• Baby Teddy,  Family

    Food Adventures | Day 1 of Baby Led Weaning

    A long time ago, oh about six months in the past, I thought this day was soooooo far out in the future that it would never get here. Well, here we are, Forest turns six months old on Tuesday and it’s about time to start this Baby Led Weaning thing. I’ve been reading for months and so my nerves have been mostly quelled, but I was still nervous. Last night I had Chris pick up some avocadoes and a sweet potato for us to delve into this food trying business with Forest. We began his food testing today at lunch with a few pieces of avocado. The results: I don’t…

  • Life In Words,  Thoughts

    Life In Words | Birth Plan Grief

    I knew it was there. Anger. Envy. I thought I’d come to terms with it, but it bubbled up when I saw the Bradley Method book tucked in my nightstand drawer a few months ago. It came rushing to the surface when I tried to listen to a podcast interview of a blogger I like describing her most recent and second Bradley birth. I got a few minutes in and had to turn it off. I hated her and hated that she got what I didn’t. AND both of her babies were larger than Forest. I’m still a bit pissed off that I didn’t get the labor and birth I…

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    Forest at 21, 22 & 23 Weeks

    I think every update on here I could say “Forest is changing dramatically!”, because honestly that’s how things are going from week to week around here. Forest spent a lot of January trying to perfect rolling over, rolling on occassion and getting stuck on his arm. Then one morning about two weeks ago as I was pumping before work and before Chris had left with him for daycare, Forest just wiggled around on his back while on his playmat and then rolled over like it was no big deal. Then he did it again a few minutes later after I flipped him back over. He hasn’t looked back since! Now…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors

    First Family Hike | North Wilderness Loop in Sam Houston National Forest

    It’s been a long winter! It’s been far longer since I’ve done any hiking, last May when we were at Nails Creek State Park and I was six or seven months pregnant. We’ve had some nice stretches of weather these last few weeks intermingled with cool spells, but this last week we were in the middle of a beautiful stretch so I mentioned to Chris that I wanted our first Valentines Day as a family to be a hike. I decided early on I wanted to carry Forest in the Ergo carrier but then I got to thinking that I thought he might be big enough for the Osprey Poco…

  • Life In Words,  Thoughts

    Life in Words | Sunshine

    I went for a jog at lunch yesterday. We’ve had some great weather recently and I have been missing all of the good running days. Either I was sick or Forest was sick or something was up and I just never got out for a jog during my lunch break in the last few weeks like I had been wanting. Finally, though, the weather was still nice again and I was feeling good, so outside I went. Luckily where I work is tucked next to a neighborhood. The neighborhood is comprised of larger, wooded lots with small houses or mobile homes on them, the quality and upkeep ranging from not-very…

  • Life In Words,  Thoughts

    Life in Words | Ode to Coffee

    It was on the Appalachian Trail that I realized just how much coffee was more than a morning elixir of caffeine. It was a symbol of morning congregation, of talking and laughing, of slowly waking up, enjoying sunrises and dreary days, and of savoring the warmth radiating off of the mug. By the time we’d started the AT I was a coffee addict but I’d made the decision not to carry instant coffee for a morning cup, mostly because I didn’t want the hassle of needing to stop to find a privy or tree every twenty minutes after leaving the shelter or campsite in the morning. Plus, I knew how…