Chef Mommy

First, an update: My dad came over today and closed up the entrance to The Kitty Kat Klub in an effort to cut down on the amount of cat love-making that occurs right outside my bedroom... well, we accidentally closed not one, not two, but THREE cats in there! Damn post-coital naps. In our defense, it is not humanly possible to see back there, so we had to trust that the amount of noise we were making would scare them out... it did not, and I was later alerted to their presence by a fair amount of rustling in the vicinity of our intake vent (a.k.a. the dining room). I went out in the pouring rain and undid all his hard work. Then I waited until a cat came out. Then I waited some more. Then I closed it back up. Then there was more rustling. Then I did the opening and waiting bit again. Then TWO MORE CATS CAME OUT. Then I closed it up again. Damn Clown Car of Creepy Ginger Cats. Hopefully this is the end of that saga!

On to the Chef Mommy bit. Did I mention that I make all of Lily Ruth's baby food? Well, I do. Not because I think I'm better than you, but because I can, and I want to. I love to cook, and cooking is one of the ways that I express my love to my family, so it follows that it would be important to me to do this. I completely understand that normal, healthy children can be raised on jarred baby food. I also understand that healthy, happy children can be raised on formula. I am not in any way judging parents who choose those options. For me, because I CAN breast feed my child (lots of women can't for many different reasons), and because I CAN make her food, it is important to me that I do so. That being said, I also do those things because I love to! I am amazed and grateful that my daughter has grown to 6 months of age and is not only surviving, but thriving on food made by my body. What a blessing and a miracle! And since I love to cook, I am thrilled to be able to do this for her as well!

I am also having so much fun choosing, cooking and pureeing new foods for her. We now share hot oat bran cereal with Greek yogurt in the mornings. She loves to eat out of Mama's bowl with Mama's spoon. For the past few nights, she has protested MIGHTILY at dinner time until a baby entree is produced and she is seated with us and eating. It's adorable. Daddy claims to be in love with the noise that she makes when 'chewing'. I favor the enthusiasm that she has for her mesh feeder. We are as entranced by this new phase of development as we have been with all previous stages - and why not? We are blessed with a superior specimen of baby :-P

Here is a visual on Butternut Squash, Blueberries and Brown Rice Porridge by Mama... my freezer is quickly filling up with baggies of frozen baby food cubes!




and here is my precious darling attacking a frozen cube of applesauce :-)



In case you are wondering, here is where I get my information on homemade baby food... well, first, I o.k.'d this all with my pediatrician, and got great advice from her about current research on when to introduce what foods... now I use this website, and this book, and this book... then after I read too much, I shut off the over-analytical portion of my brain and wing it... Good times...

Enough of this. I really just wanted to post new pictures of Lily Ruth... because I need your opinion - is she getting cuter? Because I think she might be...