Fall Reading List

One of my favorite hobbies is reading. To me there is nothing better than getting lost in a good book. I can easily spend hours wandering around a bookstore. Last weekend, we stumbled upon a Borders that was going out of business. I always hate to see a bookstore close whether its independently owned or a big chain. 

Fortunately for me, I was able to purchase a few books to read this fall at great prices. Since they were closing in just a few days, they didn't have the best selection of books left and I've never read anything by any of these authors. But at $1.50 I'm willing to take a risk. What are you reading this fall?  

Drop and Give Me 20

I must confess that I am envious of other moms who tell me that their babies nap for 2 hours at a time. I can't help but think of all the things I could do in 2 hours - cook, clean, blog, job hunt, exercise... the list is endless. 


Back to reality, my son W is the king of the cat nap. I'm lucky if he sleeps for 45 minutes and getting him to sleep is another challenge. Recently, he has started crying as soon as we walk into the nursery - he knows it coming. Even on those days when he can barely keep his eyes open, he just cries and cries before a nap. My motto these days is "Drop and give me 20" - I'm like a baby drill sergeant. My pediatrician is big on the "Babywise" schedule and crying it out. With his advice, W is allowed to cry for 20 minutes before I call a nap time out. Some days he's asleep within in 2 minutes, some days it takes a little longer and some times he stands in the crib crying for the full 20 minutes. I'm thankful now that he is finally getting on a nap schedule. Sometimes I hate it because I really want to run an errand during nap time, but I know its best for me to respect the schedule and nap time. 


Well, my time is about up. The King of the Cat Nap will be stirring soon and ready to go. 

Making Your Own Baby Food: Lessons Learned

Ok, I started out this series by confusing my lack of domestic skills. So far I've been pretty lucky and I've only had a few mishaps. 


1. Make sure you have enough ice cube trays for when you start making big batches of food. I started with only two and had to invest in a third shortly after I started. I love the OXO brand of ice cube trays. 
2. You win some and you lose some. There are some batches that just don't turn out right whether its too watery or too thick. Its just the way it goes, especially when you are making something the first time. I still struggle with getting the right consistency with squash.  So for the batches that are watery I just add a little rice cereal and mix it in to thicken it up. 
3. Sweet potatoes don't take much pureeing. Every time I make sweet potatoes, I think I'm going to blow up the motor on my blender. So I recently started just mashing them up with a manual potato masher and it works great. 
4. Mix it up. Don't be afraid to try new things. 


If you choose to make your own baby food, just be patient. It will take you and your baby both awhile to get used to it. Just keep at it, in the end you will be glad that you did. 


Stay for details on my next "going green with baby" experiment - cloth diapers. 

Making Your Own Baby Food: The Nitty Gritty

Ok, so now that I've covered why I make my own baby food and the tools that I use its time to get down to the nitty gritty: the how-to. You will need a good stockpot to boil your vegetables and cook them until they are fork tender. Depending on the vegetable and how many this can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

My go-to pot for green beans

Once the vegetable/fruit is cooked then you just put it in the food processor and hit puree. I generally add a laddle of water from the stockpot. This always help me to get to the right consistency but you can add more or less depending on what you are cooking. I forgot to take a picture of the green beans but here is a photo of the apples I cooked and pureed the day before. 

Apples

When you get the food to the right consistency for your baby, just fill the ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Then store them in a ziploc freezer bag. Make sure you label the bag and the date. 

Apples just out of the freezer

One of the great things about making your own baby food is that you can use almost any vegetable. So far I have made green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, corn, butternut squash, squash, zucchini, apples, and peaches. So while the other babies in your circle are just eating peas, your baby can get a head start on eating his broccoli. 

Corn, sweet potato, broccoli, and carrot baby food

Good luck and happy pureeing!

Making Your Own Baby Food: The Tools

I know that there are now a ton of products on the market to make your own baby food. There is the Baby Bullet and the Beaba system. I thought about buying one of these systems but I decided to start with what I had in my own kitchen before investing in another piece of equipment. Besides, when I started I wasn't sure if I would keep it up or if W would eat my homemade baby food. If you are just starting out transitioning your baby to solids, hang in there. I know at first they won't like it but keep at it. I took almost a week for W to take to baby food. 


Fortunately, I had a good blender with a food processor attachment and a mini-chopper. I also inherited an immersion blender from my mom and so far these three machines have done a great job pureeing, blending, and chopping baby food. I also purchased three ice trays from OXO. I love the OXO ice trays, they are BPA-free, dishwasher safe and have a lid. But you can use any ice trays. 

The tools I use to make my own baby food

An Unplanned Outing Takes Me Back

I know I said I would write more about making my own baby food but I had an interesting afternoon with W and I wanted to share it. After running errands, I decided to make a quick trip to our local library to get a new card and I was reminded of all the summers we spent at our library growing up. My mom reads a lot so when we were growing up we always went to the library. My love of reading began all those years ago at the public library. After college, I discovered Borders and now I have too many books to show for it. 


Of course, the library's catalog is now on the computer. I kinda missed the old card catalog with the typewriter index cards. But the great thing about the computer system is I can reserve the books I want to read online. I haven't been able to read much this year (well other than Parents and Southern Living magazines) but I have a long list of books to read this summer. 

Adventures in Making Baby Food

Ok, so the first thing you should know about me is that I'm not a domestic diva. Actually, I'm far from it. Before the pink slip, we either ate out or had prepared meals. I was also fortunate enough to have some come and clean our house a couple of times a month. Unfortunately, those days are behind us and I'm cooking and cleaning up a storm.


I decided to try my hand at making my own baby food for several reasons:
1. I want me son to be a better eater than both my husband and I
2. I would save on packaging which is better for the environment long term
3. I would save W from eating food with preservatives


So I got my start making baby food with a bag of frozen peas and the food processor attachment on my blender. Once I cooked the peas and pureed them, I portioned the food out into ice cube trays. Once frozen, you just pop out the cubes and store them a ziploc freezer bag. Stay tuned for my arsenal of tools and a pictures of the final product. 

The Teething Blues

I'm finding out that there are a lot of things about babies that nobody tells you. Sometime its a good surprise and sometimes its not. Currently, I'm learning that teething can last a long time.  For my son, W, it seems like he's been teething for months. The drooling, the chewing on fingers, the rash on his chin. Every morning I anxiously check his gums for any sign of a pearly white but at eight months little man is still toothless. But the last few weeks have been different and I think he may finally be "officially" teething. In addition to the drool and chewing, he's waking up in the night, he's getting fussy and he's grabbing at his ears. So I think its only a matter of time before that toothless grin is replaced. Even though I will be relieved that he won't be in pain, I'm sure I will be sad because it will be just another reminder that my baby is growing up.