Adventures in Turkey Burgers

In an attempt to make this blog more interesting to read (in the event that someday someone actually reads it besides my cousin - thanks Jenny!), I am going to try to include some posts about things aside from my darling little son. You know, so I can be one of those moms who does more than just talk about her kids? ;) haha. Remember, I said try.....

So...a couple weeks ago I decided to revisit the idea of making turkey burgers for dinner. This is something I had tried a few years ago, and dear hubby was not a fan, to say the least. If it's not a beef burger, he really didn't want to eat it. :( I am attempting to improve our diet and instill in my son a love of all different kinds of food (unlike myself growing up), so I thought I would give it a go again. Hubby was not so thrilled to see the ground turkey package sitting there on the counter, waiting to be formed into burgers. I had told him that morning that burgers were on the menu for dinner, so I guess he had gotten his hopes up? Poor guy. He would have to suffer through my attempts at making an edible turkey burger. I had some ideas of what I wanted to do to make it even healthier, but it would be purely experimental since I had no recipe to follow. My plan was to add some oats and to make a carrot puree and add some of that too. Unfortunately, I didn't plan enough ahead of time and I didn't have time to make the puree, so I just added some oats, some egg whites, and some yummy spices. The end result was not bad! The flavor was good, but I'm not going to lie, it was kind of dry, like stick to the roof of your mouth kind of dry. :( I guess I would have to call this a failed attempt. It just couldn't stack up to a real beef burger.

Fortunately, I have perseverance. Unfortunately for my hubby that meant he would be eating turkey burgers again. ;) I tried again this past week. I gathered all of my ingredients: my ground turkey, my egg whites, my oats, and some butternut squash that I had just finished roasting.

The week before I had made roasted butternut squash soup for the first time and it was fabulous!! The nutty flavor of the squash was excellent and so good that I decided I would make more and use the puree in the turkey burgers! So, forget the carrots, squash was my new secret ingredient to give those burgers the moistness that they were so desperately lacking.

I still did not use a recipe when I attempted to make the burgers again. Perhaps that is where I am going wrong. I added the squash to the food processor, pureeing until it was pretty much the consistency of baby food (which I have now decided I will be doing for baby number two - making lots of homemade baby food!!) I then added 6 heaping spoonfuls of it to the 1.25 pounds of ground turkey that I had. I threw in about 1/2 to 1 cup of oats and a generous splash of egg whites. I mixed it all up and also added some garlic salt, pepper, chili powder and ground red pepper for more flavor. I started to form my burgers and realized that the mixture was very moist, so moist that it was indeed difficult to form a shape. But, I did it. I probably should have added more oats at that point, in an attempt to decrease the moisture, but unfortunately, I didn't. Hindsight is always 20/20!

Hubby grilled the burgers and we topped them with a slice of sharp cheddar and a slice of fresh tomato on a whole wheat bun. Served on the side was Ethan and I's favorite, baked sweet potato fries. This time, lack of moistness was certainly not an issue. The burgers were super moist and as I feared, a little too moist. Too moist for my preference that is. Again, the flavor was good. Still not the same as eating a beef burger, don't get me wrong, but definitely something I could get used to eating if I had to. So, I guess I will be attempting the turkey burgers one more time. I am determined to perfect them! Next time, less puree, more oats. I'll let you know how it goes! Sorry for the lack of a finished product picture. I think we were super hungry and in our attempt to quickly scarf the burgers down, I forgot to take a pic!

Long Time, No Write

So I am very disappointed in myself. I haven't blogged since January!! Obviously much has changed in the past 10 months.

Ethan celebrated his 1st birthday in March. We had a small party at the house for mostly family. It was a nice weekend and we had a great time seeing everyone.

At the end of April we took a trip to Port St. Joe, FL with my parents, my sister and her husband and two children. We rented a house near Cape Sans Blas and it was gorgeous! Unfortunately the ocean was still a little cool, but luckily the heated pool at the house was great! We enjoyed time on the beach and time at the pool. Little man had a super sleepy week, but we made the most of the time he spent awake that week! The great part of the trip was that Cape Sans Blas is dog-friendly, so Daisy made the trip with us and discovered that she LOVED the beach!

Here's a video of Daisy and Ethan digging a hole together! :)

We had a very hot summer here in Georgia, which limited the time that we spent outside. In May and September, we made Ohio trips again this year to beat the heat and see the family! While we were there in September, we made a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo for Ethan's first zoo trip. He loved seeing the animals!

So this was just a small sampling of what we have been up to this year. I am going to try to get better about making more frequent postings again so that this can become more of a journal and a better aid for us in the future when trying to remember our journey!

A Day in the Life of Ethan

For the past few months, Ethan has finally settled into a routine. I am getting ready to change it up a bit next week and add a 3rd meal in, but here is what his day looks like right now:

9:00 - 9:15 am Wake up, nurse, get dressed

9:15 - 10:30 am Play with toys

10:30 - 10:45 am Eat breakfast (oatmeal or waffle and fruit)

10:45 - 11:30 am Take a walk with Daisy and mommy

11:30 am - 12:00 pm Play with toys or watch Sesame Street

12:00 - 2:00 pm Nurse and nap time

2:00 - 3:00 pm Play with toys

3:00 - 5:00 pm Nurse, then run errands with mommy (or play with toys if no errands)!

5:00 - 5:30 pm Nap time

5:30 - 6:00 pm Play with toys

6:00 - 7:30 pm Nurse, then play with toys

7:30 - 8:00 pm Eat dinner (rice or mixed grain cereal, veggie and banana)

8:00 - 9:00 pm Play with daddy!

9:00 pm Nurse, get jammies on, then bed time!

What a life! :) It is nice to have him on a routine. He is a good eater and sleeper and a generally good-natured boy, which I think is in part attributed to that fact that we stick to a good schedule. :)

Nine Months Old

Ethan turned nine months old already a couple weeks ago! I have been crazy busy with making Christmas cards the last few weeks, so I need to get caught up! He had an appointment with his pediatrician this month, so I know the measurements are correct this month. J I must have been wrong on the weight last month as little man weighed in at just 18 pounds, 1 ounce this month, which is down to the 10th to 25th percentile. He didn't grow at all, so he is still measuring up at 28.5 inches this month, which is down to the 50th to 75th percentile. He is in the 10th percentile for height to weight ratio. Head growth has gone up this time to 46.5 cm, which is up to the 75th to 90th percentile. We’re hoping that means his brain is getting really big, haha. J

New foods tried this month:

• Meat in a jar (be sure to check out the funny video of this one! haha)
• Real sweet potatoes and bananas
• Gerber Puffs (he is feeding them to himself! Yay!)
• Blueberry pancakes
• Pumpkin cookies
• A whole feast at Thanksgiving! Turkey, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry jello salad and bread!

It is truly amazing the amounts of food this boy can put away! He was able to eat an entire pancake, all by himself, followed up by an entire banana! I have started making some foods for him, like baking sweet potatoes and freezing individual containers for him to eat, and the pancakes, of course. I also made a bunch of pumpkin cookies for Thanksgiving, that he thoroughly enjoyed! We want him to work on starting feeding himself, so we started Puffs, which he quickly figured out how to get into his own mouth! J

We did have a moment of insanity where we, for some reason, felt that mashed up meat in a jar would be a good idea. Boy, were we wrong! As you can see in the video, Ethan felt gagging and throwing it back up were appropriate things to do when given this disgusting food, haha. J I feel bad that we found humor in this event, but you have to admit it is a little funny! J

Being able to eat real food now, Thanksgiving was an especially yummy time for Ethan. He had a whole feast by himself, even showing up all of the other kids with how much he could eat! haha

New accomplishments this month:

• First steps by himself (on December 2nd, just before turning 9 months)
• When food is coming at his mouth, he spits out the pacifier – he is ready to eat! haha
• His first cold L (we came back from Thanksgiving and had managed to get colds while we were there)

We are STILL waiting for those highly anticipated first words! It definitely sounded like he said “mama” at his doctor’s appointment, but he hasn’t said it again, so we think it may be a fluke. L

Since last month he hasn’t gotten any more teeth. He doesn’t appear to be having any close to coming in, either.

He is working on his balance and doing more walking, because for now, he has just taken a few wobbly steps. But it is promising!

Below is a pic of Ethan at nine months, once again wearing a 12-month onesie. Of course he is still my little cutie pie with his funny faces! J He is such a ham!!

Eight Months Old

Ethan turned eight months old a couple weeks ago. I can’t seem to keep up here! Since last month, the little man gained over a pound to weigh in at around 18.5 lbs, which is still in the 25th percentile. He also grew about a half of an inch to measure up at 28.5 inches this month, which is down to the 75th percentile. He is up to the 25th percentile for height to weight ratio. Head growth is again staying right on target at 45 cm, dead on the 50th percentile again.

New foods tried this month:

• Nada

Nothing exciting going on in the food department right now. Just sticking with the routine of oatmeal and a fruit for breakfast and rice or mixed grain cereal and a veggie for dinner.

New accomplishments this month:

• First playdate with his new buddy, Aiden, on Oct. 8th
• First doctor’s visit on Oct. 13th (for something besides a well checkup)
• Climbed the stairs on Oct. 26th
• Saying “ba, ba, ba”
• Appearance of second tooth

So I found another mom in a nearby town with a son that is Ethan’s age. We have a lot in common (they also recently moved to GA) and we are looking forward to getting out of the house for playdates with them now! J

Ethan started what I thought was wheezing one day when he got excited or upset and after a few days of it, I began to worry, as most new mothers do, and set up an appointment to see his doctor. Turns out she thinks he had laryngomalacia, which is basically just swelling around the larynx, or the voicebox. It is apparently common in infants and they usually grow out of it. She gave him a steroid to use for three days and this appeared to get rid of it! So, I can’t complain seeing as this is the only problem he has had in all of his eight months, especially with all the illness going around right now!

He also has started to test his limits, haha! We were downstairs one day and he normally just crawls around, usually trying to get into Daisy’s food, but on this particular day, he began to climb the stairs! He was up to the third one before I caught him! He is a fast little booger! J

We are still waiting for those highly anticipated first words! Hoping it will be anytime now, but so far, he is just sticking to “ba, ba, ba.” Not sure that means anything or not. J You can tell he is trying to mimic what we are doing with our mouths to form a word, but he just doesn’t quite have it yet!

Ethan now has two teeth in. It has been a hard battle. It took awhile to cut the second one and we went for a whole month of Ethan waking at night. Hoping to break this habit soon!

Ethan celebrated his first Halloween. He dressed up as a dinosaur to match his big sister, Daisy. J They were super cute together, even though the day itself was kind of a bust. It was rainy, so the costume contests downtown on the square were cancelled and we didn’t get any trick-or-treaters at the house either! L Oh well. They still looked good!

Below is a pic of Ethan at eight months, once again wearing a 12-month onesie. Still my little cutie pie with his funny faces! J

Seven Months Old

Ethan turned seven months old a little over a week ago. I am still kind of behind here! Since last month, the skinny little guy is still keeping his slim figure, and has gained only about half of a pound to weigh in at around 17 lbs, which is down to the 25th percentile. He also grew just a quarter of an inch to measure up at 28 inches this month, which is down to the 75th-90th percentile. He is still only in the 3rd-10th percentile for height to weight ratio. Head growth is again staying right on target at a little over 44 cm, dead on the 50th percentile again.

New foods tried this month:

• Bananas
• Peaches
• Pears
• Prunes
• Mixed grain cereal
• Many Stage 2 foods (with the exception of anything containing carrots or squash)

The introduction of all of these foods went well as it usually does. I stated last time that I thought he had a food allergy to carrots and squash. I should have stated that he probably has an intolerance to them, not an allergy. The reaction is not severe enough to qualify as an allergy at this point. Nonetheless, we are still avoiding them! He appears to like the addition of fruits to his diet. We started doing oatmeal and a fruit for breakfast/lunch and rice or mixed grain cereal and a veggie for dinner. I had added a 3rd meal in at one point, but this decreased his nursing too much, so I have since deleted that meal to encourage him to nurse better. We want to keep it up for at least a year to be sure he gets the best nutrition and immunities possible! He is still my good little eater and it’s so cute to watch him eat. He’s like a baby bird, sitting there, mouth wide open, waiting for momma to shovel the food in! I need to get a video. J

New accomplishments this month:

• He placed 2nd in a baby crawling contest held at the Fredericktown Tomato Show at the beginning of September
• Sits up by himself all the time now
• Pulls himself up on stationary objects, like the couches or coffee table
• Stands unassisted briefly (before face planting, haha)
• Got his first tooth on Sept. 21st (it has since broke the surface completely and is growing in!)
• Started crawling correctly on Sept. 27th
• Started walking around holding onto the furniture on Oct. 1st

So, we don’t want to brag, but Ethan was actually too young to enter the crawling contest. It was supposed to be for 7 to 8 month-olds (the division he was in), but they let him enter at just over 6 months. And he did great! Granted he did his inch worm routine (see the video below), it worked and he crossed the line second! He was definitely more interested in the other kids and parents than his momma, haha, oh well!

We are definitely glad that we have baby-proofed the house now. The little man is all over the place and in record time! He has figured out how to stand up on objects, but the getting down part is not so easy, so he usually just lets himself fall over, which usually results in a nice face plant to the ground. It’s pretty funny, I must admit, but luckily it doesn’t bother him! haha

So we have now experienced the joys of teething. I must admit, I think he handled this first one pretty well and with a better disposition than most. I guess we are lucky to have such a good-natured (most of the time) child! Someone upstairs is looking out for me! J

Below is a pic of Ethan at seven months, once again wearing a 12-month onesie. This is still not an easy task by any means, even with two of us trying to get a pic of him! I have decided he is just an ornery booger, haha. J

Getting Big so Fast!

So there are many exciting things happening in Ethan's life these past couple of weeks. Just a couple weeks ago, he started sitting up with no problems by himself, on a regular basis, at just 6 months. Then, just a week later, he started pulling himself up to standing on objects around the house (besides me). :) As you can see by the video below, he is really good at standing up, but is unsure what to do after that, haha. He usually just stands there for awhile, then falls down. Oh well, he's still young!

Also on Monday, he finally had a tooth break through!! We have been thinking for months that it was going to happen any day, and now that day has finally come, and I am wishing it hadn't! haha....He has definitely been cranky and has started waking at night because of it too, I think. Just hoping they come in quick and we get through this without too much pain (me and him both!) haha

Six Months Old!

Ethan turned six months old two weeks ago. I am getting behind here! I am going to try to keep up better and also post more often! Since last month, the skinny little guy is still keeping his slim figure (haha), and has gained only a half-pound to weigh in at 16 lbs, 6 ozs, which is down to the 25th-5oth percentile again. He grew 3/4 of an inch to measure up at 27.75 inches this month, which is still in the 90th percentile. He is still only in the 3rd-10th percentile for height to weight ratio. Head growth is again staying right on target at 44 cm, dead on the 50th percentile again. He had another round of vaccines at his 6-month checkup along with his flu shot for the season. He did SOOO great for getting 4 shots! He is mommy's brave little boy already! :) Next checkup due in December, at 9 months.

New foods tried this month:

• Squash
• Carrots
• Sweet potatoes
• Applesauce

The introduction of all of these foods went well, however, we have discovered that he probably has an allergy to carrots and possibly squash as well. He likes to puke them back up. :) So….we are just going to go ahead and leave those out from now on! He eats the green ones, so we’re doing ok, haha.

New accomplishments this month:

• Sitting up on the floor (usually leaning to one side though, supporting himself with one hand)
• Pulling himself up from his belly to a standing position using only my hands (he does all the work, I just help him balance)
• Responding to “no” and “Ethan” (he acknowledges that he shouldn’t be getting into something by stopping what he’s doing and looking at me, grinning a little ornery grin, then going right back to it! hahaha – he’s a booger!)

Below is a pic of Ethan at six months, once again wearing a 12-month onesie. So this is getting much harder, as every time I set the boy down, he immediately flips over and starts crawling away from me! :) So, I take what I can get! This month he is cracking himself up! Probably because he is proud of getting away from his mama! haha….Is it possible that he is getting cuter by the day? ;)

Pic of the Week Contest

So I enter these contests on thebump.com/facebook with pics of little Ethan, and this week we made runners-up!! Yay! Check it out here!! The contest was for pics of babies with their pets, so I sent in a pic of Ethan at 2 wks old with his big sis, Daisy, laying on our bed cuddling! :) Too cute!

Five Months Old!

Ethan turned five months old last week. Where does the time go?!? Since last month, the skinny little guy is finally packing on some pounds, and has gained a pound and a half to weigh in right at 16 lbs, which is right on the 50th percentile, making him normal (if you can call someone in our family that, haha). His height growth has slowed, just growing a 1/2 inch to measure up at 27 inches this month, which is still in the 90th percentile. He is still only in the 3rd-10th percentile for height to weight ratio, but that number is increasing! Head growth is staying right on target at 43 cm, dead on the 50th percentile again.

New foods tried this month:

• Green beans
• Oatmeal cereal
• Sweet peas

The green beans was pretty much a disaster. He behaved as though we were torturing him in some way, which isn't completely surprising considering his mommy's hatred of all things green when she was little. The oatmeal cereal went very well (just like the rice), which we figured it would based on his love of rice cereal. The sweet peas went surprisingly well after the teary fits that the beans caused! Next up, another try at the beans, then on to carrots!

New accomplishments this month:

• Sitting up forward in the high chair to eat (he is very eager and gets his little mouth open wide like a baby bird in anticipation - he knows what is coming as soon as he gets put in the chair!)
• "Scootching" all over the floor and crib (and starting to get into mommy and daddy's things! I think it may be time to get that baby gate installed at the top of the stairs!)
• Getting up on hands and knees (but no forward movement with this, yet)
• Putting the pacifier back in himself (and he always puts it in upside down, so hopefully that means he won't be OCD like his mommy! :) haha)
• Sleeping on his tummy most of the time now
• Laughing - and not just little giggles, actual hardy laughing (he's ticklish!)

Below is a pic of Ethan at five months, once again wearing a 12-month onesie. I still don't see a big change from the last month (which being around him 24/7, I guess I probably won't notice any!), but at least I caught a great smile this month! :)