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Kensington Brooke turned 7 months this weekend!!!

While I had to get her “smile” photo, I also needed one of Kensie in her natural state at this age so we could remember her for who she really is…

A toe sucker. 😂 Easiest photo I got all day. And here I was a few months ago worried about her thumb. Way to one up me, K. 

Kensie LOVES to sit up on her own and play, scoot everywhere, bath time, putting absolutely EVERYTHING in her mouth and sleeping in mommy and daddy’s bed. 

She says ba-ba and ga-ga and mamamamammama. Kens likes to grunt at everything and play peek-a-boo. She actually likes to play anything as long as it involves someone paying attention to her. 

K likes to drink out of anything mommy is drinking out of and is starting to figure out how her sippy cup works. She eats puréed foods off a spoon and chunks of avocado with her fingers. 

She has no concept of depth and therefore will divebomb off anything you set her on if she sees something she wants; which is why her chair photo involves toys…I had to put them up there so she’d stop trying to fly off her chair face first to grab them. 

Here’s a behind the scenes photo of having to catch her with one hand while I accidentally snapped a photo with the other. Awesome. 

Kens still has FOMO and an obsession with Baby Einstens. She’s also developed a little attitude and throws her pacifier when she doesn’t want to take a nap or go to bed. She also yells at you if you have something she wants and won’t give it to her. 

She already has a huge heart and is super sweet. She has started reaching for people (my favorite) and loves to give hugs and kisses (with her mouth open) and snuggle!!

I seriously can’t believe how fast this nugget is growing!!! She’s in 6 month clothing but 9 month PJs because she got the long leg gene from mom and dad!

Kensie had a pretty chill weekend with some errands, car shopping and a gender reveal party for a sweet friend of ours! 

We were SUPER excited because…IT’S A GIRL!!! It is also official that there’s something in the water at CFEO. All the ladies are getting pregnant and they’re all having GIRLS! I think we are up to 7 or 8 in the last year alone. 

Kensie was such a great babe while we ran errands and she got lots of play time with daddy this weekend!

We are all ready for the short week and a long weekend ahead!!

Kensie and I had a Friday full of errands! Starting with new diapers. Kensie still has to wear sensitive diapers or she gets rashes (which is just lovely since I have about 200 swaddlers that she can’t wear). We used Seventh Generation when she was smaller and they were fine. This morning? Not so much. When she woke up, her PJs were WET from her diaper leaking. How disgusting. 

I still think Honest have been the best for us. I bought their bedtime diapers to see how that goes, though I have a sneaking suspicion they’re the same as their everyday diaper. 

We also used her Binxy baby as a hammock! I’ve always set her car seat in it but never took her out. She thought it was oh so fun! 

Except….I think I missed the window for her being small enough. She kept wiggling out and her head fell off the side. I suppose I should have just sat her in the front of the cart. 🙈 

Oh well. It was fun for the 20 minutes it lasted. At the next store, we stuck with the stroller and K baby was just as happy. 

Kensie is still working on figuring out her crawling/scooting/getting where she wants to go skills. If she’s on her stomach, she just slides backwards. 

Wrong direction there, girlfriend. 

No matter the direction, though, she knows how to move! Kensie was about to fall asleep on her elephant. 

I went pee (TMI?) and came back in…and here she was. 

I think I’ll spend this weekend enjoying the last few weeks I have before she starts full on crawling!

OH what a night. Not sure what K’s deal was last night but she kept dozing off and waking up and fussing. She didn’t go completely to sleep until just after 10p. Then…Lucy decided to wake her up at 3am by barking and howling nonstop at something outside the sliding glass door. Once Kensie started dozing back off, Lucy started howling AGAIN. 

At that point, Kens just wanted to lay in our bed and talk for an hour. When I had to get up to go coach, this nugget was out cold. 

Geeze Kensie, all that midnight chatting wear you out? 🙄 She also took an insanely long nap this afternoon to make up for it. 

After 2 1/2 hours, I had to wake her up so we could go to the gym. Oh, to be 7 months old again. That nap would have done me some good today. 

Kensington had a sweet friend to play with while I coached class this morning! 

K also tried to get in on the workout. When she realized she couldn’t pick the plate up, she resorted to bringing her face down to it and trying to eat it. 🤦🏼‍♀️ This child is going to be immune to every germ there is by the time she’s 1. 

While Kensie slept the afternoon away, I put her food into the ice cube trays to freeze it. Another lesson learned…I made way too much food. 

Those are all leftovers. Whoops. I’m going to get a cupcake tray in the morning to make some larger portions and freeze them! If anyone needs some baby food, you know where to find it. Haha! 

Kensie had more friends this afternoon at the gym! Mr. Wake has a baby brother coming in a few months, so he got some practice in today. I think he’s going to be a pro! 

Kensie also got some extra time with daddy today! She sat there and smiled away while daddy worked (or attempted to). 

Notice the outfit change? I’ll give you 2 guesses as to why that happened. First one doesn’t count. 💩

We got home late tonight but Kensie went straight to bed and I’m hoping for a peaceful night with no barking. If there’s not a “dog for sale” post on my Facebook page in the morning – you’ll know it was a much better night than last. 

And today…we cooked! Well, I cooked. Kensie made sure to add an extra challenge to the task. 

I know what you’re thinking. That face? Difficult? Noooooo. 

K is usually really good at playing by herself. She must have known I had my hands full because not only did she not want to play by herself she wanted me to hold her. We compromised. She sat in her chair on the table and we played “throw your sippy cup on the ground every 10 seconds and mommy picks it up and gives it back”. 

I know what you’re thinking. “Don’t give it back to her. You’re creating a bad habit. Blah. Blah. Blah.” Well – she found it hilarious and it beat having to strap on the ergo baby or listening to her whine. 

K finally went down for a nap so I could finish. Easy breezy from there, right? Ha! 

To make my life even more entertaining, a guy came by to do a safety check for our gas tank for the jacuzzi this morning. Well that little gem of a human left the gate wideeee open. As I’m cooking I realize neither of the dogs have walked by the door in a while. I got to set a timer on the steaming veggies and hope I could find Jack and Lucy as they strolled around the neighborhood and coerce them back inside before it went off. 

Excitement and all – I got it done!!!

It was so simple and kind of fun! I bought some fruits and veggies yesterday to prepare. I also ordered these ice cube trays from Amazon. 

First step was prepping all the food to be steamed. Well, all of the food except the zuchinni because the package I bought YESTERDAY already had mold on it. 🙄

Everything got washed, peeled and chopped and it was go time. 

And then…we steam!

I definitely learned a few things as I went! One of them being I needed a heck of a lot more breastmilk than I thought in some of the veggies and a lot less in others. 

I used 8oz of milk in the carrots alone!  I also added coconut oil to everything as I puréed it for some good fats! A friend of mine suggested it and I wasn’t sure if I needed it since I was blending with breastmilk as well. I did some research and sure enough – it is okay to do both! The coconut oil adds healthy fats that promote brain function and growth. It also sweetens the veggies so they taste better to the babe!

I added 1tbsp to the veggies and 1-2tsp to the fruits, depending on the amount of fruit. I only added milk to the veggies and apples, since they were thicker, and the rest of the fruits had a enough juice to not need the milk. I’ll use it on the bananas tomorrow as well. (Waiting on those so they don’t brown). 

I googled the times for steaming each veggie/fruit and the time suggestions were spot on. 

Fun tip for any other mommas looking to make food: you DO NOT need to add milk (or water or whatever you’re using) to yellow squash or zuchinni. The squash got pretty watery with just 2oz of milk. Since I did the zucchini later (after I went back to exchange it 🙄) I added nothing and it was still pretty thin. 

Everything is in the fridge cooling tonight.   I’m going to make oats and the bananas in the morning – then when the ice trays come tomorrow, I’ll make some fun mixtures and pop them in the freezer!

Alysia also told me about these awesome reusable pouches. You can pop out a frozen food cube, put it in the pouch and take it with you. When it melts, hand it to the babe and voila! They’re also simple to clean. 

I’d say start to finish, including clean up, (if you don’t have to pick up a cup off the floor 20 times, put a baby down for a nap or chase your dogs around the neighborhood) it’s a 90 minute – 2 hour process. As far as money? Huge saver! I spent about $20 on everything and I think it will make at LEAST 60 servings. I’ll update you guys tomorrow once I mix the “meals”. 

Kensie tried out a Spinach, Sweet Potato and Apple mix for lunch today and she LOVED it! 

Okay, she doesn’t look ecstatic here, but I promise she did! 

Other than our food prep, Kensie had her normal day of being a goober, playing, dog walking and partying at the gym! 

Kensie gifted me with sleeping in until 8:15 this morning!! Then she made up for it by putting up a solid fight at bedtime. 🙄

K played her little butt off today! No matter how much fun she’s having playing, she always chooses momma over her toys. Here’s proof x2. 

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After lunch we headed to the grocery store to get fruits and veggies for Kensie’s food prep! A friend of mine gave me a tip to use silicone cupcake trays to freeze everything. I read an article online that said to use ice cube trays. I found the middle ground and ordered oversized silicone ice cube trays!   If anyone has tips or recipes – send them our way! 

When we got home we walked the pups then headed up to the gym. 

Kensie tried her best to play with Kinsley today.  I missed the photo of her face smashed all the way against the side. She didn’t quite understand the concept of her baby jail. 

After a good day…this is how I ended up putting my child to sleep tonight once she finished she throwing her body around, tossing her pacifier, yelling and fake crying for 45 minutes. 

Pillow fort for the win! 🏆

OH – and Kensie’s bow today is from Baby Bling Bows and I am pretty sure they’re my new favorite!!! Perfect fabric that didn’t leave marks on K’s head and I love the colors!!



In all the Mother’s Day gush I missed 2 super important photos yesterday! Well, I missed one. The other was taken after I posted. 

Kensie DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE the nursery at church yesterday. No joke. I was a little concerned dropping her off because she woke up so early and only napped for 5 minutes on the way there. Homegirl was ready to party!! She actually completely ignored me and wanted to keep playing. 

She wouldn’t even look up for my photo. 🙄

And this next photo might be my absolute favorite, ever. 

Putting this little one to bed (or maybe she put me to bed, lol!) was the absolute perfect ending to my very first Mother’s Day! 

Kensie goes through “clingy” phases where she won’t put herself to sleep in her crib like usual; however, if I lay down with her she’s out in under 90 seconds.  I think this is a growth spurt because it was paired with some extra eating this weekend. Either way, I’m good with it. I love that this little butt just needs her momma’s snuggles sometimes. (And for anyone that wants to give me the “you shouldn’t do that you’ll start a bad habit” advice…don’t. I can guarantee a day will come where she won’t need me to fall asleep.)

Her sleeping schedule has been all out of whack and she thought it would be a good idea to wake up at 5:50 this morning. Hahahaha…nope! Luckily I got her to go back to sleep for another hour.

Kensie was still a happy happy baby today, regardless of her lack of sleep! 

She also dominated her FOMO tonight and didn’t nap until I put her in the ergo baby at 7p. 

My late night class ends after next week and while I am loving this group – I am definitely looking forward to getting Kensie back on schedule and turning these 9 hour sleeps back into 12 hour ones! 

I’ll probably change my mind when Kens is about 13…but today I can safely say that I didn’t want a “day off” for Mother’s Day. I love absolutely everything about being a mom – even the not so glamorous parts – because it means I have the most precious gift of all!

Today was the PERFECT first Mother’s Day! Our normal Sunday routine is church then brunch; however, everywhere was extra packed with Mother’s Day reservations so we switched it up and brunched at home! 

Not only did chris get up with Kens when she decided she was ready to party at 6:15 and let me sleep another hour and a half, he also cooked up this amazing spread! 

After brunch, we headed up to Daytona to see Chris’ family for the afternoon! Kensie got to spend a little time with her Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts and Uncle and cousins and even met her 2nd cousins! Everyone else was taking photos with K so I kind of forgot to take many myself…whoops. 

I don’t think you can truly understand a momma’s love until you become one. Being a mom is the most overlooked job there is, but also the most rewarding. 

I’m so thankful for ALL the moms in my life – whether you’ve been a mother figure to me or simply a friend. Thank you for the guidance, encouragement and support as I raise KB. 

All the “my mom is the best” posts today are so true. Your mom is the best mom for you. There really is no love like a mother’s love! 

To all the moms: every little ordinary, mundane and routine thing you do every single day adds up to so much and it is nothing short of amazing. You are nothing short of amazing. Happy Mother’s Day!!!

This little chunk had a busy day and is soon to be one busy baby!!

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Oye vey. I’m in so much trouble. She was laying down when I left her. I heard her whine, then stop. I looked over and saw her little head level with the top of her crib. EXCUSE ME?!

Kensie was so excited for her day in Jacksonville that she got up just after 6am. 🙄

She got to watch Uncle William at his swim meet! 

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Kensie must have been his good luck charm, because his team placed 3rd and they’re going to cities! Congrats Uncle William! 

Then we got to have a special girls lunch with K’s Great Grandma and Grand Aunt!

Kensie was too busy trying to grab…everything…to pose for photos. I gave her some of my avocado and she loved it! 

The ride back to Orlando got a little rough for Kens this afternoon. She slept the first half of the trip and then she woke up about 50 minutes away and fussed and cried the entire rest of the way home. 😪

Listening to that successfully wore me out. 

She was so happy to get home, see daddy and PLAY!! Kens had a great rest of the night, including exploring around her crib. 

I think my nights just got a whole lot busier!