Orange Chicken

It has been a while since I have posted about cooking. We have just been boring in the kitchen department lately, eating the same old stuff. Recently, we made orange chicken and rice, however; and it was delicious! There is no recipe to go with it because it really isn't that difficult. We bread and fry cut up chicken, then, cook it in a pot with Panda Express orange sauce. Obviously, the white rice is pretty basic, too! Here is a picture of our fabulous meal:

Green onion update: It worked! Here is what I've got since my last picture:

Blake's 1 Year Pictures

So far, Blake has been very cooperative when getting his picture taken. He always has big smiles and is pleasant. NOT THIS TIME! He still appeared to be in a decent mood, but smiling? NO WAY! He had the most serious face ever is 98% of his pictures. And, by the way, the other 2% were only half, lame smiles. Lucky for us, we still were able to get some cute ones! Here you go!

Holding up the number 1 upside down!

"This cake is NOT real, Mom!"

This is the most he smiled! Forget about showing teeth!

Family!

Going to the Park in January?!

It was 55 degrees here today! That is unheard of in Boston! It has been a pretty mild winter so far. Let's hope it stays that way. Because of the awesome weather, we went to the park. We walked, I jogged a bit, and Blake got to swing!















As you can see, he loves swinging!

Blake has also been playing with his high hair lately. Here he is sitting on it in a different kind of way up against the wall.






Update on the green onions: must cut lower to start!!! They were not growing at all, until I cut them basically at the bottom, and now, this is what I have:






The lighter green is we're I cut, and the darker green is the new growth (only 2 days worth). FYI: you are suppose to be able to do this with celery, too! Maybe I will try that soon...

Getting Better

Well, Blake is getting so much better at walking! He is getting braver and venturing out more than ever. Here he is standing all by himself!






He is doing decent with eating his solid foods still. He is MUCH better with sippy cups and straw cups now. He is just getting so big so fast!

He is always trying to steal our food and drinks, but then spits them out after trying them. Hopefully, he will start to like some of the food we eat soon. His favorite thing to steal is Mountain Dew. Now, OBVIOUSLY we do not let him have any. Here he is trying to drink out of an unopened can.






On an unrelated note, I have decided to try something from Pinterest. Re-growing green onions. Let's see how well it works!

New Developments

Well, we have made the switch to whole milk. Blake doesn't even seem to notice a difference! We were expecting a difficult transition, but we were wrong, thank goodness! We also have been trying more "normal" foods instead of baby foods. So far, the successful foods have been bananas, cheerios, cheese, and yogurt. He kind of tolerates toast with peanut butter, whole wheat English muffins with cream cheese, and ham, but not with any consistency. Other vegetables and fruits have been failures so far except in baby food forms. Hopefully, this will change in the near future!

Blake also decided that he was not taking a morning nap today. That meant that lunch came early, and he fell asleep eating it! He is napping now, which is pretty close to his normal afternoon nap time. Hopefully, if he switches over to one nap a day, then he will have a better nap and sleep better at night. We shall see. Here he is playing and dumping all of his toys out of his basket.

Baby to Toddler

Blake is trying all types of new things now that he is getting older. Today he walked all the way to the car holding Daddy's hand!











Next, he got his first kid's meal! We went to Moe's for lunch, and kids were free! Blake tried a cheese quesadilla meal. Here he is digging in.


Now, it may look like he is eating it up, but he really only ate like two bites.
Next, we headed to Babies R Us/Toys R Us and Wal-mart to get some baby proofing materials. Now that Blake is crawling everywhere (soon to be walking), we needed to upgrade our current baby proofing. We got a new TV stand to hide our electronics and new corner covers. Here is Blake enjoying himself at the stores and our new set-up!

A Few Things...

Well, first off... We got an iPad. Of course, I am blogging on it now... You know, I have to test it out! It is pretty amazing what you can do with technology nowadays. I recently got an iPhone, too, and I have to say that these products are by far better than any other devices I have previously had. Because of this (I never thought I would be saying this!), whenever our current PC messes up, and you know it will eventually, we will more than likely be getting a Mac! Specifically, a MacBook Pro. It will be a while before this happens, though. So, anyone out there with Mac tricks and secrets, send them my way! I have never had or hardly even used a Mac, so I will need as much help as possible when the switch happens!

 Second on my list, Blake has his first ear infection. I suppose this is pretty good since he is almost a year old, but it still is sad! He is much better now, thanks to a couple of days on Amoxicillin.

 Third, a year old! Can you believe it? I can't! In a few short weeks my baby will be a toddler! Eating more solid foods, almost walking, talking more... He is getting so big! I ordered some things for his first birthday and, of course, created a Pinterest board to gather everything I wanted to do for his first birthday party. My mom is coming in the week of Blake's birthday to celebrate with us, and I think Alex's family is coming in the following week (and we might also go skiing!). So, lucky Blake will get two first birthday parties! Many pictures to come to document all of these fun things in our future!

A Well-Traveled Christmas

Well, we packed up and drove to Indiana! It was quite a trip! We had a completely full car with all of our stuff and the dogs! We left after Alex got home from work on December 14th and drove straight through the night. This completely SUCKED for us, but Blake slept almost the entire way, which was easier overall. We stayed a week in Plainfield and a week in Schererville and headed back on December 30th. We visited with all of our families and saw many friends along the way! We played games, gave gifts, open gifts, took lots of pictures and videos, and even went to the Shedd Aquarium! It was a fun-filled, action-packed trip, and here are some pictures to prove it:

Blake and his Great-Grandpa

Blake and Great-Grandma

Blake and Cooper

Blake and Grandma

Blake and Great-Aunt Ann

Blake and Dani

Blake and Grandpa

Blake and Auntie Lauren

Blake playing piano with Aunt Becca!

Hanging with Meghan!

Visiting Dustin (I like Dwight's face in the background!)

Sharing a candy cane with Pam

Hoesman Visit!

Sitting with Ang eating a cell phone

Ice Skating

Watching the ice skaters with Daddy.

I've got mittens!

Chillin' with Grandma and Great-Great-Uncle George

Shedd Aquarium

I like turtles!

Beautiful!

Jellies are the best!