Pear-sicles and Baby Food

I mentioned before that I've been making baby food for Addison. I realized the other day that I've become one of those moms who doesn't want their baby eating weird chemicals and who knows what else - especially after the Similac recall (if you haven't heard there were beatle pieces and larva in the formula), it makes you think twice about what you're putting into your kids.

Health benefits aside...it's actually a lot of fun and pretty easy to do.

Every Saturday when we pick up our Bounitful Basket I set some of the fruit or veggies aside to make into baby food. I'm still learning what Addison can eat so I use this website a lot: http://wholesomebabyfood.com/ It tells you how to prepare the fruits and veggies and at what age you can introduce them.

So now the fun stuff.

Last week we got pears so I washed, peeled, and cut them in half (I also scooped out the seed/core thingy).



Then I put them in a pan and added enough water to come about half way up the pears. Then i put the lid on and let them steam cook for about 10 minutes.

After they were cooked and really soft I pureed them in a blender then poured them into a ziploc bag. Then I snipped off a corner of the bag and piped the pears into the trays. You could just spoon the pears in but this makes it way easier to get the puree into the ice cube trays (and way less messy ;).

Then after they've frozen I pop them out into ziploc bags. Each cube is approximately a 1 oz serving. So far Addison has been enjoying sweet potatoes, apples, and pears.

I've also found that frozen pears are AWESOME for teething. I just cut the cube into thirds and put a piece into her mesh thingy. She loves it!

So you sew?

After years of wanting a sewing machine I finally spoiled myself and bought one a few weeks ago. My mom sewed a lot of stuff for us growing up. The fact that I never had to wear a cheaply constructed grocery store Halloween costume is testiment to her skill and dedication to sewing. She sewed almost every Halloween costume I even wore (I was even Wonder Woman when I was little), clothes for us when we were kids and even sewed a dress for me for a highschool dance. Pretty much my mom rocks and I'm hoping I can be even half as cool of a mom to Addison ;)



I found a really cool tutorial on how to turn a t-shirt into a dress for a little girl. I went to the DI and found this really cute little girls Old Navy t-shirt for $2 and knew it was destined for a transformation :)





It went from this...



To this. Ta Da!

It was a little short on Addison so I cut up one of my old t-shirts and added a ruffle at the bottom for a little length.

Paired with a set of adorable Baby Legs warm ups and I'd say it's pretty darn cute. Isaiah even told me it looked professional which coming from him was the best compliment ever :)

Oh so cute

I got Addison's 4 month pics back from my friend Nickie last night. They turned out soooo cute! Here are a few of my favorites...

uh holy moly! check out those thighs!

Summer Evening

I realized our warm summers days will soon be gone and we should take advantage of the nice weather while it's here. Isaiah was working last night so Addison and I layed a blanket out and enjoyed some nice fresh air.



Someday Addison will show this picture to her kids and tell them when she was a baby she had to crawl uphill to preschool - both ways - while carrying an elephant on her back ;)

I think Addison looks a little patriotic here. I wish we had a flag in the picture too ;)

Mmmm. Sweet Potatoes

Addison has been eating rice cereal like a champ for the last few weeks so we figured it was time to branch out and find some new solids for her to try.

We tried mashed up bananas -Addison was emphatically NOT a fan! She puckered her whole face up then pushed the bananas out of her mouth with her tongue. She wouldn't even swallow what was in her mouth and just drooled and drooled until every last banana speck was out!

A few days later we tried some mashed up avocados - Addison wasn't as opposed to the avocado but she didn't eat much of it.

Last Saturday we got sweet potatoes in our bountiful basket (which if you guys haven't tried you SERIOUSLY need to do it - it's awesome). I have a friend who made all her own baby food, which I thought was a really great idea. I baked the potatoes in the oven then pureed them and froze them in individual servings in an ice cube tray. Luckily after all that work we finally had success! Addison likes sweet potatoes!

Look at this happy, messy face!

I stripped her down to her diaper. I may like to make baby food but I'm not a fan of getting it out of clothes. I even wore an apron when I fed her in case she decided to spit it at me :) LOL.

This picture is funny because it looks like she is licking her lips. She was just laughing and sticking her tongue out.

PSe

Learned some cool stuff in photoshop elements today...totally loving the picture effects!

Hoping to Adopt...

Our really good friends Heather and James put their adoption papers in. Isaiah and I feel very fortunate that we get to have a family through adoption (in fact Isaiah says he always feels bad for people who can have kids ;). We know Addison was supposed to be apart of our family and we're grateful that our lives have been blessed by adoption. We're super excited for Heather and James to be able to experience the amazingness of adoption :)


If you know anyone considering placing a baby for adoption please keep them in mind. You can refer them to their blog: highwaytoadoption.blogspot.com or just send them our way and we can get them Heather and James' info.

Thanks!!