is totally worth the $5 a month b/c of the money I save grocery shopping. We like almost all of the meals too AND there is variety....I find when I do my own meal planning that I tend to make the same things week to week and it just gets old! So, if you are interested, go to e-mealz.com and check it out!

delayed weaning

I have decided to delay the weaning process....Israel has not been feeling well the past couple of days and he has been teething...poor lil guy has been using his fists to soothe the teething pains. He has been nursing a lot better and it seems to comfort him so I don't want to add another thing to the mix of changes. Also, I have been a little sentimental about it....not like crying or anything but just not feeling ready for this to end quite yet. There is some pressure from some family members that feel he is too old to be nursing and aren't afraid to say so. Sometimes, I am tempted to lie when they ask, "Is he still nursing?".....but I know that wouldn't be right. So we will see, I will be praying about what I should do:)

11 months old

Israel is 11 months old today and it is an absolutely gorgeous day outside! Well this time last year I was anxiously awaiting his arrival and had no idea what a blessing he would be to our lives!

Some things Israel is doing now........

says in his own way.....bye bye, ball, mama, dada, dog, night night, and he tries to say book and bath but they sound a lot like how he says ball.

he likes to bark like a dog, to push chairs around so he can walk, to be outside, to look out windows and doors, to eat, to throw balls, to pick grass and flowers, to eat rocks (well, he tries to but I don't let him for obvious reasons), to cuddle his blankie and lamb, to drink from his sippy cup, to nap and sleep, to dump the nasty drooly dog water out of the dog bowl

he is very ticklish, he likes to have his space....not much of a cuddler unless it is the occasional random hug initiated by himself, he is very independent and knows what he wants and doesn't want :) he is trying to learn how to walk....just waiting until he takes those first couple of steps.

he has been a very easy baby.....slept through the night starting at 2 weeks old.....good napper.....good eater.....and just a happy baby.....hoping any future baby or babies will be as easy as him.

For the past couple of days I have been thinking about weaning him from the breast.....it makes me sad. On his end, I know he is not attached to it and I am pretty sure he will be easy to wean. He is to the point where he moves around so much that it gets a little frustrating to nurse him....I have been nursing him in the bed because anywhere else and he gets distracted by his toys. With him being so active I don't have to worry about him falling asleep while nursing.....instead he likes to do what I call "acrobatic nursing"....standing on his head and wiggling every which way.....it is driving me nuts so it is helping me be not so sentimental about weaning him but it is still hard. I haven't started yet but I think I will start in the next couple of weeks dropping one feeding per week.....His morning feeding will be the last to go because it is the one he enjoys the most and I may even keep it for awhile depending on how I feel. I have been giving him a sippy cup with water and he has gotten quite good at it....I have also already given him cow's milk and he loves that.....I will be replacing each feeding with a sippy cup of whole milk. We'll see how it goes.....my goal was to breastfeed until he was 12 months so time is almost up...who knows we may be done a little before his first birthday!

focusing and reading......

Israel likes to explore, probably the same with any child his age and trying to learn to walk.....but I want to teach him to be able to focus so I have him play in his playard around 30 minutes between each nap. He plays with his toys soooo much better in there...I set the timer and he knows that when it goes off it is time to get out. He is able to focus and not become distracted with the world around him:) He is able to learn better because he plays with an individual toy instead of going from one thing to the next.

Today I was thinking about when I read to him he will usually only sit on my lap and focus for one or two pages and then he wants to get down and explore or do the book himself, flipping through the pages. Soooo, I removed all the toys from his playard and got in the playard with him and we began to read....I read three whole books to him until he was ready to be done. He even pointed to a ball on the page and said "Bah" which is a first....YAY! I only brought in one book at a time because I knew he would want to play with the other books while I read instead of focusing.

I am happy with the results and plan to do this from now on....right now he just needs that option of exploration taken away until he learns to focus better:)