A Month of Milestones

April was a big month for Hadley! 

We started it out with a bang by going to UAB for her 6-month checkup. She is doing fantastic and growing and developing wonderfully.

Hadley had her first soccer class on the first Saturday morning in April. She is a total space cadet and is way more interested in watching the big kids play, but she enjoys it so that's all that really matters at this age I suppose.

Then came potty training! I knew I needed to have a clear calendar for about a week to really devote to the task. She picked it up SO quickly and has done amazingly well with it. She was truly ready for it. 

The next big step was transitioning to a big girl bed! She never once tried to get out of her crib (child LOVES her bed) so I really wasn't in a hurry to move her to a big girl bed. However, I checked the owner's manual and she was about 2 inches too tall to be in the crib. Ha...oops! We're doing a slower transition by putting up a bed rail that goes along the whole front of the crib. Then we will move to the guard rail that is meant to go on the front of the crib eventually. She transitioned with no problem and was super excited about it. 

Finally, we got her car seat turned around! She still had a while to go before she reached the weight limit for rear facing but her poor legs were squished. She never complained about it though, so I could have left her rear facing for a while longer, but we made it 2 years and 8 months rear facing so I'm pretty happy about that. 

Hadley has come so far in such a short amount of time. Her language is really coming along and she is speaking in longer and longer sentences. She also learned over half the letters in the alphabet in about 2 weeks! I am so thankful for her growth and development and I know it is possible only because of keeping her on a strict diet. It's hard but so worth it! 

Mantle Update and Small DIY Project

I wanted to add some more color to our mantle, especially with spring officially here (finally!). I found this box at an antique store and knew it would be the perfect size for what I had in mind. 

I'm patriotic and all, but this picture had to go!

The picture peeled off pretty easily and then I just sanded it down, stained it, and painted with chalk paint over that. I got the flowers at Hobby Lobby and put them in a styrofoam block inside the box. It turned out exactly how I had envisioned it and added a fun spring touch to the mantle. 

It's not perfect, but that's kind of the point! 

A Happy Low-Pro Easter!

The "candy-heavy" holidays can be difficult for those on special diets, including PKU. Thankfully I have found a few things that are low-pro that Hadley can enjoy. 

Delicious and very low in phe!

Also, here's a peek at her Easter basket! Bubbles, trains, Peeps, her very own flashlight, and a couple of other fun things.

We enjoyed doing some Easter crafts also. Hadley loves to paint!

She got some fun cards from friends and family!

We are blessed to have friends who take Hadley's PKU into consideration when planning events. We went to an Easter egg hunt and one of the moms wanted to make sure she had bought candy that was low-pro and put it in special Easter eggs that were kept in a special place so Hadley could find them. It truly means so much to me that other people care and want Hadley to be included. 

I hope everyone had a fun Easter!

Feeding Feathered Friends

Hadley LOVES looking out the windows and watching the birds. She also tries to chase them when we're outside and can't quite figure out why they always fly away. I decided to make our little friends a special treat. Don't worry, I did my research and made sure the food ingredients were safe for birds. I wasn't able to get a picture of any eating their treat, but they seemed to enjoy it! 

You'll need a couple of bowls, a spoon or spatula, peanut butter, oatmeal, and a pinecone.

Spread the peanut butter onto the pinecone.

Roll the pinecone in oatmeal. 

Ready to go outside!

You could hang it with string but I just decided to place it by our bird feeder. That way Hadley can look out the back window and see birds eating it.

Making a Looooove Cake...Yeah

Fellow watchers of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood will understand the title of this post. It's one of Hadley's favorites to sing. Here's a recap of our Valentine's Day fun. 

Fun painting craft

My pretty chalkboard

More painting fun

Yummy Valentine's cookies (low-pro of course)

Hadley's valentine from us

What Hadley Ate This Week: Dinner

Dinner is the one meal that I feel lacks as much variety, but Hadley doesn't seem to mind. I would like to mix it up a bit though, so hopefully she will like the new things I plan to try. Here is a look at the typical things she eats for dinner. She typically gets some sort of "dessert" after dinner but I forgot to take pictures of those. 

Low-protein pasta with spaghetti sauce, 1/2 slice of LP cheese, peas, peaces, 1/2 of a Gerber fruit and veggie pouch & metabolic formula

LP spaghetti, veggies, mangoes, cheese, fruit and veggie pouch & "milk"

Grilled cheese on LP bread, veggies, apples, fruit and veggie pouch & "milk"

LP hot dog, cheese, veggies, apples, some blueberries left over from lunch, fruit and veggie pouch & milk

Hadley's favorite! LP scrambled eggs, cheese, fruit & milk

January Favorites

I thought it might be fun to do a  "favorites" post. I like seeing other posts like this because I usually find a couple of new products I'd like to try. Plus it will be fun to look back on these posts and see some highlights from the month.

My "no special occasion" flowers from my husband. 

Blackberry pomegranate green tea. I'm not a huge tea fan but it has been so cold here lately and it's nice to have a warm drink. This is very fruity so I enjoy it.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. It's told from the perspective of a man with Asperger's Syndrome (who doesn't realize he has AS). Very interesting and funny read.

This is technically one of Hadley's favorites, but I like that she enjoys it so much. The Endless Alphabet app is 99 cents and it teaches letters and vocabulary.