five things Friday: mother lovin' edition

Today might be Cinco de Mayo, but it should also be look-ahead-to-Mother's-Day day, because your mom taught you not to procrastinate, right? Here are 5 great ways to show your mother some love next weekend:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

These temporary tattoos might not be a great thing to give to your mom, but wouldn't it be fun to show up to a Mother's Day brunch wearing your mom's heart on your sleeve (so to speak)? And maybe give her a tiny heart attack that you went and got a ridiculous tattoo... But the mom pin that looks like a tattoo would be a fun thing to gift, wouldn't it? (As would anything from the Pintrill line!) Or the pretty you + me bracelets from Gorjana, so you can tell her how much you love her and give yourself favorite kid status by wearing the matching one. Ha!

Or for a little DIY project, I really love these cards from Lovely Indeed - I feel like lunch making is the mother-son love language we have going on around here, so a card like that would speak volumes.

a day in the [young preschooler] mom life

I came across my previous "day in the life" posts and had such fun reading through them, remembering what those earlier stages of Hendrik-hood (and pre-parenthood!) were like, that I thought I'd better do another one, for memory's sake. This time we're calling it the "young preschooler" era, since Hendrik will quickly correct you on his status in the (daycare) world if you try to call him a toddler.

2:30 - (yes, 2:30am) wake up to Hendrik yelling about needing his blankets put back on, and then lay awake listening to the poor kid cough for a long time.

5:50 - Peter's alarm goes off and I (lovingly?) nudge him out of bed so I can spread-eagle across the mattress for a few minutes until it's time for mine.

6:00 - officially wake up and drag myself out of bed (not easy after last night), pull on some workout clothes (no thinking involved), and head down the hall to my office to get started on work for the day. I really like working in this quiet, dark time - it feels so productive. Plus sometimes I get to see some spectacular sunrises out my office window.

7:10 - Hendrik announces he's awake, i.e., shouts "I have to go pee!" at the top of his lungs, so I get him to the bathroom and then dressed, and make our beds, because having made-up beds makes me happy.

7:30 - send Hendrik and Peter out the door for school (daycare) and work and sit back down to work some more myself.

8:00 - make a quick eggs + sausage breakfast for me and the standard dog food one for Ginger while I get some more emails done.

8:30 - take Ginger for a quick walk. On the days I have a babysitter I usually go to the gym in the morning, since I have childcare for longer into the afternoon, but school pickup comes quickly on Thursdays so if there's a lot of work to be done, I change up the routine.

9:00 - work, work, work.

12:00 - refer to my Cladwell app for a quick outfit idea (so handy!), run the straightener through my hair, and slap on some makeup.

12:15 - time to pick up Hendrik from school. We do a couple of quick errands on the way home - often some grocery shopping, but today a stop at the drycleaners and the bank.

1:00 - playroom time. This is almost always Duplos, but this day Hendrik decides to shake things up and gets out the race track + Matchbox cars.

1:30 - while Hendrik is occupied, I pop into the kitchen for some lunch and maybe read some blogs while I'm at it.

1:45 - potty break...one requiring a book and some time.

2:15 - take Hendrik upstairs to do the nap routine - which is no longer a nap aside from about once a week - of two books + two songs. I set his light-up clock for 1/2 hour and tell him he's allowed to yell when, and only when, it turns green ("quiet time" has been a struggle lately). Back downstairs to work on editing a manuscript while he's in bed.

3:00 - the yells of "my bug clock is on!" begin, so I go up to get Hendrik a stack of books and then get to do a little reading myself while he pages through his. If he actually falls asleep for a nap then I get a bit more time to read, work on a blog post, or catch up on the DVR.

3:30 - get Hendrik up and notice that the laundry baskets are somehow overflowing again, so I have him help me collect dirty clothes and throw in a load of laundry.

4:00 - head to the gym, where Hendrik plays in the kid's club and I go to one of my current favorite classes, which is a mix of yoga, pilates + stretching. I did spinning yesterday, so this is a good next-day activity.

5:15 - I know it's going to be a late day for Peter in the operating room, so we make a stop at the library on the way home. Our library has such a nice, light-filled upstairs kids department, so we both like hanging out here reading books and playing with the train table.

6:00 - sit Hendrik on the couch with his current favorite on Amazon Prime video (Bob the Builder, ugh) and feel no shame in it because (a) I just read him 10 books at the library, and (b) making dinner is so much more enjoyable in peace and quiet. Tonight I'm trying a new recipe from Pinterest.

6:45 - usually we're able to sit down at the table all together by about 6:15-6:30 but today we eat in shifts at the counter because Hendrik's hungry and Peter's really stuck at work late.

7:15 - Peter and Hendrik usually head off to play some Legos while I finish cleaning up after dinner and get some other things done (such as, oh yeah! I started a load of laundry...better go put it in the dryer).

7:45 - I join in playtime. Sometimes lately Hendrik and I have been sitting down at the piano together, which is double fun because I'm hanging out with him, plus I get to brush up on some stuff I haven't played in a long time.

8:00 - I get the bedtime routine started with potty, pjs, and teeth brushing, and then Peter comes up to read books.

8:15 - put my feet up to read my own book for a while until Peter comes back down!

9:00 - sit with Peter in the living room to catch up, and also catch up on our DVR - during which I'm pretty much always multi-tasking: folding the laundry, working on some blog stuff, commenting on Currently linkup posts.

10:00 - get ready for bed and fall asleep hoping for a less cough-filled night for all of us!


The days vary a bit based on whether we have the nanny or Hendrik goes to school, and on whether I'm super busy or less so with work, but this recent Thursday is fairly typical, as much as a day can be with a 3-year-old, anyway...

mini me Monday: managing mealtime

I used to be so proud of all the interesting things that Hendrik liked to eat... guacamole and hummus by the spoonful, tikka masala sauce on his veggies. And then he became a toddler and I realized the error of my thoughts. Oh, is he ever finicky now.

With a toddler, the dinner table can be much more like a battle zone than the idyllic gathering place you'd envision - the pickyness turns into acting out at the table and us wanting to bag this whole "family dinner" thing for just a few minutes of peace. While we still have our fair share of toddler trials, here are some of our tactics for attempting to make mealtime more manageable:

Make dinner a fun occasion

The book French Kids Eat Everything was a great inspiration for many things related to kid eating (highly recommend), but one that really made a difference at our dinner times in particular was the idea of making mealtime special/fun. Partly an attitude adjustment for me (taking the emotional investment out, quitting the cajoling, and just eating), and partly turning the everyday meal into an occasion by setting the table nicely and using special settings, like personalized placemats or colorful napkins.

The author suggests "surprise" dishes - special bowls or cups with little pictures or sayings at the bottom that get uncovered if the little one eats all of his/her food - as one idea, and I love these personalized Shutterfly plates as one way to do it. Hendrik is so proud of his very own plates with the "H for Hendrik" and photos on them, which gets him excited to sit down at his spot.

We also try to use the time to have fun together - sing songs that Hendrik has learned at school, have conversations about things that interest Hendrik to no end, such as which animals live in the ocean or which animals roar - as well as to model that there are times mommy and daddy get to talk about subjects that interest them as well.

Develop rituals

Though it's nice to make dinner an "occasion", we also make it feel kind of everyday, as there are certain things we do at the table each night, like setting the table a certain way, sitting in our particular spots, holding hands while we pray, talking about our favorite thing from the day. Having rituals/routine signals to toddlers what's happening and what to expect, and I think that kind of routine can be helpful with behavior.

Give them choice

While I am making one meal for the family rather than catering to toddler whims, I still always make sure there's at least one thing on the table that Hendrik likes (usually some kind of fruit/applesauce). I also give him everything at once, rather than holding out ("if you eat the chicken, then you'll get the applesauce") as I've found it works better if he gets to choose what order to eat things. Usually he'll eat the favorite thing first and then move on; sometimes he just eats the favorite thing, and that's that - he hasn't lost the (cute) little pot belly yet, so I don't think it's a problem!

Also, very much inspired by this blog post, I give (or try to anyway - sometimes it's hard to not try to feel emotionally invested in how much he takes in or be pushy about what I want him to eat!) Hendrik the choice of whether and how much he eats. Think about it - how hard would it be to be a toddler and have so many things dictated for you? Parents choose when and where dinner happens, along with what it is, and leave it at that. The kid's not going to starve, we're not having as many power battles, and eventually he figures out based on example (especially if it's an admired cousin or uncle sitting with him) that trying new things isn't so scary.

Get them involved

To involve Hendrik more in the activity of dinner (and - bonus - occupy him during some of the pre-dinner whining time!), I have him help set the table. A 2.5-year-old can easily put a placemat, napkin, and silverware at everyone's place, even if I don't yet trust him with handling ceramic plates or glasses full of water.

Napkins are an especially fun part of setting the table for him: I discovered somewhat by accident that Hendrik loves the idea of having his own napkin and putting it on his lap like mommy and daddy, and he loves even more having special different napkins. I've collected quite an array of patterned and seasonal napkins from places like Ikea and Target, and he gets to choose one for each of us each evening.

Personalized placemats are another fun part of setting the table - with these ones I made on Shutterfly Hendrik knows whose goes where on the table, and he loves talking about the illustrations and photos of himself.

Additionally, now that Hendrik eats in a booster chair at the table, rather than a high chair next to it, he gets to be fully involved in the "ceremony" of dinner.

Give them time 

Hendrik is a slow eater, and I think that's pretty typical for toddlers. Remembering that he's highly distractable is helpful so we can gently get him back on track, but also it helps to just give him some time and space. If I just back off from trying to get him to put things in his mouth, he'll usually eventually do it. (As with all toddler things it's a fine line from this to pushing the limits of messing around or lollygagging, so sometimes we do just cut him off and put the plate away...)

Avoid snacking

This was a big game-changer for us, eliminating an afternoon snack. Especially as Hendrik still naps in the late afternoon, skipping the post-nap snack helps ensure that he's actually hungry at dinner time, and that's a better recipe for actually consuming my recipes... It was a little painful when we first made that habit change, and sometimes I still give him some milk if he's really seeming starving, but for the most part it's a good habit change in our house. (Also I've noticed that when he does his 2 mornings of daycare, where they give a morning snack, he eats very little lunch, while at home he doesn't have a morning snack and is a great lunch eater.)

Resources

French Kids Eat Everything plus a helpful summary
6 Words to End Picky Eating
How to Improve Mealtime with Your Toddler
It's Hard for Them Too - great post to remind me it's just as frustrating being a toddler as being his parent!

Have you tried any of these table time tactics to make dinner more enjoyable for toddlers AND parents? Any more tips (as now's when I have to admit that we still have plenty of battles - we're currently in a throwing things phase that has us wishing every night could be date night - so clearly I don't have it all together and welcome any additional tips, or just venting time.)

Thanks to Shutterfly for providing products for use in this post; all opinions are my own.

weekend: Easter scenes

The older Hendrik gets and the more he understands holidays (both the fun traditions and the meaning behind them), the more I'm loving them. I don't typically do a whole lot of decorating, etc. for Easter, but this year it was really fun to do a few special things with Hendrik - especially because with his babysitter off on spring break, we had some extra time together last week.

So over the course of the week we cut out and decorated some Easter egg cookies, which he was quite pleased about - he remembered our Christmas cookie decorating well and clearly loved the idea that there are cookie cutter shapes for other holidays - and enjoyed the whole process, right down to the last sprinkle licked off the plate.

Then on Saturday we went to his first-ever Easter egg hunt, at a neighborhood church. I think we'll be filling those plastic eggs with little trinkets and re-hiding them around the house for weeks. Sunday he got treated to an Easter basket from my parents (between the treats from the hunt and the grandparents, I didn't have to do much), and though the weather wasn't warm enough for super Easter-y outfits, I couldn't resist this little chambray clip-on tie from the Target dollar section. His first tie!

Though I knew he'd have fun with it all, at the beginning of the week I was sort of thinking, what's the difference whether we do any Easter activities, since he doesn't really know they exist yet? But then I listened to a recent episode of Gretchen Rubin's Happier podcast in which she referenced one of her happiness-building resolutions: celebrate minor holidays. Though of course this one isn't minor, with a toddler the same principle applies: using a holiday as an opporunity to mark time in a special way, doing some special things that help you make memories/family traditions, enjoy the seasons/current stage of life, and bring some light-heartedness into life.

We (well, I) like our routines around here, but sometimes it's good to break out of them, and to delight Hendrik with something out of the ordinary - because he really does show his delight. Especially when I let him have a huge brownie at the Easter egg hunt...

How was your Easter weekend?

make it Monday: Instagram memory books

I'm still really into Gretchen Rubin's Happier podcast, and recently I was thinking about one of the regular discussion features as it applies to my own life: happiness stumbling blocks. These are little things that seem like they should be minor, but they really have a negative effect on happiness. One of my motherhood happiness stumbling blocks: that I've never made Hendrik's baby photo album. (And now he's two, so I'm an additional year behind beyond just the baby book!) The fact that it's out there, unmade, occurs to me from time to time and just makes me feel bad. And it's become even more saddening every time I see how excited he is to look at photos of himself, and of the family.

Somehow the idea of selecting the photos out of the zillions I have on my computer, uploading them, and then actually making the album just seems WAY too daunting. But I did at least make one step in the right direction right around when he turned one: I had an album printed with all the Instagram photos from his first year (and there were many). Through Shutterfly, a few of the daunting barriers were removed, because the site will directly import all of your photos right from Instagram, and the 8x8 book options are relatively inexpensive and have plenty of layout options that work really well for square photos. And since they're "just" Instagram photos, I didn't feel the pressure to make the book perfect, but just to stick some photos on some pages and have something in hand!

It was actually kind of fun to arrange the photos by theme and come up with hashtag captions for each page that described the phase or the season. So given Hendrik's love of looking through it, and my slowness to have any other albums printed, I took advantage of a Valentine's Day sale and made a new 2015 Instagram book for the family. I love it! And now I really need to get on that actual album... someday.

How do you print/share/display your family photos? I've heard of lots of other great and easy ways to print Instagram photos in particular that would be even faster to do right from your phone like Chatbooks and Artifact Uprising, and I've also done some other fun projects with Instagram photos, like Stickygram magnets, a memory game, and a big framed display.

p.s. not a sponsored post - just a happy customer!

mom realizations, part 3

I recently pulled out some size 2T jammies that my mom bought on clearance for Hendrik when he was just a couple of months old. I remember having difficulty imagining how he would ever be big enough for them... and now, along with the 2T sizing, there are a myriad of ways that I know I'm the mom of a toddler.

... you carry an emergency ziploc baggie of crayons in every purse.

... you experience at least one "I said I'd never do that" or "I think I just sounded exactly like my mother" moment a day.

... you spend your entire meal time negotiating how many bites (score one for "said I'd never").

... you bookmark every "sneaky veggie" recipe you see (score another).

... you start having those new baby pangs every time you look back at old photos of your kid.

... you have a whole lexicon that makes perfect sense in your family but gets some confused looks from anyone else.

For example:

night night - pacifier
knuffle - security blanket/stuffed animal
Mr. Bob - our BOB jogging stroller
meatball - any kind of meat with sauce
cookie - any kind of cookie/candy/brownie (though only until this month, when thanks to vacation, birthday, and pre-Halloween he's got a handle on these terms much better)
school - daycare
buttons - remote control
you - I/me
I - you (gets very confusing, this lack of pronoun understanding!)

See the infant and the boy versions for other "you know, when" motherhood moments. Can you relate?

Photos are a sneak peek of our latest photo session, by Janelle Coffey.

two-sday

Usually on the blog Fridays are all about 5 things, but this weekend we're all about celebrating a different number around here - so today it's not Friday; it's Two-sday. Tonight we're having a shindig with family and friends to celebrate Hendrik's second birthday (how has this happened to my little baby before I've even managed to make his one-year photo album? Time flies!).

Not going to lie and say that I've absolutely loved every moment of year 2 (toddlerhood most certainly has its trials), but I can say that not a day goes by that I don't marvel at how great my kid is, or feel amazed that I could possibly have grown and birthed such a sweet, clever, funny, insanely adorable, and stubborn (oh, lawdy!) little creature.

Some how the older and less dependent on me he gets, the more fiercely I feel that bond of having given birth to this amazing boy and lucky that he's the one who made me a mother. It makes me both super exited and terrified to see what kid he turns into in the next year and beyond (I admit, occasionally I wish he'd never grow up both for nostalgic reasons and for the ability impose my will... pretty sure this will end up being the last year I get to pick his birthday party theme and his Halloween costume!).

We're so looking forward to celebrating our boy with his taco two-sday party and lots of friends and family tomorrow night - happy birthday, Henkie Pie!

mini me Monday: toddler mealtime

Hendrik's always been a pretty good eater, but the finicky tendencies that I gather just come with the toddler territory peaked recently, and about all I could get him to reliably eat was avocados. There are worse things thankfully, but I like to know he's getting the proper variety in his intake, of course, so it was getting a little frustrating when he'd do things like demolish two eggs one day and refuse to touch them the next, etc.

(recipe for egg muffins here and avocado blueberry muffins here)

The solution that's been working really well recently: a divided plate. He loves it - always requesting his "monster plate" - and I like how it easily helps me portion out a variety of things for him. Plus, I think having this plate suits his 1.5-going-on-4 independent mentality because it gives him choices of what to eat when, versus when I would give him one thing at a time. He's been devouring things off this plate lately - these are some recent examples of meals that went over well.

Now the next goal is to up the percentage of vegetable intake, since if any portion of the plate goes uneaten, it's that one... I keep just putting stuff on the plate and hoping eventually he'll be willing to put some of these things into his mouth. At breakfast time a surefire way to incorporate vegetables is to make a smoothie - large handful of spinach down the tubes there! I incorporate it into his egg muffins too.

Though he's getting old enough that I'm trying to avoid using them any more, pouches were always a reliable way to get in the veggies - though I never quite knew how much of the actual vegetable he was getting, vs. the fruit, when I'd buy something like "spinach, peas, and pears." So I love how Beech-Nut is changing their labels to include the percentages of each ingredient. This transparency in labeling is so nice for people who want to know what goes into their kiddos' food; check out more information on Beech-Nut's new labels and see the percentage breakdown of ingredients here.

We sometimes still use pouches for convenience, when we travel or go out, and though I made my own baby food when he was younger, it was occasionally very helpful to have something pre-packaged when we were traveling or really busy. I think it'll go the same way when we have another baby at some point - and definitely these helpful new labels from Beech-Nut would sway me to using their product after learning that some of the other brands we were occasionally using don't contain nearly as much of the "healthy" ingredient as you'd expect or hope (more on that here). I would feel good knowing exactly how much vegetable intake my kid is actually getting out of one of these, since that's what I'm working on increasing!
How do you get your kids to eat their veggies?

This post was sponsored by Beech-Nut, but all opinions are my own.

mom realizations, part 2

When Hendrik was about 4 months old I, wrote a mom realization post -  you know, stuff like "you know you're a mom when you involuntary start bouncing when you hear a baby crying." In this toddler stage, the mom realization moments are much more boy focused.

... you feel compelled to point out every school bus, construction vehicle, and airplane - even when the kid's not with you.

... you find little cars and balls floating around in your purse.

... you spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to hunt down cute summer sandals (I love boy clothes, but why can't anyone come up with not-ugly sandals for them? There are a zillion options for girls!).

... you can recite all of Little Blue Truck and Trucks Roll.

... you get all excited about hearing sirens.

... you get corrected by your child that you're looking at a backhoe, not a digger.

... you buy pjs with rocket ships on them.

That little pointer finger is all about boy stuff too - in this case it was spotting birds, but usually it's finding every Jeep on every walk we take...

Photos from our Florida trip, taken by my brother's friend Noah. He's a pre-med college student and on the side makes photos this gorgeous - so not fair. (And great as he is, unfortunately nothing he could do about the effects of humidity on my hair... geesh.)

five things Friday: what a mom wants edition

In honor of Mother's Day this weekend (how is it the 2nd time this holiday applies to me already?!) I thought I'd do a little roundup of 5 things that the newer/younger moms might want. They're all a little something fun for her, but still super practical for her lifestyle:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

mami tee: on trend, on topic, and perfect for achieving practical but cute mom style (like in these looks or this one).

phone case: cute but also very useful to protect the phone from little grabby hands that accidentally knock it onto the floor. I love all of the Rifle Paper Co. options that Shopbop carries in their great gift suggestion section, and the Kate Spade line is awfully cute too.

pouches: as I showed in my recent tote bag post, these are sooo handy for keeping organized for moms who carry around a giant bag with their stuff and their toddler's.

necklace: the wooden bead necklaces from The Jones Market are really pretty statement pieces to spice up mom style, and they're also super baby-friendly - non-toxic and tuggable, as they say.

heart print: I love my DIY poster version, but isn't this heart collage from Minted also a perfect way to display your favorite Instagrams? (And if you're a mom, let's face it, they're mostly of your kid. Or your date nights.)

I'd happily take one of each, but this graphic from Babble is spot on in what I really want:

I realized already on my first Mother's Day that there's a funny contrast in how much moms want to celebrate Mother's Day with their kids. My mom wants all of her kids gathered 'round, now that we're out of the nest. But when the child is a baby/toddler? I love him oh so much and thank him for making me a mom, but I see him every day... so if there's a day we do special things for moms, I'll take a break from being one for a few, thank you very much. After this month of teething, a bad cold, and now an 18-month sleep regression (why the #$%& must this be a thing?!), I'll take that break and sleep. And wine.

Lucky me, I get it all this year - a weekend visit from my parents, so I can hang out with my mumsie on the day, and then they're taking Hendrik back to Michigan to take care of while I'm on a work trip next week - but a day early, so I get a freebie before taking off for Denver.

Happy weekend, and I hope you all get to hug the moms and babies in your life to celebrate!

Sharing on Friday's Fab Favorites.

a day in the [toddler mom] life

Soon after I started back working full time after Hendrik was born, I recorded what a typical day in my work-from-home new mom life entailed. By this point, it's hard to even imagine that he was ever that small, so it's kind of cool to have that reminder of what everyday life was like. A year later, the days are just as full, but sooo much different. Here's the toddler version:

6:00 - alarm goes off and I throw some clothes on before climbing back under the covers (furnace hasn't come on yet!) and pulling out the laptop to get a head start on the workday

8:00 - head downstairs to start a load of laundry and get breakfast ready for Hendrik and Ginger

8:15 - sounds like Hendrik's awake - I open his door to find this smiling face with greetings of "mommy!" and get some nice hugs to start out my morning when I pick him up

8:30 - the nanny arrives, so I grab my own breakfast and my work bag, kiss Hendrik goodbye, and head out for the day

8:45 - at this age, Hendrik gets kind of whiny when he sees me around the house,while the nanny's here, so I've been working mostly at coffee shops or the library - today I head over

1:00 - quick stop at Trader Joe's for some dinner ingredients; I can't resist a couple of $4 tulip bunches too

1:30 - time to send the nanny home and get myself a late lunch while Hendrik's still napping; I multitask with finishing up some work while I eat (can't get enough of these adorable mini pretzels - perfect for dipping in hummus)

2:15 - move the laundry over to the dyer and then watch part of the latest Downton Abbey on DVR while reading some blogs

2:45 - Hendrik wakes up and we read some books to ease back into the world - and then play! Balls, cars, and his mini pots & pans set are the favorites right now

3:45 - remember there's laundry in the dryer to be put away; Hendrik "helps" by digging all the socks out of the basket while I fold

4:00 - snack time - current favorites are anything dipped in peanut butter or hummus

4:15 - head over to the gym, where Hendrik has a blast having free reign of the kids' club, and I get a workout in (finally able to do a little light jogging/biking after my injury, but also trying to keep up my alternative activities)

5:00 - finally, my shower for the day! Taking it at the gym while Hendrik is in the kids' club buys me some time to blow dry my hair & put on makeup

5:45 - back home, Hendrik plays with his pots & pans while I prepare his dinner (and Ginger's)

6:00 - dinner time for the big-eating little man - today it's a chicken sausage, pureed peas, and madarin oranges - while I empty the dishwasher and start chopping dinner ingredients

6:30 - daddy's home! He entertains Hendrik for a few while I finish up making our dinner

6:45 - we eat dinner (today a regular favorite, fish taco bowls) in the living room and catch up on our days while Hendrik plays and climbs around us

7:00 - Hendrik plays with daddy while I put away the dishes, and then we all participate in some cleanup time

7:30 - bath time and teeth brushing for Hendrik, two highlights of his day - he can't get enough of his rubber duck and his Elmo toothbrush

8:00 - after putting on his PJs, I read Hendrik a couple of books, and then Peter takes over for the night time bottle

8:15 - work on some blog posts - today I'm putting together a Valentine's gift grid - usually while Peter does some reading/preparing for the next day's cases, but since it's Friday he has some downtime and volunteers to do a frozen yogurt run (to which I would never say no)

9:00 - catch up on the DVR together, or get in a few episodes of our new favorite on Netflix - Parks & Rec - while enjoying our frozen yogurt; also I paint my nails for fun

10:15 - get ready for bed while the heated mattress pad warms up my side, and then climb in to read for a bit while Peter showers

10:45 - lights out so that we can get some rest before doing it all again tomorrow! (Luckily in this case "tomorrow" was a Saturday and Hendrik slept in past 8 - a treat for all)

It's amazing to record all of this and then compare to the 3-month-old version. So many things have changed so much from a year ago, but some things always remain the same (like evening ice cream, obviously). I really liked that age - 3 months felt like a turning point in better routines, longer night-time sleep stretches, and happier baby days compared to the newborn stage - but 15 months really is great. So fun to interact with him as he plays and explores the world, to have him be able to talk to us and give us hugs... oh, and to regularly get 11-12 hours of sleep a night out of him!

Sharing on Dearest Love's Coffee Date.

how to: make your own baby food

I don't love cooking, but I must admit I've been having a lot of fun coming up with and making Hendrik's meals since he started on solid foods. Not going to lie though: sometimes it can be a little bit of a drag to have to think ahead on the prep and try to find time to make purees or roast veggies, rather than just buying some ready-to-eat jars at the grocery store, but overall it's something I'm really glad I'm doing.

Most people will cite cost as their rationale for making their own baby food, and while I probably am saving money over buying baby food off the shelf, which is great, I haven't paid that much attention to the cost difference. I do buy a lot of the produce organic (especially the dirty dozen) or use things from our CSA, so I'm not doing it on the super-cheap. Another common reason is knowing exactly what goes in baby's food, which is also good - but I could feel fairly comfortable with some of the organic options out there.

So while I do like the above reasons, what really got me on this was wanting my kids to be adventurous eaters and wanting mealtime to be an everybody thing, not an "adult food" and "kid food" thing. I want them to be able to go out to restaurants and be willing to try new things, and to not kick up any fuss about a well-rounded diet. And I think this can really start from an early age. I love the idea of baby led weaning for this, but Hendrik just wasn't into that, so we started with purees, but (aside from sweets) I always give him a little taste, even if it's just a lick of something off my fingertip, of whatever we're eating in the spirit of getting him to try new things. And I'm always amazed at the variety that he really loves tasting! Everything from BBQ sauce to lime wedges to tart frozen yogurt (okay, occasionally he gets to try sweet things). So making baby food, with him sitting in his high chair watching and talking about what we're making/eating - and eventually participating in - the prep works for these goals.

Supplies

I love our Beaba Babycook, which steams and purees foods all in one little machine. Sure, it's a little pricey, and you could just as easily use pots & pans or the microwave to steam food and then put them in your regular food processor, but this thing just makes it so simple that we decided it was worth the money. And I love that part of the theory behind it isn't that you have to spend lots of time making huge batches of baby food (though you can, and I sometimes do), but it's a machine that helps you feed baby whatever the "regular" dinner you're making is.

Veggie peelers, a cutting board, and a knife are all you need for prep, since once everything's chopped up it just goes right into the Babycook, which comes with a handy little manual to tell you how much water to measure out for steaming which kinds of fruits/veggies.

While I make some food on demand, especially now that Hendrik's eating more cut up solid foods, I do things in batches to freeze about every other day. Usually I'll chop up a veggie or fruit and steam it while I'm cooking dinner, and then I spoon the purees in these nice stackable OXO storage containers to keep in the freezer. It only takes about 10 minutes of hands-on time to make a few days' worth of food this way. We go through the stuff fast enough now that I don't worry too much about labeling with "made on" dates, but it is nice to have these removable labels to keep track of what's in the containers, since once they're frozen, it can be kinda hard to tell apart things like cauliflower and pears.

And recipe books aren't absolutely necessary, but I borrowed Tyler Florence's Fresh Start and the French-inspired Bebe Gourmet to get some ideas for things to mix. I especially love the Tyler Florence book - lots of good toddler meal ideas as well that look like things I'd want to make for us to eat too!

Foods

Now onto what I've been making with these supplies, broken down by age range:

5-6 months: purees

At first we just experimented with any fruits and veggies I could think of to steam/puree, and I made them very smooth and fairly thin as Hendrik was just figuring out this non-liquid and spoon thing. He also really didn't like anything chunky at all (so though I like the idea of baby led weaning, it wasn't for us at this point!). This would also be the time that people would do rice cereals, but I decided against it. And since at first he was just practicing with this whole eating thing (so much of the food ends up on the face/bib rather than in the belly...we joked that he got in about 6 calories per sitting!), we kept the normal bottle schedule.

Here's what we made at this age:

• veggies: carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, peas, green beans, cauliflower, parsnips and turnips. Most of these came from the organic section at the grocery store and a few from our CSA boxes, but peas I actually did from frozen. Everything got steamed and then pureed with a little butter for flavor & healthy fat.
• fruits: apples, pears, peaches, nectarines. Usually I'd add some cinnamon to the apples and pears for fun. And from the get go Henk loved all of these and gobbled them up - so I learned quickly to offer veggies first and fruits for "dessert"!

7-8 months: mashes and puree mixes

Once he got a bit more used to eating (and we knew that he didn't seem to have any allergies - though to be honest, we didn't worry too much about that introducing one food at a time thing and waiting a few days to see if he reacted... we were more focused on introducing as much variety as possible after reading about how introduction to a wide range of flavors as early as possible is important for later), I started to mix stuff together a bit to get variety of flavor, or to mix in some other sauces/flavors from what we were eating. I made batches of everything separate and then just mixed together different flavors on-demand. We also started doing non-steamed stuff that could just be mashed up, to start getting him used to a little more texture, along with introducing whole milk yogurt (which he also loved immediately).

• mashes: avocado (with lime! basically just fed him our guacamole), banana
• puree mixes: beets + pears, cauliflower + tikka masala sauce (he seriously loves this), avocado + banana + yogurt, avocado + spinach + yogurt. Some of these recipes I got from the great Tyler Florence book.
• cheerios: we also practiced - and mastered quickly! - the pincer grasp with cheerios... obviously not something I made at home, but they feel safe (with an ENT doctor for a dad, potential choking hazards are high on the radar around here) and set us up for the next phase of finger foods!

9+ months: thicker/chunkier mixes, finger foods, and snacks

By this point, we're getting a lot closer to the shared meals, since Hendrik's old enough to have meat/eggs and is doing really well with self-feeding. His meals are much heavier on the finger foods and thus can include a lot more of what we're eating. He also doesn't mind thicker or chunkier purees, so that allows a bit more latitude. He's eating so much and so well (3x/day, plus a snack time) that we eliminated one of the four 7-ounce bottles he'd been having up to this point.

• thicker/chunkier mixes: sweet potato + apple + quinoa, potato + kale 
• finger food: things like roasted sweet potatoes, cut up strawberries, bananas, and peaches, scrambled eggs, small bits of lamb or chicken burgers, tacos, falafel, or fish from our meals.
• snacks: this is the one area I go more store-bought, with things like biscuits, rice cakes, puffs. They're all mostly fruit/veggie based without added sugar, are great for teething or practicing chewing, and he loves them, so I'm good with that (though I think they taste like cardboard) I've also done homemade popsicles for him (these molds are the perfect size), either with the banana/avocado/yogurt mixture or with one of those organic food pouches that has yogurt in it (his favorite so far: mango, carrot, greek yogurt).

Helpful resources

Aside from the cookbooks I mentioned above and the pamphlet that came with the Babycook, I've found a few baby food related resources online that have been really helpful for formulating an approach to baby meals or for coming up with recipes/combos:

• The starting solids series on Sparkling Footsteps covers everything from introducing solids to how to structure baby's diet to actually making the food/recipes. Worth reading!
• Jen of Jen Loves Kev also uses the Babycook and posted a great batch of recipe ideas.
• I also really liked the book Real Food for Mother and Baby (though I read only the baby feeding section, none of the pregnancy/nursing stuff). I don't buy in totally to all of this stuff, but I really like the whole foods, eat-what-we're-eating approach and there are some good suggestions.
• Pinterest of course always has recipe ideas to supply, like the teething biscuits I posted about earlier. My inspiration board is here if you're looking for ideas.

So that's our adventures in baby food making - so far! It really is doable - I had fears of needing to spend entire weekends churning out food to freeze, but taking an approach of trying to incorporate some of what you're already making t the moment into baby's meal. So far Henk is a great eater and seems on his way to having a wide-ranging palette... we'll see if that holds, but fingers crossed!

wearing lately: mom formula for summer

I don't think motherhood necessitates wearing jeans/shorts and t-shirts - I mean, maybe things get messier as kids get older, but I wear white jeans around here with no mishaps - but on the no-nanny days they just seem to be best suited for walks to the park, crawling around on the floor, and sitting cross-legged with a baby on my lap at story time. The formula I've settled on for such days: a base of shorts or jeans + a patterned tee for interest + a necklace for some shine. Practical but still feels stylish and me.

tee (similar) and sandals: Old Navy | shorts: J.Crew | necklace: BaubleBar | diaper clutch: Built

Usually my quick and easy approach to summer wear is dresses, and I've still been getting a lot of use of those for going out, working at the coffee shop when the nanny is around, etc. - but for days that are primarily mom duty ones, outfits like these have become my quick & easy uniform. I like that even though they're somewhat more casual than my usual preference, they still fit my personal style statement of classic basics with a twist - doesn't get much more basic than jeans, shorts, or a black & white striped tee, but the twists of bright colors/patterns, cool lace-up sandals, or statement necklaces keep it interesting.

tee (similar): J.Crew | jeans: Loft | sandals: Old Navy | necklace (similar): BaubleBar | sunnies: Toms

Interesting to think back on how the functionality of my first new mom outfit formulas (v. 1 and v. 2) differ from the mom uniform now - frontal access no longer being a concern, and ability to crawl around the floor being a chief one!

By the way, some other patterned t-shirt + necklace combos I like:

Sharing on Summer Style, Style Sessions, and The Creative Closet (for the bold & bright components of these outfits!).

weekend: mommy & me time

It was a mommy & me kind of weekend around here, with our nanny taking the day off on Friday and Peter working on Saturday and Sunday. We did our usual fun stuff around the house like reading books, going for walks, rolling around on the floor, eating homemade popsicles, and nap time (aka mommy free time!) but we also planned a couple of fun outings around town:

Friday morning we started out with story/song time at the Blue Manatee. I can't believe I haven't gone in there before - such an adorable kids' bookstore, and it even has this cute little cafe attached. The story time was short and sweet, and Hendrik was just as mesmerized by all the other kids as he was by the guitar playing Miss Sarah. We decided to pick out a book on our way out - he adores these touch & feel ones and did not want to let go of it when I took it off the shelf and showed it to him.

I'm so glad I put this on the list of 30 things to do before we move away from Cincinnati because now we know how great the Blue Manatee is! We'll be back for browsing and for story time I'm sure.

We also took a trip over to Ted's Toy Store, our little local shop, because they had a silhouette artist in for the day. I wish I could have gotten a photo of this in action - Hendrik sat on my lap, and the assistant lady stood in front of us and entertained him with toys so he would keep looking straight ahead, and the artist sat next to us on the floor with paper and scissors and just started snipping away. And in about 3 minutes, he had a pile of scraps on the floor and handed me this silhouette! Seriously impressive how he cut it freehand like that, and seriously break-my-heart adorable how it turned out.

So fun that Hendrik's starting to get to the age we can do outings geared toward him, instead of just having him tag along on ours (though he does enjoy those too). Did you do anything new around town this weekend?