11 months

This little girl is 11 months!

This month you are.....
*wearing 12 month clothes!
*size 2 diapers when in disposables
*eating 3 meals a day and nursing 4 times a day
*you love salmon, beans, strawberries, avocado, mushrooms, peanut butter and chewing on celery sticks
*you are walking!
*you are "reading" books (turning and looking through the pages) rather than just tossing them around :)
*you love being in your kiddie pool and going to the splash pad
*you are having less stranger anxiety and are letting people hold you
*you still love playing peek-a-boo and being flipped and thrown around
*you love to turn off light switches and close doors

I am down going to begin by pleading to God, bargaining with the universe and closing my eyes super tight to try to keep this next month from passing and you turning one.....

xoxo
Ashlea

Waking up is hard to do.....

*yaaaaaawn*

xoxo
Ashlea

Charlotte's first Indian wedding

A couple weeks ago my sister-in-law's sister (also called my sister-in-law?) got married! Indian weddings are like nothing else in the world. They are loud, colorful, exciting, crowded and confusing and full of food, tradition and music. I LOVE them. So naturally I was super excited for Charlotte's first Indian wedding experience, she took to it like a fish to water :)

The loud drums didn't bother her, she easily got passed around from cousin to cousin and Auntie to Auntie, and she even sat quietly through the ceremony portion.

Mrs.Sukhwani made Charlotte and I matching outfit for each day, they turned out so beautiful!!!!

the absolutely beautiful bride!

organized group dance of course

group shot at the end of the last night :)

 We had a wonderful time and wish all the best to Nicki who moved to San Diego to start her new married life!

xoxo
Ashlea

10 months

a little late a usual :)

10 months - so close to the big #1 I cant handle it!

This month you are...
*finally out of 6 month clothes! you are wearing 9/12 month now
*crawling, cruising, walking while holding our hands or the walker, moving from sofa to coffee table to basket etc. Those first steps are so close!
*talking all the time, you babble a lot and say 3 words purposefully "baa baa" for bye-bye "duuhh"/"duuhhgg" for dog and "da" for dad. You love your duuhhgs and da very much <3
*pointing - when someone is talking to you, when you see a dog and to pictures in books
*no longer fooled by out of sight out of mind. You have object permanence girl :)I can no longer hide my phone, car keys or other forbidden fruit under a blanket or behind my back, you know just how to find them
*clapping, its your favorite!
*waving especially when you say baa baa
*eating so many yummy new foods; gnocchi with pesto, zucchini noodles with tomato sauce, raisins, veggie meatballs, cucumber and tomatoes with hummus, smoothies, celery with peanut butter and strawberries. You are a great eater with a sophisticated pallet ;)
* understanding what "no" means. sometimes you listen and sometimes you dont, when you dont you give me the sneakiest smile
*still sleeping through the night and taking 2 1-1.5 hour naps
*cutting teeth! your top and bottom 2 have cut through and are moving down, most the time they dont bother you any more
*loving that the weather is finally warm, we play outside everyday. you love crawling in the grass, swinging and climbing at the playground and taking Penelope for walks
*loving your gumball machine, crawling through tunnels, clapping anything together that will make a loud noise and of course petting your dogs/smacking your dogs :)

You continue to be the most amazing beautiful sweetest busiest little girl <3

xoxo
Ashlea

yummy

       For the past few months we have been getting our dairy products from a local farm, they are well kept, grass fed au natural cows and goats and the products we receive are not pasteurized. Because of very silly laws you are not allowed to sell unpasteurized dairy in Alabama but the farm gets around that by selling it "for pet consumption" :)
   
    The best part about all of this is that both Charlotte and myself have no problems with this dairy! So I have been able to cook and bake with the cow and goat milk, cow butter and goat yogurt. Charlottes favorite is the goats milk kefir that I mix 50/50 with coconut milk yogurt to thicken it up. What is kefir? This post explains is well and all of its amazing benefits! Probiotics are such an important part of overall health.

   The one thing that they dont sell is cheese and oh how I have missed cheese. Also I would love to give some to Little Miss for its fat and protein. So thanks to my best homesteading friend Erin I got a easy peasy recipe for ricotta. Basically you heat the milk, add vinegar, let it curdle, strain and let rest. The result - yummy. Like wayyyyy yummy. Tony and I devoured it on the homemade pizza we had that night. Charlotte didnt partake since we are still limiting grains and the sausage was too spicey for her I think, but I did give her some small chunks along with her dill salmon, cucumbers and hummus and peas. It was a hit! Not like I had any doubt as we have yet to find anything she doesnt like :)

homemade whole wheat crust+mushrooms+farm sausage+homemade ricotta= yum

  We also celebrated 2 doggie birthdays! Pig ears, deer antlers and pork flavored treats were on thier menu :)

my first baby - 9 years young

happy 2nd birthday Nel!

I found a fairly simple recipe for mozzarella that I will tackling along with Grandma Lina's paneer recipe this weekend!


xoxo
Ashlea