carrots and apples, mmm mmm good

Up until recently Trent was not a big food guy. He could eat it, he could leave it, it was whatever. People always joked that we were giving him Big Macs when nobody was looking, but Kevin and I knew that Trent gained his weight from milk (and it's in his genes).

I guess it was just a couple weeks ago when we noticed a huge change. Now he throws a fit whenever he sees food. He (thinks he) wants it. And he (thinks he) wants it all! He would eat an entire box of Cheerios if we let him - and he would double fist his way through the entire box (which gives me the idea to video tape him with his cheerios). On the contrary, when we offer him veggie purees and chicken purees, he refuses to eat them half the time. It's actually pretty frustrating because he's obviously hungry but he doesn't want/like what we're offering him. He would devour fruit if we gave it to him, but he gets that for lunch everyday and we don't want to over do it. We want him eating protein, meats, and veggies on top of fruit.

Because of his near-refusal to eat veggies, and his complete refusal to eat my chicken, i decided to buy some jarred food and see how he does. I reluctantly bought some chicken & apples (reluctant because he wouldn't eat my chicken - even when i mixed it with fruits or veggies), some turkey & veggies, and a couple others. We figure he needs protein, and we don't care if he gets it from homemade food or jarred. We're just glad he's actually eating something other than fruits. So far he's doing really well with it. He's been eating up to 4 ounces at a time (Doctor said it would be normal if he ate as much as 8 ounces per meal), so we're happy.

We also give him bits of whatever we're eating for dinner so he can play with different textures and tastes.

The plan is for me to continue to make his fruit purees (because I enjoy it) for breakfast, and he will be getting jarred veggies and meats for lunch and dinner.

Did I mention that Maggie LOVES that Trent gets to manhandle some of his own food now?

fail followed by success

We gave Trent chicken for the first time Friday night - FAIL. It's the first food Trent clearly does not like! We ended up mixing it with a little sweet potato just to get him to eat some, but he wasn't fooled. We're going to give him a few weeks then try again.



Blueberries, on the contrary, were a huge success (first time = tonight). A word to the wise: blueberries are best if given on bath night
;-)

spice it up

One of the perks of making Trent's baby food is that I can make combinations (banana-apple, etc) and I can add spices!! Tonight I'm going to make him pear puree with a touch of cinnamon. yum

food containers

As mentioned previously, we are making Trent's baby food as opposed to buying jarred food. Right now Trent only gets 1 meal a day (if at all), and that's at home around dinner time. Before long Trent will be eating several meals a day - which means he will be eating while at daycare, as well as at home. I wasn't sure if I would send homemade food to daycare or not - I thought it would be an inconvenience to the caregiver to have to prepare the homemade stuff. Of course I would give it to her already pureed, but she'd have to possibly thaw it and/or warm it up. A few weeks ago I brought it up to her and she said she has absolutely no problem with me sending her the homemade stuff. She assured me that it's no inconvenience at all! Ever since she told me that I've been wondering how I will send the food to her. As in, what kind of containers will I use. Right now I have ice cube trays that I freeze the food in, but I don't want to send that to her. My preference would be to fill individual containers with a feedings worth of food and give her a couple days worth at a time. So, I did a little browsing on the internet and found a few different options. Luckily each option had "user reviews" so I was able to get opinions from people who have actually used the products. It really wasn't a hard decision once I read the reviews. The one product had many negative remarks while the other basically got 5 stars across the board!


Here are the 5 star containers (picture to left)....I just ordered them and I'm very excited about it! These jars are BPA free, so they are perfectly safe for Trent. I can freeze them, microwave them, dishwash them, stack them...and the best part of all is that the lids screw on as opposed to snapping shut. This means there is less risk of freezer burn or spillage, and the food will stay fresher longer. I already have a dozen glass jars at home, so I'm sure between the 2 sets I will have plenty.


If anyone is interested, I got them from One Step Ahead. They seem to have some really great stuff on their site/catalog. A website I reference often for homemade baby food tips, etc is Wholesome Baby Food. The link is to the right of my blog under "pregnancy and baby links". Their site has a whole section dedicated to sending homemade baby food to daycare/babysitter.

excited over produce

2 doors down from where I work used to be an office for a local electrical company. It's been vacant for maybe a year or so now - I actually thought they went out of business but I recently discovered they moved locations. I would say 'good for them' but lets be honest - they are my husbands competition, so I'd rather see them fail (I'm not sure if I'm joking right now....it sounds so mean if im not). Anyways, a couple months ago I noticed a "coming soon" sign in the abandoned buildings window: Produce! My ears perked. I got excited. People in the office started talking about how we're all going to get healthy and lose weight (currently we run to the snack machine or Dunkin for a snack). My initial thought was "great - now i can conveniently buy produce to make Trent's babyfood". It wasn't until today, Grand Opening Day, that I realized I could save money by going there on top of benefiting from the convenient location. Sure enough, they are cheaper than my local grocer. They even beat the sale prices. A 4-pack of bell peppers (one red, one green, one orange, one yellow) was only $1. So yeah, I left with 2 big bags full of produce and a free dozen eggs (a deal they had going). I'm becoming quite the cheap-skate, so I'm thrilled to have saved money and received a free "gift" if you will.

Since I'm now talking about how cheap (frugal) I've become, I should update you on my home-made laundry detergent experiment. I'm not sure what I told you last, but we've been using the homemade laundry detergent regularly and have had no problems at all. Our clothes look and smell clean - what more can I ask for? I even use some of the same ingredients as dishwashing detergent!! We still use the store bought stuff on Trent's clothes, but we only do about 1 load a week of his things, so....

yeah, I'm excited to be saving money!

tummy time paid off

Trent finally rolled from his belly to his back! He only did it once but honestly, it was an accident. He was on his belly with his arms up so his head was in the air. With his right arm he reached for a toy that was hanging, but he couldn't reach it. This caused him to lose his balance and topple over. I was making dinner in the kitchen but Kevin was right there and saw the whole thing.

We have been feeding Trent rice cereal for a while now. It took him a few weeks to really get the hang of eating from a spoon but he finally caught on. He will actually pull your hand in towards his mouth if you aren't moving fast enough for him. Well, a couple weeks ago we introduced carrots to his diet. The first time he got carrots, I fed him. It didn't go too well. He eats better from Kevin. I think Kevin has a better technique...or maybe Trent can smell the milk when I'm around. Either way, Trent likes eating from Kevin better. Right now he gets a little bowl of pureed veggies once a day - but its not uncommon for us to skip a day here and there. This past weekend we introduced butternut squash. I'm not sure which veggie he likes more....he doesn't seem to love either - or hate either, so i guess that's good.

This is the machine I use to make the baby food. Its a steamer and a pureer all in one and its very easy to use! A lot of women will steam the veggies in a pot then puree them in a food processor, creating more dishes for themselves to clean. With this machine I only have to clean a couple small parts. You can even use it to thaw individual portions. I love it! Check out the video on how to use it. I also refer to this website for useful tips and FAQ's. You might be wondering why I make my own baby food as opposed to buying jarred food from the store. Well, I do it mostly because I enjoy it. Call me crazy but I think its fun to mash up veggies and freeze them in ice cube trays (that's what you do - you make a veggie in bulk and then freeze individual portions. That way you aren't making babyfood every other day). I also do it, partly, because there are preservatives in most jarred baby food that I can avoid by making my own. I don't think I'm saving much (if any) money by doing it at home - we all know how expensive produce can be - so that's really not a factor. It sounds gross but they (whoever "they" are) say once your child is old enough you can just give your baby whatever you're making for dinner...in puree form. So if I'm making chicken and broccoli, I'll just toss some cooked chicken and broccoli in the babycook, puree it up, then serve it to Trent. That doesn't sound appealing to me at all, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

homemade

I think everyone is trying to save a few bucks these days, myself included. A few months ago I was watching "17 Kids and Counting" and heard the mom mention that they make their own laundry detergent and that the recipe is on their website. After a few months of thinking about it I finally decided to go ahead and give it a try. I only had to buy 3 ingredients and the whole process took about 10 minutes, tops. One batch makes 10 gallons for only about $2. My friend, Alicia - who is also all about saving money - came over and made it with me. We decided to go halfers since 10 gallons is so much!! I plan to continue using Tide for Trent's clothes since he has sensitive skin and I don't want to risk giving him a rash or anything with this homemade stuff, but we'll definitely be saving money in the long run.

I used the detergent last night for the first time and our washer didn't overflow with suds or anything, so that's a good sign. When I put the clothes in the dryer I didn't think to smell them to make sure they at least smelled clean, but I have a cold anyway so I wouldn't have smelled much regardless. The true test will come when I wash a load of Kevin's dirty work clothes.

If anyone is interested in making their own detergent, here is the website:
http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html