Recipe Blog!

I've been putting it off for awhile now, but I've really been meaning to start my own Recipe Blog like so many other people have done.  Even if nobody gets any recipes off of it - I'd like to have a place to store many of my recipes that have been given to me (mostly by my mom) since Stephen and I got married.  I don't have a recipe book, so I've been keeping them all in "chip clip" up on the fridge for the past year and half.  I'm really excited to get them all posted in a more permanent location.  I hope y'all check it out and find something yummy for your tummy!

http://www.stephaniesrecipebook.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday: Bed Head

Christopher is NINE months old!

Where has the time gone?  I can’t believe another month has gone by - C-man is just 3 short months away from turning one year old!

Christopher --

 

**You are crawling all OVER the place! And you are so FAST too!

**You are wearing some 12 month clothes and pj’s, and 18 month rompers.

**You wear a size 4 diaper.

**At your last appointment, you weighed in at 22.5 pounds of pure love!

**You love your Granny and smile so BIG and reach for her when you see her. Then most of the time you don’t even want to come back to me. Stinker!

**You still just have 2 teeth, but you’ve been teething some this week and I think we may get a few top teeth in pretty soon!

**You l-o-v-e to walk around while holding our hands with your chubby little finger.  You could walk alllll day long, I think!

**You sleep from 8pm to 8 or 9 am most days, straight through.

**You are SUCH A GOOD BABY!  We went to your Aunt B’s college graduation last week and - despite it being HOT and uncomfortable - you were a perfect little angel and didn’t fuss or get mad at all!

**You love other babies!  When you see them you will say “UGHH!” and reach for them and usually you want to touch their faces and give them kisses.  You’re so sweet!

**You love cords. As in, electrical cords.  Your daddy has promised to teach you all about them one day, but for now we’d prefer it if you’d leave them alone.

**You haven’t tried a food that you don’t like. This morning, in honor of your 9 month birthday, I let you try a new table food -- toast!  You loved it and would go “Mmmmmm!” when you were eating it.  You also LOVE baby yogurt.

**You pull up pretty much anywhere and everwhere.  The crib, the coffee table, the couch, and if I’m standing still - my legs!  I think you will be walking pretty soon.  You’ve even stood by yourself for about 3 or 4 seconds.

I promise your nose isn’t that orange in person, it’s just the lighting and my camera!

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a million more times before I die -- you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and your daddy and we love you to the moon and back!  Happy NINE months, sweet little man!

Wordless Wednesday

Christopher’s sleeping position from a few nights ago when I went in to cover him up…

Show Us Your Life - Baby Names!

Today’s Show Us Your Life over at Kelly’s Korner is Baby Names!  I have always loved baby names and throughout my teenage years I was constantly coming up with different names.  As I’m sure most of you know, my son’s name is

Christopher Tyler

Christopher is a name I have always loved, but I’ve had a lot of different middle names before I finally decided on Tyler. In middle school, I liked Christopher Wyatt; in high school, I believe it was Christopher Hunter, and in college, it was Christopher Elijah.  I really, really, REALLY loved the name Christopher Elijah when Stephen and I got together - and so did Stephen.  (Stephen just liked it because of the initials - CEO.)  I also loved the name Grayson Tyler. (And again - Stephen liked this name because of the initials GTO.)

When we discovered I was pregnant, we started throwing around these two names for boys.

The name Christopher comes from a friend of mine who passed away when we were young - in the sixth grade, actually.  It has always been my favorite name for a boy. A few months into my pregnancy, I decided that Christopher was definitely the name I wanted if we were having a boy.  As much as I loved the sound and flow of Christopher Elijah, I also knew that I wanted to use the name “Tyler” as a middle name - because Tyler is the name of my one and only brother, and he is one of my very best friends and I am so very thankful to have such a great boy man as my brother! And as much as I loved the name Christopher Elijah, it was more important to me to use the name Tyler as a middle name - because what if I only have one son, and never got the opportunity to use the name Grayson Tyler?
So, my wonderful husband agreed (he loves my Bubba too!) and we settled on the name Christopher Tyler Olmstead for our firstborn son. =)

It was a good thing we had a boy, because we couldn’t agree on a girl name.  I liked the name Madilynn Marie, (Marie is my patneral grandmother’s middle name) but Stephen was not a fan of Madilynn.

If/when we have any more children (a long, long, looooooong way into the future) we like the boy name

Carter Andrew

…but that could change at any point in time!

(Stephen’s middle name is Andrew - so it is likely that we will keep that as a middle name if we have another boy.) 

I have no clue about girl names.  I like the name Harlie Jane, (my mom’s middle name is Jane!) but then her initials would be HO… and I don’t think I’d want to do that to my daughter.  I guess I better freaking have several years to think about it.  =)

Wordless Wednesday

Christopher….
 

does not…
   

like grass.

(P.S.  It totally cracks me up how he’s holding his right leg up and out of the grass. Silly boy.)

thanks, Big Guy.

I was cleaning the kitchen up after lunch a few days ago, after Stephen had left for work.  Christopher was crawling around on the floor in the kitchen, playing with some toys.  I had already gotten on to him several times for trying to get into Baxter’s food dish while Baxter was eating, so I finally moved the food so that the poor dog could finish eating in peace without being terrorized by Christopher.  I was still keeping a close eye on C to make sure he didn’t make his way back over to the food, though. 

A few minutes went by and Baxter finished eating, but I noticed there was still a few little pieces in his bowl.  I gave him a treat and he ran off into the living room with it to eat it.  Christopher headed off in a different part of the kitchen, and I watched to make sure he didn’t grab a few pieces of Baxter’s food, then turned back around to finish wiping off the countertops.  A few minutes went by and I could hear Christopher babbling in the living room.  I knew he would have walked by Baxter’s food bowl to get to the living room, so I went in to check to make sure he didn’t have any food in his hands or mouth.

When I walked in, Christopher was just crawling around, and Baxter was hovering around him.  I bent over to check his hands - nothing.  But he was still babbling, and it sounded a little… strange.  I decided to check his  mouth for a piece of Baxter’s food… so I stuck my finger in his mouth and sure enough, I felt something!  But it wasn’t a little bitty round piece of food… it was bigger, and very hard.  As I pulled it out, I realized it was half of a milkbone.  Ew, ew, double ew.  I guess Baxter hadn’t eaten his whole treat at once, and Christopher had gotten to the other half before Bax could finish it. I was freaking out for two reasons - one, because he could have choked on his huge dog treat, and two, because that is just gross.

I scooped Christopher up and took him into the bathroom to use his new gum/tooth cleaner so that I could at least try to clean his mouth out after sucking on a milkbone.  The “brush” that I bought for him is actually a little rubber thing that slips on my index finger and has little bristles on the end of it.  So I put it on, and stuck my finger back in his mouth to brush his gums and two cute little teeth.  Of couse, all he did was bite my finger.  I brushed for probably 15 or 25 seconds (as best as I could, at least, with him biting on my finger) and was about to finish up when I decided to do one last sweep around his mouth and under his tongue… and when I did, I pulled out yet another little piece of milkbone - small, yet big enough that he would have choked had I not found it and he had tried to swallow it.  It literally gave me goosebumps when I realized that he could have easily choked on it, had I not taken him in to brush his teeth, or decided to do one final sweep around his mouth.  Needless to say, I was sending thanks up to the Big Guy for keeping my little man safe and sound that morning.

From now on, Baxter doesn’t get treats unless I watch him eat the whole thing.