Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts

September 02, 2010

Fatten up your Baby


This one is short and sweet and for all you mommas out there whose pediatricians are a little concerned because your baby is in a lower weight percentile.

This is what I fed Zeke when our doc was concerned about his weight when he was 6 months old. What can I say, the kid has a high metabolism, and his momma produces 2% milk instead of cream. When I needed to get some more fat in my little man's diet, pretty much the only solid he would eat was bananas. So this is what I came up with:

Zeke's Chubby Cheek Breakfast Mush:
  • 1/2 of 1 banana
  • 1/4 of 1 fresh avacado
  • 1 tbsp flax meal
  • dash of cinnamon (optional, only if you know your baby can handle cinnamon. Turns out mine is allergic to it.)
That's it! Mash it all up together and then serve. Flax and avacado are both full of healthy fats, and omega 3s. Fantastic for brain development along with being a great way to add some chub to those cheeks.

When Zeke got chubby enough (after some time, people actually started remarking how he'd put on some some pounds!), I started easing off the avacado. I would cut it into chunks and freeze the chunks, then set down one chunk to thaw every night so it was ready for breakfast in the morning.

Now that Zeke is older, I put the avacado chunk, banana, and flax in his daily smoothie (along with extra goodies like blueberry, spinach, and carrots).

Let the chub begin!

March 08, 2010

The new life of the baby mobile


As you probably know, before Zeke was born, I crocheted him a sea creature baby mobile. It didn't actually make its way to hanging above the crib until we actually got him a crib around 6 months, but he has had it there for a few months now, and he enjoyed swatting at the goldfish. Well, Zeke grew two inches in under two weeks, and suddenly was able to get a good grip on it (unbeknownst to us) and pull the whole mobile down. When I saw it on the floor, I picked it up and set it on top of the dresser, planning to rehang it later. Well, Zeke caught a glimpse of it and started reaching for it... for two days anywhere I moved it, he would see it and cry for it, until we finally just handed it to him to see what he would do with it. What he did was carry the whole thing around with him for days, until he finally managed to detach a goldfish and the octopus. At first I was thinking I should take it away from him before he messes them up. But then I decided, I made it for Zeke to enjoy, and he's enjoying it, so who cares if he drools all over them?

So here he is at 10 months old, and for a week now he's been carrying around the individual creatures, as well as sometimes carrying around the coral with the jellyfish attached. I would have to say this is currently his favorite toy... and since he never seems to care about any of his toys, I've really been enjoying watching him get excited over the sea creatures I made for him. The mobile has taken on new life. I don't think we'll be hanging it back up.

January 26, 2010

dodecahedron


I finished the dodecahedron. I think it turned out pretty well! It took much longer than I expected though... I think each point took me about an hour, how absurd is that?! I put a bell in each point, too, so it will jingle. I'm going to give it to Zeke tonight. He saw me working on it the other night and was all excited about it, so I hope to get the same excitement when I hand it over... and I really hope he plays with it, considering it took me at least 12 hours to complete! (Am I just a super slow crocheter?)

July 18, 2009

Zeke and the mobile


Zeke just got old enough to care about things like his mobile, so we finally put it up in his bassinet. The first time he saw it he was mesmerized for quite a while and actually smiled and talked to it, which was the best compliment a momma could get! Here he is at 11 weeks old, checking out his sea mobile.

May 11, 2009

cowboy booties


Since our lives are basically All Zeke All The Time right now (and my life is basically Nursing Zeke All The Time), pretty much any updates for a while will be on the baby blog, so I'll probably be pretty lax on the updates here. (And since it's hard to blog while nursing, at least right now, most updates will be made by Chris).

But I did want to post a photo of the baby booties I made for Zeke. I started them on Saturday, April 25th, and finished them while in labor in the middle of the night, right before I woke Chris up to help me with contractions Sunday morning. So they have a pretty special place in my heart now.

Zeke wore them on his first restaurant outing, to Ted's Montana Grill on Saturday night. We went with my parents, for Chris's 30th birthday. He was rather stylin.

(the t-shirt was hand-embroidered by Chris's sister, Emily. It's the first onesie we put on him once his umbilical cord fell off Saturday morning).

May 03, 2009

I'm a mom!


Ezekiel Lee Skeene was born at 4:26 on 4/26. He weighed 7lbs, 3 oz and he was 20.5 inches long. There are tons of photos over on the Baby Blog. If this is your first time hearing then go check out the photos. Chris has been taking pictures like MAD, and I finally got a chance to post my birth story yesterday.

I haven't been on the computer much in the past week (maybe 2 or 3 hours total, overall) with all that's going on, and probably won't be on for a while. Too much to learn about being a mommy!

April 12, 2009

baby booties

I have a couple of friends who are having babies soon (actually, I have a lot of friends who have either just had a baby or will have one soon, but two of them are in my small group, and our small group is throwing us a joint shower next weekend).

One is having a girl, and the other a boy, so I thought it would be fun to make them some cute baby booties. So I found a couple of free patterns online (for mary janes and for sneakers) and made these. I made up the leaf embellishments for the mary janes, but otherwise just followed the patterns. They were both pretty quick to whip up since they're so small, so they were a fun project.

Chris wants me to make cowboy boots for Zeke, and I actually have a friend who has this pattern book with the cowboy boots pattern, so I will probably do that at some point, too. Man... never thought I'd be the "crocheting baby booties" kind of gal. How things change.

March 27, 2009

Etsy Store and free baby jellyfish crochet pattern

I've finally gotten around to finishing the pattern for the baby mobile, creating an Etsy shop, AND posting the pattern for sale on the Etsy shop. Hooray! Now to see if anyone actually wants to buy it. :-)

Update: Now you can also buy it through Ravelry for $4.95.

I've decided to post the instructions for the baby jellyfish from the pattern here for free, to give you all a tiny taste of what you could be making. So here it is!


Baby Jellyfish Pattern

Materials:

  • fingering weight yarn in whichever colors you want your creatures to be (sample uses Claudia Hand Painted Yarns)
  • 3.0mm D crochet hook
  • Needle for sewing pieces together
  • Stuffing

Abbreviations:

Abbreviations:
• ch = chain
• sc = single crochet
• fo = finish off
• inc = increase (two sc in one stitch)
• dec = decrease (one sc across two stitches)
• sl st = slip stitch
• st = stitch
• x2 = repeat two times (etc for multiple numbers)

Body:
Worked in a spiral. Do not join, do not turn.
Start a circle via magic ring or whatever is your preference.
1. sc 6 around (6)
2. inc 6 (12)
3. [sc, inc] x 6 (18)
4. [sc x 5, inc] x 3 (21)
5-7. sc 21 around for 3 rows (21)
8. [sc, dec] x 7 (14)
FO, cut string and weave in end.

Tentacles:
Make 2 dark and 3 light tentacles. Attach each one to the inside top of the body. Loose chains should help the tentacles to curl.
1. Loosely ch 28
FO, cut yarn short, but not so short that the knot will come undone. Alternately, you may try to weave the end back up the chain and hide it in the leg. Use the other tail to attach inside the body.

Note: some yarn doesn’t curl as well when loosely chained for the tentacles. If your tentacles don’t curl, try these alternate tentacles:

1. ch 30
2. inc in each ch
FO, cut yarn short, but not so short that the knot will come undone. Alternately, you may try to weave the end back up the chain and hide it in the leg. Use the other tail to attach inside the body.

Get the rest of the sea creature mobile pattern from my Etsy store at
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22891478

January 31, 2009

Sea Creature Mobile

I've been working on this project for months now, started soon after Chris and I found out we were pregnant. I kept changing my mind about things over time and for a while I just wasn't inspired to work on it, but I finally finished over Christmas.

The creatures are made with a small hook and wool sock yarn, the coral base is made with worsted weight wool yarn.

I've written a pattern for it, and The Chris worked hard to take photos for me, so now I'm just looking for a couple of people to test the patterns and make sure it all makes sense, and if it works out, I'll try selling it on Etsy.

UPDATE: I've finally got the pattern completed and up for sale on Etsy!

Zeke's Sea Creature Mobile:


sea creature mobile


sea creature mobile, top view


amigurumi octopus for mobile


amugirumi jellyfish for mobile


amigurumi goldfish for mobile

January 19, 2009

crochet baby toys

So much of my attention has been taken up by the little guy in my belly; so I've mainly been crocheting toys and rattles and such for him. Here are some of the things I've made in the last couple months, and didn't bother writing patterns for.


The thick grabby rings in the back right have jingle bells in them, as does the big block, which I felted (and which wound up larger than I expected, and more round than I expected, after felting). The barbell has something that rattles on both ends. And the rings are just felted rings.


I made this monster when I was sick, with some cool yarn Emily gave me. I might have to keep it away from Zeke when he's in the "put everything in his mouth" stage though, because I'm not sure how easy that fuzzy yarn would be to clean.

That's all for now. Once Chris takes a couple more photos for me, I'll also post photos of the mobile I finally finished.

October 25, 2008

big news!

So we've been dying to share this for a while now, but had to wait until "the appropriate time."

Chris and I are having a baby!

We're thrilled, by the way. And of course all the family is super excited.

I'm 12 weeks along; almost out of my first trimester. Been doing pretty well, considering. But that is my excuse for not posting much lately... I just haven't been up for extra computer stuff a lot lately.

We've set up a new blog page to specifically follow the pregnancy, then once the baby is born, we can post photos and updates on the little one there. Head on over to baby.youarenotyourjob.com. Even though we didn't make this public until today, I've been slowly posting some updates on there already as time allows, so the ultrasound photos, stories, and whining about pregnancy woes have already begun.

What's really exciting is that Chris's brother and sis-in-law are also pregnant (a couple months ahead of us) so we'll have kids the same age. They live in Laos right now, teaching english, but they should be back in the Atlanta area for a year when our kids are about two years old, so they'll get to have their terrible twos together, anyways. What fun!

Okay, that's enough for now. Woo hoo!