Iron chef: Baby edition

I decided early on that I wanted to make Preston's food versus buying it pre-prepared. Some of the pre-prepared offerings have weird ingredients and additives (and have you seen those weird Gerber meat sticks? Eww). Plus, it's cheaper to buy the stuff and make it myself versus buying 21 pouches or jars at $1-1.50 a piece. As a note, when we travel, I do get organic pouches (I like Ella's Kitchen or Peter Rabbit) because they are much easier than lugging a cooler of the kid's meals around. But in the day-to-day, he eats what I make.

I've been making baby food for Preston for a while now, and I feel like I've gotten into a good routine with it, so I thought I'd share my little process and a few helpful tips I've learned along the way.

I do most of my baby food making on the weekend, tackling two or three foods at a time. I tried making it all on one day, but that was too much to take on. Here's a run down of what he usually eats.

For breakfast:

Blueberries and pears

Peaches

Mangos

Apple

He gets one of these get mixed with his oatmeal, and he eats yogurt along with it.

For lunch and dinner:

Carrots and apples

Sweet potatoes and apples

Peas, spinach and pears

Green beans and apples

Butternut squash and apples 

He eats one of these combinations along with a mixed grain cereal or a pouch of a protein food, like chicken or lentils. (The kid's got texture issues that we're working through, and he much prefers the pouch blends to my blending chicken.) 

Pears, blueberries, sweet potatoes and green beans were on the list this weekend. I use my Beeba Baby Cook to steam most of the foods and to blend all of them. I take a mish-mashed approach, using some fresh foods and some frozen, some that get steamed, some that get baked, some that just go in as-is. 

For the pears, they get steamed in the Beeba. I usually steam the apples and carrots in the Beeba when preparing them, too. It took two batches to steam all of the pears, then I blended them, leaving half plain and half mixed with blueberries that I had defrosted. 

I baked the sweet potatoes in the oven, let them cool, then scraped out the insides and blended that. I use the same method with the squash when making that. 

I buy green beans, peas and spinach in steamer bags, so the green beans were cooked in the microwave before blending. Like I said, it's a mish-mash. 

When Preston was smaller, I pureed his foods to be very smooth to help him eat them. I've gradually let the blends get chunkier, though, to help him transition into foods with more texture and get him ready for finger foods. While his battle with finger foods is another post for another time, he has gotten better with the aforementioned texture issues, tolerating blueberry skins in his breakfast and actually eating chunky green beans. Like Scott and I say, it's a victory no matter how small.

Once blended, I fill up the Beeba freezer tray with the purees and put it in the freezer. Since I only have one, the remaining purees are put into other containers and into the fridge until it's their turn to be frozen (takes about a day to get it all in the freezer). I pop the frozen pods into labeled, gallon-sized Ziplocs to store them.

I like to freeze the fruits and vegetables separately and combine them when they're going to be eaten so I can vary the combos to change things up for Preston and so I can keep track of the size of each serving so I know that he's getting all the fruits and vegetables he needs for the day.

The Beeba also defrosts the frozen blends when meal time rolls around. I put one or two pods in a little bowl on the steaming rack, add water, and let it go. Once they've cooled, it's chow time!

Yum!

Arachnophobia

I hate spiders.

In fact, my extreme revulsion, anger and disgust toward spiders is so strong that I don't believe "hate" is a strong enough word. It's a hate that requires special typographical emphasis and color.

I !!!HATE!!!#^% spiders.

I blame this hatred and fear on my second grade teacher, Mrs. Locke, and the effective — albeit terrifying — lesson on spiders she taught back in 1993. I remember slides of black widows, the beady eyes of a brown recluse staring out a me from my textbook, and the creepy, crawly details of my classmates' presentations. It was the worst.

And while knowledge is supposedly power, for me, knowledge was terror. Learning that brown recluses love small spaces, like inside of shoes, made me seriously consider steering clear of footwear altogether. Basements and garages and their accompanying cobwebs were to be avoided at all costs.

So, when moving into our new house, I found myself face to tiny, creepy face with my biggest fears.

Scott and I have a buffet that stored movies in our old house and is now serving as a makeshift TV stand in the new house. (You can see part of it in my weekly pregnancy pictures.) At the old house, I always avoided its base because there were cobwebs all around it, despite my efforts to Swiffer them away. At one point, there was evidence that something had hatched under there, but we never saw any spider babies, so didn't think too much about it. When the piece was being moved from the old house to the new, I asked Scott to check underneath it to ensure that no spiders were inhabiting it and making the move with us.

The next day, Scott and I were moving it from the dining room into the living room of the new house, and I was putting felt pads on the bottom of the buffet when I decided it was a good time to clean underneath it. I asked Scott if he had checked it like I asked, and he said no. Scott pulled on the back, bearing the weight of the buffet against him at an angle to expose the under belly. There along the side were four spider egg sacks. And I have to say that my reaction is not one of my proudest moments.

I'm not a squealy girl — a fact I pride myself on. But when presented with those little, white, woven carriers of doom, I couldn't help myself. It was too much.

I begged Scott not to make me touch them, even if it was just with a Clorox wipe. I told him I'd hold the buffet up while he did it, but it was too heavy for me to manage. He kept coaching me on: "You can do it! C'mon! Just close your eyes and do it! Do it for your baby!" Meanwhile, the baby in question was cackling his mom's sounds of fright. He finds joy in the weirdest things.

After a great deal of encouragement, I finally plucked up the courage to wipe the sacks away. (Just the word "sacks" makes my skin crawl!) I may or may not have screeched "This is my nightmare!!" Thankfully, they were empty and didn't spring forth thousands of spider babies. I don't think we could've afforded the therapy I would need if that had happened. I still required a laboratory-grade decontamination shower afterward.

Needless to say, Scott owes me big time, and I'm working on a list of silks, cashmere, jewels, and spider sprays for him to repay me with.

Day one

We finally moved into our new house over the weekend. It was no small feat, moving a week sooner than we expected, but (BIG) thanks to the in-laws, we got everything accomplished.

Sunday was our first full day in the house, so I thought it would be fun to document what it looked like then. (Translation: Young House Love did it, and I wanted to, too.) The house is a new construction, so there's not a lot that needs fixing or updating, but I think it will be neat to look back and compare how we make it feel like home once we're settled in and everything is in it's place.

^^^From the outside^^^

^^^Kitchen, when entering from the garage^^^ 

^^^Kitchen, looking from the living room^^^

^^^One more of the kitchen^^^

 ^^^Living room^^^

 ^^^Dining room and front door from the living room^^^

 ^^^Master bedroom^^^

^^^Closet^^^

 ^^^Office^^^

 ^^^Guest room^^^

 ^^^Guest/Preston's bathroom^^^

^^^Preston's room^^^

^^^And one of Pres, who wanted to make sure he was moved, too.^^^

I failed to get a picture of the garage, which is where the true chaos was with the majority of the boxes and things that had yet to be placed in there. This week, we've slowly been bringing in boxes, emptying their contents, and taking the boxes back out to the garage. The house is finally starting to take shape, feeling more like home every day. I promise more (and better/cleaner) pictures once everything is in place.

Fourth of July wishing

This year, I'm really in the Fourth of July mood. I would love to have people over for a festive get-together with food on the grill, lawn games to play and maybe even finding a fireworks show nearby. However, since we're in the middle of The Great Move of 2013 (the "we're in the new house, but everything is still in boxes and, oh, have you seen the [fill in the blank] anywhere?" stage), a party is not in the cards. However, if it were, you can bet this is what I'd be doing ...

I love this linen T-shirt dress from Gap. Paired with these red Target sandals, it's patriotic without being too much, and both you could definitely wear all summer long without feeling like Uncle Sam.

The Fourth is really all about the food ... and independence. Burgers and hot dogs are pretty standard, but I think this grilled pork tenderloin looks yummy. Plus, you pretty much have to have corn on the cob. It's in the Constitution. And the lobster roll looks delicious (we substitute lobster for shrimp in my house, and it's still very tasty). And the berry dessert adds red, white and blue without being rage inducing and difficult like the 11-layer, red, white and blue ombre cake I found. 

I love summer days and how the sun doesn't set until 8:30. Lawn games are a great way to soak up that extra daylight — corn hole and bocce ball being two of my favorites — and cooling off with a sprint through the sprinkler is always a welcomed relief. Once the sun sets, bust out some sparklers!

How are you celebrating the Fourth? You're always invited to my house to unpack boxes!

Death to Google Reader

When I heard Google Reader was biting the dust July 1, I found myself going through the stages of grief. There was denial, continuing my daily online trek to my beloved Reader and ignoring the pop-up reminding me that the end was at hand. I had time and thought that maybe there would be uproar enough to cause them to keep it after all.

Then there was anger. Why, Google? Why would you take away my dear friend who brings me my favorite blogs instead of hopping from blog to blog to blog? What am I? An animal? Nothing will ever be as good as my Reader!

Afterward was bargaining and depression, ending up with me in a sorrowful heap, unable to find a suitable replacement for the Reader-shaped hole in my heart.

But here I am on the acceptance side. Much like the inner turmoil that overwhelms us all when Facebook redesigns, all the Reader transition required was a little time to get used to something new. So, to keep you from spiraling into a deep despair, here are two options I've toyed around with and find a good replacement.

Feedly

Feedly was the first Reader alternative I tried and is ultimate the one I've ended up using regularly. When I started using it, it required a plug-in, but it's now completely Web-based. That, however means little to me. I just wanted it to provide me the blogs in order from newest to oldest, not lumping them together by source as I'd seen some other RSS readers do. Feedly does just that. It has a clean look to it and is easy to navigate and understand. Plus you can choose a newspaper-esque view or one more image centric (like I like). You can also import your Google Reader list into it, so there's no need to add every single blog or site you follow to it.

Bloglovin'

My second favorite option is Bloglovin'. It's similar to Feedly in design, ease of use, importing your Reader list, etc. I'm just sticking with Feedly because it's what I found first. One feature I like though is the popular blogs tab, so you can discover new blogs to follow and enjoy.

I hope these will help you find your next Google Reader love and make the transition a little less emotionally scarring. If you would like to follow me on Bloglovin', there's a handy dandy little button in the sidebar you can click to do so. Whatever RSS you choose, I hope we stay connected!

I'll see you on the other side! (Maybe this is like the whole Y2K thing and nothing will actually happen. But it's good to be prepared, whether it's finding a new reader or collecting thousands of cans of creamed corn.)

Atlantic-Pacific

One of my favorite blogs right now is Atlantic-Pacific. I just love her ladylike style with a twist. She's got me swooning over full skirts, mixing patterns, and wrists full of bracelets. Since I'm trying to resist any shopping urges, I use her blog as my imaginary closet because, while a leather top may not be super practical for a working mom in Arkansas, it is fun to pretend like I could pull it off! 

I think she does a great job of showing how the little things make an outfit. It's all in the details, like her patterned loafers, neon heels, bow belt, cute clutch, and colorful prints. While a leather top may be out of my league, I can definitely amp up my accessory collection. It's an easy way to infuse a little edge and interest into my existing wardrobe. 

All photos via Atlantic-Pacific.

Book review: Bringing Up Bébé

Every year before vacation, I sit down and decide on what books will be my beach reads. Last year I finally read the Hunger Games trilogy after being excruciatingly late to that party. The year before it was Tina Fey's Bossy Pants and Russell Brand's Booky Wook (I was in a memoir mood, I guess). This year's choice was a little more reflective of my current situation.

I had downloaded Bringing Up Bébé on my Kindle last August and only found time to read a chapter of it. I realized that, with a 1 year old in tow, this year would not have a lot of time for leisurely beach reading, so I might as well finish what I had, especially since it pertained to raising a child, which I currently find myself doing.

The book takes a look at the American style of parenting next to the French style of parenting the author witnesses upon moving to France with her husband and infant daughter. While such comparisons can be controversial — one is seen as "right" and the other "wrong" — Druckerman does a good job of avoiding that. At first, she isn't even sure she likes living in France, and she questions some of the parenting tactics she witnesses and slowly warms to them, so she's not obsessed with French culture and unfairly biased.

I haven't read many (OK, any) parenting books because I view them as too psychological, touchy-feely, and judgmental, developing my method from trial and error, asking others, and Googling (always a quality choice). And while Bébé is more of a book about parenting rather than a parenting book, I found this one entertaining to read and thought provoking as well.

One of my favorite ideas presented was the cadre, or framework, approach to parenting that the French parents Druckerman observes use. The French create a strict framework inside of which the child has freedom. She gives the example of her friend who implements a strict 8:30 bedtime for her children, but they are free to play, read, or do whatever in their room after that time but must stay in their rooms. After a while, the child will put himself to bed because he's tired. It gives the child an opportunity to play an active role in obeying.

I especially loved the chapter about food and how to help our kids learn to enjoy a wide range of flavors, explaining that children's demands for a diet only of white pasta, ketchup, and chicken tenders isn't something innately in them, that they have the ability to eat a variety of things. The problem is in giving into these demands versus teaching them about foods and flavors.

It was also very interesting to see how another culture views working mothers (stay-at-home mothers are pretty rare in France), daycare (a scary word here, but government subsidized and awesome in Paris), maintaining the marriage relationship between spouses, child autonomy (they feel that children need to have freedom and space, even infants, and not suffocating parents following them around the playground narrating their every move), and discipline.

There are some things I didn't completely agree with (she notes that the French aren't very pro breast-feeding and that they limit praising their children — which also made sense to a point ... but it's too much to cover in a parenthetical statement), but overall it has made me think about the kind of person I want to raise and has given me some helpful insight on how to navigate that path.

I would definitely recommend it, in part because I really loved it and in part because I know Scott would love for me to have someone else to talk to about it. He's heard enough about French parenting philosophies to last him a lifetime.