And we're back!

Ugh...I orignally started this blog as a forum to talk about my "adventure" as a new mom when I was on my maternity leave. Then I went back to work, and any shred of "free" time has vanished. It sucks, because I feel like as a working mom, I need this outlet more than before, but have absolute no time for myself to actually sit down and write down my thoughts. I called out sick today to take a "mental" day (also my mom has had to work for the past 2 weeks, so it has been a little difficult with Alessia). I don't want to complain too much, because I know there are a lot of working moms out there who have it much more difficult than I, but this really sucks. I'm so behind at work: partly due to the extra course I'm teaching (=one less period to do my work), and because I can never find time to do it at home. Well I guess that's a lie. More like I'm not really willing to do it at home. By the time I get home from my mom's every afternoon, I have about 2 hours before Alessia goes to sleep. Subtract the time to make and feed her dinner, and there really isn't a lot of time to spend with her. I didn't have a baby to plop her in the pack and play or in front of the tv while I work. I want to enjoy her. I don't want to wake up one morning and realized I missed my little girl growing up because I was grading papers or typing lesson plans. Before I had her, I was all about work and took pride in my lessons. Now I feel like I have great ideas but neither the time nor the energy to actually execute them. *sigh* Oh well, I can only do so much.

Enough whining. For those of you (namely Tina enjoying her adventures in NZ) that check this for updates on Alessia, here's all the excitement that's been going on here:
What she's doing:

• "big-girl" crawling. Yup, she's officially on the move. She actually started last Tuesday, and is getting faster and faster. She loves chasing Danielle's cats.
• pulling herself to standing in her crib. Started that on Friday. Not so excited about that one. We have to lower the mattress again. She is so cute when she does it though...huge smile on her face - she's so proud of herself!
• walking while holding on to her crib rail.

What she's "saying"

• "dada", well actually more like "dadadadadadada"
• "mmmmm" but no mama yet
• "nanananana"
• and still doing the "gremlin" noises.

What she's eating:

• big-girl food, cut into chunks. Though she absolutely refuses to feed herself. She'll pick up the pieces and mash them between her fingers, but won't put them in her mouth. She leans forward for me to do it. Which is okay by me. I don't want her growing up too fast!
• chunks of:

1. broccoli
2. cheese
3. banana
4. kiwi
5. sweet potato
6. pasta

• pastina
• yogurt
• chicken
• turkey
• pork
• beef
• and all the "starter" fruits and veggies

Suprisingly (even to myself), I'm still making all of her food. She has actually never tasted prepared baby food. I guess it turned out being a lot easier than I originally thought, so I've kept up with it. God knows it's been saving us a lot of money, especially combined with the fact that we're still not giving her formula.

Ooh, and the biggest news....my little baby has teeth! One officially "out" - bottom right rises up from the gums. Bottom left has cut through the gums, and top right is just about through as well. I just noticed the top one last night while I was tickling her on the floor. I don't have any pics because she refuses to show us her teeth, but hopefully soon. I'm at my mom's for the week while the hubs is in AZ, so I don't have any pics to upload right now, but if you check out Danielle's weekly winners, she has two of Alessia from Sat.

One of my new year's resolutions was to try to find time (ha!)for myself to continue blogging and get back into yoga, so hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a new post!

More yummy food

Alessia is just loving "big people" food. We have now introduced protein (meat) into her diet. After her Thanksgiving meal of turkey and sweet potatoes, we have tried chicken and beef. She loves either of them mixed with peas and carrots - which I think taste like chicken soup and beef stew - and chicken with butternut squash. When I first started making her baby food, I didn't think I would do the meats, but now I realize it's just as easy as the fruits and veggies. If we're going to eat chicken, I just make some plain for her. Same with the beef. And since she'll eat her food pretty thick, I don't have to water it down too much or puree it to death. It still manages to look a little appetizing.

chicken with peas and carrots

Chicken with butternut squash

No picture of the beef, sorry. Actually that one didn't look too appealing, but it tasted good! Thanks to my little cuisinart mini chopper thing, it takes no time at all.
Any other suggestions for meals? Other combos?

Happy Thanksgiving (better late than never!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Not only was this Alessia's first, but also our first time hosting Thanksgiving. Since both my brother and sister are out of the country, I had my parents over along with mark's, his brother wife and kids. I think it was a success. Of course I continued my mom's tradition of making entirely too much food, but now we have lots of yummy leftovers. For those of you who enjoy cooking, here's two yummy recipes we made: Porcini mushroom turkey and Cauliflower and brussels sprout gratin with Pine nut breadcrumb topping from Bon Appetit magazine. In addition, the menu featured 8 other sides (yes I'm crazy): roasted artichokes, rice stuffing (a tradition in my family), broccoli rabe, cranberry sauce (made fresh), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted squash and parsnip medley, and corn bread. Oh and we started with a few appetizers: bruschetta, mixed antipasto and cheese and crackers. Thankfully, my in-laws made dessert: apple and pumpkin pies and my sisterinlaw made cookies. Can't wait to see the gas bill after having the oven and stove on all day, but it was well worth it. The turkey came out delicious; I splurged and got an all-natural free range turkey from the local butcher, and I swear you can taste a difference.
Alessia was sooo well behaved and sat at the table through the whole long dinner, mostly in her high chair, then passed around like a hot potato. She enjoyed some sweet potatoes (actually ate all of mine) and some turkey. It was so exciting to see Alessia enjoy her own little thanksgiving dinner. I pureed some of our turkey and added some sweet potato. She sucked it down like there was no tomorrow!


This Thanksgiving, I was so thankful for my beautiful little girl and my wonderful husband (as well as the rest of the family and all our friends).

And now the holiday season has officially begun! We're off to the mall to visit Santa, people watch and get some presents. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Where did the time go??

Sorry I've been MIA - things have been hectic around here and I just don't know where the time went. Work is really getting to me. I'm having a hard time juggling everything and having any spare moments to even think, let alone blog. I guess I can't be supermom and a superteacher at the same time. Something's bound to be half-assed, and right now it's definitely the teacher. My heart just is not in it for the first time since I started teaching. I would so much rather be home with my baby. But that ain't happenin, so let's move on, shall we?

Since I don't have much time these days, I'll give a quick rundown of what's been happening:
New foods for Alessia:

• bananas - she loves them, but they don't love her.
• green beans - did NOT like them at first. Actually gagged and puked (well the puking is Mark's fault. He made me give her another spoonful just so he could see her make a sour face, then she puked it all up) But after a few attempts and mixing it with brown rice cereal, she eats it.
• carrots - yum! They're sweet, so of course she loved them
• mangoes - these she just can't get enough of, probably because they taste like candy
• oatmeal - prefers it to rice cereal

What she's doing:

• sitting up on her own for long periods of time. She will actually sit and play with her toys. Until she starts getting nosy and looks around and...KABOOM! falls over.
• a kind of military crawl, a few paces, then rolls over or "swims" on the floor
• stands up holding onto the bars of her gymini - this is her absolute favorite. Sometimes she throws a fit if you don't let her stand up to play.
• "walks" when you hold her under her arms. Actually puts one foot in front of the other and will walk for as long as you hold her.
• making all sorts of sounds, and LOUDLY! She's been doing a lot of "singing" lately

um...I think that's about it! Now I should go do some real work *sigh* Is it June yet??

oh yea, I forgot, yay Obama!! As Oprah said, "Hope won". I'm so excited to bring Alessia up with a true example of "you can be whatever you want to be".

yum yum yum

it's official, Alessia looooves food. And loves to let you know she loves it. She insists on "singing" while you feed her. Tonight she practiced her "eeee" and "aaayyy" sounds while she chowed down on some butternut squash. Cute, but makes it difficult to feed her. Today she also had avocado for the first time. My mom said she made a funny face at first, but still ate it. So far, she hasn't rejected anything. Soon to come: oatmeal (we've been eating brown rice cereal), peas, green beans, and carrots. I have to get some recipes for some yummy combos for her as well. Any suggestions?

Tomorrow I'm playing hookie from work so I can spend the whole day with her and show her off in her costume. We're driving all over creation to make the rounds to all the "important" people, then back home to do some trick-or-treating with Danielle, Eliza and Pete. Can't wait!

...and we're back!

Sorry I've been MIA (though did anyone really care?). There have been plenty of blog-worthy events and topics, however for various reasons - being freakin exhausted, having to self-censor, and having absolutely no time to do anything - I haven't posted a thing. So here's some news:

Alessia is 6 months today! How the hell did that happen?! She's too cute. I'm too lazy to download any pics because this computer is too slow for my patience tonight, so I'll have to add some tomorrow. But here's just a few amazing (well at least to me) things she has been doing:

• make an array of noises, some even I can't make
• transfer objects from one hand to the other, even tiny pieces of ribbon on her toys
• sit up with minimal assistance
• rock on all fours - actually she kind of does like a military crawl, but gets annoyed after a while and decides it's just faster to roll around to get places
• anticipate what's going to happen in her favorite bedtime books - every night when we read The Going to Bed Book, right before the last line "...they rock and rock and rock to sleep." she starts to smile and giggle cuz she knows we're about to rock her. When we read Good Morning, Good Night, she gets ansy for the last page where she can play with the little blanket that covers the baby.
• she's starting to love "peek-a-boo"
• she gives me huge, tight hugs when I pick her up from my mom's everyday

She's been enjoying "big people food" for the past 2 weeks, and so far has had apple sauce, pears, bananas, sweet potato and butternut squash. She's loved them all, and gets so excited when she sees the bowls coming. It's all been homemade, so I'm happy she likes them.

She was supposed to have her 6 month check up tomorrow, but when I didn't get a call from the office to confirm, I called them only to find out that someone cancelled the appointment without calling me, and she wasn't in the system. So we're going next week. No biggie. I'm happy she's not getting shots tomorrow, but really wanted to see how much she weighs. I guess I'll just have to wait!

more big people food and other updates

This weekend Alessia had applesauce for the first time! (homemade) The first time we got a mixed review when she had it separately - I don't think the apples I used were really sweet. But she ate it when I mixed it into the cereal. Today she was uberexcited when she saw the bowl, and was lovin the cereal, but still not excited about the apples on their own. I mixed it in, and then kept sneaking her some apple-only spoonfuls on the side.

Yesterday I also made her pears and sweet potatoes and froze them. I figure we'll try the pears Wed. then try either the sweet potatoes or squash on Sat. Should be fun!

So while food has been going well, Alessia's sleep patterns have been horrible. For the past week, she has been waking up around 10 screaming and will only calm down if I go get her. If Mark gets her she continues to wail and look for me. As soon as I pick her up she falls back asleep, but I can't get her to go back in her crib. I wonder if she could be having nightmares? Last night while I was holding her, she started to whimper then cry again in her sleep like she was scared. I tried a night light earlier in the week but it didn't seem to make a difference. I'll try it again tonight, and hoping it will work. Before going back to work, getting her to go to bed and sleep had gotten so much easier. The past two months have felt like we took 3 steps back. I just hope it'll get better soon! I can't take all these wakings during the night when I have to get up before 5 in the morning.

Okay, I've procrastinated doing my lesson plans enough. I'm off!

yumm-o

Day 2 of real food for Alessia: organic brown rice cereal again this morning, just thicker. Big success. Most of it actually stayed in her mouth and got to her belly this time. And Mark called it - she's a hummer. Just like sometimes when she nurses, she likes to hum while she eats. Today she kept grabbing the spoon as I put it in her mouth and wouldn't let me take it out. I had to grab another spoon for her to play with just so I could pry the other one out of her clutches. When she finished what was in the bowl, she cried and made her usual panting for more food noises, so I made a smidge more and a bit thicker. She loved it. It's very exciting around here!

So now we start thinking about fruit and veggies. I started looking on the web for some recipes and advice on what should really be organic (the so-called "dirty dozen") and what doesn't really matter, and what to start with. Danielle led me to wholesomebabyfood, which I found very useful. Got a few basic recipes and went off to the store to get provisions.

Day 1: Applesauce. I used the apples we picked last weekend. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've ever made it! It's not a typical dish you'd find in an Italian household, so I actually needed a recipe for it. Boy did I feel dumb when I realized all you had to do was peel, core, chop and boil/steam them. But it was fun. Alessia was very interested in the whole process.



I didn't buy enough trays to make more than one kind of food in a day, so I'll have to do a little at a time. What's to come: Butternut and acorn squash, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, and pears. As we introduce them, I'll let you know what she likes.

You know, I never imagined I would be the kind of mom I am: breastfeeding, babywearing, green (as much as I can be), and making my own babyfood. But I'm loving it. Except for the part where I have to go to work everyday. I could live without that for now. And I think that surprises me the most.

My little baby is growing up!

My little girl is growing up! We made the decision to start her on cereal this weekend (which I know my family thinks we should've done like 2 months ago). Alessia has been super interested in food for about the past month, drooling like crazy and "chewing" when she sees us eating. If she's on my lap, she reaches for my food and stares at me as I put it in my mouth, following the fork with her eyes. I was very adamant about waiting until she was 6 months, keeping her diet exclusively breastmilk. We almost made it - she'll be 6 months in about 2 weeks. This past week, her usual bottles just weren't cutting it for her, and even on my days off, she was eating like a fiend. There is no way I can get more milk for her, so rather than trying to increase the quantity, I decided it was time to introduce cereal. Why not just supplement with formula you may ask? We've made it this far without it, it doesn't make sense to start for two weeks.

So how'd it go? Take a look:

At first she didn't know what to do with it, but after a while, she was real excited and doing a pretty good job getting it down. So over the next few days we'll experiment with the thickness of it (it was very soupy today), then I guess we'll start to add some fruit. We're using HappyBaby organic brown rice cereal to start with, then I want to try the oatmeal and multigrain. I haven't been able to get their frozen food yet - none of the stores near me carry it, so I got someEarth's Best stage 1 pears to start. I've also hear good things about Tasty Baby from Danielle, so am thinking about trying that out. I really want to try making my own food, I just have to find the time and get some appropriate size (and safe) containers to freeze it in. I was planning on making apple sauce with the apples we picked, but have not gotten around to it yet and we've already eaten most of them. So it's off to the store or maybe the farm next door. I also got some yummy squashes from the farm that I figured I would roast and puree.


I would gladly welcome any yummy recipes you have that your babies enjoyed or any suggestions of products.