Sweet Potatoes

This weekend continued the introduction of new foods for Emma.  With my trusty helper Abigail we worked on prepping our ingredients.

Snagged a bag of these for $3.28 at Sam's Club, not too shabby.

Putting the help to work.  Her first peeling experience.  I was kicked out from helping peel and reduced to just cutting up the potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are usually only something I have had to deal with on Thanksgivings - like 2 years ago when the in-laws came to our house.  Our family prefers the sweet potato cousin at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So a new experience to get them ready to steam.

Very pasty consistency no matter how much water I added.  Much like regular mashed potatoes.  So with that bag of sweet potatoes it ended up making 54 1 oz. servings plus a couple small Tupperware servings to feed Emma with during the next few days.  For $3.28 - that is amazing savings!  My penny pinching is still going strong, although it's only January 13th, so let's not get too excited.

Survey says:
Emma:  I'll take another hit of that!
Tim:  Pretty good (takes another bite for himself)
Ann:  Sweeter than I thought it would be
Abby:  I just want to peel them
Megan:  ZZzzzzzzzz (napping)

Abigail also worked very hard with Emma to help her learn how to sit up.  She's already conquered "rolly polly" as Megan likes to call her rolling skills.  Emma is pretty good at it, but will still kick back or tumble a little bit, but that's how they learn!  We introduced some new baby toys she could play with while sitting that she enjoyed as well.

Here's my Abigail all dressed up and ready to roll this morning.  She received some new boots with "high heels" on Sunday and wore them all day and had to have an outfit picked out for Monday to match them.  She said to me "Mom, don't I look all grown up?"  Yes you do baby girl (insert watery eyes).
Never fear - Megan also got some new shoes but they are dress "high heels" and she is not allowed to wear them to school so she just wears them around the house now to make stomping noises on the wood floors (the deciding factor for this shoe selection as she originally wanted boots, but they didn't stomp as well) and wearing them with her footy pajamas or just carrying them around.

It was a busy weekend and Monday came to quickly and a bit on the chilly side!

Making Peas....

Last night I had the time to make some baby food peas for Emma.  I followed the cookbook recommendations and went with a bag of frozen peas (which costs almost the same as 1 2-serving pack of Gerber 1st peas).  The cookbook recommended to use a food mill to make sure there were no chunky skins so I followed along diligently.  This however did not work out for me at all.  It's one thing to make applesauce with the food mill - but peas was another story.  It was just one big pea smushed mess, and barely any peas in the bowl that made it through the mill.  So I busted out the trusty blender and "liquefied" it all.

I am not a big fan of the smell of peas and they had an interesting color from being steamed which was pretty cool. 

They came out very smooth - less chunky than what I got from the food mill actually.  With the 1 bag of frozen peas I made 30 1-oz servings and a small Tupperware of extra to serve the next couple of days.  I believe the bag of peas was $1.89 or something along those lines, so again GREAT SAVINGS!  2013 is our year for penny pinching and we're off to a good start.  From recipes I have read about for 2nd foods peas are often used to mix in with other vegetables so it will be a good one to have. 

But what did Emma think about them???

She took the first bite just fine, then what you see in this picture is about a 3 minute stand off where she wouldn't open her mouth.  I thought this might be the first food she doesn't like.  We tried different sounds, airplane noises, you name it, that jaw was clamped shut!

Then I brought in reinforcements - the entertainer of Emma.  Megan can get her to laugh at about anything she does, so between the two of them she started eating them again.  I'm glad to see I am not the only one who has an open mouth when feeding a baby :).

This was actually the first time I have let the girls help feed Emma.  I showed them how small her bites should be and how to get food she might spit out with the spoon.  They did really great with her and had a good time.  Even cleaned her up with a wipe when they were done. 

Next up: sweet potatoes!

Emma is 6 Months!

Hard to believe that 6 months ago we became a family of 5 and our little Emma Josephine was born.  But yes, time marches on and she is now 6 months and changing so quickly it's hard to keep up!

She doesn't have her 6 month Dr. appointment until the 22nd so the height/weight stats will have to wait - I fully expect a 20 pounder with this one though.

• Has 3 - 1/2 teeth currently.  3 on the bottom and 1 incisor peeking through on the top, however there are 3 teeth on the top almost ready to cut as well.  Our kids tend to get teeth pretty early - a lovely trait they inherited from their mother :).
• Drools....a lot.  See above note concerning teething.  If you pick her up in and hold her above you, you might have to duck and cover because you will be bombed with drool.
• Wearing 6-9 and 9-12 month clothing.  Pants are becoming a deciding factor on what fits - they need to be stretchy!
• Does not like wearing socks, loves to play with her feet.
• Started eating vegetable solids.  So far green beans and carrots have been tried.  Others will get introduced as soon as I can make them.
• Can roll and scoot about anywhere she wants to, it's not baby gate time yet, but we are getting closer.
• Can sit up for about 15 seconds, but then will lean forwards and won't really prop herself up with her hands yet.
• Still sucking her thumb when she is tired but that's about the only time she does.
• Will sleep 11-12 hours at night
• Takes a morning and afternoon nap, usually totaling about 3+ hours
• Has tried a sippy cup with water
• Moved from her infant car seat to a rear facing convertible car seat.
• Finds her big sisters to be the most entertaining things out there
• Likes toys that crinkle the most
• Only cries when she is tired, hungry (and has seen her bottle), or is poopy
• Possibly likes her Dad more than her Mom because he has facial hair she can pull
• Has the best giggle ever

That's just a small recap of all things Emma.  She is growing and changing so quickly, we might have to try to drag out this baby phase a little longer.....

Weekend Wrap Up

The weekend didn't exactly go as planned but we still managed to get a couple things accomplished.  Christmas is almost officially down from the inside of the house.  Just a couple more little things to put away and then organizing it all back in storage - because you know it has to fit in a certain way to get it all to fit in one space.  Tonight the "activity scene" comes down, the kids wanted to leave it up since they actually listened at church on Sunday and heard about the 3 Kings.  So the Kings have been moved into the manger now for a couple of days.

We also had another item added to the list thanks to Dave Cowan - Abby had to make jerky since he made some at the lake over new years and all she could talk about was how she liked it so much.  Oddly enough we are actually out of deer burger since Tim hasn't shot a deer this year (however he did shoot a rabbit on Saturday, first kill on the farm) so we had to buy some beef which is not usually what we make jerky with.  It was a lot fattier and I'm not sure I like the taste all that much, to used to the leaner meat I guess.

So we made Abby help since it was her project.  End results:
Tim:  Look at all that grease (from the dehydrator)
Ann:  It's okay, a little chewy
Abby:  It's not spicy like Dave's
Megan:  Ummmm, no thank you

The other project we did was to start, or make an attempt I guess at our 26 Acts of Kindness.  Something Ann Curry started after the Newtown shooting.  It's a big twitter thing, which twitter is something I choose to not even try to understand until I win the Powerball and have cool things to "tweet", or my girlfriends decide to all get on and we can tweet together and be cool with our 5 followers.
So - our first act of kindness was to donate our litter boxes, 1 pet taxi, litter scooper, bowls, and food mats to our local humane society to help with someone who was going to adopt a cat/kitten.

I'm not sure why Megan does not look all that happy.  We did browse the rabbits, cats, and dogs and discussed several times why we will not have a chihuahua as a dog.  There was a cute black lab that was already adopted, and a yellow one that can't be adopted until the 9th - but he'll go quickly.  There was a coonhound that I wanted to take home immediately.  Although he looked nothing like our Buddy, he reminded me of him.  The girls wanted to know why there were no fish to adopt......

Emma also had a couple new things, the first being the introduction of the sippy cup...

Not only did she grab it like a champ, she started sucking the water out of it immediately.  She could be the smartest baby we know.  She has also learned to drop it on the floor and laughs when we have to pick it up.  Tilting it up will be another story though, we have to keep it pretty full so she doesn't suck air.  She gets this at lunch and dinner feedings while she's at the table with us.

Emma's other food intro this weekend was carrots.

Getting the first taste Friday night, didn't even spit them out.

My first batch to freeze.  One bag = 15 cubes =  $.92 = AWESOME! 

Survey says:  All gone!

So I will admit I am enjoying the whole baby food making way too much.  The orange cubes are even cuter than the green cubes.  The cook book said to add some non-salted butter to help with the beta keratin and add some fat.  I think it kept them a little sweeter.  However there was a learning curve again.....carrots absorb water when steamed very fast!  Then the butter just burns in the bottom of the pan and carmelizes.  Good smell, messy clean up.  Added more water for the second batch.  Emma had plain carrots, carrots and green beans mixed to together, and carrots with cereal.  And the survey says:
Tim:  These are really good, I'm impressed
Abby:  I'll try them next time
Megan:  Ummmmmm, no thank you
Ann:  Not too shabby
Emma:  Grrrrrrr (she growls a lot, new favorite noise)


Next on the list is peas, have to use a food mill for this one, going to take an attempt at it tonight.  Abby and Megan are up for it and Abby actually wants some peas - as long as they stay in circles.

Currently...

This is for you Jenn (remind me to do it in February)!
Currently January:
Watching: Guys with Kids

Reading:  Top 100 Baby Purees:  100 Quick and Easy Meals for a Healthy and Happy Baby
 by Annabel Karmel  (I know I am exciting!)

Listening:  101.5 KPLA - missing Christmas music a little bit.

Making:  Baby food!

Feeling:  Exhausted (12 "stay at home days" in a row and only 3 were actually spent at our house)

Planing:  Something to do during the kid's spring break and how/what to do to de-clutter the house.  Goodwill will be getting a donation!

Loving:  Every day I can get with my family, they are growing up too quickly!

Baby Food!!

So with baby #3 I am making the effort to save a little money and make my own baby food.  Why I didn't do this for the first 2 is beyond me because it is so easy and saves a ton of money with minimal investment.  So I put on my Christmas list a couple baby food making essentials, browsed the web on how to make things, borrowed a cookbook and BAM - baby food!

Green Beans were my vegetable of choice to start with for Ms. Emma.  So what you see is my pureed 1 oz servings all packaged up and ready to be frozen.  Out of a bag and a half of frozen green beans I got about 50 1 oz servings.  A 2-pack of Gerber baby 1st foods from Toys r us costs $1.29, I probably spent $5 on green beans so on average saved between $10-$15 depending on how much we feed Emma at a time.  I should have read if my silicone trays were 1 or 2 oz servings before I threw away the wrapper, but I think they are 1 oz.  So easy to pop out and we just bag them in freezer bags and pull out a cube or two to defrost for dinner the next day.  We'll be able to mix them up with other "flavors" later as well.  Carrots and peas are next with some sweet potatoes not far behind.

Survey says:

"Yummy!  I like to eat."

All gone!!

I'll have to admit, I did a little party dance when I popped them out of the trays because they look so cool.  Tim was even impressed.  Half a bag went to day care this morning for Emma to enjoy.  I'm excited for carrots tonight!!

Holiday Recap

The holidays are finally over and the words I can think to describe it was wonderful, happy, friend filled, stressful, and exhausting.  The Thank you cards have all been written and mailed and Christmas decorations will start coming down this weekend and we can officially put the 2012 holidays to bed, and maybe I'll get a nap in there too.  The girls were overly spoiled by their friends and relatives, we ate WAY too much, and slept very little it seemed.

Here are a couple of photos from our adventures:

Christmas Day at the Bovee house. 

Megan teaching Theo how to paint in her new book.  He had never painted before and Megan was a very good teacher.

Schmidt/Bovee Christmas Day - these two were the sorters, hard to tell where actual piles are.

Owen and the quilt I made him, finished in time for Christmas thankfully.

First Christmas for Emma and Owen, they look like they have matching outfits almost.  Emma is wearing Megan's and Owen might have Theo's on from the 2009 Christmas - so there is a chance they are matching.....

Christmas with our neighbor's the Roddy's.

Visiting Santa at Carrollton Christmas - and yes, Emma is crying.  The whole room cheered as they have missed a crying Schmidt Christmas photo.  Just wait until next year.....

The Schmidt great-grandchildren exchange before opening - Abby and Megan are in there somewhere.  There are 21 great grandchildren now and only 1 on the way that we know of for 2013.  Doris and Joe would be so proud.

Emma enjoying her first mechanical horse ride on New Year's Day.

We spent New Year's at the Lake with our usual crew minus the Resnik's who decided to have a baby on NYE.  I'm counting on Jenn to post pictures for that in her December Daily posts.