Feeding Grace

Sometimes I feel like I'm a total granola mom. I cloth diaper. I breastfeed. I buy 90% of my girls' clothes at a consignment shop. I have even become a bit obsessive when it comes to recycling. I know I'm not truly granola, but I do what I can for my girls.

One of the things I did for my oldest and now plan on doing for my 7-month-old, Grace, is making baby food instead of buying it.  I feel bad, though. With Ginny, I started cooking her food a full month before she was ready to eat solids. I had several bags in the freezer filled with foods for her to eat once she got past cereals. Grace just turned seven months old, and I have barely even started. Heck, I've had a hard time remembering that she eats solids now and getting into a routine with it. How pitiful is that?

Part of the issue has been Grace herself. She has not seemed interested in solids in the least. We started with rice cereal a month ago, but she wouldn't eat it. Her little tongue just kept pushing the cereal out of her mouth. We discussed her behavior with her doctor. He said she might not be ready for solids and to try again in a week. Now, a few weeks later, she is still not very interested in solid foods. I try every day. Most of the time, the food is pushed out. The most she has ever eaten has been four small spoonfuls.

I'm not overly concerned. After all, Grace is most definitely well-fed. I know this is just a developmental issue and totally normal. Some babies aren't ready for solids until they are 8 months old. I know that some day soon, she will be developmentally ready to eat solids. I'm aware that she may be ready for solids soon, so I need to prepare. In the meantime, I keep feeding her every day.

Another thing holding me back on getting her foods ready is our food processor is not working. The handle broke and now it won't lock in place. We need to replace the bowl so that I can have my 7-cup food processor working, something I plan to do this week. Until then, I have a small food processor I can use. It doesn't work for getting a large amount of food prepped, but it works well enough.

Peas are ready to be frozen

Pureed peas in my small processor

Until yesterday, Grace had been introduced to rice cereal, bananas, and sweet potatoes. So, I got busy preparing two more options for her, peas and carrots. The peas are simple to make. You just microwave some frozen peas in a bit of water, for about 5 minutes. Once they are done, you put the peas in the food processor, add some of the water, then process it. I always check, and if needed add a bit more water until the texture is just right. Then I spread the pea mixture into ice trays that were then put in the freezer. Each ice cube is one serving.

Carrots are in the pan to cook.

The carrots take a bit more effort. I prefer to buy organic when it comes to carrots. I peel them, then cut them into chunks. I place the carrot pieces into a pan of water and bring it to a boil. I allow the water to simmer for 10 minutes. Once done, I drain out all of the water. You really don't want to use the boiled water because of the nitrates. Then, the carrots go into the food processor to get pureed. I add water, like I did with the peas, so that the carrots are the appropriate texture. Finally, I put the carrots in the ice tray then the freezer.

Carrots for the freezer

I do have a good start on her food, but I have a lot more food to make. Tomorrow I intend to make apples for her. In the next week, I hope to get a new bowl for the processor as well as pick up pears and acorn squash for her. I have a lot of work to do. It is well worth it in the end.

Garden Love

Gardening my front lawn has been one of stages. When I first started on it, about two years after moving into our home, I had to pull out the whole section in front of the window.

Where we began!

It was a lot of work, but totally needed and very worth getting done. The following spring, a little over a year ago, I planted a few hedges and flowers. I was quite happy with the work I did and looked forward to watching it grow.

Last spring.....

Unfortunately, my plans to keep up with the garden, with weeding, and adding more flowers, did not come to fruition. You see, I was about 4 months pregnant at the time. It was a warm spring, and I was already having issues with my asthma. When I'm pregnant, my asthma gets worse. With the warmth of last summer, I could barely go outside without having issues breathing. So, working in my garden was not something I could accomplish. I found the situation frustrating, but, in the end, you do what you need to do for your own health and that of your unborn baby.  By the time that the weather eased up as well as my asthma, I was 8 months pregnant. The last place I wanted to be was on my knees in a garden. 

This spring I have been quite anxious to get back to my garden to work on it. Of course, Mother Nature was not very cooperative. Winter didn't end until early April. Then the storms came in wave after wave. Now that I have two little ones, I also have to work around their schedules to get out there. Finally, in the last week, I was able to get to work. 

My baby girl and dog kept tabs on me as I worked in the garden.

My poor garden was a mess. Grass was growing in, weeds were every where, and a strange plant just kind of showed up. Major work was needed! It took me 2 days to get the garden weeded. Just doing that made the garden look much improved! Once that was done, I saw that one plant didn't survive the summer and assessed other needs. I ended up going to a nursery to replace the plant with another perennial (I don't remember the name) and to Lowe's to pick up some begonias, a daylily and mulch.

With some help from my husband who dug a couple of holes for me, I planted the new perennials and begonias. I then added the mulch. Of course, I didn't get enough mulch. So, today I ran to the store and got more. I finished adding the mulch this afternoon and then added a garden gnome I got for Christmas (a Jayhawk basketball player). 

My finished front garden! :)

Now my garden looks lovely! I'm so happy! Next up, the backyard. Wish me luck!

My lovely garden gnome, along with the rock explaining the
split baseball loyalties in our home!

A Day at the Zoo

Ginny, Grace (she's in the carrier), and I at the zoo!

I love going to the zoo! As I mentioned once before, I especially love the St. Louis Zoo! It is a great zoo, that is constantly evolving, and it is free. What makes the zoo even better is the fact that I live within 2 hours of the zoo now. For a Midwesterner, driving 2 hours to do something for a day is nothing. We go on those types of road trips in a heartbeat.

Recently, I found myself craving the zoo. Yes, craving. Constant thoughts of the zoo kept flitting through my mind. I had a hard time letting the thought go. Of course, the thoughts started at the end of February. It was a bit cold to justify a visit. Then, we had a snow storm at the end of March, further pushing off my desired trip down to St. Louis. Finally, the weather seemed to ease into spring temperatures. May was a busy month, with activities like our vacation, my first 5K of the season, and going into St. Louis for a baseball game on Mother's Day. I kept hoping for the perfect opportunity to take the trip down, but then the storms came in, preventing my attempts to go to the zoo.

Last week I made the decision that I was going to go and not allow the weather to put us off in planning to go.  I put my plans into action by posting on FB that I was coming down and would love to meet with any friends (I went to high school in the St. Louis area) or family (most of my cousins and aunts/uncles all live there). Naturally, I pretty much heard crickets from all the people I know down there. I expected that. No biggie. I was going whether anyone was wanting to join my girls and me or not.*

I did get a quick response from one high school friend, Gwen, who let me know that she and her kids would love to join me. She wanted to know when I planned to come down and then let me know her availability. We set up our zoo "date" for today. Again, I tried to get others to join us, but I had no luck, although one person did say she was interested if not for the fact that she would be out of town.

We were supposed to meet at 9:30 this morning at the south entrance. Normally, I'm quite punctual. In fact, I'm usually 10-15 minutes early to everything. Today, I was 30 minutes late. Being late crushes my soul. It is an awful feeling. I made a couple of mistakes which prevented me from being on time. I forgot to factor in the time to stop and nurse my baby, Grace. I should have considered that, but I figured she would make it the whole way down and I could nurse her after we arrived. Grace let me know that she was hungry before we got there. Also, I did not think that Ginny, my toddler, would have a meltdown when I stopped to feed Grace. And, my last mistake was the zoo itself. I forgot how insane it can be to get into the zoo. I was thinking that since it was a weekday it would be a non-issue. However, since school is out, a weekday is like a weekend at the zoo until summer comes to an end.

Elephants! (Isn't the baby adorable?)

I was grateful that Gwen didn't kick my butt for being so late. She was very kind and patient in waiting for us. The weather was perfection! It was partly sunny, temps were in the low 70s, and there was a nice breeze. The weather made for a pleasant time walking around the zoo with our kids. Ginny really enjoyed seeing the animals! Of course, many animals hid from us so we couldn't see them. Typical. Ginny did get a thrill when she saw the elephants for the first time. She also seemed to enjoy the apes (which she calls monkeys, but hey, how do you explain the difference to a two-year-old?).

While we were walking around the zoo, Gwen let me borrow a toddler leash backpack thing for Ginny to use so she could get out of her stroller. I will admit to holding a certain bias against leashes for kids. They usually bother me a lot.  Today, though, I discovered the nice thing about them. They are great for crowds! Ginny could be free to walk around and at her own pace, for the most part, while using the leash. Without the leash, she would have needed to stay in the stroller or hold on to it while walking or hold my hand. Now, I'm actually considering getting one for her.

Ginny enjoying her chicken tenders at Applebees!

When it got close to lunch, Gwen and her kids needed to leave for home. Ginny, Grace, and I stayed around a bit longer so we could go to the monkey house and stop at the gift shop. After making a couple of purchases at the gift shop, we headed to the car. I had hoped to get lunch at my favorite pizza place, Imo's, before heading home. The school bus parked in the Imo's parking lot forced me to change my mind. Instead, we stopped at an Applebee's on our way home.

It really was a fabulous day! I look forward to going down for another visit to the zoo. Maybe I should make  going to the zoo a monthly adventure. We shall see!


*I should note right here, for those who are wondering, that my plans did not involve my DH. My husband is not a fan of zoos in general.  (He also has the same aversion to amusement parks, like Disney World.) I don't get it, but I still drag him on occasion.  However, when I decided to make plans, I decided to plan for a day when he would be working and unable to join us. When I mentioned that to him, he seemed thrilled.