Four Months of Locke

I've come to the conclusion that there's just about nothing sweeter than a four month old baby. They are so easy to take care of, so easy to entertain, absolutely melt-your-heart adorable, and so much fun. Locke has really come into his own little personality in the last month. He is "talking" up a storm! He talks when he's happy, when he's mad, when he's hungry, and especially when he's tired. He starting laughing last month and although it takes quite a bit to get him giggling, the payoff is well worth it. He is a baby of definites. He is either definitely hungry or definitely done nursing. Most of the time he is definitely happy unless he's super tired or it's past his time to eat. He is still sleeping through the night, although we have dropped the dream feed and he sometimes wakes up around 5 and talks to himself until he falls back asleep. His legs and arms are getting chunky and I just love the rolls and rubberbands! I get compliments from the ladies at daycare that he is such an easy baby, that he is so happy, and that he is rarely fussy even when he doesn't nap well.

That brings me to our major struggle with Locke and that's naps. While he is a great nighttime sleeper, he's a terrible napper. I tried going to a combo 3/3.5 hour feeding schedule and it was a disaster. Most days I'm lucky if he takes three 45 minute naps and one catnap in the evening. He can do this easily on a 3 hour feeding schedule, but when I tried to stretch that out it did not end well! It's nearly impossible to get a baby to wait for their food when they're not sleeping through the extra time. So we went back to the three hour schedule and dropped the dream feed and it's working great for us right now. I usually start Locke off in his crib for naps but if he wakes after 45 minutes I put him in his swing to see if he'll go back to sleep, because he won't if he's in his crib. This works about 50% of the time. The other 50% we just play and I try to make up the lost nap time by putting him down 15 minutes earlier for the next nap. I've just come to accept that Locke is not a great napper and move on with the day.

At his appointment he weighed 14 pounds, 10 ounces, which is a gain of 3 pounds 2 ounces since his 2 month appointment. He was also 26.5 inches long, which is 2 inches of growth in 2 months. He's already started growing out of the bottom of his 3-6 month sleepers. I can't remember if I mentioned earlier but Locke has something called torticullis, which is a tightening of the muscles in one side of his neck. It's probably due to him lying a certain way in my uterus for so long, and it manifests itself in that he prefers to turn his head in a certain direction. We've worked with him, per our pediatrician, in his tummy time and stretching out the neck muscles on the tight side and forcing him to use them. We got a good report from the doctor and instructions to keep working on it. He also took some x-rays of Locke's head because it's pretty asymmetrical due to Locke sleeping on his back and therefore one side of his head plus with the torticullis he lays on that one side whenever he can. His skull is kind of "bulgy" for lack of a better word around his temple and the x-rays show it's just positional and will correct itself over time. Locke's sutures in his skull are open (this is normal) and will allow for shifting and normalizing of the skull in the months to come. As far as milestones, he is grabbing and grasping objects and putting everything in his mouth. He can roll from side to side but not over, although he wants to and is trying. He is really working on picking his head up and can hold it up very well. He sticks his right arm out when I hold him because I think it makes it easier for him to balance that big noggin! Now on to the pictures!

We had Locke's 3 month pictures done 3 weeks ago but since I haven't ordered any yet we took some pictures before church last weekend. Everyone says how much Locke looks like Erik but I think he favors me a little.

Locke and Daddy.

Look at that sweet face! He sure does love when Momma comes to get him from naps!

And....he's done.

And again, happy baby!

Every day I wake up at 6:45 and although I'd love to sleep in, I really enjoy getting Locke up from his crib. In the past few weeks he has really started recognizing me as his mom and his main caretaker. It's more than that, though. I'm reading a book by Penelope Leach (I highly recommend another book by her, Your Baby and Child) called The Essential First Year and it talks about how babies need that one person in their lives who care about their every need, someone who truly cares if they have a wet diaper, if they are bored, and if they need some cuddling. They are few problems that can't be solved by momma. I love that feeling!

Nature's Bounty

We are very fortunate to live so close to our family members and they have been so generous to us since we moved back. My mom and her boyfriend planted a huge garden this past spring and we are reaping the rewards from it. My mom gave me tons of cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes and I've been trying to find ways to use them up.

First I made Chocolate Zucchini Bread. Oh.my.word. It is amazing! I left out the allspice the recipe calls for because I'm not a fan but the cinnamon alone makes it taste wonderful. I do recommend tossing your chocolate chips in some flour before adding them in, because mine all sunk to the bottom of the loaf pan. You'll need one medium zucchini or half of a large one for this recipe.

1-½ cup Zucchini, Shredded
1 cup All-purpose Flour (or Substitute 1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour And 1/2 C. All-purpose Flour)
½ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
¼ teaspoons Ground Allspice
½ cups Canola Oil
½ cups Granulated Sugar
½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
¾ cups Mini Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (or Regular Sized)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven. Grease, or spray with nonstick vegetable spray, a 9×5×3″ loaf pan. Set aside.
Grate the zucchini using a medium sized grater. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. Set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the oil, sugars, eggs, and vanilla extract until well blended – about 2 minutes. Fold in the grated zucchini.
Add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55-65 minutes.
Place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool completely. Recipe courtesy of oneordinaryday.wordpress.com.

Then I made Homemade refrigerator pickles. Lawd, those are good! They don't keep as long as pressure-canned pickles, but you don't have to mess with a that boiling water and such. I omitted the peppers and only added onion and garlic. I used pint containers and I think this recipe made enough for 3 or 4 pints. Yum!

FOR 1 QUART PICKLING BRINE
3 cups Cold Water
1 cup White Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Canning Or Picking Salt, Up To 3 Tbsp (You May Use Table Or Kosher Salt)
_____
For Pickles:
Small Whole Cucumbers Or Peeled And Sliced Cucumbers
1 Large Onion, Sliced Into Rings
2 Tablespoons Whole Black Peppercorns Or Coarse Ground Pepper
4 Large Cloves Garlic, Sliced
Fresh Hot Peppers Or Crushed Red Pepper As Desired, Optional
Green Bell Pepper Sliced Into Rings, Optional

Stir brine ingredients to dissolve salt as much as possible.
In quart jars or any airtight container that can be used in the fridge, pack fresh whole cucumbers or peeled and sliced cucumbers, adding sliced onion, peppercorns, garlic and hot peppers if used, equally among the jars/containers. Stir brine again and pour over cucumbers to cover, then cover tightly and place in the fridge.
You may also use small zucchini squash in this recipe or in almost any pickling recipe that calls for cucumbers, including relishes, chow chow, piccalilli and my favorite, bread and butter pickles.
For the refrigerator pickles, I’d use equal parts cucumbers and small zucchini if using the squash in this recipe.
According to how many cucumbers you have, you may need more onion and garlic and more brine to cover your cucumbers. These have to stay refrigerated because they’re not processed in a canner for long storage. Recipe courtesy of dianesrecipeblog.blogspot.com.
Then, if you can believe it, I made Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Zucchini Muffins and boy, they are good! I left out the lemon juice (didn't have any) and added an extra tablespoon of milk. Instead of walnuts I used about a 1/2 cup of oatmeal. These came out so moist and not too sweet. Thanks to allrecipes.com for the recipe.

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

Locke's Room

When we bought this house the first priority in decorating was the nursery. We did things a little backwards, by having the baby and then doing the nursery, but that couldn't be helped due to the move. Locke's room was originally a disgusting brown color. Seriously, it looked like the color of baby poop. There were about 40 holes in the wall that I had to spackle and sand, and the trim was partially painted the same color as the wall. Also, all the outlets and outlet covers were painted the same color as the wall. No, really. Who does that? Anyway, I went to Home Depot, picked out a nice green color and got my paint on.

We had to pile all of Locke's stuff in the center of the room and then cover it with a sheet. Our garage is still full of boxes so we had nowhere else to put it! Before.

After. My good friend Lori had these pictures painted to match some owl fabric I'm in love with. Originally I was going to have Locke's bedding made out of it but the lady was asking way too much and I haven't had the budget to make it myself-yet! We reused my old bench and dresser from when I was a kid. The white and blue blanket on the bench was Austin's when he was a baby. You can see the wreath a coworker of mine made for Locke when he was born. She did a fabulous job and I love looking at it because it reminds me of that wonderful day!

Another coworker of mine made the letters for Locke. I should have taken an up-close shot because they are too cute. The rocking chair was Erik's mom's when he was born. I'd like to get the cushion recovered because it's a funky (and not in a good way) orange color. I made the owl mobile from a pattern I found online and used baker's twine and a stick from our backyard. Locke really loves that thing.

So in this room we (I) painted the walls, trim, had the carpets replaced (knasty with a K!), replaced all the outlets and outlet covers, and bought a new crib. I still would like to get some of that owl fabric and make curtains and a fitted crib sheet. Then I'd like to get some coordinating fabric and make a bed skirt so I can hide some of Locke's stuff under his crib. We still need to paint the doors because they are painted an off-white color that doesn't match the trim, and replace the doorknobs. I'd also like to get a cordless blackout shade for the window. Not pictured is a wonderful owl drawing my mom's stepdad did and that my grandmother had framed. It's above the dresser, but I still have to do some touch-up painting around the light switch so I didn't take a picture of it.

I absolutely love Locke's room. I love the soft carpet, the color, the fact that we reused furniture, and the open space. Locke and I sit in there and read books, do tummy time, and just play. Now if only the rest of the house looked so put-together!

Like Father, Like Son