Saturday 12 January 2008

Making baby food

I make Lucas his food. We buy all organic, lovely produce and meats. It's important that he eat well; that is, until he discovers Cheetos and we start wondering why we ever shelled out billions for organic free range chicken in the first place.

Like every parenting book and website out there suggests I would make a bunch of food, store it in mini containers and pop it in the freezer to use in the oncoming days. No more! Critter McG does not like previously frozen food. He only eats freshly made food, which makes food shopping and cooking just that more time consuming.

Like a fool I used to throw everything in a pot of water and let it boil up together, then purée it with an immersion blender. No more! I started reading online that a lot of the essential vitamins and nutrients of food are lost in prolonged boiling. (Which makes sense.) So now I only boil the meat. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc, go in the oven with the skin on, other veg gets steamed... God, how much time do I spend on critter food?!? Well, a lot. At least he eats it happily. It would be another story if most of it ended up on the floor or something.

These are two good websites for baby food ideas, tips, recipes, etc:

http://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/babymenua.htm

Tuesday 8 January 2008

You and me at 8 months

When the critter was about 2 months old he loved to look up at trees. We thought it was so sweet -poetic even. Hi friend J, who is a month younger, got into the tree thing exactly one month after Lucas. His mom and I were both quietly disappointed. It's a phase, after all, not the whimsical predilection of our tree-hugging babies. Oh well.

Now at eight months Lucas is doing a myriad of things which I'm sure many babies have done before to the utter wonderment of their first time parents. He just started babbling (ok, so he's behind... lay off me!), he takes steps with assistance, he can pick up small tiny objects and many other fantastic things.

These are some of the things M. le Bonchibón enjoys doing - this is where he's at:

1. He's a champion all-star peek-a-booer. He even initiates the game.

2. Books with flaps. They will probably not last forever because Hercules here goes wild once in a while, but he can get his little fingers to poke those flaps open every time.

3. Critter McG loves loves loves (almost as much as I like saying things in triplicate, you know, for emphasis) games where he does something to us, such as touching Wynn's toes and making him laugh and giggle, or pulling on my hair, making my head drop forcefully (which seemed like a good idea at the time.)

4. The Bonchibón experiments with every cup, bowl and pot that crosses his way: he talks (fine, grunts) into them. The small echo is wonderful. (We do it too - it is pretty exciting).

5. He very recently started touching himself, experimenting. Every chance he gets. (How long till we stop thinking this is adorable?)

6. Zippers rock. Anyone wearing something with zippers is a friend.

7. Putting things over his head (or as far as his little arms will allow) makes him very, very proud.