No more baby food!

About 2 weeks ago Katelyn decided that baby food is not for her any more. She didn't want to be spoon fed the mushy stuff and kept trying to grab the spoon away from me. I gave her a few bites of my dinner and surprisingly enough my 10 month old decided that she rather eat that.

Her first real meal was penne with vodka sauce, some garlic bread and sauteed string beans with garlic and chunks of fresh strawberries for desert! I thought for sure she'd throw up or not be able to sleep that night but nothing happened :)

In the last week she tried a bunch of new seasonings & flavors and I can't think of one that she didn't like. Anything I put on her tray she eats. She can now handle regular oatmeal for breakfast (not the baby food kind), different fresh fruit in small chunks (bananas, strawberries, pears), rice, pasta, turkey meatballs, black beans, corn, peas, broccoli, pita bread, waffles, and that's just to name a few!

I also got a yogurt maker to make yogurt at home. It's so easy to do and we are saving a lot of money! We used to go through 4 32oz containers of yogurt a week, at $3.50 a piece is $14 a week! Now, I just get a gallon of organic 2% milk for $4.99 and that makes my 2 64oz batches! It's tastes really good and we now never run out :)
I highly recommend homemade yogurt if you spend on it as much as we did. It's lower in sugar, no additives and tastes better! We add a little sugar to it, and some fruit - frozen blueberries make it taste awesome!

Ashley Watercoloring

Now that I have figured out how to do Slide Shows of Pictures, here's another one of Ashley watercoloring.. Last night she drew three pictures for us. Here's her work in progress.. I'll have to take pictures of the finished work and add it to the slide show when I have some time.. (My memory card is full, so I need to off load the pictures before I can take some more)

Jenkinson's Aquarium Visit

On Sunday the weather was just aweful, so to get out of the house we took the kids to the Aquarium in Point Pleasant. Ashley really liked the sharks, and I mean really, really liked them. She didn't want to leave the side of the tank, even cute little penguins and seals couldn't keep her away..

Katelyn was also pretty interested. I was actually quite surprised about how curious she was to see everything. We'll definitely have to come back again for another visit when the weather is nicer and we can enjoy not just the aquarium but the boardwalk and the ocean!

Ashley's soccer

Ashley's soccer season started couple weeks ago. Every Saturday Mike takes her to Dorbrook park. This is a class for 2 1/2 - 4 year olds, they don't actually play a game, just practice running, dribbling and kicking the ball in the goal. Still very cute to watch :)

I usually don't go, but this weekend the weather was great so we all went to cheer on Ashley and had a picnic lunch afterwards! Here are some pictures..

Katelyn's first time on the swings

Around the corner from Mike's Mom's house is a very nice playground. We walked over after dinner to take the kids on the swings. It was fun to watch them swing, both of them really enjoyed it! We brought with us the Push Buggy, Katelyn's new wheels :)

Couple Easter videos of the kids

The singing chicks were a hit!

Katelyn's first Easter!

This year we again went to Nana's house (Mike's mom's house) for Easter celebration. Ashley had a blast with the Easter egg hunt. Instead of chocolates, Nana and Busenka (my mom) put coins in Ashley's Easter eggs. She loves saving them in her piggy bank. And Katelyn was all smiles dancing to the sounds of the baby chicks singing "We've Got the Beat". Ashley is not dressed up in the pictures because she didn't want to wear her matching outfit..

Katelyn has 8 teeth...

4 on top and 4 on the bottom. I think she's getting tired of my home made baby food. Time to switch it up.. here come finger foods and not just for snacks any more!

Katelyn is a great eater, there's nothing she doesn't like.. In terms of finger food, she's mastered cheerios, rice, and bananas. We'll have to try out some small pasta and steamed veggies cubed next.

I hope she'll soon be eating what we eat. Ashley does most of the time, unless it's something spicy.. For a while she didn't do well with dinners, so we stopped giving her milk after her nap, and replaced it with a snack. Now come dinner time, she cleans everything off her plate! And she's eating meat! (For a while there she refused any kind of meat, she'd chew it and keep it behind her cheek and not swallow..) She loves rotisserie chicken, grilled steak, and mushrooms are still her favorite.

Katelyn has been moved out of our room!

It's been hard having Katelyn in our room all this time, we've had to tippy toe around her crib in the evening, and she'd wake us up at night when she made sounds. So, this is long over due, we finally moved Katelyn's crib out of our bedroom and into the office. We didn't feel like her and Ashley were ready to share a room yet, they are on different schedules, etc so the office is a new temporary home for Katelyn. So far I think both Katelyn and we are happy about this new arrangement. She's been sleeping much better and we got our room back! :)

We had to move the office desk to our bedroom to make room for the crib, but that's ok. This move is a temporary solution until Ashley and Katelyn are ready to share a room, then we'll have the office back to normal.. :)

Ashley has been in a big girl bed since January (we removed the front rail from her crib around her 3rd birthday as soom as she climbed out of her crib for the first time. She can roam around her room and some times even comes out of her room when she wakes up. She prefers to call us to come get her, and we like that way.. it's better than her jumping into our bed in the morning.

Ashley showing off