Adventures In Baby Fooding

New baby food rules! I'm excited about these rules given my daughter Ava just started solids two weeks ago.   

First off plastics. You knew I was going to go there. Last time around I used the Beaba Babycook but this time I just can't. Knowing what we know now about heating plastics, I can't in good conscience steam my baby's food in plastic. I've been using my glass blender instead although I'm considering a food mill as my next purchase. 

Now to more fun topics. I can't use plastics but here is what we can do now! This month's Parenting Magazine has a great summary of the new "rules" written by pediatrician Alan Greene. Baby Center also has a pretty good article here but I will sum up: 

• Skip the rice cereal. Pediatricians say that sticking with bland foods can create a picky eater. They recommend whole grains and foods with spice, sourness, sweetness, and more. They say to go ahead with bold flavors. It will help your baby get used to a wider palate of foods. We occasionally use brown rice cereal and whole grain cereal from Happy Belly but I mix it with fruits and vegetables. 
• No need to wait so long between every new food. The old rule was to wait three to five days to introduce a new food. No need! Dr. Greene says that "introducing new foods rapidly leads to more adventurous, happy eaters." 
• Danger foods no longer so dangerous. Dr. Greene says that there is no reason to delay foods we once thought were risky such as egg, fish, nuts, etc. Research shows that delaying these foods too long could cause allergies, not prevent them. I was pretty adventurous with my son, giving him egg and peanut butter before the recommended age. Now I don't feel bad about it! Not that I ever did. I'm reckless like that! 

So game on! I'm fixin' to get crazy with my blender this holiday season! 

Although my brood is crazy enough, don't you think? 

Gift Idea: Citrus Lane

If you want the giving season to continue year round, you might want to check out a service called Citrus Lane. This is a monthly care package of baby stuff that I've grown to love! 

When the press person for Citrus Lane first contacted MommyBeta, I thought, "That's just what I need. A monthly delivery of more baby junk." I reluctantly agreed to recieve a box and when it arrived, I couldn't believe how delighted I was. It was like having another little baby shower in my own living room of things that I actually wanted! 

The box I recieved had a Skip Hop bee lunch bag, some Plum Organic Mish Mash with a coupon for more, a pee remover spray called DP that I had never heard of, an InnoBaby food storage container, and a book called Andy Warhol's Colors Board Book. 

These are things I may not have purchased myself but I have put them all to good use. I carry my daughter's baby food in the bee bag, my son ate the puree, I pack his snacks in the InnoBaby, the DP has come in handy for ocassional accidents, and my daughter absolutely loves the Andy Warhol book. It is her favorite toy. She grabs her little fingers at the colorful pages, it's so cute. 

The sum of the contents of your monthly Citrus Lane book is over $50 even though you only pay around $20-25 per month. You can choose to recieve boxes appropriate for children ages 0-12 months or 12-24 months. My son is 28 months though and he sure enjoyed ours! 

I like this company. They seem to promote sustainable, organic products that are meant to help you be a more organized and prepared mommy. So consider this as a gift to your little one or parent of a little one. Who doesn't like monthly care packages after all? 

Find out more at CitrusLane.com. 

So Long Friend

I would like to say something about the resignation of Kevin Clash, the puppeteer who gave life to Elmo. 

I don't know anything about his personal life. I do not care to judge or condemn. 

Nevertheless he is Elmo and Elmo is my son's friend. To my son, it is as real a friendship as any. This means that my son loses a friend today. And that makes me sad. 

I feel an odd sense of personal indebtedness to this man, Kevin Clash. To my 2 year old, Elmo is a real person who helps him make sense of a confusing world. He's helped him learn to share, exercise, eat vegetables, go to the dentist, get a shot, use the potty... I could go on. 

Now the person behind Elmo will change and fundamentally so will the spirit of the character. 

I know that this is the way the world works but sometimes I wish it didn't. Everyone's closet has skeletons and everyone has issues that they should be able to work through without fear of unemployment or public shame. But that is not how it will end for Mr. Clash and I'm afraid that the lesson to our children will be this: When your friends have problems in their personal lives we can't be there for them. We send them away and they are not our friends anymore. 

Elmo wouldn't do that. 

I wish Kevin Clash the best and thank him for the positivity he has instilled in my children. I hope he finds peace in his life, sexually and otherwise. And I hope he takes with him the friendship of all the children who have endeared to him. It was real and it was valuable and it was rare. 

Secret Admirer

Ava said her first word yesterday while we were on vacation in Hawaii. She locked eyes on Clayton and said, "Dadada."

Okay yes, I'm jealous that it wasn't Mama but if I'm honest about it, I am also a little surprised.

Dadada hasn't had her attached to his body 24/7 for the last 6 months. He didn't have to sleep with her on his chest for the first 2 months of her life. He doesn't nurse her. I'm not very good at pumping bottles so he doesn't even get up at night with her. Dadada? Where's the Mamama, Ava!?!?

It isn't that Clayton doesn't adore his baby girl but he wasn't quite as involved with her infancy as he was with our first child. I will admit that at first I thought that he might not really have wanted a girl or maybe was just playing favorites to Miles. After a few good talks, I realized that he felt much more capable with our 2 year-old son than he did with our tiny infant daughter. He was making an effort to contribute to the family by taking more responsibility with Miles so that Ava's needs could be tended to by me and "the boob," as he so eloquently puts it.

This was hard for me to understand at first and I asked other moms of two (and three) if they had experienced this. They all said that they had. But now Ava is 6 months old and starting to reach for her Daddy and charm the pants off of him with her megawatt smile. She can laugh and sit and grab and now she says his name! Dadada! She's said it three times already.

Mamama better be close behind!

Jealousy aside, I made it a point to tell Clayton that even though she has been physically attached to me for the first few months of her life, she has been mentally attaching to him from afar all of this time. Dadada! She said his name, not mine. She's been his secret admirer while he barely even knew it.

I share this to encourage second time daddies. It will inevitably feel tough to add value when baby #2 comes along because they need Mommy so much. Daddies may gravitate to the child they are familiar with but here is a friendly reminder that #2 needs Daddy too, even if it is less obvious. While the daddies are chasing around first (or second child), the little babies are watching them. Loving them.

So Ava's first word, well...It may not be fair but it is very sweet.

Hurricanes And Helplessness

I should start by saying how thankful I am that our damages from Hurricane Sandy are minimal. A few roof shingles and at least a week (and counting) without power seems like child's play compared to what most have lost. I am grateful for our safety. 

But this hurricane scared me in a way that I've never been scared before. I was prepared to be without power but I was not prepared to feel this powerless. 

Ava got pretty sick and sleeping in a home with no heat made her much worse. We escaped to my mom's house in California but she has spent the weekend with a high fever, congestion, cough, vomiting, and exhaustion. I just got back from urgent care where I was assured it is nothing more serious than a virus but we did X-ray for pneumonia and we will have to monitor her progress over the next few days. 

When I arrived at San Francisco International Airport on Friday and saw my mother at baggage claim I broke into unexpected tears. I guess I hadn't realized the amount of stress I felt not being able to provide basic shelter and heat for my babies. Powerlessness. 

My little girl is on the mend already, back to smiling and sleeping soundly now. Her fever seems to be dropping but I think my heart will never be the same. I will sympathize with victims of natural disaster in an entirely new way from now on, having experienced the despair of trying to keep your children safe from things outside of your control. 

Last year I saw the video below of a Japanese man and his two young children saved from the tsunami. It touched me. It made me realize how much people will do to help others and I only hope I can raise children with those same values. 

It's what the father says at the end: "My children are safe now, that's enough for me." It gets me every time. And it's exactly how I feel now.