I am struggling with all these processed, smelly, and expensive Toddler snacks that I have been buying for piggles. Also keep in mind that what most kids eat he eats about 3 times that much! Enter the Kale Chip.  Kale is a "super food" and although best eaten raw, I will take what I can get with him ! I have not perfected the recipe yet but they were tasty!

This is Kale from our garden. If I were to purchase Kale I would get the Dinosaur leaf variety because I think the texture of it cooked would be better.(thicker)

Step 1: Wash the Kale REALLY well and de-stem. Break into bite size pieces ( remember it will shrink a lot when cooked so don't make it too small to start out). Drizzle with Olive Oil and Seasoning of your choice. Popular Choices are : Sea Salt, Cumin or Garlic Salt.
Step 2: Spread on a Baking Sheet and Bake at 300 for 15-20 minutes. 20 minutes is TOO long for this type of Kale so mine were over done and way crispy, but still tasty!
The Final Result :
Then I just stored them in a recycled puffs container
So it was super easy, and tasty. The whole thing only took about 30 minutes and I cooked several sheets at a time just to get it done and have a large quantity!

Evernote is one of the oldest apps around, and for some reason I have resisted it's magical powers until recently. I was having all sorts of trouble with the notes section on my iphone. I used to wonder why people would get into such a tizzy over their notes when they would get lost migrating from the Treo to iphone.... and now I know! My whole life is in those notes.. and peebs whole life.. so without them I have no data, memories etc.
I just realized that Evernote has extra capabilities that the native notes did not have, like check boxes. I always keep a list of ladies who are expecting and their due dates and baby names on my phone. NOW i can finally have check boxes to check off as I have sent a baby gift. :
Think of it as sort of a pinterest for documents. The best thing about it, is that you can access your notes in the ipad, iphone and your mac desktop with a free app for all 3.( just search Evernote in the app store)


I have menus and recipes I save from online in my "Recipes" notebook......
To Do Lists:
If you have evernote what neat way do you use it?

Height: 

Weight: 28 lbs and some ounces...

Size Clothes:  24 mos.

New Tricks/Milestones :
* Crawling!! He finally did it. At first he would just crawl if he needed something but this week he has enjoyed just moving around to do it, and he has the most perfect posture and crawl you have ever seen! It is so smooth it looks like he is moon walking sometimes..

* He does not pull up yet, but he thinks about it. He pulls up on his knees, and stays like that. ha
* He enjoys pushing his highchair around the house on it's wheels.

Toys & Baby Gear:

• Blocks
• The Fisher Price Farm Gate
• Eggs
• Playmat
• The iGuy
• Skip Hop Diaper Back Pack

Things we use most these days are : Ipad, Boon Flair High Chair, 


I recently discovered this washing tray from OxO at Buy Buy Baby and I love it! It expands to fit whatever you put it and takes up less space than traditional boxes, Easier to load as well.



Favorite Non Toys:
* Water Bottles
* My Car Keys
* Watching the cars drive by our house
* the iphone!!
* Peek-A-Boo

Eating & Food:

Fenn seems to be showing preference for certain foods lately. He does ALOT of grunting to communicate his needs/feelings. He is still eating ALOT.
Typically : Oatmeal with pureed fruit for breakfast
Mum Mums or Cheese puffs for snack
Homemade Puree for lunch, maybe mixed with formula sometimes
Afternoon snack of some sort
Dinner is generally self fed, items like the spinach nuggets. He really prefers to feed himself these days and I look forward to the day he can do that at each meal.

I only nurse him once a day now, right when he wakes up in the morning. He still won't take a bottle or sippy cup by himself but he will take sips from a sippy that has no stopper in it and IF i am holding it.  I had to buy my first can of formula this week, because we used up the free ones that came in the mail !



Cloth Diaper Update:
My favorite diapers right now are Charlie Banana. They are fantastic pocket diapers. We no longer are using disposables at night. I realized once I stopped nursing him all night long he didn't teetee near as much at night! ha I use a Thirsties hemp insert in addition to his regular insert at night ( just in case)
In disposable news he wears a size 5 now! We had a disgusting blow out in public that made me realize, his diapers were too small! ha (I still use disposables when we travel.)
 
Sleep:
My sweet precious spoiled baby is still sleeping through the night! Its amazing! and wonderful!! I have noticed that the saying " The more they sleep, the MORE they sleep" is so true. If he goes to bed at 7pm he will sleep till 7am. If he goes to bed at 7:30 or later he is up at 5:30 am. No Joke.
 
Teeth:
Currently he has 5 teeth that are in and I think another one on the way up top because his nose started running today and a runny nose = a tooth (and sometimes = ear infection too)


 Books: We still really love the Lullabye Book, The Little Blue Truck and A Mud pie for Mother. I think he really loves his little book time every day.
 

Dicipline/Behavior:
He has stopped throwing his fits at diaper changes. I got annoyed with that and spent an entire day trying to extinguish that behavior and I am happy to report that it worked. I can tell that he knows what "No" Means  and he understands when I am getting on to him so I would hold him down and look him in the eye firmly and say NO ( not no no or please don't or anything but NO) and he would cry and kick and try to roll around but after I won all day he gave up and lays there patiently. (most times) but no more screaming.
He responds well to me telling him no when he is about to pull the DVR out of the cabinet or things like that.
I guess our newest challenge is this grunting/whine noise he makes when he is frustrated but I generally don't know what he wants when he does that.

What's in the Diaper Bag at 11 mos?:
Diapers, Wipes, Changing Pad, Food pouches, boon spoons, bib, Mum Mums, Medicine Pouch, Sunblock, Mosquito repellent wipes, change of clothes, tiny diner place mat, bag of cheese puffs, toys, ipad.

11 Month Photo Shoot:

He loves this puffed out pose. He does it often when he is proud about something.
 Showing off his toofies..
 Now that he has some hair growing on the back of his head, he won't stop grabbing at it.






I recently saw this old picture of me eating jelly toast and I have a picture of Peebs eating Jelly toast where we favor alot. What do you guys think?




This is a really fun age and I'm sad he keeps getting older! Just means it is almost time for another baby! (soon as i can wrap my head around the idea of being pregs again)HA

 

 I told you guys my brother got married this past weekend and here are some pictures from that Big day! His bride, Jade, planned all this stuff herself and did such a great job with lots of cool little touches.

 I loved her bridesmaid dresses. I hate being in weddings and she was understanding of that and let me out of it!

She had a cute shorter party dress for the reception with white cowboy boots! I loved that.

Her bridesmaids also wore cowboy boots to the reception. Such a cute idea.

and the tent for the reception was in my Aunt's front yard and was the most beautiful wedding Tent I have ever seen! It was huge with big iron chandeliers hanging from the top. I don't have a picture of the whole thing :(

  It was such a beautiful party and everyone had a blast.  This was the first time I have ever seen my parents dance, my nonie dance, and my aunt and uncle dance! It was so much fun ! My brother is a fantastic dancer and he and his friends had a dance off that was very entertaining.