Check out these cool scarfs that are actually burp cloths. While there make sure to check out the super cool diaper bags – I want one!!!

Here’s something I tried today for Bailey. I bought a bag of frozen black eyed peas with green beans in the mix. I steamed them and then added tomatoes, onions, and chicken. I thought I’d eat some and then puree some for B. I don’t think steaming the peas was the best idea, they never really got completely mushy. But they were fine for pureeing. I think she liked the mix ok. It’s just everytime I make these more complicated meals for her, they always have much more of a smell when reheated. Her other food is so bland that I’d not sure she always know what to make of the smell of the food I cook. The onions and and the peas smell great to me – but I can see where it might be strong to her.

Bailey stood for a full 10 seconds by herself last Monday while my mom was visiting. She’s only done it a few times since then – she never realizes it when she does it. She still would rather crawl than walk, but loves to stand and loves to climb even more!

All I know is, Bailey is crazy if she doesn’t like this meal. It smells delicious and I tasted – it tastes great! Easy to make and I managed to find canned tomatoes without any seeds and chopped up but not crushed (as most “diced” tomatoes end up being).

Here’s the recipe:

From First Meals by Annabel Karmel

Tasty ground beef with sweet potatoes & tomatoes

This makes a good introduction to ground beef because it has a soft texture and a natural sweetness provided by the sweet potatoes.

Prep: 10 min. Cooking: 40 minutes

Makes 8 portions (food cubes)

Provides iron, protein,  vitamin A, B vitamins including folate and zinc

Suitable for freezing

Ingredients Needed:

1/2 tbsp veggie oil

3 tbsp onion, peeled and finely chopped (I left this out ’cause I didn’t have an onion, and I thought it still had lots of flavor)

1/4 lb lean ground beef

1 3/4 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 tomatoes, skinned, deseeded, and chopped

1 cup unsalted chicken stock or beef stock

+ Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion, and saute for a few minutes until softened. Add the ground beef and saute, stirring occasionally, until the meat is browned all over.

+ Add the sweet potatoes and tomatoes and stock, holding back a little if a thicker consistency is preferred, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Blend to a puree of the desired consistency.

I made two batches of sweet potato puree. One had chicken in it, and the other was a regular batch. BB has had homemade sweet potatoes before, so today I was just giving it a little kick when I added the chicken. I just bought half of a roast chicken and then took the skin off and then added it to the steamed sweet potatoes.

Here’s a recipe for sweet potato puree:

Peel and cube two sweet potatoes and steam them for 12-15 minutes until soft. Then puree and add chicken and leftover water from steamer. I’ve found that the sweet potatoes need lots of water to puree because they can get so thick.

Here’s a pic of my final haul for the day in the freezer:

I made some batches of baby food today. I got inspiration from a new book that I bought:

First Meals

I found some great recipes and decided to go for it and spend some time making some stuff for Bailey.

The first thing I made was cauliflower with tomatoes and cheese. I’ve never made cauliflower for BB, but the combination sounded delicious.

I started by quickly chopping up the cauliflower. (I’ll talk about the Papaya dish I tried to make later). Then I steamed everything. It ended up getting steamed in two batches. This one was the smaller one:

Then I put the steamed cauliflower into my Magic Bullet knockoff that a co-worker gave me (these pictures don’t include the tomato version, these are of the regular cauliflower puree):

Then I scooped the puree into some baby cubes. I love these baby cubes. So easy to use, to wash and to freeze. I’m really glad I bought them. Ice cube trays just didn’t work for me.

Then of course there was the taste test.

Cauliflower puree was a big hit. I froze the batch with tomatoes.

Here are the recipes:

Cauliflower Puree

Place 2 1/2 cups of small cauliflower florets into a steamer and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and blend into a puree. Add some cheddar cheese.

Tomato & cauliflower gratin

1  1/2 cups cauliflower, cut into florets

2 tbsp butter

1 1/3 cups tomatoes, skinned, deseeded, and roughly chopped

1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

Put the cauliflower florets in a steamer and cook until soft, about 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, warm the butter in a pan, add the tomatoes, and saute until mushy. Remove from the heat and the cheese, stirring until melted. Mix the cauliflower with the tomatoes and cheese sauce, then blend to the desired consistency.

Prep: 5 minutes; cooking: 20 min

Provides beta-cartotene, folate, protein, and vitamins A, B12, and C

So BB has been changing so fast, she’s hard to keep an eye on, and also drains our energy so that at the end of the day, I really don’t have much time to write – getting photos and videos is hard enough.

She’s gone from learning to sit up from laying on her back to pulling herself up in the crib to a standing position to pulling herself up in a standing position from whatever she wants to want to climb up things. And she’s turning 9 months this week. She still mostly Army crawls when she does, but every now and again she’ll “Big Girl” crawl.

And if we hold her hands she’ll sort of walk – she was walking with this huge silly prancing step for a few days, but then did some real steps and then just starting dragging her feet like she lost interest in walking at all.

She’s whiny when trying to changing her clothes or diapers and we still haven’t seen real sign of a tooth yet. My baby book said I got my first tooth four days before I turned 9 months. AND I was walking by 9 1/2 months. So we’ll see what happens with BB this month.

It’s truly amazing how many things she’s learned in just a few short weeks. It seems like more than she’s done in a long time all at once.

Mom has purchased plane tickets, so she’s definitely coming to see Bailey next month. She’ll stay a week. I know she’s looking forward to it, and I wonder what all Bailey will be able to do by then.

Eating/Sleeping Report

She’s been waking up sometimes at Midnight, but that only lasted a few days. She still usually wakes up around 5am every morning. Joe gets up and changes her diaper while I go downstairs to get her bottle. She drinks about 2 1/2 oz and then goes back to sleep. We let her fall back asleep with us in the bed and then move her back to the crib. Sometimes that doesn’t work, so since we have to get up at 7am anyway – we’ll let her stay in bed with us. Lately, she’s taken to falling asleep in Papa’s arms while on the couch. She and I still take naps in the guest bedroom almost every other day or so.

As for eating, she has aprox. 4oz of jar food for breakfast (usually a fruit with grains at 8:30am) and then a bottle. Then at lunch a bottle with a veggie (jar food). Then a bottle at 3pm and dinner around 5:30pm (dinner jar food) and sometimes juice or a bottle to wash it down with. One more bottle at 7:30pm (4oz) and then the 2 1/2 oz at 5am. I’ve been trying to get her to eat some solid food with her fingers but she’s really not into it. She’s eaten animal crackers, puffs, and etc. and not really liked it. I tried bananas pieces and she didn’t like those. So we’ll see. She did like pieces of a biscuit one weekend. But that seems like a fluke.