I've started making Michaela's baby food. When she first started eating solids, I wasn't worried. All the little jars read "Ingredients: Carrots" or "Ingredients: Peas". Then the jars in the next stage started listing ingredients that I had no clue what they were. I realized that Michaela probably shouldn't be eating food with chemicals or additives that were more than 5 syllables long.
I started doing my research and found this
awesome website that lists all the foods and timetables for introducing them, along with combination and recipe ideas up through toddlerhood. It is actually much easier than I thought it would be. Basically I bake or steam the vegetable or fruit, puree it, freeze it in ice cube trays, bag it, and pull it out the evening before I use it so that it can defrost in the refrigerator overnight.
The biggest change came with going out though. It seemed like such a hassle to carry an ice pack with frozen food to a restaurant or friends house. For these nights I rely on bananas, pears, and avocados. None of these have to be cooked, and can easily be prepared by mashing them right before feeding.
Like I said, it is really not as hard or time consuming as it sounds. It took me about a week (just working during naps) to make enough food for a couple of months. Now I feel much better about what is going into my little monkey's tummy. :)
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As I sat down to make thank you notes for all of Michaela's birthday gifts, I came up with a pretty neat idea. I wanted to make it more personal so I was thinking of adding a little imprint of her foot or hand. Unfortunately, she is very active and won't sit still for more than a couple of seconds so I knew this wouldn't work. Then it came to me, picture thank you's! We basically just set her up with the toy, book, or outfit that was given to her and had her sit next to or under a set of her blocks with the words "Thank You" spelled out. I thought this was great because then each person could see her enjoying the gift. Some were better than others which is inevitable with a small child, but all in all I think this is a great way to personalize a thank you note if they can't write one on their own yet.
