Monday, June 21, 2010

Baby Bites

Ok, so I promise this whole blog will not be about babies. Or food. Which are two of my favorite things. But, this particular one will be about both. :)

Recently, one of my friends said her most unexpected challenge about being a mom was food and meals. And I have to say that I feel the EXACT same way. Just the second one meal is over, you have to start thinking about the next one.

Miles and I were in the car the other day and I told him I could not for the life of me remember thinking about meals so much when we were first married and living in Chicago. I said, "What did we cook? What did we eat? When and where did we grocery shop?" And he reminded me we ate out a lot, and we just didn't think so much about food. Well, now it is one of my hardest jobs. Wed and Thurs I start planning meals to shop for on Friday. I shop, and all of a sudden it is time to do it again!!

From the moment you find out you are pregnant, there are lots of questions surrounding food. It starts with: Formula or Breastmilk? Trust me, people have a lot of opinions and reasons for doing both, and I believe it is an individual choice for every family, no right or wrong. For Miles and I there really was no question. God created women to nurse their children, and that is what we decided to do. Granted, here and there once Miles was about 6 months old we did give him formula for convenience sake, but for the most part I was the "Milk Man" and the kiddo loved it. :) Ok, so just when we were getting the hang of that, Dr. Koil says he is ready to start solids. Oh, wonderful... easy right? Not so much. Next question was store-bought or homemade? If homemade, organic or not? Oh sheesh! But luckily, thanks to a rather disgusting shower game that my M-I-L and sister-in-law had us play at my baby shower, I had long made up my mind to make my own baby food. Seriously, have you ever smelled or (gulp) tasted some of that stuff? BLAH. But again, here and there for convenience when we were traveling I would use the stuff from a jar (straight fruit or veggies though, no mac and cheese for us!). For the most part I made my own. Which meant buying the veggies or fruit, peeling, cleaning, removing all possible choking hazards, then adding a little water and pureeing. And then freezing in ice cube trays. And then labeling them. And then introducing no more than one at a time to test him for food allergies. And then watching my son spit them on the floor and refuse to eat them. Fabulous. :)

And now the current struggle with food. Miles and I refuse to make Miles his own meals..He eats what we eat. So now my challenge is trying to balance meals, give variety as well as nutrition, and plan meals for us that are quick enough to make with a toddler pulling at my legs.

So, to sum up this random blog, food is an unexpected challenge during motherhood. But I recommend the book Super Baby Food, by Ruth Yaron to help... and then look online for ideas, plan ahead, keep a list of the meals you bought groceries for that week so we know what I have on hand, and hang in there. Sometimes frozen pizza is OK!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Here we are!

So we are BACK! Haha, we found this blog we started before Miles was born almost 18 months ago!! Apparently, life gets busy busy with a little one. And we are about to have another! Well, just wanted to test this out, make sure it is working, and now, it is time to watch a movie and eat some ice cream. More soon!!!