Maddie the Performer

My niece Maddie is the one of the sweetest and most beautiful young ladies I have ever met (I may be a little biased as her godmother, but whatever).  She is so quiet and a bit on the shy side, so you would never know in meeting her that this girl can sing!  She won a singing competition back in September and she is now headed to Nashville, Tennessee this weekend to sing in a bigger competition at the Grand Ole' Opry!   She is only 10 years old!  Needless to say, her entire family is so very proud of her!  We attended a fund-raising dinner for her Sunday night where she, once again, amazed us all with her beautiful and powerful voice.  We had a fabulous time!  And Jack?....even though he was out way past his bedtime, he partied like the animal he is!  He absolutely adores his girly cousins!

Miss Madeline Lee

Not an ounce of stage fright!

Lilly and Alexa rockin' out to Maddie's song.

Papa getting into the country spirit!  I also now realize where Jack's large head circumference comes from!

Seven Months

Mr. Jack, I can't believe it, you turned 7 months old on Saturday!  Your little personality is turning more and more into a little boy and less of a baby.  Here are your seven month stats...drum roll please...:

• Weight:  20 lbs 5.8 ounces
• Height:  27.5 inches
• Head Circumference:  45.1 cm

What do all these numbers tell us?  You are a BIG, but healthy, baby boy!  You had us cracking up this month.  You love to talk and babble.  You started two new sounds:  da-da (I wish you could have seen daddy's happy look) and ya-ya.  You love to put the 2 together and say "ya-ya da-da."  It is the cutest thing ever!  Your two bottom teeth are officially in and the top 2 just started making their presence known.  You are scooting around ALL over the place!  You LOVE cords, wires, ribbons, and tags.  Dixie remains your loyal and trusted companion.  You are so loved my Jack-Jack.  We can't wait to see what new developments occur this next month!

"Move or I'll honk!  You haven't heard?  I'm 7 months!"

"Chillin' on my ride"

Food Bomb!

So Mandi and  Anayah were over the other day and Anayah happily shared her mom's delicious homemade food blends with Jack.  To my complete and utter surprise, the child ate it and with some of the same enthusiasm as he does with the Gerber food (you all remember this post, I'm sure).  Naturally, I was intrigued, curious, and cautiously excited to try to unload feed him that drawer full of food in the freezer.  The first attempt was a success, he ate all his mangoes and sweet potatoes; no, not without making a gagging sound at each bite, but he did indeed eat it up.  I should not have pushed my luck.  For dinner I brought out the dreaded homemade carrots and apples.  He dramatically gagged at EVERY single bite.  I became irritated and frustrated with his gagging sounds and his unending attempts at grabbing the spoon to feed himself, so I let him...well I will just let you see what happened for yourselves:

Now in Jack's defense, I do use some of the Yes to Carrots lotions and he watches me while I rub the cream on my hands and elbows, so he may be confused at this point about what we do with carrots, eat them or put them on our bodies            (is that reaching?).

"You have surely learned your lesson now, Mandy, right?" is a thought that might be crossing some of your minds.  Of course I haven't!  I am an Aries and we don't give up that easily (and we are a bit crazy and stubborn).   Mandi and I spent the afternoon slaving making more baby food!  Now in my defense, the child (yes, that is how I am referring to my child in this blog post) ate Mandi's food blends, so I am hoping he will eat it by default.  We made all kind of mixtures using yellow and butternut squash, sweet potatoes, pears, apples, bananas, strawberries, carrots, blueberries, and peaches.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  Jack was the taste tester after each batch and he gobbled up each bite, but the child is fickle.  I will keep you all posted...wish me luck...

 I'm going to need it.  Oy vey!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My cutie pie valentine is already 6 1/2 months!  He is army crawling ALL over the place and his two bottom teeth have broken through!  I truly can't believe how quickly he is growing up.  Here are some of our favorite pictures from last week and a video of our baby Jack:

Happy Valentine's Day!  "Mom, how long do I have to wear this?"

Thumbs up for Valentine's Day!

My nieces came over to do some Valentine's Day crafts. We made mailboxes for all their valentines and lotto scratcher valentines for their friends at school.

 As much as I want to be Jack's Valentine, I know his heart lies with his Dixie girl!

True love!

Practicing downward- facing dog yoga position together.

"I love you, too Jack!"

 My days are numbered:

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Love,

Surya, Mandy, Jack and Dixie

Another Busy Week!

Whew!  Last week was fun and busy!  Here are some of the things we were up to:

Jack found a friend in the mirror and is trying to crawl.  He can go up on all fours and push himself back and forth, but has not yet successfully made the leap forward.  I take that back, he did take a leap forward, but fell flat on his face!  It should be any day now!

Hi friend!

 Jack being his usual cute and energetic self.

Hi Mommy!  I'm getting ready to crawl!

Jack got some new threads and we had a photo session.  That face kills me!

Strike a pose!

Oh, we're not done?

Should I pretend to be walking down the street?

Getting grumpy...

And grumpier...

Oh!  There's my happy boy!

We were finally able to cheer Surya on at one his soccer games!

Jack cheered when there wasn't something in his mouth...in other  words, not very often.

Decked out in the appropriate attire.

 I finished some more onesies.  Surya draws the design I want and then I make the applique out of fabric and felt.

I like this one, Mom! 

Cute little giraffe.

Goin' to the beach.

We hope everyone had a great Superbowl Sunday!  Have a great week!

Sew...I Am Working On My Next Project

I have always wanted to learn how to sew and luckily my very talented (and patient) friend, Mandi, agreed to teach me.  Mandi is extremely creative and has been dying her own onesies and sewing on her own designs for some time.  My child is growing like a weed and I can't afford to keep buying new clothes for him, so I decided to dye some onesies and learn to sew some designs, too!  Also, I hate buying clothes that say things like "Mommy's Major Hunk" or "Daddy Loves Me."  I just want to design and make my own.  We dyed the dark blue, brown and green.  I used a die cut to punch out the surfboards, star, turtle, and letters.  The owl and the tree are iron-on appliques.  It was so much fun to do!  I bought some more onesies and dye and have some more designs to sew on.  Now, I need to buy my own sewing machine!