Feeding Time (There's a Video...)

My mom came to visit last weekend and she got a great video of Eli eating solid foods. Eli has taken well to eating some solid foods during the day and he pretty much will gobble up most foods. We are following some of the advice in Super Baby Food which is a great book. It has a nice balance of advice on both feeding babies organically and also how to save money. No little baby food jars here, I'll whip up a batch of veggies and then freeze them in ice cube trays. When we want to feed Eli, we'll just thaw 2 cubes and get the meal going. It's been really easy and nice to just use the food we have in the house. Some of the foods that Eli has tried are sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, yogurt, squash, peas and spelt/oat cereal. So far he's been liked most everything and we haven't had too many issues just a few moments of food being spit into our face. He's starting to understand that it's fun for him to spit his food out all over the kitchen!

He also is getting really good at sitting in his highchair. We opted for a chair version that comes right up the the table so he can join the action. Initially we had to tie him into the chair with a receiving blanket because Eli's little spine couldn't quite handle it. But starting this week he can sit up very well in his chair. Though, that means that he can lean forward and get things off the table, we learned that the hard way with a bowl full of food! So far, it's been great to have Eli at the table in all the action. It's been fun to give him some "work" to do and I love watching how he concentrates on something that intrigues him.

It's crazy how much and how fast he is growing up! I just can't believe that he's been in our lives for 6 months. The time as flown by and we don't really remember what our lives were like prior to Eli (that's some good amnesia!)

Changing roles again...

Hi all, sorry about such a delay in our posting lately! March was a busy month for us and we had a little lag in posting. Some good news has come into the Anderson household recently in the form of a real-life engineering job for Joel! He will be working for E 80 Plus engineers. Joel will be working as a design engineer and project manager for some of their projects. They design and repair railroad bridges (I think). The job is located in DeForest which is about 20 minutes from our house. Joel had applied for the job back in January, was told it was on hold but then was asked to interview for the position in March. He's excited to start working again and to start something new. The job does entail some travel (25-35%) during the week so that means that I will be solo-parenting at times. (I'll take any invites or outings during those times!:)

So that means that I quit my job, well somewhat. I am planning to stay on at Access for about a day a week and will be helping ACHC move towards becoming one of the first baby-friendly clinics in the country. It's a very exciting venture that focuses on the promotion of breast feeding and increasing that rate in our country. I will also be completing certification as a lactation consultant and will be applying for an internship in community-based lactation support. And of course, in addition to all this goodness I'll be taking care of our little squirt! I am excited to be with Eli at home and for all the creative projects I'll get to start (and complete, don't worry honey)! I've started a small list of projects that I have been dying to do but haven't had the time with working and being a mom. I'm also excited to go back to the weekly play group I attended during my maternity leave and I'm excited to start this journey in the summertime. Lucky me!

It's funny that all of this happened right now. Joel and I were getting settled into our life and roles for the time being and now it's going to change all over again! We're excited for the prospects that this change brings and were excited to take this bend on our family adventure.

My last full-time day at ACHC is April 23rd, I will then have my lactation consultant certification class for the last week in April and then we're taking a vacation to San Francisco. Joel's future employer is being very generous and giving us that time prior to his start date of May 10th. Thanks for joining us on this ride.... we'll make sure to update more often. I promise!