green machine.

i think i'm becoming addicted to making baby food. our freezer is bursting at the seams and i have 3 recipes that i've been wanting to try... i'm crazy. i know i am, but they are just too easy to throw together, relatively inexpensive, and my little toots needs to eat... so... it kind of have to... maybe just not the quantity that i've been whipping up, though!

back to the food...

i like to make sure that Lu has a bit of green in every meal and this is one that's on continuous rotation. blanch some greens, toss in some fruit, a little coconut milk to thin it out, and BAM! you've got yourself some green machine baby food. i think i might start playing around more with the addition of herbs. i used to use more spices, but have kind of tapered off for some reason. oh well! 

you can tell this was a daddy day, as it was probably 5 o'clock and Toots is still in her pjs. such a cheeky little monkey!

so hungry! i'm pretty sure this is beets, blueberries, and spinach.

blend that ish up! i like to put everything in a baggie to make it easier to transfer into the ice cube trays.

i let my daughter do this step... no. no i didn't. i'm just really precise...

when all cubes have frozen, i like to write the ingredients and due date on a baggie to store. it just makes things easier when you're in a hurry, or if someone else is feeding her and they have allergies- ie. my mother in-law watches Lu 3 days a week and is allergic to squash and zucchini. this way, she won't go into anaphylactic shock when feeding her granddaughter... yikes!

 

 

  Green Machine

1 pack of frozen peas

1 bag of fresh spinach

1 bag of frozen green beans

1 bag of frozen peaches

1 can of coconut milk

 

dump bag of green beans into boiling water for about 3-4 minutes

transfer directly to ice water

blend all ingredients together

taa-daaaaa!!!

 

from there, you can either feed yo baby right away, put it into the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 4 months.

 

**fyi...i am not a fan of the peach flavor. i've made this before with apples and it turned out much better. it's not terrible by any means and i'm sure Lu doesn't even notice nor care, but i do, damnit! i will never use peaches again! well... not in the recipe that is.

cloudy with a chance.

i've been feeling so cloudy lately. not depressed or down or anything like that. just cloudy. which is making this week at work tough. i feel like my mind is fogged, that i can't keep anything straight. not like in a confused state, but more like i have a million thoughts floating through my head and it sometimes feels like grasping at straws to actually focus on one. is that normal? i think it is, well at least i hope it is!   

 

my daughter gives me life and my husband gives me fire, but me... what do i give myself? i have felt that i am at the cusp of something for a while now. something just for me. all of these thoughts just bounce around my mind, making my head cloudy... fuzzy... unable to bring things into sharp focus. it feels like a sneeze that never comes or that word that would fit a sentence perfectly, that's right there... and you just can't manage to pull it out. even writing feels... i'm so good at reading someone else's words and knowing exactly what they should've said or how a sentence should have been structured, but then i start plucking away at the keyboard and my words all seem so choppy... cloudy.

 

it's a strange feeling and i'm hoping it doesn't stick around too much longer. i've got things to do, damnit. until my mind is free and clear... i'll just keep on keeping on.... and post a bunch of pictures :)



 

i'm not sure i exist to them anymore. womp womp. (only joking... sort of)

i bought this suit plus a pair of trunks when my baby was an it... not a her. and gah!

it's too tight and i'm so sad, but i'm still bringing it to florida... i am, i say!

sew kewt!

does it get any better? i think not.

so gross. they're everywhere. turkeys. ick.

fitbit goodness.

get it with a fitbit! get fit with the bit! (for some reason, I can't stop saying that in my head... now I'm annoyed with it and wish I had never written it. oh the struggle!)

i am so late to the fitbit game. BUT. i love mine with all of my heart. 

 

if it hasn't become obvious, i'm trying to lose weight... a lot of weight and I'm starting to realize that I need little reminders here and there of how much I'm eating or how sedentary I've been, etcetera, etcetera. for me at least, tracking these things has been a real eye opener. like right now... it's noon and I haven't even hit 1,000 steps. noon! when you have a desk job, it's hard to get up, get out, and get moving. you work work work... go make some coffee... work work work... go to the bathroom... work work work... go to a meeting. it's a vicious cycle for activity and moving around. you get sucked into a project or a this or a that and before you know it, the day is done and you have no recollection of if you actually ever got out of your chair.

 

THAT, people, is why I love my fitbit. that right there. I have been in that trap for years on end... allowing myself to be chained to my desk by day and then going home and watching tv till I'd go to bed (on top of not the healthiest eating habits and a love a wine). it's a terrible, terrible pit to fall into because one day you look in the mirror and are like 'shit... who's that fatty?' and it happens in what feels like the blink of an eye.

 

but now I have my fitbit. my best friend. he tells me when I'm being super lazy or need to take a break from work and go on a walk. he also cheers me on when I reach my goal and reminds me that I'm working hard to look and feel better. oh the love affair that I am having with my fitbit!

 

it's a magical thing.

baby growth.

we've been watching lucy grow from the day that we brought her home from the hospital and from not being able to hold up her head to sitting on her own to now crawling… in circles… crawling none the less we knew that it was going to happen in the blink of an eye, but looking back through old pictures is unreal and almost heartbreaking. my big toots was such a teeny tiny little toots! now she feeds herself and thinks it's funny when she pulls my hair… even when i sternly tell her, "no, that hurts momma"… that's normal right? and not a signs of news headlines to come, right??

SO!!

knowing that this time was going to fly, i wanted to visibly document her growth and so i've been taking pictures of lu next to her kitty and gotdamn! this is my bitty baby at two weeks old.. dimple and all <3

 awwwww! she's not much bigger than kitty! and those teeny, tiny legs and those teeny, tiny toes and those teeny, tiny every things! guh. kill me now i'm in love.

and here's toots just last weekend at seven months old:

oh my word. i'm meeeelllllting!

my big baby! it really is astonishing. she still feels like my little baby, but then looking at these pictures and seeing the amount that she's grown… it's exciting, it's sad, it's fun, it's scary, it's so many different things, but mostly, it's an honor. it's an honor to be given the responsibility of raising this sweet little thing into an independent, caring, loving, strong, funny, amazing woman. wow.

how cool is that?

adventures in baby food.

I've been making little ms. Lucy's baby food for about a month now and it's been awesome... like really awesome. i love cooking, so creating little meals for my toots that are healthy and hopefully tasty has been such a fun, creative outlet for me and something that she loves to sit in her highchair and watch me do.

i've been using a lot of recipes from http://www.babyfoode.com/ she's so good. i used the 4 month purees in the beginning and once i got the hang of it, i started making up my own... which really... there ain't much to get the hang of. i really love her use of spices and hope that that helps to open up lu's palate and create a child who's not picky and willing to try new things... wishful thinking! once i've steamed and spiced and pureed, i like to put the puree into a plastic bag. i've found that it's much easier to get everything into ice cube trays this way and also, if i'm feeling spent... or we don't have any clean trays... i can just put the bag in the fridge till i'm ready. once the purees have been frozen into cubes, i put them into an already labeled ziplock (including the expiration date) and we're ready to go!

it may sound like a lot or fussy or whatever, but i'm telling you... it's such an easy process, you know exactly where the food is coming from, and it's almost just as convenient as the pouches. 

here she's eating... 

 donuts! no... but i wish i was eating those cheeky little delights right this moment. damnit.



this particular nights dinner was a combination of roasted blueberry puree and carrots with coconut milk and curry. you've got to watch it with blueberries and beets... not only will they stain anything they come into contact with, but your baby's diapers will be navy blue, which is a little shocking when you first see it. but... my girl loves 'em!

Roasted Blueberry Puree

1 pint of blueberries

a dash of cinnamon

roast blueberries at 450 for about 10-15 minutes

puree with a dash of cinnamon

tadaaa!!

Carrot & Coconut Milk

1 lb of carrots

coconut milk

spice of choice (I used curry)

steam carrots until tender

add to blender along with curry and enough coconut milk to puree

again... tadaaa!!

both of these are super simple and (after being frozen in ice cube trays and then transferred to plastic bags) are easily stored in the freezer, fridge, diaper bag... honestly... it's the best.

baby gap.

honestly, my addiction with this damn store is nearing fanatic. i check the website several times a week and have filled lu's drawers and closet to the top with stuff. that's all that it is! stuff. ugh. i need to stop... but i can't! i mean look at these... how could you say no??

these are all in my cart along with many... many of their friends just waiting to be scooped up once the friends and family sale starts. which... I'm not sure why they even have. i swear there's a new discount code every other day. one of my girlfriends and i were talking about that and wondering how they manage to make money when they're clothes are always going to their sale section within weeks of being brought on and on top of that, at least once a week there's a 35% or 40% discount going. oh well! more clothes for my baby!

yep.



and because everyone's doing it...

 

 

it's much harder to do than you'd think... well for me and my technical inabilities... and a wiggly baby.

rabbit, rabbit.

i had never heard of this folklore until recently. "rabbit rabbit"... or "white rabbit" if you're in cheery ol' England...  as your first words on the first day of the month will bring you luck for the next 30-ish days.

here's a fun NPR interview on the topic, including fun facts like FDR was a believer in the tradition and even carried around a lucky rabbits foot whilst on the campaign trail... who woulda thunk!:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=248041250

and then there's this! awwwwwww <3