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Like many moms, I'm not a huge fan of starting solids. It's time consuming, messy, and requires a lot of extra attention! Especially with four kids: solids was something I put off as long as I possibly could. Also like many moms, though, I've found that using Baby-Led Weaning makes the entire solids process so much smoother . Considering starting baby-led weaning? Here's my simple guide! Want the best high chair that easy-to-clean? Here's my favorite high chair for Baby-Led Weaning! Want some great food ideas to get you rolling? Keep reading!!!
Spear turned 7 months old on July 1st. I use What to Expect the First Year to see where he's at in his milestones and development and I purchased his monthly stickers here :)
This is a summary of Spear's 7th month of life which spanned the entire month of June. He was 6 months old during this month! Eating: Well. The day arrived. It was truly time for me to get my butt in gear and start feeing Spear some solids! I really put it off as long as I could haha. It's not my fav and it's def a stage that makes me glad to be DONE with babies moving forward. One last that I'm not getting teary eyed about for sure! With all my babies I've always used Take and Toss cups for their sippy cups . I've always been happy with how they've held up, how easy they were for the kids to manage, and never had any major issues regarding spills or anything. But I've had SO MANY people swear by the Munchin 360 Trainer that I wanted to try it this time around. Last kid...might as well try out the latest and greatest while I can right? I swear this cup is like invented by aliens. I don't get the science behind it or how it actually works or ho...
I started writing about our meet-up with some of Spear's biological family as part of his monthly update post for his 7th month of life and realized I just had WAY too much to say and it needed to be it's own blog post. Plus, it's a pretty big deal and a post that I may want to reference in the future so it's nice to have it stand alone :) In early June we met up with Mama E and three of her children as well as Spear's birth father's sister. Our adoption is considered an open adoption. Legally all that means is that we have contact after placement. There are closed adoptions which are where the adoptive family has no contact at all or often even knows who the birth family is...and then there are open adoptions which can mean anything from just having that knowledge, to having some contact, to having regular visits. Our official agreement is that we send photos and update letters to the lawyer every month until Spear is 1 and then at 18 months and then...
Have you entered the big giveaway yet? Don't forget! It ends Monday Night...click here to enter :) Our summer has been IN-SANE yall. We were gone so much that the "weekly posts" are all going to be a bit wonky. For Week 3 of summer Zach was in Ireland and the kids and I were at the Disney house. When we got back from the Disney trip...we had one week until we left for our annual beach trip! I'm thankful when we made our summer schedule that we did have downtime in-between each trip but that also meant that the downtime was truly DOWN TIME. We stuck close to home so I could unpack, do laundry, then repack for the next adventure! This post covered June 22nd through June 29th: our 4th week of summertime!
Father's Day was very off this year which I feel so bad about but when Zach and his dad planned the Ireland trip they scheduled it where it fell over Father's Day. I really wasn't upset by it because it's Father's Day and Zach was spending it with his dad doing something he loves and as the father of our children I just wanted him to enjoy that day however he wanted! The kids and I enjoyed Father's Day at Magic Kingdom solo ;) We planned to celebrate Zach's Father's Day the week after actual Father's Day. We still devoted an entire day to our favorite dad! We also switched things up this year and did NOT do our annual family golf outing {gasp!}. I do have a ton of guilt about skipping it. I LOVE all the awesome pics each year of our outing and it's a tradition I love that we do every single year. But it's REALLY hot and we have a very young baby and we're at a point with kids where we'd have to have two golf carts and I don...
Our last park day of the trip we headed to Epcot! We did the same routine as the day prior. The babies came in the morning then we all came home for lunch and naps and went back in the afternoon with just the 6 older kids, leaving the babies at home. It really all worked out super well! Thanks to Casie's All Things Crafty for the super cute shirts!
After our fun morning we took naps and ate lunches and headed back to Animal Kingdom but this time without Spear and Cam. Whew it was still super hot but it was SO much less stressful for me to be baby-free! Heading to Nemo!
First thing Tuesday morning we hit up Animal Kingdom. I am thankful that Courtney's kids aren't super into Disney as they weren't concerned about riding Flight of Passage. Lately Disney has been doing an extra magic morning hour for Animal Kingdom practically every morning in order to allow on property guests to get in early and ride Flight of Passage. I knew with it being an extra magic hour that morning that we'd have no shot at riding FOP but thankfully no one minded! Even with an extra magic hour it's still valuable to get to the park early and be up among the early arrivers so once the non-resort guests are allowed in we can make a mad dash for our first ride (this day being safari). Zach and I are used to getting to the parks early but it can be tough for such a large group of kids to have to sit and wait, especially in the heat. And it's tough for them to understand the reason behind it...it's either wait now OR have to wait in super long lines onc...
When Zach's dad first talked to him about the Ireland trip my heart instantly went out to Zach's mom. Sure, she isn't a golfer. But it would crush me if Zach planned a trip to Europe for his birthday and I wasn't included in his plans! Even if it made sense for her not to go (and I'm sure her feelings weren't hurt in the way mine would be) I still felt bad about it. I talked to Zach about trying to make sure she had some special time too while they were all away. Typically each summer there is also a Parker Family Trip with ALL of Zach's side of the family (his parents, sisters, and all the kids). Zach and I were under the impression that it wasn't happening this year so we thought it'd be nice to invite Zach's mom and sisters down to the Disney House for a few days so his mom could get to have all the grandkids together. Even though the men wouldn't be there, it'd still give her the memories and experience with all of her grandchildre...
Robyn's crew headed out first thing Saturday morning and we had a LAZY day planned. When I made plans for the trip I really wanted to make sure I carved out a couple days for JUST the kids and I. While time with friends and family is always fun, it usually results in adults talking and kids playing. I wanted to make sure I had quality time WITH my kids while Zach was in Ireland. We started our Saturday with a big, yummy cinnamon roll breakfast then had some fun playing games while Spear napped.
Zach headed off to Ireland on Wednesday June 13th. I met up with Robyn at pretty much the same time Zach left to drive down to Orlando. I've never driven my kids solo before for that long of a drive with any of them at this young of ages. I was pretty nervous about it but thankfully Spear is on the 4 hour schedule which means he wouldn't have to stop and eat because we can for sure make it from our house to the Disney House in under four hours! The Ireland Crew!
While the first week of summer recap was covering much more than a single week...the second week is covering much less ;) This post is covering Saturday June 9th through Wednesday June 13th!
Since Zach and I were on our romantic Disney trip the first true week of summer we're kicking off our first official family week of summer the week after we got back: May 31st - June 9th! (Yes, it's longer than a single week ha! I just combined the days we got back with the week following) If you're new around here I typically do a monthly summary post year-round of all of our family fun as well as an individual monthly summary post for each kid. In the summer though? I stick to a weekly post that covers EVERYTHING from that week!
Several years ago we all pitched in for Mother's Day and surprised Mrs Charlotte with family photos, which you can see here. Britt was like 8 months old I think when we had them done. Obviously a ton has changed in 6 years, including adding several grandkids to the family who weren't represented in the family photos! This year for Mother's Day Casey put together having new photos taken as Mrs. Charlotte's combined gift from all of us. Mrs. Charlotte was SO excited to be able to update her mantel picture frame (also another gift we all got her ha!) with updated photos of everyone. She chose for us all to wear navy, gray or white which worked out well because it's colors we all had in our closets! I did end up buying myself a new dress but who doesn't love an excuse for that ;) Casey has had some photos done with Shelley Jean Smith in the past but this was my first time working with her. She's BEYOND sweet and so flexible to meet us at 7:30 in the m...
Our precious Spear turned 6 months old on June 1st! I use What to Expect the First Year to see where he's at in his milestones and development and I purchased his monthly stickers here :) Yall. Has half a year flown by or whhhhhat?!?! I cannot believe it was 6 months ago that he was born!!!
This is a summary of Spear's 6th month of life (the entire month of May). He was 5 months old during this month. Eating: At this stage in parenting Spear I'm really sad about not nursing him. I know it was the best choice for everyone involved and I can't fathom actually breastfeeding him. Especially during those tender days in the hospital! But life is easier now with him. He's on a smooth schedule. He eats well. He's happy and content. This is the sweet spot of nursing a baby and it's when I'm really missing it. I still love the snuggles with him while feeding but it's simply not the same as nursing! He is taking 2 6 oz bottles a day (the first two of the day) then I offer between 6-8 oz of breastmilk at his 3:00 feeding and give 8 oz for his nighttime bottle. He went through a period this week where he was fussier with his bedtimes and was fussy right after feeding so I bumped his 6 oz bottles up to 8 oz for a few days and it must have been a ...
All of our family fun from May:
I'm pretty sure most little girls dream about the day they will become a mommy. I remember thinking through it all: how many kids, how many years apart, gender order, names, everything. My dream? Four kids. An oldest brother to look out for the younger ones and so his sisters friends would all have a crush on him. Then two girls so they could share clothes and be best friends. And last, another boy so he'd be able to look up to that older brother with a larger age gap where it'd be a role model type relationship. When I started dating Zach and things got serious he mentioned he wanted two kids. He came from a family of uneven numbers and wanted even. I might have fudged a little tiny bit and mentioned that I wanted six kids...so that way when we compromised we agreed on four ;) Now here we are. Not everything in life happens as we hope or dream or plan. But my babies surpass every childhood wish I could have imagined. I can literally look at them and see God's bless...
Zach and I love putting together each of our children's nurseries. It's so fun coming up with a theme and then making it happen! This room is so special to us. We had such a long wait for Spear and his room gave us something to focus on during that time and to help remind us that God would be blessing us with a baby, the perfect-fit baby who was meant to be ours! I will never forget the moment I read the email saying Mama E had chosen us to be her son's parents. I instantly started sobbing and raced into this nursery and sat on my knees just crying and thanking God for this opportunity. Now I'm here with this gift from God and will always cherish the wait that brought us to him :) We've never known the sex of our babies while I've been pregnant so Kye and Tess's nurseries were both gender neutral and Britt's I waited to decorate until after she was born (um that was a terrible idea haha). Spear was the first baby we've had when we knew he'd b...
