Fabulous Miss S.

Book Discussion: Top 100 Baby Purees & Top 100 Finger Foods by Annabel Karmel

Silicon Valley Moms Blog March Book Discussion: Top 100 Baby Purees and Top 100 Finger Foods by Annabel Karmel

When Noah was a baby I made a lot of his first foods. I was obsessive about making sure that Noah got a good variety of taste, textures and nutrients. It was summer and I had a plethora of local fresh vegetables at my disposal.  I steamed and boiled and pureed and mashed until I had a freezer full of little cubes of chicken-carrot-potato puree and pear-apple-blueberry sauce, spinach with butter and broccoli-potato with cheese sauce.  

I often worried about giving him something that wasn't cut up small enough and there was even more worry about the potential allergy foods like fish, eggs, nuts and seafood. These foods are actually very healthy and safe and I just needed some ideas for ho to introduce them. 

Making your own food is great but come on, lets be honest, purees look gross and it doesn't take long before you run out of combinations of fruits and chicken-potato-some-other-vegetable "casserole".  And what about adding flavor?  Garlic? Cinnamon?  Is it safe?  Why shouldn't it be?

I'm super psyched to start making food for Mallory in a few months now that I've read Annabel Karmel's Top 100 Baby Purees. The recipes are simple, the steps are simple and easy to follow.  Each recipe is designated for a certain month-based age and its freezer-friendliness is listed as well. 

Some recipes offer tips and variations too which are very helpful for a novice cook to learn how to freely and confidently modify recipes.  I love that the recipes push me beyond cheddar cheese and my go-to banana - apple - strawberry arsenal. The recipe for Cauliflower and Broccoli in Cheese Sauce (p.72) mixes Cheddar and Gruyere or Edam cheese with a dash of nutmeg (one of my personal favs for cheese sauce perfection.  How awesome is that?    

It is so important that we teach  our children good nutrition and healthy food attitudes.  Karmel's books are ideal for helping parents to introduce a wide variety of healthy foods to their babies.  I already know good health and nutrition but when it came to feeding my baby I wasn't confident to go beyond the simple flavors of food.  Why not give babies some complex flavors? 

Feeding a toddler is frustrating and often futile. It's hard to get kids to try new foods sometimes but when you make food look interesting and desirable toddlers are more likely to eat.  I love the idea of Baked Parsnip and Sweet Potato Chips.  Satay Chicken Skewers are excellent for kids, but its also a great as a finger food for adult parties and neighborhood cookouts. I am always desperate to break out of the mold of chicken nuggets, fish sticks, apple sauce, cheese sticks and yogurt.  Top 100 Finger Foods will keep me busy for weeks and I won't be reaching for the nuggets any time soon! 

(Don't) Compare/Contrast

I used to read a lot of blogs.  I used to write a lot of blogs too.  I got paid for a few of them too.  Pennies!  But still, my own pennies that I earned all by myself with my words.    I know a lot of writers and read a lot of writers that I don't know in that actual face to face, person to person sort of way but when you read about someone's life on a daily basis you feel like you know them.  It's one of the things I liked about writing. 

There were a few people who I knew that had children around the time that I had Noah.  Someone had twins, a boy and a girl, one week after Noah.  I used to think other kids were early talkers.  Some were second and third children so you know, older siblings, birth order, yada yada yada. 

Now .... I don't know if I lost interest in them or if it hurts in a way that is too deep to feel as actual pain so my body processes it as anger, jealously, ...rage?

But I've stopped reading.  And I miss it.  I click over in my Google Reader every few days or so, and if it starts out with a sentence about something the kids have "said" ... I just close the window and go on.  Not knowing anymore. Not needing to know.  Because you can't compare.  And you can't contrast.

Postpartum done well

Click on over to DC Metro Moms where I'm talking about my positive and happy postpartum experience. For reals!

My dear baby girl is six weeks old and I am proud and elated to say that I am doing really well. People can't believe that I was driving so quickly and wearing actual jeans within three weeks, but let me say, I worked hard for this!  And also, they were maternity jeans.  I am physically and mentally in a much better place than I was after my son was born when I was hurled into the dark hole of postpartum depression.  It took that awful experience to know how to plan well for this period of time so that I could experience my children, take care of myself and accept the new challenges, sleeplessness and the host of physical awkwardness that is the postpartum period.

MORE....

Defeat

Sweet Lord, is it really only fucking Tuesday? Life has gotten hectic and even crazy at times although I suppose I could point out how far I've come along the way.  My house is a ridiculous train wreck ... toys all over, puzzle pieces, straws and mega blocks scattered all over in places that are perfect for toe stubbing and heel puncturing.  A year ago this would have driven me absolutely insane, like OCD-unease-bordering-on-panic and now ... ha. Haha! Hahahaha.....  Seriously, I pretend not to notice and sometimes I just send a toy bit sliding across the floor and under the sofa. 

Mallory is usually an easy baby, she sleeps well and then cluster feeds or in layman terms, she goes back and forth between boobs for hours on end and dozes in between on my chest.  Noah comes over intermittently and grabs Mallory's head, sometimes kissing her in an open-mouthed sort of way on top of her head.  It's cute.

The days are rolling by and I am careful not to wish away any of it even though sometimes I just want bedtime to come.   

Five weeks and counting

Mallory is five weeks old and I am getting into the swing of things, finding my new groove of toting around two children, pacifiers, sippy cups and a goddamned gagillion diapers.  I had forgotten how many diapers newborns go through and how wasteful they are in the process. You put one on, zip up their fleecey onesie, swaddle them up all burrito-like and settle into a cozy nook to nurse and rock, and just as you are getting comfortable their butt goes bluurt! and you remove your hand faster than if you knew a grenade was going to come shooting out of that cute little wrinkly behind.

In other news, I am well on my way to returning to my pre-pregnancy weight.  I'm within ten pounds at the moment but pre-pregnancy weight and pre-pregnancy shape are two very separate concepts that are haunting me right now.  I am reluctant to wear the jeans that do fit because of the most dreaded muffin top.  It is just so wholly unsexy that I find it more fitting to wear pajama-like lounge wear and yoga pants, and yes, I know, I know! 

My princess Mallory is sleeping like a champ but Noah still sleeps for shit.  So I need a nap, or three minutes to close my eyes before Noah wakes up prematurely, no doubt, from his afternoon slumber.

I leave you with this ... and an apology for the double chin situation.