Hollis meets his Pennsyvania family

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What an incredible journey!  Hollis and I flew across the country and spent three weeks with our family.  Uncle Frankie and Aunt Amanda picked us up from the airport.  We went straight to Gpa Franks and spent the afternoon planning our surprise attack and eating Philly Cheesesteaks and drinking only the finest birch beer.   
 

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When Frank got home from work, he wasn't surprised and rather he surprised us!

Hollis warmed up to his family immediately, he was tossed from Gpa to Uncle, from Uncle to Aunt.  From Aunt to Grammie, and back around. Next stop Mimi and Pappy Carl's

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At Mimi's it was a whole lot of watermelon, bathtime and singing stuff animals. 

Every morning Mimi would wake up put you in the high chair and stuff you full of your favorite foods.  It was on this trip and at this time that your diet became much more than the usual whole fruits and veggies with rice cereal.   On this trip you ate everything, from hamburger to chicken wings.  Tasty cakes to birthday cakes.

Next stop Aunt Brenda and Uncle Garys.  They live just a couple miles from where they grew up, where Mimi grew up and where I too grew up.  They are trying to sell there house and move to the same street that I spent most of my childhood.  The town is called Seizholtsville, and it is small rural town, relatively unchanged since I had last visited.  Stone houses, red barns and decidious trees mark the hilly skyline, and the roads are smooth and windy.  

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We had a couple of visits with my dear friend from school, Becky.  We have been close friends since the 8th grade when my family moved from Kutztown to Emmaus.  I spent a good amount of time going over to Becky's house when I was young, sitting on beds talking and of course., getting recipes from her mother.  She has two kids.  Maya (3) and Jaden (6).
 

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It wasn't long before we made our way over to Huffs Church and Landis Store, near Seizholtzville. This is the area where my Dad grew up and his mom and dad still live there, so do many of his uncles and aunts and his Grandmother, your Great Great Grandmother Helen.  She is 90 years old and an incredible woman.  She made a big feast to celebrate your visit.

We had PA Dutch chicken, mash potatoes, quinoa salad and oh my the yummies cheese cake.  You Gr Gr Grammie is great cook!  

This was an  especially great visit because we were lucky enough to catch Aunt Lorene, from Tahoe!  She was visiting too.

We had a great visit talking over great food.  Everyone loved holding you!

We were busy on this trip Hollis.  Let me tell you everyday we were traveling around.  It was so much fun.  You got to meet people for the first time ever and it had been almost 7 years since I had last seen most of my family.

One day while traveling through Seizholtzville we got to visit Uncle Danny.  That is the son of your namesake Leon, after my Pappy Arthur Leon Litschke, who died while you were in utero. Fun Fact:  He has his Pappy's namesake for his middle name: Foster.

Kelli and Hollis

CLAP CLAP CLAP

Hollis just reached a milestone last night.  He had just discovered clapping, and last night while sharing a big feast with Joelene, he clapped on command without further instruction, and the dinner table was impressed.  Hollis was surely impressed with himself.  He went on to eat a hefty plate of food: chicken, turnip green, avocado and applesauce! 

This morning after he made the biggest baby poop I had ever seen, we cleaned up and played on the floor together.  I said "clap, clap, clap" and he grabbed my hands with each of his and made my hands clap.  My little teacher. 

My two babies...

Aunt Kelli has moved to town!  It has been almost 3 weeks and I already am wondering how I did it with out her.  Raising Hollis reminds me of the times I spent as an 8 and 9 year old with baby Kelli.  I remember her falling asleep on my chest while I watched cartoons on Mom's leather couch.  I remember feeding her airplane scoops of breakfast cereal.  I feel so lucky to share this time in Hollis life with her. 

She is great with Hollis, he truly loves her.  She does all the "cool aunt" things to balance out this uptight, some what over protective mom.  When I am not looking she throws the binky in his mouth, turns on the tv and lets him play with her cell phone.

Mommy I am moving!

The last month has been incredibly busy!  Hollis is a very independent explorer.  As soon as I put him down he is another room looking for the most dangerous furniture to climb or perhaps, disgusting thing to put in his mouth.  From cords to dusty hair cutting chairs this kids is climbing and gumming everything!

I have really cut back on any non-mom responsibilities yet I feel like I feel busier.  I am always spotting Hollis on a heroic climb or chasing him down before he touches a heater. I
d like to trust that he'd make the right decision, but he is only 8 months old.

just checking

Hollis is growing up so fast... tomorrow he will be 7 months. Totally incredible.  He just fell asleep in my arms, an insisted that he be held and rocked.  This is new for him, he usually falls asleep "to the boob" by 7 pm every night, unless the little man is teething.   Tonight when I was trying to put him down, he just kept laughing and talking.  Every time I lied him down, he would roll over and try to suck on my face or head.  He was being so silly.  Then I picked him up and rocked him, he fell right asleep.  I put him down on the bed after a few minutes and he woke right up immediately!.  So I tried again, this time I swear I could see him peeking from under the eyelid, making sure that we were up and swaying, and not fake swaying from the bed.  When I finally got him to sleep this time I kept him in my arms as we got to the bed, and now he is sleeping on my lap.

It has been a rough 2+ weeks friends.  Brother has had walking pneumonia, Dad has had the flu and is now recovering from pneumonia and Hollis has been teething and sick, me just sick and tired.  Really tired.  Uncle Sean arrived from PA last week and it has been great having family in town.  Aunt Kelli should be here in one week.  Holy smokes, dreams are coming true for us.

The food fight

There was no real fight, really.  We discussed when to start feeding Hollis and although I wasn't sure if he was mimicking or trying to show signs of hunger, I decide to feed him just before 6 months anyhow.  Now 2 weeks past he 6 month birthday he is just showing some signs of digesting the food and still very little interest in eating grown up food, aside from bananas, avocados and winter squash.  Its funny those are probably my favorites too out of all that we tried, which confirms the whole breast milk dietary preference conditioning theory for me.

I started out at five months with some tastes of rice cereal (not interested) green beans (not interested) and banana (wow, loved it). Later at 6 months we  tried again, but with a full serving of green beans because we had them in the freezer.  We had two quart bags frozen from the harvest season.  We had barely used any of our stored green beans but those few times we did, we like them.  We liked them sauteed with soy sauce, sesame oil and sesame seeds.  For Hollis I blended them up with some water and froze them into cubes. His first meal went well.  He ate about 2 full tablespoons all up.  And then... and then... and then our every five day pooper began pooping every hour.  Seriously all day and all night.  I stopped giving him green beans and went to winter squash.  I saved the last 5 or so squashes from our CSA and cooked and froze them with Hollis in mind.  He loved it!  And it is was much better on the other side too.  For him and for me.  I have tried carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, home made rice cereal, golden beets, pears and avocados.  Tonight I tried some of the applesauce I made with a good friend during the fall.  Hollis never made such a distastful face.  It was if I made him lick a lemon!  Applesauce.

Adventures with food, I never thought I would love feeding anyone more than feeding myself until I met Hollis.