Fun with food...

This making baby food thing is addicting :) It has been come a weekend project to see what I can come up with and how many different and to me "strange" foods I can come up with to feed my poor unsuspecting baby. I am not sure why I am find such fun in making her food...I HATE to cook...maybe it's the challenge to do something I never thought I would even consider...kind of like breastfeeding. I can't even remember what possessed me to try to make baby food with Mackenzie, but it was much easier than I expected and so far I'm finding the same to be true this go around. I do like that I know exactly what I am feeding Brooklynn and that there are no preservatives in her food, but on the other hand Kenzie had "normal" baby food and she is perfectly fine! I have even taken to freezing the purees in cute shaped ice cube trays...not that anyone other than myself even notices :)

So far I have made:

~butternut squash

~sweet potatoes

~carrots

~peas

~green beans

~pears

~apples

~acorn squash

Brooklynn does not prefer her green veggies, but she seems to tolerate the green veggies mixed with the orange ones. Tomorrow I will start her on fruits, I have a feeling she is going to like those :) I bought mangos to make, but then read that I should not start those until after 8m, so I need to see if they are one that I can freeze for a bit. I am interested to start trying different recipes and mixes to see how much variety we can give her!

Child labor???

I swear I didn't force my 3 y/o to clean the tub with a scrub brush!!! Goofy Mackenzie nearly begged to help us clean up today. She found my little scrub brush and followed me around while I cleaned up the master bath asking over and over to "scrub the dirt". Who can say no to a little help. I was impressed....I think she stood in her tub for a good 15 minutes just scrubbing away. She asked if it was clean enough after about 10 minutes and I told her it looked perfect...I guess perfect was not good enough because she said she saw more dirt and scrubbed for another 5 minutes :)

Now if I can only keep her interested in helping out with house work when she is 13 :) Fat chance I'm guessing!!!

I should write a book...

...of the crazy things that come out of Mackenzie's mouth. Yesterday she convinced me to buy purple, not pastel purple but PURPLE sand for her sand and water table. So, we came home with neon purple sand and she spent the better part of an hour constructing sand castles and then smashing them flat. After much convincing we got her inside for her nightly bath. She fights taking a bath tooth and nail like usual...you would think for being a princess in training she would prefer to be clean...I guess she is the pig pen princess :) As she is drying off and the water is finishing draining from the tub she exclaims "Look mommy I am a REAL princess, I have purple dirt!!!" The bottom of the tub was covered with purple sand. What can you say to that...so I just agreed "Of course you are a princess with your purple dirt!" When I picked her up from daycare today the teacher chuckled as she told me how Mackenzie shared her newly found "real" princess status with the rest of the class...makes me wonder what else she shares with her little friends!

Maybe someday soon she will let me take a normal looking picture of her!!!

Stranger anxiety...

Yup, my sweet baby girl seems to have the beginnings of stranger anxiety. I wasn't expecting this, I've not had this before! Mackenzie is a social butterfly and has been from day one. She is almost friendly to a fault...she may take a second to warm up, but then everyone is her friend. Not so much with my little Brooklynn. Even people she is familiar with and likes tend to bring on tears when she first sees them. She eventually warms up, but it takes quite a while and she prefers mom to be in sight. I will admit that it is kind of nice to be wanted :) Kenzie is a daddy's girl and has been since day one. I feel bad at times because our family wants to hold her and play with her and she just crys and looks away from them. She is such a happy go lucky baby that it is so odd for her to cry! I wonder if she is going to be more on the shy side like her mama? I hope not...

Fake laughing

Brooklynn is such a goof. She has figured out the art of fake laughing. It is absolutely hillarious. She makes this funny "hahahaha" sound and then looks to see if you are looking. If you are not she does it again, just a little louder. She almost always ends up cracking herself up and going into full on belly laughs. I guess my little stinker has figured out how to get a little more attention :)

FOOD!!!

Baby food that is :) We finally introduced purees to Brooklynn and she couldn't be more pleased! Cereal wasn't going to hot as most of it still ends up on her and not in her belly. We don't have that problem with purees!!! So far she has had squash and sweet potatoes and eats them like a champ. With Mackenzie I made most of the fruit she ate, but wasn't up to tackling the veggies. Well, I'm giving veggies a go with Brooklynn...poor kid :) So far so good. Never thought I would be one to make my own baby food, but then again I never thought I would still be nursing her at 6 months either. I guess I should never say never... So, if I can figure out how to puree green veggies smoothly I may actually be able to make all of her baby food. That is my next parenting goal :)

"I'm soooo hungry I had to resort to licking my tray...poor starving baby I am!"

Easter

Mackenzie was so into finding her Easter eggs the Easter Bunny hid this year she could barely contain herself. In fact, Friday at 2:30am she came strolling into our bedroom, hoped up on the bed, and proceeded to ask me if the Easter Bunny had been here yet and if her aunt Jessie was here. This went on for an hour before I fell back to sleep! I finally convinced her to lay down by promising that her aunt would be at her house the following day...she even did a celebratory dance...it would have been a whole lot cuter if it had not been at such an ungodly early hour :) She had a blast hunting eggs in the morning,again at church, and one final time when Jason's brother's girlfriends son was here. I love this age...everything is still so fun and exciting for her. She finds fun in EVERYTHING!!!


Brooklynn's first Easter was uneventful for her...she was her happy go lucky self :) She snoozed through church and all the egg hunting activities, but made sure she was wide awake when it was time to eat :) The girl doesn't miss a meal. Though she couldn't join in on Easter dinner, she surely enjoyed her squash!!! It took her a while to catch on, but she is really taken to her baby food!