SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 
freakin excited! Yeah Yeah Yeah! We're moving Sept. 31st or earlier. Such. A. Relief. I am so grateful we've been able to stay at the parent's house for this long and this cheap, but it's so time to move on. This place is so unhealthy mentally and physically. Everyone in this house is aggresive. The energy just feels angry and tense all the time, and we only have the one room for ALL of our stuff! 2 beds, 2 dressers, a portable closet, a desk, a shelf, three mini dressers for Clay, a dining room table and chairs, a bedside table, and a playpen. Plus 1 cat. *sigh* it's been reeeally hard. Clay has like 2 meters to roam, and he's full out crawling now. He wants to get into everything, and I feel so bad because he has no room to cruise around, since I can't let him on the ground outside of our bedroom due to the cat pee in the carpets.

The place we're moving to has hardwood floors, 2 bedrooms, a big kitchen with space for a table, a big living room, a beautiful view, it's cat friendly, there's no mold, and there's laundry machines on site, all for $750.00 a month, heat and hot water included. Hell yeah! I am over the moon with excitement, I want to be there now.

Now, if we were to do laundry as much as we do now (pretty much a load a day :S) it would cost us about $120.00 a month, assuming the dryers would thoroughly dry our clothes, which I doubt. Soooo, I've decided to hand wash most things, excluding items such as jeans, towels and adult blankets which would be harder to wash I think. Now, by handwash, I mean make my own bucket washer! Check it out here: How to Make a Camp Style Bucket Washer and here: How to Wash Clothes in the Bucket Washer

So when it comes to drying the clothes, there's this!: The Indoor Clothesline!

Pretty stoked to try it, I hope it all works. I know it's gonna be a lot more work, but I think it's worth the extra $100.00 some a month!

Baby Led Weaning is Awesome!

Yes, Clay is now on solids! He started maybe a week before he was 6 months old. At first it was scary... now I just sit back, relax and eat my own meal while he eats his. It's so much fun preparing his meals alongside ours. Anything we're using for our meal that he can eat I put on a small plate for him, like so :)

He has had plum, banana (which was absolutely disastrous lol), peach (his favorite), watermelon, plum, bell pepper, swiss chard, spinach, strawberries, blue berries, grapes (in little chunks), cucumber, onion, garlic, mushroom, potato, sweet potato, oatmeal, quinoa, tomato, avocado, carrot, squash, lemon, orange, and more that I can't think of at the moment lol. 

We have done spoon feeding with things like oatmeal (which he finds hysterical or some reason lol), so it's not like I think the spoon is evil lol, I know some people who do :P He's gonna use a spoon one day, so I see no point in avoiding it all together. The reason we do BLW is because in my opinion babies should learn to chew before they learn to swallow, they should be allowed to make a mess and experiment on their own (under supervision of course) and fully "experience" food lol. It's fun, just as safe if not safer than puree, and babies learn to eat until they are full, not beyond, so it's a great start to healthy eating habits down the road.

Won't he choke? abies have a gag reflex that is closer to the front of their mouths then adults'.So in doing BLW or spoon feeding, you may notice some gagging. But the difference between gagging and choking is thatif a baby is choking they will not make a sound and you will hear no breath. When a baby is gagging they may stick their tongue out like they're about to throw up, they may cough, but as long as they are breathing and making noise they are perfectly able to handle it on their own, do not interfere unless they are obviously choking. In that case, be educated on what to do in case of emergency. This goes for puree 100% as well. 

Here are some pictures of baby boy eating all on his own *tear* ;)

Clay's First Tooth

All in all his teething ha been an alright experience so far. I do believe the amber necklace and chamomile tea help!!

Clay's First Tooth!

Air Travel was a Success :)

So when we went to Ontario, Clay was perfectly fine on the airplane, just like on the bus. He even had a nap both ways. Landing and Take off didn't seem to bother him it all thankully. The fact that there wasn't much room was annoying but what can ya do. Also, he had to pee like 3 or 4 times during the 2 hour light lol... maybe the air pressure made a difference.

Going through security was flawless, but one thing I found... funny... maybe? Kind of ridiculous actually, was when this security woman asked if I had any liquids for me or for him, and I said nope, nothing. She looked at me like I was a horrible parent and said it must be a short flight then..... Come on people. I wasn't sure what to say since this was the first time anyone has suggested I use formula..

Everyone was really helpful at the airport, so it was an unexpectedly pleasant experience, despite my anxieties about the trip.

The day after I got back I went on a week long camping trip hahaha... I was relieved to get home. But after all the chaos, and Clay learning how to crawl through it all, not to mention he sprouted his first tooth shortly after we got back, he refused to go potty at all for a good week or so. At first I was kinda bummed, but I knew it was normal. So I just let him go in his diaper and did diaper free observation time once a day to try to get a new grasp on his cues and timing again. It took a little while but we're almost back to normal, although we've been missing a lot of poops recently and that's no fun with a baby on solids... :S