July, 2009:

I am learning so much from parenting Violet – she is far more needy and dependent then my son Jacob ever was – but in return she is far more affectionate, snugly, and smiley they he was also…..she is fiercely dramatic in all of her emotions….I think she is a sensitive soul like I am – my emotions when I feel them are strong and very evident in my reactions and interactions…..My gut instinct is that Violet will be like this also.  She has a great big personality, a huge warm inviting smile and yet there is something sort of reserved, coy and shy about her……she is such a mystery that girl.  As she approaches 6 months old I feel like we are finally starting to understand each other and because of that it is getting easier and easier to parent two kids.

I’ve admitted it here before – the adjustment from one to two kids threw me off guard.  I did not ever expect that it would be  as big of an adjustment as it was…..oh my was it ever.  I remember this point in my parenting adventure with Jacob, it was the point where I breathed a huge sigh of relief, patted myself on the back and said…..you’re doing one heck of a good job Melissa.  Aside from the difficulty I am having with keeping up with the house work I am for the most part assured that I am doing a great job raising my children.  I balance the worry of the house being disorganized with the knowledge that they are only children for such a short time……the house can get clean but they can only be children for so long……I do not want to be that parent that stresses over every nook and cranny of their home and misses great opportunities with their children so I do my best to keep up and when I can’t…I’m learning to let go of any guilt or angst that I might harbor against myself.

Yes Indeed…parenting Violet has taught me so much but perhaps the most hilarious and mysterious part of being her mother is….

How on earth does a girl who is near the top of the growth charts for height have such itty bitty baby feet.

I went into a show store the other day and the lady asked me if I wanted her feet measured – I shook my head with a nod of approval and she took off Violet’s sock and I kid you now without even measuring she remarked…..

“I’m sorry we don’t carry shoes small enough for those feet.”

And so I simply laughed and said I know….because I do know – I have several cute girly pairs of shoes for her in the smallest of wee sizes and none of them fit…..I’m sure glad it’s ok for babies to be barefoot and I’m sure glad its the summer time.

I’m blogging from my patio tonight and I’ve got to say I’m way to stinking overjoyed about this!  We had thunder storms throughout most of the day and now the evening is cool but not too cool – you know that perfect temperature that this Mama always boasts so much about……ahhhh I love this kind of night, so perfect.   I’ve had a migraine now since yesterday morning and I know its because of the major weather shifts that keep happening here as much as I’d like to say its because of my children, the truth is that it is not.  As I’m sitting here now some dark clouds are rolling over head and now I’m wondering if I spoke too soon and any minute now the rain will come tumbling down cursing me for trying to do something enjoyable…we’ll see if the rain can hold off long enough to complete this entry.

I’ve called this post Odds & Ends mostly because I’m just doing a sort of rambling post, getting a few things out of my head and into writing for the sake of nothing except doing it.  Violet is just over 8 days away from turning the big 6 months old and I’m overwhelmed only because I know all too well all the adventures that come after 6 months old – eating, crawling, cruising, walking to name a few.  If you’ve been following my blog you know I’ve been starting to get some delicious vegetables pureed and frozen in anticipation of Violet’s upcoming leap into the world of real people food.  Today while we were out I picked up some organic carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, peaches, and bananas and I’m looking forward to my experience preparing these foods for Violet to enjoy.  I bought a lot of Jacob’s food in the jars and made a bit too but mostly in regards to the vegetables I stuck with the jars because I just thought it was too hard and I was worried I wouldn’t find the time but I’m astounded  at the cost difference.   Normally here in Canada a small 2 ounce jar of baby food would cost about 69 cents and in the early days that would probably do Jacob for 2 feedings……today I picked up a bag of organic carrots for $2.29 and I’m quite sure I’m going to be able to get about 10-12 servings from that bag, maybe more because I’m not sure how much puree the bag will yield…..see how much money we are saving?  It all adds up over time and I bet it tastes a whole lot better too!  It has too!

Mike and I are going to be working on a home organization plan of attack in the next little while and we’ve got several tasks and ideas to accomplish over the next little while….it’s really just a matter of sitting down and trying to sort through the things we want to do.  Some of the things off the top of my mind is to set up a little library area in one of our large storage rooms for the kids books, minimize the amount of toys in Jacob’s room, sort through and organize all of Jacob’s clothes from last fall and winter in preparation for selling them at the consignment stores, and find a way to make space in our place somewhere for me to have an area to do my scrap booking.  The bottom line of it all is that we have too much “stuff” and we really need to get rid of a whole bunch of it and make our living environment a lot more peaceful – more zen.  Heh. I’m thinking about some sort of garage sale to offload a lot of our old stuff….but I’m hoping to hold off until the time that Violet has outgrown stuff like her bassinet, baby swing, bouncy chair, etc.  The other thing we’re going to be working on is how to schedule the household tasks that need to get done so that we can stay on top of things like the laundry…I think we’re also going to be going back to our weekly meal plans….our household seems to thrive off of routine – so we’re headed back in that direction.

I’m starting to think about clothes that the kids will wear for the fall only because the fall transition lines are starting to appear at a lot of my favorite clothing stores for the kids.  I’m thinking that we’ll do a lot more mix and match this time around instead of specific outfits because I really like the ease of just pulling out a pair of jeans and having a ton of options to go with it – I still have a style that I like for Jacob……Jeans, polo’s, rugby style shirts, hoodies, and well made graphic tee’s….so far Jacob doesn’t try to have any sort of opinion about his clothing so I’m just going with what I like and waiting for the day that he tells me he doesn’t like something that I’ve chosen.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do for Violet since she’s going to most likely be crawling and I really want to keep with the layette style items until she’s outgrown that size…probably some tee’s and leggings and a lot of cute romper style outfits.    I’m not really planning to shop for fall until I manage to sell Jacob’s clothes from last year…..I’m hoping to get a couple hundred dollars to put towards the kids clothing budget – I know I can meet this goal!

So, now that I’m done clearing out the junk that’s been resting on my mind and now that I’ve most definitely bored you into ten years ago…..I’m happy to report that the dark clouds passed us by and the chilly night is still ever present.

Lucky me.

We’re experiencing unseasonably cool temperatures so far this summer and I feel like the weather gods have blessed me with an abundance of my most favorite kind of weather – the kind where you can enjoy a nice walk outside without sweat pouring from ever vulnerable spot of your flesh.  I am indeed quite content in this weather……but I’m not fooled by it, I know our time will come when the sun will beat down on us again.  I am happy to just accept it for what it is now, get outside and enjoy it while it lasts – that’s my current attitude about it.  We’ve been having a really great time outdoors as a family – particularly in the evenings when we all eat together at our patio table.  I don’t know what it is about this new ritual of ours but I find it quite enjoyable and I do look forward to it.  I think I’m going to be sorely disappointed when the winter snow and ice rolls in and we are unable to partake of the patio set…..then I suppose its back to eating at our depressing round wooden table – heh.  I’ve got a flair for the dramatic…..what can I say?  Tonight we continued our quest to eat through our freezer and used up some ground beef to make tacos…..

Jacob loved them……

And Violet just day dreamed about the days that she could be so lucky to feast upon a taco of her own.

The very same night that I made some butternut squash I used some of the time while the squash was baking to whip up an avocado puree to be frozen for Violet. Avocado’s are a great option as one of baby’s first goods because they are packed full of wonderful good fats to help baby’s brain grow and develop – many health care professionals will even suggest a food like avocado as an alternative to using the refined baby cereals that are out there.

I purchased 3 medium sized Haas Avocado‘s hoping that I would be able to yield about 8 – 1 ounce servings of Avocado. I purchased these Avocado‘s when still hard and after 3-4 days in a bowl on our counter they became soft with a gentle push of my thumb near the butt of the Avocado.

With a small sharp knife I cut through each of the Avocado until I hit the pit and then did the same with the opposite side – twisted it and voila they easily pulled apart and looked like this…..

The pit in the Avocado to the far left of your screen was HUGE and coincidentally I was unable to use this avocado. You can see that this avocado is pulling away from it’s flesh and has some black spots near its edges….when I scooped it out there was a lot of blackness so I discarded it and proceeded with only the other two Avocado‘s.

Next I just simply used a spoon and scooped all of the avocado into our blender to make the puree – you do not have to use a blender for this at all, you can simply mash it up with a fork and freeze it but with Violet’s reflux I wanted to make sure it was really smooth. You do not need to add any water, breastmilk, or formula – avocado makes a very creamy smooth puree….but if you feel it might be too thick you can add any of those – I did not.

2 Medium Sized Avocado‘s yielded approximately 1 cup of avocado puree.

I was able to get enough Avocado to make 6 – 1 ounce servings.

If I can get out this weekend I plan and hope to make some sweet potato, green beans, carrots and peas but rght now I’m not quite sure when I’ll be able to do it or how I’ll be able to get the items that I need so I might have to put it off for another week!

Jacob has been asking us to take him to the movie theatre ever since that very first day nearly a year ago when he asked us what it was. It should be no surprise that time and time again we said that he could go when he was older, but her persisted saying that he was big enough now. Jacob can generally handle a 20 minute television program but he’s never really been interested in 2 hour long movies and despite many attempts to see if he was theatre ready….he would not stay interested long enough to watch even half of a movie at home……we finally gave in and took him for his first big boy theatre experience and overall it went pretty good. There were a couple of times where he said he was “finished” with the movie but he was able to stay for the whole thing, didn’t throw a tantrum, and I didn’t end up with spilit popcorn on my lap……..success.Prior to the movie we stopped into McDonalds to get him a happy meal…I think what he loved the best though was the complete focus and attention on him from both his parents at the same time.

A mouth full of popcorn…..

Violet is approaching that crazy age – come on you know what I’m talk about. That age in infancy where you suddenly realize….this is a real person I have on my hands, and I’m actually supposed to teach it to eat food – like REAL food, real honest to goodness people food. If you’re a first time mom you probably frantically read articles, books, and message boards trying to learn everything you’re supposed to know about babies and real people food. I remember that feeling with Jacob so vividly, and I recall thinking a hundred million times that I was going to “break” him and someone was going to knock on my door and say “I’m sorry Melissa, but there’s been mistake, you’re not good enough to have this boy” – but they never came, and trust me I am beyond perfection in anything I do. Yes, Violet is indeed turning 6 months old in just a few shorts weeks and so in preparation for her first taste of real human, living people food – I am starting these Home Made Baby Food Chronicles on my blog so that I can share my adventure in making home made baby good goodness…….Jacob had a few things home made but I can definitely say he at a lot more jar food then food I prepared with my own hands in the early days – but I’ve grown and changed since then in my parenting style and this idea just sits well within me.

A great first Vegetable for Babies is Butternut Squash so I found a nice squash at a local Market which I paid $1.29 for. You’ll notice the avocado in this picture but those little fellas are featured in my next Home Made Baby Food Chronicle!

Next I halved the Butternut Squash like so….(all while the oven was pre-heating to 450 degrees Fahrenheit)

Then scooped out the seedy, stringy, not so good for pureeing stuff….

I placed the squash halves face down in a baking dish with about one inch of water. I used distilled water that we had on hand but you do not have to do this, regular tap water is fine no matter what those baby companies try to tell you!

The little fellas went for a nice sun tan in the oven for about 50 minutes with the oven at (as previously mentioned) 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

You will know that the Butternut Squash is done when the skin starts to get a toasty brown color and begins to pucker away from the squash like so…

Your squash should look like this when you remove it from the baking dish – I opted to save about a half cup of the water from the baking dish, just in case the squash needed any liquid to help it puree down – in this case it did not. It was recommended to me to save the water the vegetable was cooked in because any nutrients that seeped out during the cooking process can now be found in the water – sounds reasonable to me so I kept it just in case.

Next I scooped the squash from its shell and placed it into our blender/food processor.

It looked like this prior to being pureed….

This squash yielded just about 4 cups of puree.

I poured it out into storage containers and was able to get 12 servings consisting of 1 ounce each….and 5 servings consisting of 2 ounces. Wow! That’s a lot of feedings for just $1.29 and an hour and ten minutes of my time! It wasn’t even really an hour and ten minutes of my time because I surfed the web and tidied up while the squash baked!

Not too much longer now and Violet will be able to enjoy the fruits….errr vegetables of my labor!

It all started back when Violet was 4 months and 2 weeks old…..we had been sitting on the couch and I was about to lay her down next to me when she resisted my attempt with a strong push of back strength. I was curious to see what Violet would do if I attempted to have her sit on her own and she provided me with this response…….

I remember the floor of excitement and panic that flooded my brain at the very moment I was reaching for my camera and she was staying upright long enough for me to get the shot…and then another one….and then another one. CRAP! This is it, this it that moment in parenting when you know it’s soon time to lock away all your breakables, throw some plastic thingies into your wall outlets, and cover the edges of your coffee table in bubble wrap and duct tape (I’ve never done this last one, but it works for dramatic effect right?) – because after sitting, comes crawling, and after crawling comes cruising, and after cruising – you’re in BIG trouble…that’s it, it’s over……your freedom to leave your baby in a room and run upstairs and take a pee is GONE. I’m excited for Violet and her brand new view of the world she’s getting now that she’s entering the world of the upright…….

Now at 5 Months Old she’s pretty much got it mastered – now all she needs to do is master that art of doing it for a long time and then she’s golden! Watch out world….Look Who’s Sitting Now!

I have not written much this week but I have an excuse and trust me this time its a legit one! Yesterday marked my 31st year of life since the day I pushed my way out between my own Mama’s legs and graced the world with my lovely personality. I can now say that I am comfortably into my thirties and seriously I have absolutely no complaints! My 30th year of life was one of my best years yet and I am hoping that the rest of my thirties will prove to be much of the same. I finally managed to get some sleep the night before my birthday and Mike was gracious enough to take the kids outdoors first thing in the morning so that the house was still and quiet and I could go back to sleep and get more rest…..it felt great.

I got some great presents that the Dictator so graciously helped me open (a black Puddle Lug bag for work and a wireless keyboard and mouse for my laptop) and then we spent some time outside having a lunch bbq on our patio and celebrating the birth of our country Canada and the birth of ME! I had the kids decked out in their Canada Day gear and they looked super cute! The Dictator was in an unusually permissive mood and allowed me to get several great pictures of the kids together – I thanked him profusely because I’m sure he will be back to his camera shy self soon. The weather turned out to be quite lovely and the legion band was playing across the street in honor of Canada day……it was lovely and got only lovelier when both kids went for a nap at the same time. We had dinner at my mom’s house, even though my initial plan was to just stay home and hang out with our quartet and then we returned home and enjoyed a chocolate fudge birthday cake – before the kids sauntered off to bed (ok so Violet was really carried to bed) and I snuggled in on the couch to watch So You Think You Can Dance.

All in all a fabulous birthday for Mama, if I do say so myself.