Ready for Steak???

William has officially cut his first tooth. It's the front lower tooth on the Left side. Dave & I had checked his gums Sunday afternoon and there was nothing. By Sunday evening you could very plainly feel the tooth with your fingertip, in fact - that's how he told me it was in, WD put my finger in his mouth to chew on it. Nursing has been interesting as I get used to him, but nothing too bad. He's still eating "solids" twice per day and getting pretty good at it (if I'm feeding him, not so great if Daddy or Uncle Rob are feeding him). This is in addition to breast milk or formula (formula only at the sitters, and it's usually mixed with breast milk). The next trip to Bogie's Steakhouse William will now have something more to attack his sirloin with than just his gums!

6 months and counting!

William is 6 months old this week! We started the week out by going to Portrait Innovations at Jordan Creek for his 6 month pictures. Not only are they ADORABLE (look for some in the mail to you or at the Stuart-Bettis Reunion this weekend) but he also sat up all by himself in an up-right position. Dave says he's seen this before but not for this length of time, but I've never seen this. When WD would sit up - he usually leans forward within seconds in an attempt to get his feet in his mouth!

William is also cutting his first tooth, and doing remarkably well with it! A little fussy but overall - not bad. I was amazed that you couldn't even tell he was teething in the pictures as he was so happy and smiley!

Anyone looking to get photos I would highly recommend Portrait Innovations as they have a package where you can get over 60 pictures for $9.95 with no sitting fee, and you get to pick the picture you want for that package. Now I will warn you that if you are easily guilted like me - or have a really cute child, also like me - plan on spending more, as you won't be able to get out of there with just the $9.95 one portrait package, you'd be doing add-ons! The first set of pictures, we has TONS (like over 200 pictures) for $145, but this time I was able to get out of there for $45, so I did have more self control. :-) And the best part - your pictures are ready in 30 minutes!

Lactation Cookies? Are you sure???

Looking to boost my milk production for WD, I came across a recipe on the internet for Lactation Cookies. Now men - don't let these scare you - Dave has eaten plenty of them and we've yet to see a drop from him so far...so don't get too worried. Basically I think it's a healthier Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie - and now I have a GREAT excuse to eat several of them a day! I wash 'em down with either cold milk , or a hot cup of "Mother's Milk" Tea. Dave prefers milk with his.

"LACTATION" COOKIES

(aka: PERFECT EXCUSE Cookies)

preheat oven to 350
parchment paper is needed for this.

• 1 cup butter/margarine (I use light/low fat)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking soda
• 2 cups flour (I use 1/2 c whole wheat flour + 1.5 to 1.75 c white flour)
• 2 T water (I omit entirely)
• 2 T ground flax seed meal
• 2 T flax seed (I add this - it's not in the original recipe)
• 4 T brewers yeast (I got mine at Campbell's Nutrition in Des Moines)
• 3 cups thick cut oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips (I like Dark Chocolate Chips as that makes it even "healthier")

The internet directions will tell you to mix your ground flax meal w/ the water in a cup and let sit, but I found that really useless, so I omit the water all together and just add the flax meal to the dry ingredients. (Can you tell I've made these a few times already.) Cream the butter and sugars. Add eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla. If you chose to mix the flax meal with water, then you'll add that mixture to the creamed mixture now.

Next mix the dry ingredients together EXCEPT the oats and chips, leave those out until the end. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ones a few spoonfuls at a time. Once it's all incorporated then mix in the oats and chips. If you'd like to add nuts (I like to add 1/4 c chopped walnuts occasionally), add them now. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheet. W/o the parchment paper, good luck getting them off your cookie sheet!

Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 12 minutes.

Yield = I'd guess about 5 dozen, but I'm not for sure - have yet to bake a batch w/o Dave and I getting into them while they're hot! I'd recommend bagging them up in bunches of 2 or 3 and freezing them. That certainly helps hem last longer around our house.

WW POINTS value = 2 pts per cookie

Hot enough for ya?

William has a heat rash all over his tummy, and inner thighs. Poor kid doens't have it anywhere that it would be easy to keep uncovered, so he's been our "white trash baby" lately and just been chilling in his diaper a lot in the last 24 hours. If anyone knows any great home remedies please pass them on! Hopefully this cool-down that's suppose to come this weekend will give him a little relief.

New Nightly Ritual?

It's been interesting trying to get William to go to bed lately. As a new mom I have such mixed emotions about it. When he does go to sleep - I want to watch him and touch him and snuggle him, but I should be doing things like laundry, cleaning, working-out, or sleeping! Then when he's awake that's all I think about doing as he's getting to the stage when he doesn't want to snuggle, he wants to move and look around! UGH... Don't get me wrong - it's great that he's so attentive and alert, it's fun to watch...but I'm already missing the clinginess! (I'm a silly first-time mom and i'll get over that quick enough I'm sure - at least that's what I'm thinking all the other moms reading this are thinking of me!!!)

So I've started carrying him into our bed for about 10 minutes at night and Dave and I lay in bed with him. Sometimes I take the time to brush my teeth and Dave reads whatever he's reading to William (last night it was a Robert Ludlum spy novel). And we all play for a few minutes, then we kiss him good night and he get put down in his crib. I'm not sure if this is going to be a bad habit, or just something fun - I guess only time will tell!

SWING-TIME!

After trying out a swing at Emily Short's house, WD was in love with swinging outside. Being able to look around to all the new things, and getting to swing at the same time was a huge hit with him. He also go to swing at Grandpa & Grandma's house (on the the farm), and Uncle Rob got him going so high that his feet were touching the leaves on the tree! (That's where Mama drew the line w/ Uncle Rob.) So I begged Dave to make a place for a swing for William. I had bought one brand new at a garage sale when he was about 3 month old, and was fearful we'd be selling it at a garage sale brand new as well since we don't have any reliable trees we could hang it from. So this past weekend, Dave constructed a swing set. :-)

You can see it's nothing too fancy, nice and simple, and in the front yard!

Here's WD when he's sitting up correctly, and boy does he smile when he gets to swing. I've gotten him in it daily since Dave put it up. I love pushing him in it, and I think the movement helps keep the 'skeeters away from him!

Then there's times when William slouches down, and even falls alseep in the swing.

He's such a DOLL!

Time w/ the Cousins (and Grandma too)

You can't tell that Sutton (10) and Rowan (6) love their cousin William can you? I'm just not sure about it. They were up briefly with their Dad and Grandma Karyn on Thursday 7/31 after graduating swimming lessons. It seems that they were more interested in WD than their ice cream - now that's love isn't it!?!

CHEESE!

Above - Sutton gets some WD time.

Now it's Rowan's turn!

Finally - Grandma gets to steal William Duaine for herself!