Woo I've been so behind with Tiny Dapper Fox lately, friends, I'm so sorry! I've been completely MIA and I don't really have any one major excuse except maybe I've just really been trying to focus on myself and my family? I don't know, this little space just got pushed off to the side a bit, but I'm back now and ready for a happy fall season with you all! A couple of weeks ago we celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary and I meant to get this post up on our anniversary, Sept. 26th, but it just didn't happen. So here we are today!

Happy 3 magical years to us. I wouldn't want to do this life with anyone but you, Caleb. Our relationship looks a little bit different these days but I think it's so beautiful how much it's grown. We depend on each other more than ever these days and we've become even more of a team than we were before...if that's even possible. I truly love you more than I ever have before. Watching you become a father this past year has been incredible. Every time I watch you with Kai, my heart literally flutters. I still get so excited and get butterflies in my stomach when we come home from work and I get to see you. It's been 3 years but I still feel like I'm living in a fairy tale. You are my Prince Charming and I will love you forever and 3 days.

Cheers to year 3 and many many more!

Hey friends! Sorry I've been MIA this last week...it's been a busy one. I also won't be hosting a Tiny Talk this week, sorry! I just didn't get around to putting a great post and chat together this weekend and I didn't want to half ass it, so let's look forward to a great one next week. I've decided to move these talks to Monday nights at 7 PM CST, too. Weekends are really unpredictable for us and when we aren't busy adventuring or doing house projects, I honestly just want to relax. In my first Tiny Talk I talked a little bit about how I enjoy shutting down electronics on Sundays and hopping on to Instagram Live and doing a blog post kind of defeats that purpose! So...Monday nights it is!

Anyways...Kai Bear is 8 months old today! I can't believe I have an 8 month old. He's just growing up so fast! Here's our monthly round up of all fun Little Kai Bear things...

Weight: 18.4 lbs
Height: 27 in

You are an amazing eater, Kai! We haven't found a food you don't like yet! Are you ready to hear all the fruits and veggies you've had so far!? Ok here we go...sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, pumpkin, butternut squash, and zucchini for veggies. For fruits, banana, peaches, pears, apples, figs, and avocados! Your favorites right now are peas and figs. I absolutely love this about you. You like the unusual and it makes me so happy that you're not proving to be a picky eater. We're still going strong with nursing, too. It warms my heart that we can still share that special time and continue to bond in this way.

We had some more fun adventures this month, too! We had our final brunch at Bistrot Zinc, which was so bittersweet. We will truly miss that place and always cherish our memories there...it was your first brunch spot after all! I took an extra long weekend over Labor Day weekend and you and I had a zoo day! We explored all around the Brookfield Zoo together. Your favorite animal this time was the snow leopard. We also had a little watch party to cheer on our Iowa State Cyclones when they played Iowa! Unfortunately, we didn't win this year, but it was still a great game. How cool is it that it was the first ISU game you got to watch!? Then just a few days ago we took you to your second Cubs game. However, this time it wasn't at Wrigley Field...it was at Guaranteed Rate Field, which is where the White Sox play! It was so cool to experience a game with you at another stadium. Dad and I have a travel bucket list that includes going to see the Cubs play at every baseball stadium in the MLB with you...so now we can check Guaranteed Rate off our list! We also went apple picking a couple of days ago up at Apple Holler and picked your first apples right off the tree. You tried them for the first time yesterday and loved them so much.

You're a pro at crawling now, bud. You've got speed and you use your legs like a champ. You've started pulling yourself up on to your knees, too. A couple times you've even used my hands to help you stand up! You love to wave and "tell stories." You laugh all the time and love chasing Wrigley. My favorite thing you do right now is when we put your Mickey down on the floor and tell you to go get him, you speed crawl and squeal towards him. Then when you get to him you give him a giant hug and suck on his nose. It's the cutest thing! You also get so happy when I come home from work and start crawling towards me to say hi! It's the best welcome home I could possibly imagine.

You got your first hair cut a couple weekends ago, too! You were getting a little shaggy on the sides so our hair stylist, Brittany, trimmed you up a bit. Those teeth still aren't in yet, but that's ok because I love your gummy smile so much. You're still sleeping like a champ, too.. You've become quite the napper! You decided you wanted a longer afternoon nap but you've mostly gotten rid of your pre-dinner catnap. You're still sleeping a solid 10 hours at night, too.

It still feels like you were just born yesterday but at the same time I can't imagine life without you. You are truly the light of my life and my littlest love. So excited for what this next month holds, Kai. I love you to the moon and back, baby boy!

Happy Monday everyone! Time to get back to the weekly grind but hopefully you all had a great weekend. We had a fun and full one. On Friday night we went to the Freshly Picked Warehouse Sale here in Chicago! They're taking their warehouse sale on the road right now and luckily Chicago was one of the stops! We got Kai a bunch of new shoes since believe it or not...he is going to start walking soon! Where has the time gone!? However, you can check out the warehouse sale schedule and see if they'll be near you soon, too! On Saturday, I had lunch with a couple of my girlfriends at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!) and then we hosted our annual fantasy football draft. It was such a fun night and I'm feeling pretty good about my team this year! Then yesterday was a really bittersweet day for us...our favorite restaurant in Chicago closed it's doors yesterday afternoon. We've been brunching at Bistrot Zinc for 5 years now and we had our final brunch there yesterday morning. We've had a lot of amazing memories there, including our wedding brunch! It was hard to walk out for the last time but we'll savor the memories and food forever!

So last Friday, Kai Bear turned 7 months old! I can't believe he's been my son for 7 months. I swear I am the luckiest mama alive to have him. I still can't believe he's mine sometimes! Here's our little monthly Kai Bear update...

Weight: 18 lbs
Height: 26 in

I feel like I can't call you my little baby anymore, Kai! You're getting so big and independent! We had a pretty big month this last month. You started eating solid foods! We started you out with oatmeal/rice cereal and then our first "real" food was sweet potatoes! You absolutely love them! They are hands down you're favorite food...just like your mama! So far you've also had peas, peaches, avocados, and carrots. You've really liked all of them but of the bunch, peas are probably you're second favorite. Surprisingly peaches seem to be your least favorite but they grow on you as you eat more of them. You're back to sleeping like a champ and your naps have been awesome, too. Like I said...you're really turning in to a "big" boy!

We had another month full of adventures, little one! We went peach picking and got so many peaches right off the tree! We ended up using them to make your very first batch of peaches, which I think is just so special. We also went to the carnival at Gurnee Days and the Renaissance Faire. You loved walking around and taking in all the lights and decorations and we had so much fun at both. We also went to the Air and Water Show and you had a blast watching all the planes and looking out at the lake. We've kept up our tradition of going to the farmer's market every week and it means so much to me to have that weekly little adventure with you.

So some more big news from this last month is you've started crawling! I guess it's more of dragging yourself forward but nonetheless, you're moving big time, bud! At first you could only go backwards and would get so confused why you were getting further away from the thing you wanted. It was pretty funny. You also got really good at going in circles, too. You like to do planks and get up on your knees and rock like you're about to go full speed ahead but then you plop back down and start dragging yourself, ha! Soon you'll be zooming around the house though and we'll be in big trouble!

You are truly incredible, Kai. You brighten every room you're in and know how to make anyone smile. You are the biggest blessing of our lives and I don't know how it's possible, but I love you more and more each day.

Starting solids with our babies is such a big milestone. It's exciting but a bit overwhelming at the same time. When we first started we had so many questions and it felt a little bit like we were walking in the dark. As first time parents we reached out for a lot of help and advice on starting solids, the first being with our pediatrician and then using Babywise II. Today, I'm going to take you through the steps we did to get Kai to the point he is at now which is solids 3 times a day with a variety of cereal, vegetables, and fruits!

We chose to wait until the 6 month mark based on advice we received from our pediatrician. She gave us the go ahead if we wanted to start at 4 months but made some good points on waiting until 6 months and they were that there are correlations between childhood obesity and starting solids prior to 6 months, an increased risk of allergic reactions due to underdeveloped digestive system, and eating 32-36 oz a day is normal for a 4 to 5 month old. So while we were so excited to start trying out solids with him, we took our doctor's advice and waited. We do have a family history of obesity so this was the biggest factor for us. We know that correlation is just that, correlation and not cause and effect, but we also want to be starting out on the right foot with everything when it comes to Kai.

However, I do want to point out that all babies and families are different! It might be very beneficial to start your baby out on solids prior to 6 months and here are some clear cut signs that baby is ready:
1. Has good head control
2. Can sit up with assistance (in a high chair)
3. Shows interest in food you are eating
​4. Doesn't seem satisfied with having 36 oz of milk per day

Once again, with advice from our pediatrician as well as Babywise II, it was suggested we start with cereal. We originally chose to start with oatmeal but after a few days ended up switching to rice cereal. Rice cereal is slightly easier to digest compared to oatmeal, so if you have any concerns with digestive problems or allergies, rice cereal is the way to go. However, if you have concerns with nutritional content and constipation, oatmeal is the way to go. Either way, start with one of the two and offer a little bit every day as cereal is a good source of iron. Babies who are 6+ months old require iron in their diets as it is important for good brain development. Iron is not needed in a babies diet prior to 6 months though unless otherwise advised by your doctor.

We started out with 1 Tbps of cereal with 2 Tbps of breast milk to make it on the first day at breakfast. Kai loved it! On day 2, we did 2 Tbps, day 3 we did 3 Tbps, and day 4 we did 4 Tbps. At that point since we didn't see any reactions, we moved on. It is important to only try out ONE kind of food at a time for 3-4 days. This way, if your baby shows any signs of a reaction you know the cause of the reaction. If you add too much in at once, you'll be left guessing which food it is that is causing the reaction. After Kai was established with eating cereal we switched to making it with formula.

After the 4 day trial of cereal at breakfast time, we moved to doing 3 Tbsp of cereal 3 times a day. We knew we wanted to do the solid feedings at breakfast, lunch, and dinner time but Kai's old schedule didn't completely accommodate these times. Also, he stayed fuller longer thanks to starting solids so we knew it was time to extend out his feelings by a little bit to allow him time to digest everything and take a full feeding at each feeding. We moved from a 3.5 hour schedule to a 4 hour schedule. This is where Babywise II really helped and you can read all about our new schedule in this post.

A quick run down of our current schedule with solids is feedings at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 6pm, and 8pm. Kai receives milk first at all feedings and solids after at the 7am, 11am, and 6pm feedings. It's important to offer milk first because milk should still be baby's primary source of food right now. They still need at least 20 oz per day.

It's a good idea to introduce vegetables after cereal instead of fruits. Fruits are a lot sweeter than veggies and babies tend to really love fruits over veggies. So if you give them a taste of veggies first and get them use to a couple of them, then they are less likely to reject them because they haven't dived in to the world of fruits yet. We started out with 1 Tbps of sweet potatoes with 2 Tbsp of cereal at his 7am feeding on day 1 of veggies. It's best to introduce any new foods at the first feeding of the day so that you can watch baby all day long for any allergic reactions. As long as all goes well on the first day then on day 2 try 2 Tbsp and on day 3 try them at whatever meals you plan on offering veggies at. On day 2, we moved the sweet potatoes to the 11am feeding since Kai didn't have a reaction on day 1 and on day 3 we gave him sweet potatoes at the 11am feeding and 6pm feeding. After 3 days of no reaction, we were confident he was good with sweet potatoes and moved on to peas. We followed the same method for peas.

Great veggies to try with 4 to 6 month olds are:

• Sweet potatoes
• Peas
• Carrots
• Butternut Squash

After two different vegetables we introduced fruits. We chose to start with peaches. On day 1, we gave Kai 1 Tbsp of peaches with oatmeal at breakfast. We chose not to mix the peaches in to the oatmeal because we wanted him to taste them by themselves. On day 2 though, we did mix them in as well as offered them at lunch. On day 3, we offered them at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After those 3 days, we tried out avocado with the same method.

Great fruits to try with 4 to 6 month olds are:

• Peaches
• Avocado
• Pears
• Applesauce
• Bananas
• Apricots

There are some major no-nos in terms of what not to give to a baby because they can be harmful to them and they are as follows:

• Honey
• Sugar
• Nuts
• Cow's milk
• Raw vegetables
• Egg whites
• Fruit juices
• Citrus fruits (organes, lemons, tomatoes)
• Berries

Once cereal, veggies, and fruits have all been successfully offered we had a complete menu for Kai. His daily menu looks like this:

Breakfast

• Oatmeal
• Fruit

Lunch

• Vegetable
• Fruit

Dinner

• Rice cereal
• Vegetable
• Fruit

We try our best to have a colorful plate for Kai. So far he's had sweet potatoes, peas, peaches, avocados, and carrots. We slowly just keep introducing new foods with the 3 day method. It's been going so well and Kai is loving trying everything! His favorite by far is sweet potatoes...he definitely takes after his mama! He has a combination of the menu above to total out to 3 Tbsp at each meal. So for example at breakfast and lunch he has 1.5 Tbsp of each thing and at dinner he has 1 Tbsp of each thing.

We make all of our own baby food and I'll be sharing how we prepare each of the food we give to Kai soon! Making your own baby food is so easy, healthy, and cost effective. If you have any questions about introducing solids and the kinds of foods we give to Kai please leave me a comment below!

What was your babies first solids? Or if you haven't tried yet, what do you think you want to start with after cereal? Share with me in the comments below!

Please remember to always check with your pediatrician if you have serious questions or concerns regarding your little ones. I do not claim to offer medical advice with my motherhood posts and only offer the advice based on what works for our family.

Kai Bear started solids at his 6 month mark, woohoo! With that though, it brought on a whole new set of challenges with his schedule. He still nurses or has a bottle first at each feeding and then three times a day after his milk he eats some solids. Because if this his feedings are a lot longer and he stays fuller longer. We want to make sure he is still getting the proper amount of milk throughout the day (at least 20 oz), so we thought it would be best to extend out his feeding times a little bit to make sure he is ready for a full meal at each feeding. We've been on this schedule for a couple weeks now and it's going really well! Here's his updated schedule:

7:00am - Feed (milk + oatmeal + fruit)
9:30am - Nap
11:00am - Feed (milk + veggies + fruit)
1:30pm - Nap
3:00pm - Feed (milk)
5:00pm - Optional catnap
6:00pm - Feed (milk + cereal + veggies + fruit)
8:00pm - Feed (milk)
8:30pm - Bedtime

So if you compare this schedule to his last schedule which started at 16 weeks, you can see that we've extended his meals times out to be 4 hours apart earlier in the day and a little closer together later in the day to fill up for sleeping all night. His meal times have fallen nicely in to normal meal times with us now, too, so we're able to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together now! Eventually fruits will be added in at all three meals. He takes two good hour and a half naps and was taking a catnap between 5 and 6pm. However, he has slowly started to decrease the time of that nap and be fine without an hour long nap. So, we're letting him decide on that one. Some days he might need it, some days he might not, just like us! Between his meals and naps he of course plays! We also pushed his bedtime out by 30 min to allow for him to digest his dinner before giving him more milk before bed. Here are some FAQs we've been getting in regards to Kai starting solids:

What was Kai's schedule before?
Kai use to eat at 7am, 10:30am, 2pm, 5pm, and 7:30pm and nap at 9am, 12:30pm, and 4pm. So as you can see, we moved from 3.5 hrs to 4 hrs for the majority of the day. You can see our first schedule post here for what his schedules were like prior to 16 weeks.

What kinds of solids have you given Kai?
We started out with oatmeal mixed with breast milk or formula but then Kai had a fluke stomach virus and we switched over to rice cereal to be on the safe side that it wasn't an allergic reaction. After that we gave him sweet potatoes and then peas. We've reintroduced oatmeal again and just started giving him peaches a couple days ago. I'll be doing a whole blog post with more in depth information on how we started solids and the route we went really soon!

Is Kai still sleeping through the night?
Yes, he is...thank goodness! We had a short period of time where he was regressing during month 5. It was probably a combo of leap 5, 6 month growth spurt, stomach virus, diaper rash, and being off schedule. He's never had issues being off schedule for short periods of time, but July was a hard month for us and he was REALLY off for about a week. We really paid for it at night! After we started him on solids though and switched over to this current schedule he's gone back to sleeping through the night.

Are you still breastfeeding?
Yes, I am. We plan on continuing until he is a year old. He still prefers nursing over a bottle and when he is given a bottle he much prefers breast milk to formula, so onwards we go! While it's very demanding and hard sometimes, I still really love it, too. He's gotten much faster at nursing and I'm finally able to keep up with him since his demand has decreased a bit thanks to starting solids. We aren't living bottle to bottle anymore and he's barely had formula since we've started solids. We do use formula to make his cereal and oatmeal though and if we're out of pumped breast milk then he will get formula instead.
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If you have any other questions please leave me a comment below and I'll be sure to include them in my next baby schedule post!