Allergic Reaction to Cottage Cheese

Last week when my family was visiting we decided to introduce Makaela to cottage cheese. Grandpa and Grandma both love it, so they were all about it. I don't know that I've ever even tried it, but that shouldn't hold Makaela back I thought.

I read online that cottage cheese is good to introduce to babies if they tolerated yogurt or other cheeses well. She has had no problems with either of those, so I think she is okay when it comes to dairy. Of course, we will wait to introduce cow's milk until after she hits 12 months. But guys....look what happened when she ate the cottage cheese!

We let her pick up the curds (is that what they are called?) herself, and anywhere they had contact with her skin she turned red! Poor girl. Thank GOODNESS she wasn't phased by it and thank GOODNESS there was no swelling or reaction inside her mouth or throat. The reaction disappeared within about an hour.

In reading up on it, other babies (who were fine with yogurt and other cheeses) had the same reaction to cottage cheese. Maybe it is some kind of dye or additive that caused it...not really sure. I have a couple (very manageable) food allergies, and I just pray Makaela is allergy free.

I will bring it up to her pediatrician at her 9 month well baby check to be cautious, but obviously we won't be giving her cottage cheese again anytime soon. Sorry MickMack! She seemed to really enjoy it too :(

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you are enjoying it! Whether you're with family, friends, coworkers, or flying solo I sincerely hope you are stuffing your face with an insane amount of yummy food.

For Makaela's FIRST Thanksgiving we are celebrating with my brother! We started out the morning sipping on hot cocoa, because it is actually quite cold here in 'bama (who knew?!).

Soon we'll be off to play some tennis and then we'll be enjoying a slightly non-traditional Thanksgiving feast. No turkey for us!

How cute is that lil hand?! I could just eat it up, gobble gobble (har har har). And just for fun and to show the scale of how itty bitty that turkey is, I present the picture below :) 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

....and she's off!

Look out world, this little stinker is mobile.

She started scooting backward a couple months ago, and then about a month ago she started to do the whole "rocking" thing on her hands and knees but would usually flop down within a minute and throw a fit that usualllllllly looked like this...

The day she officially began "crawling" was 11/12/13. At first she would go about a foot and then stop and sit and then go a foot and stop and sit. She wasn't totally sold on it....that is, until she realized that being mobile actually worked to her advantage.

This week, a lightbulb went off and she realized the possibilities were endless. She could now crawl over to the dog food and water bowls, our cell phone and laptop cords and any and everything else she is NOT supposed to touch; things mommy and daddy would never walk her over to.

Such a little thrill seeker...

Aside from the fact that she seems motivated and tempted by things she isn't supposed to play with, the whole crawling thing is adorable. I love the smile she gets on her face when she is proud of herself. She follows me around the house, and perhaps I occasionally play "fetch" with her...

Oh, and I can't fail to mention the time earlier this week when I caught Rocky HUMPING her as she tried to innocently crawl around the living room. That dog.....he's just not right.

Miss Makaela has a couple variations of crawling up her sleeve. One is the traditional crawl; she prefers that on carpet. And then there is the gorilla crawl, which she feels is best suited for tile or wood floor.  See exhibit A and B below...

This girl has eyes like a hawk. I'm not joking when I say if there is a piece of sand or a hair on the ground she WILL find it and she WILL eat it. 

Thank goodness I started childproofing a couple weeks ago because she is already pulling books off shelves, and opening cupboards and drawers. Nosey Nancy!!

First Time Ordering Off the Kid's Menu!

On our way back from Tim's parents we stopped at Steak and Shake. I think it has been YEARS since we've been to one. Ahh, it was delicious and I wish we had one nearby. Did you know they serve breakfast? They probably have for 10 years and I am just now finding out.

Annnnnnyway, when we walked in the hostess informed us that kids eat free on Sundays if Makaela wanted to try anything. At first I kind of ignored the idea, and then once we sat down, thought hey why not? She eats big girl food at home and off our plate at restaurants, why not order her her very own meal? Especially at my favorite price point.....free!

What a big big girl she has become <3

The mac and cheese and applesauce were a total hit. She shoveled it all in like a champ. The hat was also a huge hit...so much so that she fussed when it fell off once, and immediately calmed once it was back on her noggin. She also loved the toy car that daddy made her from the kid's kit that came with her meal. 

Another successful outing in the books. Yesssssssss.

Dog Friend

Did I also mention how she can spot Rocky's disgusting orange bone chew toy from across the room and makes her way to it so that she too can munch on it just like the dog? Uh yeah, so that's fun. 

Happy Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's Day to all those who have served or are currently serving. Our service women and men make the ultimate commitment and I am forever thankful for their courage and bravery.

They often miss out on special moments with family and friends....some miss the birth of their child, or spend an important birthday deployed to a foreign country... the list goes on. The fact that they so selflessly do so, often risking their lives, to protect our freedom is beyond admirable. Veterans are heroes.

I'm lucky enough to be married to a veteran.

He is strong and brave and he takes it all on while being the most amazing daddy a lil girl could ask for.  A real hero.

I'm so grateful for the life that we have. Thank you again to all the veterans out there. We love ya!

Aplin Farms and The National Peanut Festival

Whenever there are special events or festivals around here we try to make it out to them, because, well there isn't a whole lot to do on an average weekend. At the end of September we went to Oktoberfest, which was conveniently held 2 blocks from our house. We envisioned drinking fun German beers and eating bratwursts and stumbling walking home. Oddly enough, they only had ONE kind of German beer and we were more into the Deep Fried Oreos than anything. It was that night that I decided I would try just about anything fried while living in 'bama. I like to call it embracing my new home.

Then there was our adventure to Aplin Farms at the end of October. We had the most perfect Fall day for our trip there. Turns out Fall does exist (in a very mild form) here! There were tractor rides, a pumpkin patch, petting farm, country store, games, and my favorite, the sunflower fields. You could pick as many sunflowers as you wanted for free. We only grabbed one, and spent time taking in the scenery. Makaela loved the wind blowing in her hair.

This past week we explored the National Peanut Festival. It was pretty cool; there were tons of food booths - a combination of traditional fair/festival vendors and countless stations set up by local churches, boy scout troops, HS bands etc. that were selling yummy foods. In keeping with my promise to devour all things fried, I of course had to try a deep fried snickers. Tim had a deep fried twinkie. 

It was so wrong it was right. 

Little did we know we would later stumble upon deep fried koolaid (yeah...I don't know how it works either), and deep fried peanut butter cups. Call me a failure, but I was a bit deep-fried-out, so I didn't give those a try. Whomp Whomp. 

We walked around for awhile, and laughed about the hilarious art on some of the rides. This one below was on a haunted house. Why are Lenny Kravitz and 50 Cent on there? We're not sure either.

Tim even won Makaela her first festival toy. It is a just-her-size-penguin and she loves it. Thanks Daddy!

The night we were there Easton Corbin was performing which was pretty neat because you could see his show, and all you had to pay was the admission to the festival ($6). We didn't stick around for the show, but we heard it was great. 

On the way home from the ol' Peanut Festival...excuse me...NATIONAL Peanut Festival... 

....we tried out a little diner close to home called Our Place Diner. It was delicious, super clean and we loved the family feel. The owners came around to each table and chatted and were so friendly. Oh and they were SO understanding and helpful when Makaela spilled my water allllll over the table. Sigh. Anyway, we'll definitely be going back there!

Sensory Sunday Funday: Contact Paper Window Craft

For over a month now, Makaela has been FASCINATED with playing at the window. She loves looking out it, banging on in, resting her head against it, talking to the dogs through it....you name it.

I knew a project that involved extra time at the ol' window would be a hit. I ordered contact paper, feathers, ribbon and felt buttons from Amazon Prime and gathered some pink and purple post-its that I had on hand. 

For this Sunday Funday activity, I cut a small piece of contact paper and taped it to the window so that the sticky side was facing us, and gave Makaela goodies to create a collage!

Her favorites were definitely the feathers. She must have liked the way they felt because she played with them in her hands for quite some time. The fact that everything was brightly colored probably didn't hurt either.

I demonstrated sticking items to the contact paper first, and then she caught on, although I have to say, she was more interested in taking items OFF the contact paper instead of adding stuff ONTO it. 

The items we used were small and could pose a choking hazard, but since I was doing the project WITH her I wasn't worried about her sneaking any feathers or ribbons into her mouth. 

Currently, the artist's masterpiece is hanging on the window more at mommy and daddy's eye level so we can admire it, but the plan is to get a frame or shadow box for it. I love the idea of framing kid's artwork for display. I can totally tell I'm going to be that mom that doesn't want to get rid of ANYTHING her kid brings home from school!!

This was a fun and easy project that we will surely try again at different ages. I hope she enjoys craft time together as much as I do <3

7 month photos!

Holy guacamole, our baby girl is creeping closer and closer to 1 year old. It is incredible how much babies change in 7 days, not to mention how much change happens in SEVEN MONTHS.

At her last well child check our little big girl weighed in at 18.1 pounds and measured 27 inches. That put her in the 81st and 82nd percentiles.

Makaela is OBSESSED with walking while holding Mommy or Daddy's hands. Sometimes she runs. It is insane. I don't know how her little legs have the energy to go go go all day. She has also been putting more effort into learning to crawl lately as well. I wouldn't be surprised if she is one of those weird kids that skips crawling and goes straight to walking, but we'll see what happens!

Standing alone is also all the rage these days. One day she was super wobbly (in fact, it looked like she was giving Miley a run for her money, doing some kind of goofy twerking motion) and then, magically, the next day she came in like a wrecking ball. Okay, I don't even know what that means. Bad Miley joke. What I meant to say was...it was like she she improved overnight.

Bubbles are becoming more interesting to her now too. We introduced her to them a couple months ago and she just sort of stared in awe. Now she likes to try and catch them or pop them on the ground. It's pretty dang cute.

Oh, and this month's photo shoot was funny. Well at least I thought so. The little girl was tired after a busy day, and was less than thrilled for a good chunk of the photo shoot. 

We did manage to capture some smiles, but I decided to go with a not-so smiley photo. She looks pathetically sweet, no? 

Nice job gracefully pointing your toes mid-hissy fit, ballerina girl. It's so hard being little.