Boy, life has been craziness.  I’ve been trying to focus on my four year old over the last couple of days to get him potty trained.  I’m using a reward system with a chart up in his bathroom to get him an incentive to not have accidents.  It’s hard to say if it’s working yet or not.  He still soils his pants and has number one accidents daily.  I’m doing tons of laundry, and he must be potty-trained for school this fall… so I’m getting a little anxious and frustrated.  I’m open to suggestions if anyone has any!  We’ve been trying to potty train on and off for about two years, so I’m ready for solutions!  To top that off, our employee was out on Monday, my husband had a dentist appointment today, so basically we’ve been a man short for the last two days.  Craziness!  I’m just trying to stay a float if you know what I mean!  

I gave Anna, my baby, sweet potatoes yesterday.  Boy that’s a winner.  She loves them, and they are so easy to make.  Just put them in the oven like a baked potato on 400 for about 35-45 minutes.  Use a fork to check for doneness.  Make sure they are really soft but not burnt.  Let cool, spoon out the meat, and blend!  Easy!  

I’m getting up early tomorrow to go to my CRHP accountability group.   This week we are discussing the second chapter from “The 7 Secrets of the Eucharist.”  So far it’s a really good read, and it’s very informative.  If you looking to drive deeper into the church’s teaching on the Eucharist, I’d highly recommend it.  It has good solid teaching (at least the part of it I’ve read so far) and it quotes good, solid sources such as the Diary of St. Faustina and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  

On another note, my four year old is going to a Protestant vacation bible school this week.  I normally wouldn’t do that, but I know the school/church well since he has attended preschool there for two years.  He is very comfortable there because he knows the other kids and the teachers so it works out best (he’s really shy).  I sat in on the last 15 minutes or so of the hour and a half session today.  Interesting, I have to say.  They were very enthusiastic about teaching the kids about Jesus’s love for us and really got the kids involved which is more than I can say for some of the Catholic programs I’ve seen (some not all!)  But I admit it lacked substance besides that.  Maybe it’s because I only saw 15 minutes.  Nevertheless, my son has a great time and comes home excited about God which is always a good thing.  But the moral of the story is that I am 100% grateful for many blessings and depth of the Catholic faith.  It’s really like a diamond with many facets.

Well, that’s all for now.  God love you. 

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Tonight I made two types of squash for Anna to try. So far so good with my new blender. It makes a nice even blend and is easy to use. The only problem I’ve hadd to that I haven’t been very successful with the pour spout. Hopefully I won’t wear out the motor on this one like I did with my last one! I haven’t tried out my mini food processor yet, but I will when I get to that stage.

Anywho… I made butternut squash and yellow squash. I hoping these go over better than the peas. She wasn’t too fond of them! Here are the recipes:

Butternut Squash: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pull out a cookie sheet and cover with foil (makes for easy clean-up.) Rinse squash off. Cut in half vertically (lengthwise) to that you expose the seed cavity in both halves. Use a tablespoon to scoop out the seeds and “guts” (just like you are carving a pumpkin.) Lay your two halves meat side up on the cookie sheet and bake for 90 minutes for an average to large size squash. (Times may vary depending on the size of the squash. If you have a smaller squash, start checking it at 40 minutes.) The squash is done when it is soft like a well baked potato. I stick a fork tito the meat of the squash to test the softness. If it is not done when the timer goes off I put it back in for 15-20 minutes and check again. Once done, let cook. Scoop out the meat, put in blender, and blend. Mashing with a potato masher works too but it’s more work. Add water to thin out the mix if needed. As with many foods, make it thinner for younger babies and thicker for more experienced ones. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze.

Yellow Squash: Rinse off the squash. For younger babies like mine, it might be wise to peel the skin. For older babies with more eating experience, you can leave the skin after scrubbing it clean as they can digest foods better. Cut the squash into small 1/2 cubes. Boil or steam themuntil very soft and tender. They should be easy to mash with a fork. Retain water in case you want to water down your mix a bit. Put soft, cooked cubes into your blender and blend! Pour your mix into ice cube trays and freeze. Easy huh? I don’t add water to these because after you freeze and thaw you naturally water down quite a bit.

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Today I started mashed peas for Anna.  Here’s how I make them from start to finish:

About 8 oz. of frozen peas (normally I prefer fresh produce, but it’s tough to find peas in the fresh produce area in Texas)

1/4 cup water

Dump the peas and water into a bowl and microwave until very tender.  (In my microwave, it’s about a minute and a half.) When done, pour the entire bowl (water and peas both) into a blender or food processor.  Blend until smooth for beginners (around 6 months) or leave a little chucky for older babies.  The amount of water is the key is the thickness.  For a 6 month old, I use a little more water to thin it out.  As they get older, I make it thicker by using a little less water.

I then pour the mix into an ice cube tray and freeze.  I fill the cubes about 3/4 full.  For a 6 month old, 1-2 cubes is a serving.  I use the Oxo Ice Cube Trays (found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond) because they have lids so t makes it easier to stack several trays in the freezer.  I leave the cubes to freeze.  Once frozen, I dump the frozen cubes into a ziplock bags and label them appropriately with the type of food and date.  Use the cubes within one month to maintain freshness.  Also I don’t recommend freezing your baby food in glass jars as they have a tendency to break.

Every couple days I pull out the cubes I want to feed the baby and let them thaw in the refrigerator in a bowl for each meal.  Use them within 1-2 days.

The preparation time is about 20 minutes, and this recipe yields about 8-12 cubes.

Good luck!

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Yesterday I started Anna with oatmeal cereal. I use Gerber’s Organic Oatmeal Cereal for Babies. So far so good, so I think I’m going to move on to veggies within the next couple days. I’m thinking right now that the first veggies will be squash or peas. I haven’t decided which. Anyways, preparing the oatmeal is just like the rice cereal. You can use water if you don’t feel like pumping breastmilk.

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I started rice cereal today with my little baby girl.  She was excited but made her share of funny faces at the new taste.  Hopefully I got some great pictures of her many expressions.  Here’s the baby food plan now that we have started: cereals, then veggies (squash, potatoes, green beans, peas, carrots, etc.), then fruits (everything except for berries), and lastly the meats.  I’ll post my recipes as I perfect them.  Obviously no eggs, nuts, or honey until the baby is at least 12 months, if not older. I plan on making all the baby food from fresh (or frozen when fresh isn’t practical or available) produce in my blender.  With my first child, I wore out my blender making baby food, so we’ll see how it goes this time.  (I got a much stronger one for Christmas.) I’m going to try to make batches every week then freeze the food in ice trays.  Every couple of days I’m going to pull out a few cubes to thaw out.  Anyways… I’ll let you all know how it goes.

As for today’s recipe: 1/2 ounce of freshly pumped breastmilk (which is more familiar to the baby than formula if you’ve been nursing until starting solids) and about 1/2 Tbsp of Earth’s Best Whole Grain Rice Cereal. It’s all about the consistency. You want it to be thin enough to be very similiar to milk/formula but thick enough to stay on a baby spoon. I try to get mine to be the consistency of yogurt, definitely runny but not totally watery. Serve at room temperature. My baby didn’t eat it all and probably won’t for a little while. It’s all about learning about all the new tastes. Yummy!

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