Our summer...so far...

I tried to take a bit of a break from the blogging world this summer - concentrate on taking care of my family and myself! We have had a mix of a busy/fun/relaxing summer!

Lorens is growing like a WEED. At 9 months he is 16 lbs 15 oz (still a pipsqueak!) but is 29 in. long in the 75th percentile...hmmm...could be that he has a tall, skinny dad. About 1 month ago, in the span of 4 days he started to crawl, sleep through the night, say mama, and pull himself up on furniture. A couple wks ago he learned to wave, say dada/baba, and walk along furniture. Last week he learned to climb out of his crib (followed by hopefully learning a very valueable lesson to NOT climb out of the crib), climb up our entire flight of stairs, and can completely stand by himself and lower himself to the floor without falling. phew! he is on the go and wearing me out! This video is lo waving for the first time on our vacation to the chesapeake bay with josh's family. How adorable is he?

We've spent ALOT of time this summer making our own baby food. We have loved being able to go to the farmer's market every week to buy organic, local fruits and veggies to make for lo. He is a fantastic eater. His favorite foods are kale, collard greens, squash, avacado, and blueberries. He also is in love with these sweet potato fries I made for him. We are being really careful with his food introduction, so he still has many more months before he gets any sort of wheat/gluten - so its forced me to become creative on what kinds of finger foods I can give him. most fruits were too sliipery for him to pick up on his own, but the sweet potato fries worked awesome! he learned how to feed himself on them. :) We finally have a good system for making our food - its been a fun challenge for me, and now that I have an extra freezer (thanks to my mom and dad) we now have a freezer full of food! Josh and I constantly joke that our friends and acquaintances must think that we are crazy people for the way we take care of our child. (feeding, diapering, medical care) It's work obviously, and not for everyone...but in the end I know that we are just doing things the best we know how. Now if only Josh and I could take care of ourselves this carefully... :)

Josh has been spending quite a bit of time outside with his other baby this summer...his garden! And oh my, is it ever a garden! He's growing a few different herbs, corn, squash, zucchini, green beans, 3 different kinds of tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, cantalope, lettuce, cucumber, peppers, and onions. Most things are growing great so far - we've already picked a bunch of lettuce, squash, peppers, beans, cucumbers, and herbs! still waiting on the rest to mature...but its really a beautiful garden. I'm also working on getting a permanent clothesline put up back there. Josh has a makeshift one up, that I have yet to really use. I just have to get over my stupid fear of bees that are back there. stupid bees ruin everything. ..

Well, not everything. Lo and I have had many adventures going to the park - we make the 5 minute trek over to Reed's Lake a couple times per week and have lunch and play and take walks...this has been tons of fun for both of us. I have gotten some good use out of my jogging stroller this summer as well! It's definitely much harder running/walking with a stroller...burning more calories though right? :)

I hope your summer is as enjoyable as ours has been so far! picture update to come!!!

~mb