Sarah's First Trip to the Zoo

This has been such a fun weekend!  I'd mentioned that last week was insane with Robert working his normal schedule plus about 20 hours extra last Friday and Saturday, so this week he took a three day weekend!!!  It was awesome, and we loved it, but it also made me sad that we can't be together like this all the time.  If only we could both be stay-at-home parents. :)  

Thursday morning Becky and I went walking with Sarah and her dog, Lucy, just like we always do on Thursday mornings.  It's been majorly beautiful outside the last few days, so we needed to take advantage of it.  Robert stayed home and did absolutely nothing which is exactly what he wanted to do.  Right before we got home Robert had to leave to go visit a student who was having shoulder surgery, so Sarah and I hung out for a bit.  I'll be honest and say we may or may not have sat in the parked car while she slept in the car seat for 45 minutes.  Don't pretend like you've never done it!  When she woke up I decided to lay out a blanket in the front yard so we could sit together and listen to the birds and leaves.  Sarah thought it was super mesmerizing to watch the dead leaves blow across the street since it was so windy.  She rolled from her tummy to back twice while we were outside.  The wind must have helped her!  When Robert got home we did the typical lunch, play, nap, and watched Friends.  I've seen episodes here and there, but this is our first time to actually walk it through.  Phoebe just had triplets, and Rachel and Chandler are together for the first time!  When Sarah woke up we decided to go for another stroller ride and hopped in the car to walk on The Trail of Tears.  We'd seen signs for it throughout town, so we got on it at a trail head near our house.  I think we were both imagining it would be super cool and a fun adventure, but it ended up being about a half mile of a dirt trail that ended in somebody's back yard.  What did we do wrong?  So we just turned around and drove around town for a bit.  Robert got a glimpse into just how slowly the day goes with Sarah. :)  She's a fun baby, but I think he's understanding more and more why I'm so pumped when he comes home at 5:15!  I sent Robert out to buy some M&M's so we could make monster cookie bars, and while he was out he rented us to DVDs from Family Video.  I can't even remember the last time I was inside a movie rental store!  Apparently they're having to be more competitive with prices due to Redbox and Netflix because he rented two movies for a total of about $2.50.  I remember renting one movie for $5 back in the day.  We watched Promised Land, and I can't really say that I'd recommend it.  It was pretty slow and didn't grab my attention, but those monster cookie bars?  They were delish.  You can get the recipe here.

We took Sarah for another stroller ride yesterday.  Seriously, best weather ever.  Sarah tried out her swing set for the first time.  The sellers accidentally left their play set here and didn't bother to come back for it, so it's ours now!  Sarah didn't laugh with glee, but she also didn't cry, so we're calling this swing experience a success.  After dinner we were bored, and my wild husband suggested going to play putt putt.  At only $2.50/person for 18 holes it's a pretty sweet deal.  Robert still beat me even with wearing Sarah for the whole time.  He even won a free round of putt putt on the final hole!  I have no excuse.  We finished up the night with walking around Lowe's and pricing things on our house wish list and got bummed out realizing that this stuff is happening no time soon unless we strike gold.  

Today couldn't have been better!  Any day where Sarah sleeps until 8:15 is a good day!  Robert woke up early to go to the men's breakfast at church, and I got Sarah ready to meet up with my parents to celebrate our friend Carl's birthday.  Robert was going to meet us at Scramblers and just have coffee.  I walked out the garage and realized that Robert had taken my car.  Wah wah wah.  Told myself that I STILL need to learn how to drive Robert's stick shift and had to wait for Robert to finish up and come and get me so we could all ride together to Scramblers.  Breakfast was tasty, and it was good to see Carl.  After breakfast, my parents watched Sarah while Robert and I went to a high school drum line competition to see some of our students compete.  They sounded great and won first place!  I'd never been to anything like this before.  We're hoping to go to more of their performances later this year, and Sarah will definitely be coming with us and rocking her super cool noise-reducing earmuffs.  

After the competition, we met back up with Mom, Dad, and Sarah and hit up the zoo!  This was Sarah's first trip to the zoo, and it was awesome!  Dad had packed a picnic lunch for us to enjoy when we first got there.  Let me tell you, we weren't the only ones taking advantage of a 75 degree day in February!  Honestly, once we got in it didn't feel unbearably full.  She lasted for about half and hour and then fell asleep for 45 minutes just in time to wake up for the last 30 minutes.  Sarah really liked the monkeys and the peacocks.  We got an annual membership to the zoo and will definitely be going there a ton!

We went to Wicked Wok for dinner and got Culver's for dessert.  Sarah decided she'd had enough for the day and her gums were majorly hurting so she treated us to 15 minutes of screaming in the car followed by an hour long nap.  Yikes!  But seriously, she's really good at going with the flow and being up for whatever we have planned for her.  Sister is catching some major zzz's now.

Valentine's Day and President's Day

Valentine's and President's Day were two unique and fun days for us!  Our youth group has a huge fundraiser for Valentine's Day, and it was held on Saturday this year.  Robert put it on last year a mere two weeks after starting his job, so this year he was able to get in a lot more preparation.  I sold tickets before and after church for about the last month.  Tickets were $10/person and included dinner and entertainment.

Friday and Saturday were huge days for Robert!  I may or may not have gone slightly crazy on Friday when left alone with Sarah for 10 hours.  I can complain about 10 hours of being with a baby and minimal adult interaction.  Robert could complain about working at the church for 10 hours.  The plight of the stay at home mom, am I right?  When you think you're husband is coming home at 5:00 and it turns into 7:30, those two and a half hours are enough to do you in.  I'm glad this is not the norm at all.  Robert spent Friday going grocery shopping, doing meal prep, and decorating with volunteers.

Sarah and I went with Robert up to the church Saturday morning at 10:00 to practice a few songs and a dance with some of the youth.  Robert and Gabby practiced a version of 4 Chords together, and it turned out so well!  "4 Dudes" practiced Thinking Out Loud  - Robert's song to me.  Griffen played electric, Robert sang and played acoustic, Jacob played bass, and Braden played drums.  It sounded so good!  I joined the boys to form "A Rose Among Thorns" to sing Love Alone is Worth the Fight.  The boys and Gabby practice their dance to What is Love?  Sarah did a really good job watching us all practice.  Our groups had actually all practiced the Saturday before this for a few hours.  Sarah is such a trooper!  Anyway, after this practice we went home for a bit to eat and relax, and then Robert headed back up to the church.  Sarah and a joined everyone after her nap.

The banquet was awesome!  The students did such a great job serving everyone, and there was a fantastic turnout.  Dinner was tasty, or so I'm told.  It was salad, bread, chicken risotto, and a dessert trio of berries, brownies, and cheesecake bites.  The performances were very entertaining!  We had all the ones I already mentioned, plus vocal solos, a saxophone solo, and Rubiks Cube race, and ninja warrior flip show of sorts.  It was great!  Last year had only been musical performances.  Robert and I added in another new element of a silent auction this year.  It was a total hit!  Some of the items were themed baskets donated by Sunday School classes such as a kitchen basket, spa, and movie night.  Other items were donated by local businesses like coupons for bowling, coupons for ice cream, and hair care products.  We ended up raising $4,000 through the event!

With Valentine's Day falling on a Sunday, Robert's busiest day of the week, it didn't really lend itself to a romantic night out - that and having a 6 month old.  After church Robert ran to the store to buy steak for lunch, not realizing that I was also at the store to buy him a card and chocolate.  We ran into each other at the store.  Hooray for last minute shopping!  We enjoyed a nice lunch together while Sarah napped.  We decided to have the youth over for the evening instead of meeting at church like we usually do.  We watched The Incredibles and had snacks.  There were a lot of people here!  We're so thankful that we can do things like this now that we own a house.  Sarah did great and sat with the kids some and also play and napped in her room some with Emily and me.  Emily is the older sister of one of students, and I was so glad she could join us!  Most of the students stayed from 5:00-7:00, but we had a few stay until 11:30, and it was so fun to talk, watch tv, and play the Wii.  Another time we were so thankful that Sarah is an awesome sleeper and could miraculously sleep through all the laughter and shouting.  21 year old me wouldn't have picked this scenario for Valentine's Day, but 25 year old me thought it was such a great way to spend our day!

Wearing her fancy robe in honor of Valentine's Day

For President's Day on Monday my mom came over since she had the day off from school!  So thankful to live near them again!  Mom helped me give Sarah a bath, held Sarah while she napped and I folded 200 pounds of laundry (roughly), I went to the gym while Sarah and Mom hung out, enjoyed lunch together, talked while Sarah napped, played, and even went for a stroller ride.  I'm still working on convincing Mom to move in.  Hint hint, nudge nudge.

Homemade Baby Food

It's no secret that Robert and I are on a tight budget due to living off of his single income.  I'm always looking for ways to save us money whether it be by shopping at Aldi, line drying Sarah's diapers (or even just using cloth for that matter), and getting creative with leftovers.  So when Sarah turned six months old and it was time to introduce fruits and vegetables I knew that I would primarily be feeding her homemade baby food to save money and to provide her with wholesome, single ingredient foods.  I know one of the biggest negatives that comes to mind when thinking about homemade baby food is the time commitment.  However, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way!

So far I've made green beans, avocado, acorn squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, and apple sauce, and they've all been very successful.  A few things I've learned through personal experimentation and through online and book research include:

• Use fresh when you can (duh), but when something isn't in season you should shoot for frozen.  You really don't want to make baby food from canned fruits or vegetables.  Fresh and frozen will be the most nutrient-rich options compared to canned.  It will also be fresher and won't have any seasonings or sugars added to it.  I've used all fresh so far except for green beans as they obviously aren't in season in February.
• The best cooking method is baking/roasting, second place is steaming, and you really want to avoid boiling or microwaving.  Boiling and microwaving will remove a lot of nutrients.  Also, if you think about it, as an adult don't most foods that you enjoy taste better baked or steamed than boiled or microwaved?  I know that a baked sweet potato tastes better than a microwaved sweet potato and that steamed broccoli tastes better than boiled broccoli.  Your baby feels the same way!
• There seems to be conflicting thought on whether you should re-use your steaming/boiling water or get fresh water to thin out the baby food.  I can see benefits to both perspectives.  By re-using your water maybe you're re-adding some vitamins that escaped, but by using fresh water maybe you're avoiding re-adding any dirty, germy water back into your food.  I'm not convinced that one option is superior over the other.  There are some foods that don't even need water added, such as apples.  There are other foods like sweet potatoes that are rather dry and just need some liquid in order to puree.  Generally, it's best to add as little liquid as possible during the pureeing process, especially if you'll be freezing the puree.  The consistency will change during the freezing and thawing process, and you'd rather have to add more liquid right before serving than regretting that you added too much before freezing and now it's watery.  Just plan to add liquid as needed when you're ready to serve the food.
• Pureeing the food - I've used a fork for ripe avocado, and I'd imagine you could do the same with bananas.  When I need to puree foods, I use our Ninja, and it works very well.  I didn't use the large container but opted to use the single-serve, smoothie cup instead.  From personal experience, blenders always seem to work better if they're about 75% full.  You obviously don't want it so full that it overflows when you put on the lid, but they also just don't work when they're fairly empty.
• Storing and serving - If you're making a small batch you can just store it in the refrigerator for a few days.  You want to make sure that you store the food in single portion sizes because you don't want to re-use any leftovers due to contamination from saliva.  If you aren't serving the food fairly quickly, then you can freeze the food.  That's what I've been doing.  I spoon the food into ice cube trays, freeze it overnight, pop them out the next day, and store them in a labeled freezer bag.  They can stay in the freezer for months.  I just get out a cube a few hours before serving so it can defrost.

• Cold pressed oil - Babies need lots of good, healthy fats to develop properly.  Babies under two should receive 40-50% of their daily calories through healthy fats.  Babies get lots of healthy fats through breast milk and formula, but it's helpful to add in fats to baby food.  You don't need much - only about 1 tablespoon a day.  Good fats also make foods taste better.  Think about it - having a little fat on your meat adds so much flavor and prevents it from getting dry.  Baby food acts the same way.  
• Fats to avoid
• Partially hydrogenated oils
• Vegetables oils
• Margarine
• Good fats:
• Cold pressed, organic coconut oil
• Cold pressed, unrefined extra virgin oil
• Organic, grass fed butter
• Avocado
• Wait a few days in between trying new foods.  I know the chance of your baby being allergic to sweet potato is very low.  Have you ever met anyone allergic to sweet potato?  Neither have I.  Regardless of the allergy food, your baby's body needs time to learn how to digest these new flavors and consistencies, so it helps to avoid overwhelming her system by introducing foods over the course of a few days.
• Sarah seems to naturally like orange and yellow vegetables like carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes because they're sweet.  Green foods that aren't as sweet such as avocado and green beans didn't appeal to her as much on their own.  Actually, she hated them.  When she ate green beans she made herself gag and threw up.  It was disgusting.  So I read that you can ease your baby into a new food by mixing it with a familiar taste such as breast milk, formula, or cereal, and it totally worked for Sarah!



Hating avocado without cereal





Reaching for more avocado when mixed with cereal

After Sarah finishes the food I've already made her I plan to make butternut squash, peas, bananas, apricot, pears, and pumpkins.  I've read that nectarine, mango, papaya, peach, and plum are also good first foods, but those just aren't easily accessible and tasty in southwest Missouri in February.  My favorite website for resources has been Wholesome Baby Food, and my favorite book as been one that my parents got me when Sarah was born, and it's called The Top 100 Healthy Recipes for Babies & Toddlers. So how about you?  Have you had success making baby food?  Any good and funny baby food catastrophes?