Every.Last.Drop.

the littles have just started eating cereal with milk. yes, they ate it dry with a sippy of milk for a looooooong time before i was brave enough willing to clean up huge messes. anne perry's milk typically ends up all over the table, or her...

but audrey kate has found a new way to get...

every.last.drop!

well...

...maybe not as much is going in her mouth as i thought!

but she sure does enjoy it!

Yummy Yogurt

last week, this became our {focus}

for some of us at least...

while others of us jumped right in!

there was a little experimenting

and excitement!

a few alternative methods tried

and a little showing off...

some strange looks

and some shy faces

there's always room for a little help...maybe

until it all finally made sense!

ya think it was yummy?

inevitably all fun, new, exciting things must come to an end. and so did this...

for some sooner than others!

but i think these pictures posted here were my favorites from the morning!

Mac-N-Cheese Please

Paul (aka Daddy) makes some seriously yummy homemade mac-n-cheese!

And since we started the little girls on cheese and didn't seem to have any adverse reactions (unlike antibiotics!), everyone had mac-n-cheese for dinner one night.

...and I took {very dark} pictures!

Ya think they like it?

As you can see, it was enjoyed by all!

Who Needs Mascara...

...when you have yogurt?

Addie has this habit of wiping her hands on her face or in her hair while she's eating. And not clean hands. Icky, yucky, gooey hands, whether she's using a spoon or not! We're working on it for several reasons, the necessity for a full blown bath after every meal being one of them!

So today I look up and see this and manage to capture it in half blink...

(excuse the blur, but it does get the point across!)

Check out that left eye! (well, it's her right eye but on the left in these pictures!)

A tad clumpy and nothing as beautiful as those clean lashes, but nonetheless; who needs mascara when you have yogurt?

On Top of a Highchair

In the best of all moods
Sat one Little Boo Bear
All covered in food.

She loves her spaghetti
Da-da's best of all
And here you will see why
Eatin' it is a ball!

It started so neatly
But quickly declined
Spoon tossed to the floor
She continued to dine.

But that didn't stop her
From scarfing it down
And licking her plate clean
Up, down, and around.

And when she had finished
She'd had so much fun
That she proudly exclaimed here
Now, I am "All done!"

So if your sweet baby
Is still covered in food
A bath maybe something
Your night should include!

Yummy in My Tummy

Addie loves food (obviously...look at her size!). But as a whole, we've stuck to letting her feed herself finger foods...with her fingers. We've continued to feed her the food that requires a spoon.

But since it's been 70 degrees here on and off, I figured it would be ok to strip her down and let her make a mess. I mean, we have a built in vacuum cleaner when it comes to food. At the end of each meal, I stand Addie up, pick her up and brush her off over the kitchen floor. By the time she's wiped down or changed, the kitchen floor is miraculously clean, cleaner than before the meal started! (Yes, I do mop too) This vacuum cleaner also willingly licks spoons and bowls clean so they can go straight in the dishwasher too (you'll see below)! Hmmm...if only I could train the dog to do other housework!





And our sleepless nights have finally been explained...Addie has two more teeth coming in!!! Not on the top though...on either side of her bottom two teeth she already has! That'd be 4 teeth all on the bottom!

Flashback Friday and a Video

As most of you know, Addie has quite the array of faces (and sounds) that she enjoys displaying throughout the day. Her new found love of grownup food is evident in this video below. She was eating yogurt and thoroughly enjoying it. I'd been trying for 2 days to get her on video doing this...but it's somewhat difficult to hold the camera and feed her at the same time. Plus...she sort of gets this blank, glazed stare when I use my smaller camera with her.

You can see her doing the sign for "more" right at the beginning...three times in a row. She was getting a little impatient with me taking so long to get the yogurt on the spoon! Thankfully, the cat meowing distracted her. Watch her mouth and tongue. Enjoy! :)

video

Mommy Poll

Alrighty all you Mommies out there! I've done several Mommy Polls through email in the past: Baby things you can't live without. Car seats. Favorite toys. Sleep habits. Now we're at another stage: finger foods.

So my questions:

What healthy finger foods did you start out feeding your baby?

What healthy foods do you now feed your toddler?

How did you manage portion size, storage (apples do not save), and variety?

Answers to any or all of the questions would be much appreciated! Feel free to leave a comment with any tips you might have!

Juice and cookies...

After talking with the pediatrician, we got the go ahead for Addie to get to "eat" a teething biscuit, otherwise known as a "biter biscuit" (i honestly thought it said "bitter" for the longest time and couldnt figure out why they were "bitter" :)

When I told my mom Addie had "eaten" her 1st teething biscuit, she said she had pictures of me doing the same (many, many years ago!). So...I certainly couldn't publish this post until I dug up those "old" pictures!

A few observations:

• My daughter looks absolutely nothing like me (except her eyes (not their distance apart...just shape)) and maybe nose?
• We do/did both enjoy teething biscuits!
• Teething biscuits are much better "worn" than eaten!

Mommy....and Addie

Addie...and Mommy

Abbey LOVES it when Addie eats in her highchair. Addie decided to "hold" onto her teething biscuit but let Abbey lick her hands :/ We're working on that one! We'll have to get some pictures of Daddy so we can show you how much she looks like him! :)

Have you found any "old" pictures of you doing something your child has recently done?

Baby Food

Well, as you know, Addie has started eating "solid food." "Solid food" isn't exactly what I would consider it; but since she's been on a strictly liquid diet most of her little life, this is solid to her! After buying some stage 1 organic food (and realizing how expensive all of it is, not just the organic; as well as realizing how many tiny little plastic containers we would be consuming & discarding), I decided that I'd better at least look into making my own baby food.

No, I promise I'm not bored (see previous post) and looking for things to do...but the budget and the world in which I WANT my child to grow up and the world in which I FEAR my child will grow up in were the driving factors!

For those of you that know me though, you know that I DON'T cook. It isn't that I can't cook; it's just that 1.) I don't enjoy it and 2.) my husband is a FABULOUS cook...so why bother! :) (I did cook dinner 2 of the past 3 nights though, so I'm getting better!). Anyway...so me choosing to make baby food is a much bigger deal than it is for most mothers, I think.

Everything I read kept saying how "easy" it was and how "anyone could do it." I found a great website call Wholesome Baby Food that had everything you could ever want to know about buying, pureeing, and freezing food for your baby. I got a lot of encouragement from two women who make their youngest child's baby food...their youngest of three!!! (Megan and McMama). If they could do it with 3 kids...I sure better try it with just one!

So I gave it a try, starting with some vegetables that I didn't have: green beans and carrots. Apparently steaming keeps the most nutrients in the vegetables, so I steamed the fresh carrots (it removes most of the natural nitrates that aren't good for babies this young) and boiled/heated the frozen green beans (frozen is ok, canned is not).

Then I got brave today and tried a butternut squash, sweet potatoes, peaches, plums, and the rest of the carrots. I got a little puree happy! I baked the squash, sweet potatoes, peaches, and plums. Needless to say, our house smelled pretty yummy!

So...after I pureed them, everything went into ice trays.

...and then into the freezer.

I popped them out of the ice trays so they wouldn't stay in that harder plastic and put them in freezer bags all labeled and everything where they'll last 3-4 months!

And the final product turned out pretty yummy...at least yummy in baby terms!

Addie had her 1st homemade baby food a few nights ago and really seemed to enjoy it. I'll let you be the judge though!