Mercedes and the Girls

Zada still loves the front door.  I think she likes the view she gets of the outside world from it!

She was daddy's helper assembling the bench today.

Jon and I decided we were going to transition Zada to formula so I can stop nursing.  She has been growing so well, and it seemed like a good idea to relieve some of my stress from pumping sooner than waiting until she's 11 months.  Commercial formula isn't super great in terms of its ingredients.   Although I appreciate it keeps babies alive and growing, and I have used it myself, we were hoping for something more natural.  I had heard great things about goat milk formula imported from Europe, but it is $$$.  Importing it is the only option as it's illegal to sell goat milk formula here in the United States.  Then Jon found a site that sells goat milk formula KITS, which are not illegal.  The woman who started the farm and company has an extensive education in nutrition and had done her homework.  Thousands of breast milk samples were analyzed and she came up with a very simple recipe using goat milk, goat lactose, some oils, and some add-ins like omegas and vitamins that very closely mimics average breastmilk composition, and meets the same standards of nutrition as commercial breastmilk, including fat, protein, and carbohydrate percentages.  We were sold!  It is actually only a little more expensive than commercial, with the main commitment being a time factor as you have to prepare the formula from scratch.  Well, we ordered a kit, and I set to work making bags of formula to freeze, just like I've been freezing breast milk!

It is SUCH a weight off my shoulders to be able to stop pumping.  I am doing it slowly, eliminating one session at a time every few days, and slowly adding in formula mixed with the milk I already have stored and continue to pump.  I feel really good about this!

We went out to a Korean lunch with Jordan and Alicia today, and that was really fun.  We got a ton of food and ate it all!

Zada was a little less than impressed, but she did a great job sitting there and munching on various things until she threw them on the ground.

Leiden had another dye job done on her hair while up at her dad's.  She wanted to go silver, but we established the rule that dye jobs need to be natural colors, and silver is not a natural color for a 14 year old.  Silvery blond we could do!  She actually went more subtle than I thought she would, and it looks really nice on her.