Adventures in Mommyhood

I have made about 90% of my children's babyfood. I love to do it for so many reasons. It saves lots of money and I like being able to use food that I have selected and prepared rather than food that was processed months ago and stored in plastic containers. It also helps babies to be a part of the family table as early as possible, which is a huge step in preventing "short order cooking" and picky eating in general. When the rest of the family has grilled chicken, broccoli and roasted potatoes, we put it in the babyfood grinder and that is what Holland dines on as well. It is also a great way to use up leftovers- just grind or blend it up, mix with some liquid as needed, pop into ice cube trays and freeze. Here are a few pictures that illustrate the process. Making Pears for Baby Find some nice ripe pears Peel them, cut into chunks and place in a pot with about 1/2" of water in the bottom. Cover and simmer 5-10 minutes or until very soft. Put into your blender

Yesterday, after much training, Holland did "sooo big"! It is her first purposeful attempt at play, and it was so cute. Luckily, she repeated her new trick for my video camera...

Monday was a beautiful day- the kind of day you feel it is morally wrong to spend indoors. Fisher had the day off school, so we packed up and went to The Outdoor Campus. We played on this great "all natural" play area, and then did a little hiking. Sensing that there might be some Christmas Card photo opps, I dressed them in cute clothes and hoped for the best. Here are a few of the shots I got. I don't think we got a Christmas card shot, but a few of them are pretty cute... Enjoy!

Our favorite spot- reading a good book on the couch Grandma and Grandpa have spent many hours reading to our kids as well... One of my favorite things to do with my children is read to them. I love to go to the library and check out an enormous pile of them, bring them home and sit on the couch and read and read and read. Since the time Fisher was 3, we started to read chapter books, and this has been such a fantastic experience for all of us. We have read some of my favorites from my childhood (Little House Series, Indian in the Cupboard, James and the Giant Peach), and we have also discovered other books together for the first time (Heidi, The Wind and the Willows). Our latest book was "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Lance and I had never read the book, and the movie really creeps me out, so I always change the channel when I catch it on TV. However, we all loved the book. It is the perfect book for a 6 year-old. Can you imagine anything that would capture the