Venturing out with solids

Owen is venturing out in his eating. He can gobble up just about anything...that he likes. He would eat bread and fruit all day if he could. I'm sure a lot of us can identify with that. Banana and Strawberry are some of his favorites. He still loves to nurse but we have been offering him food also. He doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with pureed baby food anymore. He prefers feeding himself. I am looking forward to picking up some fresh fruits and veggies at the farmers market on Thursday. I would really like to find some healthy baby friendly recipes to make for him. I saw some spinach, pineapple, banana, orange juice and flax meal popsicles on Instagram that looked like a yummy treat. What recipes do your kids love? What things did your one year old like? Any favorite websites or cook books I should look at?

12 months

Our boy at 12 months

Oops, I'm a little late on posting this. This last month has gone by so fast. Here is what Owen was doing at 12 months...

-He says momma, dadda and WOW!

-His favorite things to play with are kitchen items, balls and animal toys. 

-He has 9 teeth

-When he gets excited he shakes his head from side to side and smiles big.

-He can walk but still prefers to crawl. I love his really wide stance!

-He points at everything. He gets so excited and in his own little language tells you all about what he is pointing at.

-He loves books! He especially loves books with pictures of animals. We read books in the car, the bath, the bed, the library...everywhere!

-He has started interacting and playing with other kids. He loves to watch older kids.

-At his 1 year check-up he was 31 1/2 inches long (90%) and weighed 20lbs 9oz (25%)

-He loves to go swimming. We have been going to our apartment pool almost everyday. He is not scared of the water at all. He even kicks his legs and blows bubbles under the water! Watch out Michael Phelps! 

-He is a happy boy, our sweetie pie and we love him so much! 

My week (in instagram)

Here is a peek of my week from instagram. You can follow me on instagram by searching for alwaysmewithyou.

As I write this post we are actually stuck with a broken down car in Ellensburg Washington (don't worry, before I even finished my post we were already on the road again). If you ever break down in Ellensburg Dean's Automotive is the place to go. We are on our way to a family reunion near Spokane Washington. We spent a couple days at some friends house in the Seattle area. We loved catching up with our friends! We also explored Pike Place Market, the original Starbucks, the Olympic Sculpture Garden, the Space Needle and the San Juan Islands. One of my favorite parts was taking the ferry to San Juan and spending the day together looking at the local shops, driving around the island to see if we could spot any orcas and eating a delicious lunch on the cutest outdoor patio.

Owen has started mostly walking now and only occasionally crawls. He is quite the show stopper. There is something extra adorable about a toddler first learning to walk, waddling with their legs spread too far a part and abruptly falling on their bottom every once in a while. Too cute!

Don't forget to sign up for my first giveaway! I'll announce the winner on monday! http://alwaysmewithyou.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-first-giveaway.html?m=1

My first GIVEAWAY!

My first giveaway! I was going to wait and do a giveaway with my 100th post but I just couldn't wait! :) So heres to post number 88! I am excited to give you the chance to win something I think you will love. If you remember from Owen's 1st birthday there was a whimsical watercolor over the cake table. It is an original watercolor entitled, "Ellie's Balancing Act", from Jasper and Ruby's new Under the Big Top collection on Etsy. From over Owen's cake table at his birthday to over his reading nook in his nursery this watercolor is a beautiful addition that we have loved. 


Debra from Jasper and Ruby is offering one of my readers a 5x7 watercolor from her Etsy shop. Debra lives in Alaska as a stay-at-home mom to her little girl Ruby. She says her inspiration comes from the wildlife in her own backyard, being a former first grade teacher and of course, her daughter Ruby and Sheltie Jasper. You can click here, here, here and here to see some of my favorites!


To win all you need to do is...
1. Become a follower of Always Me with You, by clicking "join this site" on the right hand side of this page and following the directions
2. Head over to the Jasper and Ruby Etsy shop and pick out which watercolor you would want if you won
3. Leave a comment with your email address below letting me know which watercolor you would choose
For up to three extra entries you can share this giveaway on your facebook, share on your blog and like Jasper and Ruby on facebook. Leave separate comments for each entry. 


I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner. The winner will be announced in this post next week on Monday the 30th. Good luck! 


Update: Comments closed. Thank you for all your entries. The random number generator chose #16. Congratulations Shelley!

Sleeping through the night?

Owen has always been an ok sleeper. He still wakes up about 3 times during the night and wants to nurse...ok, maybe thats not too good of a sleeper. I have always done ok on little sleep, I was the girl in college that instigated going to mexican food at 3am. Recently I have started thinking it would probably be best for both of us to get a full nights sleep. I think not sleeping through the night is harder on me than I realize. So I decided to see how night weaning would go. My plan...
Step 1 Let him nurse shortly, give him his pacifier and soothe him back to sleep (stroke his hair and sing to him)
Step 2 No nursing, give him his pacifier and soothe him back to sleep (stroke his hair and sing to him)
Step 3 Mommy and baby sleep through the night!


It sounded like a pretty good plan. Last night was the 6th night of trying it out. The first three nights I was actually encouraged. I tried nursing him for a shorter time, giving him his pacifier and soothing him back to sleep. It worked! The last three nights haven't gone so good. He woke up very upset, would not take his pacifier at all and wanted nothing to do with the soothing him to sleep stuff. He woke up wanting to nurse around 6 times. Then yesterday I discovered the problem. He cut another molar! Thats 10 teeth and another on the way. Poor little guy. We will have to try again when he is not teething. In the mean time...Did you wean your baby from night feeding? What have you tried that worked? Does your little one sleep through the night? Any advice?

Owen's vintage circus 1st birthday: his gift

His birthday gift from mommy and daddy was a quilt I made out of the leftover fabric from his party decorations. Quilted squares on the front and bunting flags on the back. A special way for him to have something to keep from his 1st birthday. We can tell him stories from his party, the juggling, the colorful gum balls, Grandma reading the Circus Ship and all the friends and family that love him so much.

My mom gave me my first sewing machine for my birthday in June. It has been fun creating things for Owen's party and gifts for friends over these two months. The thing I learned about making quilts is that being precise each step of the way pays off. Each time I did not sew in a straight line or cut something the wrong size it effected other areas of the quilt. If you can go along slowly and carefully it turns out pretty good. I found this tutorial for the bunting on the back and used it as a guide. Now that I have made a small quilt I want to try and make a bigger one for us to use on picnics. 

Click here to see more pictures from his party! 

Owen's vintage circus 1st birthday: DIY favor tutorial

Owen's party favors for his friends turned out so sweet. A cotton baggie with a vintage circus playing card print, a few circus animal coloring sheets, colorful crayons and a lollipop. It really was an easy favor to make and turns out to be a fun bag of goodies. The kids were thrilled as they pulled all the treasures out of the baggie. It gives them a bag to keep things in, a coloring activity to do, a fun way to learn about colors, animals and letters and a sweet treat to enjoy. Here is what I did...

Favor bags with image
-Buy cotton drawstring bags. I used these 4x6 muslin bags. 
-Buy soft transfer paper for light color fabric. You can usually find this at your local craft store. 
-Buy your desired image for the outside of the bag (I used a vintage deck of crazy 8 playing cards)
-Scan the cards in your computer and follow the directions on the transfer paper instructions (scan in, reverse image on computer, cut out, place on cotton bag, iron on, let cool, peel off, easy)

Coloring Sheets
-Find 6 themed coloring pictures or drawer your own (I tried drawing my own and it didn't end well, I should take a picture and show you my attempts just for the humor or it)
-Add the name of each animal in an easy to read font
-Print out on card stock and cut to fit in bag

Circus crayons
-Buy mini candy molds. I got these cute circus animals.
-Buy crayons in desired colors
-Peel the label off the crayons
-Chop crayons into small pieces 
-Place cupcake liners in a cupcake pan 
-Put two crayons of the same color (or get creative and mix them up) into each cupcake liner
-Preheat oven at 350 degrees and bake crayons for a few minutes or until the crayon has almost completely melted
-Quickly poor hot crayon liquid into the candy mold (I only melted 6 cupcake liners of crayons at a time because they start hardening up fast)
-Let cool and your cute crayons will pop right out

Thank you tags
-Buy plain craft tags. They should have these at your local craft store. 
-Buy two stamps: a cute thank you stamp and another stamp that goes with your theme. I got this stamp of a giraffe with a birthday hat. (I also used the giraffe stamp on the envelope of the  invitation and on the thank you notes)
-Buy two colors of ink
-Stamp thank you on one side of tag and other image on the reverse side 

Add some candy and you have a perfect little favor!

I made bunting out of the deck of cards and hung it over the favor table for a cute finishing touch. 

Click here to see more pictures from his party! 

Owen's vintage circus 1st birthday: the cake

What 1st birthday party is complete without a little sugar? I baked him up a cake that was naturally sweet, with lots of banana and apple sauce, covered in sugary frosting and topped off with a few sprinkles. He took his first taste and squished his face up and quivered in his chair. After the initial shock he loved it. I'm not sure if he liked the cake better or all the attention of everyone watching him. As you can see from the last picture he really enjoyed it.

Owen's vintage circus 1st birthday: the party

Photo credit: Thank you to Emily Parker and my sister for taking a lot of these pictures! I will always cherish having these pictures to savor the memories. 

Owen's vintage circus 1st birthday: the party

Our boy is one! I really cannot believe it. What a precious year it has been with him. He is asleep laying here next to me as I type, mouth open and drooling, and looking so cute. We love him so much!

Several months ago Paul and I decided we wanted to plan a party to celebrate this year we have had together. It was really fun to see all the plans come together on the big day. He had a blast playing with his friends, listening to Grandma read the Circus Ship, watching Cody juggle, gobbling up his cake and celebrating at a vintage circus with friends and family. When he is older he will always be able to look back at the pictures and know what a special day it was. 

I think it is only appropriate, as you read this post, for you to be humming classic circus tunes. During the party we had a playlist of some favorite "circus" songs, including Entry of the Gladiators, a few songs from Dumbo and Animal Crackers in my Soup (not exactly a classic circus song, but animal crackers are circus-ish, and what kid doesn't love that song?!)

After the party was over and the guests had gone Paul kissed me and said, "it was a perfect party for our sweet boy". We had so much fun planning a special day together for Owen. We left the party a little more rosy cheeked and feeling like we had spent the day at the circus. 

I had such a hard time picking pictures to post. I still added way too many. Oops. :) I will be posting the "eating his birthday cake" pictures, the gift I made him and his 1 year monthly portrait soon. 

Here are a few of the things we had at the party...
Wool pom pom garland - I made it with black embroidery thread, an embroidery needle, fabric glue and wool balls from Ta Da Studio Felt on etsy
Elephant balancing on ball painting - Jasper and Ruby on etsy
Bunting (yard, cake and drink table bunting)- I made it with fabric from JoAnns
Large round balloons - Shop Sweet Lulu
Aqua stripped straws - Shop Sweet Lulu
Ball mason jars - online at Kmart with coupon codes and free shipping they came out to 65 cents each after tax and shipping
Mason jar drink dispensers - $15 at World Market
Red and white stripe tablecloth - fabric from onlinefabricstore.net
Party favor bags - Bought a vintage deck of cards, soft transfer paper and cotton baggies from the Everlasting Posy on etsy
Lion picture prop - My sister painted it