Grow.Make.Brew.Eat

This was supposed to be a 6 month post, which turned into a 6 and a half month post and well..here we are. Augie was officially 7 months old on August 16th! The past 7+ months have completely flown by. It's obvious by my lack of posting that we have been keeping busy with other things....mainly this guy- We've had some long, sleepless nights, but overall everything is running very smoothly in the Eikstadt household. Augie is growing by leaps and bounds and is healthy as can be. We had his 6 month well child visit with his pediatrician, and he weighed in at 16lbs 4 oz. He's definitely growing! Here is what the little man is up to these days: Sitting up for long periods of time without support Rolling from front to back and back to front and then again and again and again... Army crawling and recently doing "push ups", planks and getting ready to crawl (I'm estimating within the next 2 weeks) Sleeping on his belly! (Ok not all the time, but ...

You're the best!    I can't wait to grow up and be just like you.   I love you!  Love,  Augie

Yesterday we packed up the car and headed to Madison to the Henry Vilas Zoo . We love this zoo...it's just the right size, is very well maintained and has great animals. Unfortunately every time Andy & I go to Madison the weather seems to be rainy or windy...just downright unfavorable. We were nervous over the weekend, but kept watching the weather which showed the temps in the low 70s and sun. Lucky for all of us, it turned out to be a fantastic day! The weather was perfect! This zoo stays busy all the time so we had a short 2 block walk through the surrounding neighborhood. When we arrived Augie was interested in EVERYTHING. We didn't expect much for his first time. We thought that maybe he'd be more interested in garbage cans and fence posts, but to our surprise he was amazed by certain animals, the trees and of course the people. Augie really liked the Buffalo. He also was very interested in the big fish.  We packed snacks, took our tim...

So I eat oatmeal most days of the week...sometimes for dinner too. On the weekends we like to change it up a bit and frankly, I love breakfast foods. I have not been eating eggs or other dairy for several weeks, so what's a girl to eat? Well, we can still make a pretty mean smoothie. Check out this Chocolate Cherry Banana Smoothie. The ingredients-in any amount you want:  Rice milk Frozen cherries Frozen banana Dark chocolate cocoa powder (milk/lactose free) And if you have never tried Van's Gluten free products-you should. I was surprised at their choices and both their waffles and french toast sticks are phenomenal...seriously, they are. Below is a pic of the french toast sticks with some toasted walnuts and coconut and a smearing of honey. YUM. Can't end a post without a pic of the dude, right? 

Oh this is a fun recipe we tried last week that I found on Pinterest . It's a  roasted grape, goat cheese and honey baked sweet potato . Who knew you could roast grapes? The disch was really good. We didn't scoop out the potato and mix in the goat cheese this time. Instead we just cut up the sweet potato and loaded everything on top.  Both Andy & I thought that adding some toasted walnuts to the mix might add a different dimension of flavor. We also agreed that this would make a great Fall meal. We will be having this one again and will try the "twice baked" style... In other news...Augie likes to "scream".  It makes us smile ;-)

Augie is just over four moths old now! Wow how time flies and how he continues to change. He's had a cold and a bit of a cough but that seems to be dissipating. He's such a little ball of fun. He almost mastered rolling from back to stomach. He still loves to grab things and is now reaching to hold items with both hands. Daycare continues to go well. Sleeping was improved for a while, but with his cold and with his four month shots, our/his "schedule" got all discombobulated. We are still trying to get back to longer sleep times at night. Overall the little man is happy, which makes us happy too! Our food adventures continue. I have pretty much cut out eggs now and am eating as little processed foods as possible since I have no clue what chemical ingredients are in things (even though there are ingredient lists on foods there are still those phantom ingredients that might not be listed). I've been reading more about the Paleo movement (eating like the cavemen u...

Over the past several weeks I've changed my diet drastically. The wee one is a gassy little man and as I have adjusted my diet, I've noticed things have changed for the better. There is a lot of information floating around about eliminating certain foods from your diet which can irritate babies digestive systems. The major players that can affect infants are dairy, wheat, soy, eggs, beans, broccoli, spinach, peanuts, and citrus fruits, among a few others. I have cut all of these out of my diet except for eggs. This means no cheese, greek yogurt and other good things that I love to eat....however I've noticed that with cutting these things out, not only is Augie's digestive system happy...so is mine. It's a win win. Of course I still miss eating a few of these things (specifically cheese, greek yo and peanut butter!), but I feel pretty good with the whole process.  So, with undertaking this adventure we have embarked on some new dishes in the kitchen. We are still...