Catching up - Part 2

The most common question I am asked since moving to the south is, "How do you like living in North Carolina?"

Here's my answer;
I love it. I love how friendly the people are and the how our neighborhood is such a tight-knit community. There is just a completely different feel here and different way of life. Best thing we ever did. You only live once; you have to decide what's best for you and figure out a way to do it.
We also have some pretty great pizza places - all owned by northerners!
Babysitters are shared by neighbors and there are plenty to go around. Neighbors take care of each other and everyone watches out for you.

One of our biggest motivators for leaving NJ, was the cost of living. The housing costs plus the property taxes are among the highest in the country. It was time to get out. It's amazing the size house you can get for your money compared to up north. Our property taxes are ridiculously low as well. Our old house would fit in our new house 4x over! There's just no comparison.

The weather ..... oh the weather. Short winters where the average temp is 50 degrees, then a long spring, longer summer, and long colorful fall. Everything starts to bloom in March and flowers come up so early. I love seeing all the green when up north, we did not see that until early May if we were lucky. I also love that the kids can play outside almost every day.

I also think, much of how I feel is based on why we decided to relocate. For us, it was just the right time in our lives and this was the right place. Some people relocate to a new place because of a job, family, or other reasons, and my not like it. We did it for us and made the 100% right choice.

There so many parks in every town - big parks where the kids can play, we can walk, picnic, do NFL obstacle courses, and they all have real bathrooms. You laugh, but most of the kids parks where we used to live had port-a-potties (yuck!) or no bathrooms. Super inconvenience.
We can walk to Julianna's school from our house- a major perk. Many of the kids walk or bike to school.

Things here are just so different, but in a good way. I love exploring all new places and there is so much to do. I also love how everything is geared towards outdoors. We are only an hour or so from the Mountains if we want to get away for the day or the weekend. We live right down the road from an outdoor shopping and restaurant area called Birkdale Village. Truthfully, it's one of the things that persuaded us to live where we live. We go there at least once a week to shop or eat out. All the restaurants offer outdoor seating because the weather is so nice here. You can bring your dog everywhere, they can even sit with you when you eat dinner or lunch (outside), if that's your thing.
We live within a few minutes of every major convenience known to man kind. In NJ, I've always had to drive far to go anywhere, but here I barely have to drive far ever. I love living so close to everything! I fill the tank of my SUV maybe once every 2 weeks.

Everything is clean, landscaped, and kept up wherever you go.
Charlotte is the cleanest city you will ever step foot in. There is so much new construction and so many new buildings going up all over the city. I love living outside of a major city but not having the cost like we used to when we lived outside of New York City. We don't have to pay a $15 toll to cross over a bridge or go through a tunnel, and then we don't have to pay $30 to park ... and we don't have to sit in 2 hours of traffic just to get into the city. We can cruise in and out in 15 minutes time from our house, a very nice convenience. Charlotte is such a foodie town - we have discovered some really great restaurants as well.

I was nervous before moving here that we would feel like outsiders or have a hard time fitting in. I don't feel like we've encountered that much really. There are a lot less working moms here, so I do find I don't fit in with some of the mom groups who don't work, but there's not much I can do about that.  The part that I knew would be hard was making new friends. It's been a big adjustment, but I sure didn't expect to miss my lifelong friends from NJ so much. Luckily with technology, we can keep in touch easily and my best friend has already come to visit as well as some others that expect to visit soon. I miss my friends from NJ terribly and they can never be replaced (you know who you are).

We have, however, met some wonderful people since moving here, but it's hard to make close friends and make that connection with everyone right away.  Good friendships take time and need time to cultivate, so I am just learning to being patient. I feel like we are finally headed down that path as we have met some exceptional neighbors, and also have developed friendships with some of the parents through the Julianna and Tyler's school.

One nice surprise is, two of my high school friends live here in the Charlotte area, they moved here long before us. I found out they were here and was in touch before we moved. Once we moved here, we have met up and out to dinner, on the boat, kids activities, etc. It was so nice to have some familiar faces from home.

I feel like we are 'trailblazers' for the rest of our family. Brian's parents decided they will be moving down here in a couple years when his step-father retires. They fly down every few months to visit because of the weather and we have plenty of room for visitors. My mother ended up moving here a year ago (shortly after we moved), and she loves the senior community she lives in. My Aunt and Uncle may end up here in a couple years as well. Oh and Brian's aunt will be moving here soon as well. We also just heard from a cousin that wants to visit and move here! Brian's father and step-mom live in Charleston, South Carolina, which is only 3 hours away. It's nice to have them close by.

In closing, I will say that of course nothing is 100% and I would be foolish if I said this has all been perfect. There have been a few inconsequential things that I do not like (to be expected), but overall I have zero regrets about moving, and we will never go back.


As promised, Here are some more pictures from the last year...

I just love our neighborhood. 

This is Birkdale Village (my happy place). 

How do I get this thing going again?

I have sat here several times, in front of my laptop, staring at the empty blog draft, trying to think of something to write. And then nothing happens. Nothing at all. I think about great things to write during the day while I am driving the car, or in the shower, or when the kids are screaming, or as I'm falling asleep, but never as I sit in front of the laptop. I feel like the more time has gone by, the more overwhelming the task 'to write something' becomes. I have so much to catch everyone up on. I started this blog in order to keep a 'diary' for my children to read and enjoy later in life, so I feel like I need to get back to this now. It's time.

Two years has gone by. (WOAH!) Julianna is 6 and a half. Tyler is 3 and a half. I guess that means I am ... 2 years older as well. During this two year time period, a lot has gone on.

About two years ago, we decided to make a big change in our life and move out of NJ. We kept our house in NJ and rented it out to tenants, and then we packed up and relocated to Huntersville, North Carolina. We did it and it is, by far, the best decision we have ever made.

A lot of planning, research, discussion, thought, sweat & tears went into this big change, and was not easily decided. Brian and I visited the Charlotte, North Carolina area for a long weekend in April 2015. We spent a couple days with our realtor, and looked at too many houses to remember. We fell in love with this area, specifically the town of Huntersville, instantly. The first house we looked at that weekend, ultimately, ended up being the house we bought. We decided right then and there, that weekend, that the Fillmores were moving to North Carolina. Brian was able to find a job here relatively fast, and since my job can move with me anywhere (I work from home), we put an offer on a house in June of 2015, moved in and closed on August 1st. It all happened very fast, and everything fell into place very quickly. When you really want something bad enough, you can make anything happen with hard work, planning, and determination (and sometimes a little bit of luck).

A little backstory on our move; In early 2015, Brian and I were at a crossroad in our life. We knew we needed to move out of our house in NJ that we had completely outgrown after Tyler was born, but weren't really sure where we should end up. We asked ourselves, "Do we stay comfortably in NJ and just buy a bigger house, but keep paying ridiculous property taxes and other high cost of living, and continue to suffer through awfully cold and long winters?" We had been wanting to move out of NJ for a while, due to the extremely high cost of living. We wanted a different lifestyle and quality of life for our family. We talked about leaving NJ and decided if we were going to do it, now was the time in our lives to do it. It was now or never.

The kids were young enough where they wouldn't be ripped away from all of their friends and lives like they would be if it was 10 years later in life. Bottom line is, it was the right time to make a leap. We love our new home, our neighborhood, our town, the kid's schools, and the community. Oh and the weather - it's pretty freaking awesome. It's always sunny here. Did I mention that we can boat for 9 months, on Lake Norman, a lake that makes our old lake look like a pond. Every person here is from the "North". When you meet someone, everyone asks you "Where are you from?" ... because it's a rarity to meet anyone that is actually from Charlotte or North Carolina for that matter. Most of the people we have met are from NY, NJ, PA, Ohio. It's a  nice commonality. Crazy, huh?

Here is a summary of our lives in pictures, since we moved to North Carolina. I'll post a part 2 with more pictures in a few days.

Vacation Pictures - Fenwick Island Part 3

And finally the 3rd post for our vacation pictures... From July!
Here is Part 1 and Part 2 in case you missed it.
I realized when writing up this post that I take so many pictures of my daughter and not enough of my son. Why? Because she stays in one place for more than 2 seconds!

The only way to get to the beach ... by water! 

Love this girl! 

Siblings playing together in the sand

Our kids love the beach 

Best day ever... 

Love Tyler's little hat

This might be one of my favorite pictures ever of Julianna! 

Julianna loves the sand

Water fight 

I forget the name of this ride but I think Julianna went on 3 times! She's under the "Ruby" seat. 

Look at the happiness on these kid's faces! 

Tyler is THE man! 

Vacation to Fenwick Island, DE (Part 1)

I finally finished editing my pictures from our summer vacation to Fenwick Island, DE!
Two months too late - oh well! Things get done a little slower around here with 2 small children. Here are the first batch of pictures. For those of you that don't know, Fenwick Island is located about 20 minutes north of Ocean City, MD. We had a fun vacation and will probably end up back there next year, it's a great area for families & kids. Fenwick is quiet and peaceful, yet so close to the Ocean City Boardwalk and tons of other things to do. Most of the pictures below are from the rainy and cooler days we were there. Sunny pictures to come in the next post.

Brian and Tyler on the Ocean City Boardwalk 

Where we stayed (our townhouse is on the right)

Every morning, we had beautiful herons out in the marsh 

I forget the name of this bird, but he was so cool with his long orange beak!

Cloudy & rainy day = bubble blowing day 

View from our bedroom balcony - I love this shot (we brought our boat with us) 

Sibling Love

Osprey nest 

My little girl posing for the camera

Egret Island 

Such beautiful wings

View from our balcony in the morning 

Pepper's favorite spot to sleep 

Happy boy on the bed with Pepper. I just realized he has so much more hair now - just 2 months later! 

What's up lately?

What book am I reading now?

Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love  by Bret Baier

I am reading a few pages at a time when I get a few minutes for myself! Fabulous book for heart moms and families to read. 

I also read the Mariano Rivera book called "The Closer"- about the best closer (in baseball) of all time. Loved it!

What did I do this summer?

As usual, it seems that summer went by too fast and here we are rounding the corner to fall already! I don't blog much in the summer, there is just too much going on as much as I have the good intention of doing it. This summer, even though it has been on the cooler side, we spent a lot of our weekends on our boat trying to relax. It's hard to truly relax with a 4 year old and 1 year old - but we sure tried! We went on vacation in July to Ocean City, Maryland. Well, we actually stayed about 20 minutes north in Fenwick Island in a bay front townhouse - it was a lot of fun and much needed. It's fun for the kids because we went to the boardwalk twice where there were plenty of rides for Julianna. She was in her glory! I'll be posting some pictures of vacation soon enough! Did you take vacation this summer? Where did you go?


Exciting News?

We sure do have some really exciting news here in our household! My husband accepted an offer to work with a larger company in a higher management position a few weeks back. He just started his new job recently and he is in his glory. This new job means longer hours and unfortunately more responsibility for me to take care of the kids; I now get them up in the morning, feed them, pack their lunches, log into work (I work from home) and then drop them off at daycare down the road. He won't be around as much during the week, but it's worth the sacrifice in the end.

The other big news is my that company is spinning off from our larger fortune 200 parent company in October. I work for the 'Dealer Services' division of ADP (the payroll/human resources co). In October, Dealer will be spinning off and leaving the nest to be our own company. The new name was just announced and is CDK Global. We will be a fortune 1000 company and not much will change for us day to day - business as usual in my own group especially. This is a really good thing for our company and looking forward to the future of CDK.


How is Tyler doing?

• How Old? Tyler is 15 months old
• Eating: He eats most table food even though he doesn't have all his teeth. He loves any food you put in front of him. He eats pasta, most cooked veggies, sweet potatoes, any fruit, anything roasted or steamed, meatballs, fish, whole wheat muffins, oatmeal....and the list goes on!  
• Drinking: He loves his milk in a cup (about 24 ounces a day) and he also drinks water in a straw cup. We do not offer juice. 
• Sleeping: Tyler sleeps through the night from 8pm to 7am, with the exception of some separation anxiety he has every couple of months; where he has a few nights of crying himself to sleep, which is difficult when both kids share a room. 
• Size clothes: He is wearing 12 months pants/shorts. He is wearing 18 month tops. He's on the small side, so I think he will be in size 12 bottoms for a little while. 
• Talking: Not saying much yet. He says mama and dada sometimes - but not much else. He is delayed in speech and is having a hearing test in a couple weeks to rule out any hearing issues. I also have a call into Early Intervention to have them evaluate him to see if he will need some speech therapy. More to come on that. 
• Walking: Heck yes. Running, actually. 
• Doing: He is a true boy; tears the house apart, destroys things, climbs furniture, gets into trouble and laughs about it. 
• He likes giving things to me like the remote control, toys, his milk cup. He understand requests like "Sit down' and stand up... please give to mommy ... More milk? I can tell him to go to put his cup in the sink, and he does. He listens & responds, just no speaking yet.  

How is Julianna doing?

• How old? She is 4 years old and going on 10! What a little lady she is turning into! 
• Eating: She is expanding her horizons in her picky toddler eating. She recently discovered she likes peanut butter smeared on apple slices and also grilled cheese (up until 2 months ago, she wouldn't touch grilled cheese). She has been a very picker eater but getting better. 
• Doing: A lot of things. She is making new friends & having a blast playing with any kids she meets! She is a fun & happy girl who wants to go go go all the time! 
• School: She is starting pre-k in 2 weeks. I can't believe in 1 year she will be starting kindergarten! My baby girl! 
• Friends: Lot's of them - I wish I could let her play more often but it's hard to find the time with us working full time. She's excited to start up school in a couple weeks and reunite with her friends from last year. 
• Size clothing: Julianna wears size 5 bottoms and 6 on top. She has zero clothes for school and the fall or winter. We need to go do some school shopping ASAP! 
• Her favorite things: baby dolls (new thing for her!), giraffes, jewelry, lip gloss, octonauts, sherriff callie, chugginton, disney princesses, Frozen (I can't take a simple car ride with out her wanting to hear and also sing Let it go!) 
• Value of money: We are trying to teach her the value of money slowly - even if it's her learning how many quarters it takes to get on the ride at the mall! She has her own change purse and brings it with her - she decides how she wants to spend it but once it's spent, it's gone. 
• The beach: This girl loves the beach - she would go to the beach every day of her life if she could. She gets that from me! The girl loves summer and warm sunny weather! 

Some random pictures from this past summer...

Sibling love

My boy with his adorable sun hat on

Julianna loves to float in the lake

Fishing with Daddy off the back of our boat 

Lounging time - our favorite place to anchor in the summer

Super cuteness

A picture of Brian and I that I Might actually frame!

How I lost 37 pounds so far (and about 15 to go!)

Eating real & whole foods. That's how I did it.
I think it helps completely that my husband is 100% on board. We are in this together.
(p.s. - has it really been 2 months since my last blog entry?!)

The past 7 months
We have slowly cut out 95% of processed foods (I'll explain the other 5% later), we cut out anything that is a 'diet' product (i.e. fat free, low fat, fake sugar), anything from a food store with more than 5 ingredients, and foods chemicals in their ingredient list. All eggs & whole milk are organic always. All meats we purchase are organic and humanely raised; not fed with antibiotics & grain.There is no comparison in taste from the typical commercial beef (from the food store) to the organic grass fed beef we get from a local farm. We only use coconut oil or olive oil (organic) to cook or bake with. I still use real butter sometimes, but sparingly.
We have easily doubled our intake of fruits & vegetables, and I really try to make more vegetable based dinners such as butternut squash chile, roasted veggie tacos, or big exotic salads.

Why organic?
That's easy. No pesticides, no GMO's (Genetically modified organisms), and no chemicals. Organic usually tastes better. When talking about organic meats & eggs; there are no antibiotics and the animals are humanely raised.
Sure, organic costs more - but prices are getting better as it goes more mainstream and consumers demand it. I told my local Food store that I want to see more organic products & more fresh organic produce. Why don't you do the same? Demand what is healthy for your family, they might just do it if enough people ask. You think nothing of spending $5 on a latte from Starbucks. So why wouldn't you spend $4 on organic lettuce that will feed your family chemical free (pure) healthy food for several meals? I can feed my family organic products knowing I have done my best for them!

I posted THIS BLOG POST a couple months ago about the small changes we have made. A bunch of small changes have added up to some big changes for us!

Why are we doing this?
That's easy. Healthier long term lifestyle.
Sometimes when I am talking to others about our recent life changes, it's hard to convey what we are trying to do. Yes it's about weight loss, but it's also about long term health and setting the best example possible for my children so they make healthy choices for the rest of their lives too. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes is an epidemic in this country and I will do everything in my power to make sure my family is not a statistic. What I thought was 'eating healthy' over the past 10 years was really sabotaging our bodies. Diet foods. Low Fat & Fat free foods (loaded with tons of chemicals and sugar). Fake sugar foods. Super processed foods with zero nutritional value. Fad diets. I think it's very difficult to make anything work where you deprive yourself of basic foods that your body requires, long term.

Read the ingredients
I can't urge you enough. Read the ingredient list on your food before buying it. Educate yourself as to what is in the food you buy and your kids are putting into their tiny little growing bodies. Google it. If there is an ingredient that you wouldn't normally have in your cupboard at home and cook with, then it shouldn't be in your food from the store either. If there is an ingredient that you can't pronounce, then it probably doesn't belong in your food. If the ingredient list is longer than the constitution, then you probably don't want to buy it. Look up the ingredients that are in processed foods - I think you will be shocked at how much of it is some kind of modified sugar, preservative chemical, fat and artificial colors/flavors... and much worse. And why does the food industry think something has to be bright red, purple or coated with some kind of sugar for kids to like it? Yuck! The amount of sugar that is in processed foods is really mind-blowing. We look at the ingredients, not so much the 'nutrition' information.

What I struggle with still
Ice cream. I love my ice cream. Of all the indulgences, I happen to think (or at least I tell myself) this one is not quite as bad; most local ice cream shops carry real home made ice cream.
White rice - It's not that we don't like brown rice, because we actually love it. It's my daughter that won't touch brown rice. So this is a weakness with me, and I am totally at fault here. I make white rice still because she will eat it. Have I mentioned she is picky with dinner foods?!
I sometimes bend the rules when we eat out. I try to make good choices, but it's not always the perfect situation. I have found that most places will accommodate some special requests. I do stay away from anything deep fried or heavy cream sauces, when possible.
Corn tortillas. Yeah I can make my own I'm sure- but we use so many of these that I am sticking to the premade ones for now - still trying to find some made without nasty chemicals though. (Have I mentioned that I pray Whole Foods will open up near us?)

Some of the things I make from scratch
Breadcrumbs - Have you ever looked at the ingredients of commercial breadcrumbs? No bread there. I buy whole wheat bread from the food store bakery that actually only has 4 ingredients. We use this for toast, sandwiches & breadcrumbs.
Granola - yup we love this and I make it weekly - even Julianna eats it! This has replaced our morning 'boxed' cereals. My husband makes his own granola bars too. Yum.
Salad dressings - I make all salad dressings from scratch. Always. I have a few standby recipes that I use over & over again. You can't beat home made dressing; and there aren't any chemicals or bad stuff in it.

Some things I will try making soon
Macaroni & cheese
Bread - I need a bread machine. Looking forward to that once I purchase one.
Other kid friendly foods - I have yet to master a 'chicken nugget' that Julianna will eat. She got hooked on Perdue Chicken nuggets (blegh!) and has not liked anything I made for her at home yet. Doesn't mean I am giving up - I will keep trying.

Some things I am not willing to make from scratch.
Simply put, it's about time management. My husband and I work full time and have 2 small children. There is only so much time in the day people! You need to choose what is worth doing and what is worth cutting corners on to manage your time efficiently.
Vegetable or Chicken Stock/broth - I buy organic broths & stock for easier food prep.
Condiments - We still use ketchup (hello, I have kids!!) and mustard, etc. I try to buy the organic brands but not all stores offer this option, especially mayo; I can't find that organic in our food store. So frustrating.

What I am proud to say I have overcome.
Switching to 'real' foods like whole milk and we do not have any store-bought food in the house that resembles 'fat-free' or 'low-fat' except for fruit, the way nature intended it to be.
Making anything I can make from scratch - even whole wheat muffins, which if you know me, I hate to bake. This was a HUGE accomplishment for me.
Removing diet soda & fake sugar from our house forever.  (My husband will still have a diet soda every so often, but he will totally see me glaring at him when he drinks it!)
I used to buy store bought grated cheese, but now I grate my own. Check out the 'preservatives' in some of the stuff in the bags.
We pop our own popcorn using coconut oil in a pan. Delicious.

Things that are out of my control
Our local food store does not have enough fresh organic fruit & vegetable choices. I wish we lived by a Whole Foods or Earth Fare. How do I compensate? I buy fresh if organic is not available. So in other words, if given the choice, I will by from a local farm stand before I buy from the food store. The local farms here we visit use very little pesticides if any. Still way better than your food comes from some other part of the world.
It bothers my daughter comes home from school with candy sometimes (I believe it's a reward for activities they do in class) or that she is offered juice. I have asked for it not to be offered but I won't win that battle. I am proud to say Julianna does not eat candy, however, she is not a robot. If it's offered to her, she is going to say yes.
If Julianna is at a party or special occasion, she can have birthday cake or whatever is offered. I want her to enjoy herself with special occasions and don't want to tell her NO to everything. A few times a year is totally fine with me.

The other 5 percent (I mentioned we eat about 95% non-processed)
Annie's snacks such as;  cheddar crackers, graham crackers, & bunny grahams. I do not load Julianna up with this stuff, but we do allow them as snacks; since we can totally trust the ingredients.
Onion crisps - occasional splurge that I enjoy a little bit as a topping on my salads.
Triscuits - While these totally meet my "less than 5 ingredients" rule, they are still considered a processed food. Fine line.
Cereals - We stick to the "Less than 5 ingredients" rule with this stuff. I buy Barbara's organic cereal for Julianna, although I am reading lately this brand has GMO's and hidden sugars in it. Organic doesn't always mean non-GMO.
Pretzels - I found these 5 ingredient pretzels that are made with Whole Wheat and very good! They are processed but at least under 5 ingredients. And amazingly enough, the food store where I shop, carries them!
Pizza. Yup, we still eat pizza - this is New Jersey after all. 1 slice of plain pizza is not horrible.

Sugar
I use organic sugar in my coffee in the morning. That is the only 'added' sugar in my day, but I do try to keep it under 3 teaspoons total. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day for adults. For kids, no more than 4 teaspoons of sugar per day. Take a look at your kids morning cereal or those supposedly healthy '100 calorie snacks', granola bars or fruit (aka fruitless) snacks. 4 grams of sugar is equal to 1 teaspoon. Check out how many grams of sugar are in the servings in processed food. Check out the ingredients on this supposedly healthy Yogurt-Granola bar. One bar has 11 grams of sugar- that is just shy of 3 teaspoons of sugar. It's loaded with corn syrups and soy products, chemicals and other unpronounceable things.

My day to day inspiration
100 Days of real food. The information on this website has really just amazed me. It's my daily guidance.
Hearing my husband tell me how great I look (and I think he looks great as he has lost 30+ lbs too!).
Getting to donate ALL of my big clothes and buying a whole new wardrobe. There is no feeling like buying smaller clothes and they fit!
Looking at older pictures of myself; seeing how big I really was, and how far I have come; knowing that progress takes time. There will be setbacks and bad weeks; weeks where I gain weight, and weeks where I lose weight. It's a marathon.

What kind of healthy eating habits do you have in your household? 
What tips can you share for others?

Tyler is One Year Old!

I really can not believe my little boy is One year old. It doesn't seem possible we have been through an entire year since he was born. It's been a year of random ups and downs, happiness & emotional times. Overall it's been a great year to look back on. My little beautiful baby boy is ONE. We are blessed by the happiness he brings into our lives. It is so true what they say about Moms and their baby boys. Little boys are so special with their mamas!

Here are some of Tyler's milestones at one year old.

Walking
Sooo close. Not there just yet. He furniture surfs and can stand on his own briefly. Soon he will be walking/running/climbing. (Oh wait he already climbed up on Julianna's chair!)


Crawling
He's been crawling for 3 or 4 months ... he's an expert. Fast little bugger too.

Eating & his routine
Since he only has 3 teeth, he's not eating much more than pureed foods, puffs, and a few mushy finger foods, like small diced bananas. Breakfast is oatmeal with a mixed pureed fruit. Lunch is 2 pouches of mixed veggies/fruits. Dinner usually consists of oatmeal, veggie mix and fruit. Now he is able to eat diced up mushy fruit, we're doing that too. I'll try veggies next. He has a small snack around 11am and then at 3:30 with his milk. The idea of pureed meat in a pouch kind makes me cringe, so we have been staying away from it. Tyler eats some kind of bean every day, so he still gets plenty of protein. The pediatrician said she would like to see him have some meat though, so I am going to start giving him some mushy white fish or chicken. I think he will like it, even with his 3 teeth! We eat meat, so I am not against it, I was just not into giving him pureed meat (yuck!).


What brands of food & milk do we feed Tyler? 
His pureed baby food has been either Ella's or Plum Organics. His puffs are Plum Organics also and his crackers are Baby Mum-mums. Those are the best crackers for babies without a lot of teeth that are more than able to eat snacks. His milk is organic whole milk. Pretty much anything I put into him is organic, along with my daughter too!


Formula/Milk
No more formula. Yay! Tyler drinks whole milk now and had no issue moving to milk. He has an 8 oz bottle when he wakes up. Then some milk with lunch. He has 6oz of milk at 3:30 with a snack, and then 4-6 oz of milk before bedtime.  I am working on weaning him over to the sippy cup for milk. He loves water in a sippy cup - and has it with dinner and lunch and morning snack.


Naps & Bedtime
Tyler takes 2 pretty solid naps a day. One in the mid-morning around 9:45-11ish, and the other mid-afternoon around 1:30-3ish. He goes to bed at 8pm and doesn't make a peep until 7am. He is a great night time sleeper just like Julianna. Not as good as a napper but almost.


Teeth
He has 3. That's it. More are coming really soon!


Speaking
Not much. He has his own baby talk. Lot's of it. He babbles on and on and tells us a bunch of stuff in his own language. He does say Mama and dada. He has his own communication with Julianna - baby talk that I think she understands more than we do.

Can you tell he likes his life-jacket? HA! (We will be getting him a new one that is not so stiff)

Weight
Tyler weighs 20 lbs 8 oz. He is about 20th percentile in weight & height. (What's crazy is, I have lost 30 pounds since January - that is one of him plus 10 lbs!)


Other things
He loves to play Peek-a-boo (Where's the baby?!) and laughs hysterically. He likes when someone claps, but he is not clapping yet. He is not waving bye-bye yet - but likes when someone waves to him. He likes pat-a-cake but is still learning how to play it. He is able to figure out shape-sorting toys - he gets the ball in the hole, and is so proud of himself. He also likes to push any toy with wheels; his trucks, school bus, train, dump truck, wheel loader, etc.


The Scar
Tyler's scar from his Open Heart Surgery (from 8 days old) is healing up beautifully. It will never go away, but it won't be as noticeable. (Click here for his story)


Party Time
We threw a combo birthday party for the kids this past weekend, since their birthdays are a week apart. We had a small party at our favorite local pizza place - just family and some close friends. It was fun, the food was great and the kids had a nice time.

Me and my baby boy! This was Mother's Day weekend.