{11 months}

This is Miss Pepper Mae's 11 month post... on time!  I can't believe she will be a year in one month.   Here are a few things we discovered about Pepper Mae this past month:

• She has discovered a new hobby... "wallowing".  We push the ottoman up to the sectional and put her on the couch,  and she goes to town,  just rolling around without a care in the world.  This will occupy her at least 30 minutes,  which is amazing for her age. 
• She has started hugging... for real.  I will be holding her and all of the sudden she will wrap both her arms around me and squeeze as hard as her little muscles will let her,  all along with the sound of her straining she is trying to hard.  So sweet.
• She has started mimicking us... coughing, stretching, you name it.
• She is still pretty weary about "strangers", so if you say something to her expect her to burst out in tears.  She lives by the motto you can look but you can't touch.
• She has discovered the drain in the tub... and how to open it.  I stick her in the tub and 3 minutes later she's let all the water out.
• You can tell she knows what your saying,  it's so crazy.  If I say let's read a book,  she goes and gets a book.  Babies catch on way sooner than most people think they do.
• It's nearly impossible to change her diaper at this point.  If you can change a moving object that refuses to lay on it's back... call me.  This girl has more interesting things on her agenda!
• The squeaking of the front door really freaks her out... I have no idea why.  One day I spent 15 minutes with her moving it back and forth showing her it was okay,  and it didn't help.
• Yes, we got her ears pierced...  and they are blingin'. {did I just say that?}
• She crawls around with "foe" pacifiers in her mouth.  One day it was the plastic syringe we give her her Zantac with,  and another day it was a little teething "toothbrush" with a handle.  We took the poor thing's pacifier away at 3 months so she has to make do. {see picture above}
• She still has the sweet curls on the back of her head... love love love her.

{i love messes}

Every baby has their messes,  and here are a couple of Pepper Mae's lately.  Since she has become mobile,  her toys just do not seem to suffice!  The top pictures are from her playing in the freezer {yes,  I let her play in the freezer when I'm cooking}.  She pulled out a container I had made of pureed blueberries... I turned my back to clean out her highchair and she opened it up and went to town on the frozen cube.  It ended in an early bath for the day and a belly full of blueberries!  The second pictures are of her getting into the toilet paper roll... seems to be a staple of every baby at some point!  Enjoy!

{on the menu}

This is what we have on the menu lately for breakfast, and she seems to love it!  Organic Blueberries, Raspberries, French Toast {Earth's Best Frozen Organic} and organic baby blueberry yogurt for dipping.  We are getting better at figuring out meals and hopefully she will continue to be a good eater! 

{ten months... and some change}

neck tickle and fell asleep on her daily evening walk

love her.

momma got a haircut... finally!

I'm a little late on this post but things have been quite crazy around the Ustad house!  We have been dealing in ear infections galore {with antibiotics that don't work}, along with, on my end, a crazy amount of photo sessions,  editing and packaging... and some stupid things like locking our baby in the car.  But that's not what this post is about... it's about Miss Pepper Mae being 10 months {well... 10 and 1/2 now} and what we have learned about her so far:

• She is completely obsessed with her "lamby" at this point.  She won't go to sleep without it and wakes up looking for it in the middle of the night.
• She has started to refuse all of my pureed food!  I need to donate the frozen cubes or something b/c this girl wants real food she can pick up herself.  We haven't introduced meats yet,  but everything else is game!  
• Self weaned herself off morning nap... 2 months early.  What can I say, she's never been one to like naps!
• She LIVES for her neck getting tickled.  We tickle her next while she's eating, playing, and while we are rocking her to sleep.  She will be sitting there and all of the sudden throw her head back for you to tickle her.  Over, and over, and over again.
• She walks on her walker like a freak, the other day she went around my moms pushing Jackson in his red/yellow fisher price car... he was enjoying every minute of the luxury!
• Her most current favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear... she wakes up from her nap and immediately points at it from her crib wanting me to read it to her.
• She points at EVERYTHING.  
• She loves patty cake and grabs your hands and claps them for you.

{on the menu}

Here is one of Pepper Mae's favorite meals lately for dinner.  We have been trying to implement at least one "finger food" each meal so she will gradually start switching to table food.  Here is what is pictured {all completely organic and homemade by me}:

• Top Left: Peaches... sometimes mango or plums.
• Top Right: A mixture of baby yellow potatoes, butternut squash {peeled and seeded}, and fuji apple {one cup of each, sautéed in 1 tbsp. of olive oil, then brought to a boil and simmered in 1 1/2 cups baby stock for approx. 30 min. until tender.} Somedays this might be just butternut squash because after I make it I'm left with so many frozen cubes of butternut I have to use it!
• Lower: Baby Peas 

For breakfast,  she usually has some pear and oatmeal, and for lunch, she will have some type of pureed fruit like prunes, banana or blueberry and then some organic "super puffs", along with small cut up fruit.

I have been having difficulty figuring out how to mix her foods and our foods together in meals.  I'm sure it will come once she's solely on solid foods,  but Joe and I will definitely have to start eating ALOT healthier!  

{a slight confession}

look at those upper teeth

Hi,  my name is Lauren Ustad, and I need to make a confession.  This is silly, really... I just need to get it off my chest.  So, I have a neighbor {in her 50s}, who a few weeks ago offered to "take pictures of my baby with her really nice camera".  She doesn't know I am a professional children's photographer {obviously}.  So what do I say?  "Oh, sure!" I mean what could I say?  I felt bad and tend to say "yes" at any given moment when put on the spot.  YEAH,  I told her she could... even though I have so many professional pictures of my baby she is going to grow up thinking I have a camera for a face.  Well,  I decided to just not mention it and hoped she would forget about it and not bring it up again.  I should have come clean at the very first, right?  Well... now it's too late.  She ran into me today again and really pushed the taking pictures thing hard this time.  She said she has a professional camera and has "done weddings and models dressed really nice".  That really peaked my curiosity and gave me an excuse to ask... "Oh really? What kinda camera?" haha.  She replies she has a "Nikon D70".  Don't get me wrong.  That's a nice camera... the 2nd best nonprofessional  DSLR on the market.  A whopping $1000.  Very good quality images {with a decent lens of course}.  But notice I said nonprofessional... big difference.  So what do I do?  Keep a straight face, of course, and say "Oh great!  We can do the pics next weekend!"  YES,  I just booked a session with my neighbor and her "professional" camera.  This really cracks me up.  To be honest,  I'm kinda curious to see the results.  I guess I will find out how it goes next weekend!  I'll keep you posted.  Moral of the story?  Always come clean in the beginning before you get too deep into it not to...

Of course,  what is a post without my pics of our baby.  She is getting in her two top teeth,  and I really hope thats the reason she's been getting up at 6 am every morning for the past week.  Looooove her to death!

{love this}

for just one day I'd like to be...

that someone special

I absolutely love this... book! {and I hope Pepper Mae does too...}  Right now it's our favorite to read together.  I just love the story and the illustrations are great and have a vintage feel to them.  This is my favorite quote from the book and sums it up well:

For just one day, one single day,

I'd like to live a different way.

I think it would be fun to fly

and spend the day up in the sky,

or dangle from the highest tree,

or dive into the deepest sea.

And what if I had pointy claws,

floppy ears, or furry paws?

I'd like to have some jagged jaws,

but only for one day, because...

the other days I'd want to be

that someone special, that is...

me!