Christmas baking & crafts

I said I would update with a link to the delicious cookies and pastries I posted on my facebook, so here goes. 

My mom bought a Better Homes and Gardens 100 Best Cookies magazine (comes out every year around Christmas) so we could bake together for the holidays. We marked a few of our favorite recipes and got the ingredients we needed. We decided to try out the Strawberry Lemon bars and the Raspberry Thumbprint cookies. The looked amazing and sounded easy enough to make. Below are the recipes! Enjoy!

Strawberry-Lemon Bars

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/strawberry-lemon-bars/

I'm very proud of this picture...looks professional :)
Raspberry Thumbprint cookies
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/rosemary-kissed-orange-thumbprint-cookies-tuscano/The above recipe is the closest I could find to what I used. Just exclude the rosemary and use raspberry jam instead of marmalade.

In looking online and on Babycenter, I got the idea to make salt-dough ornaments and give them out to family members for Christmas (from Michael). The recipe to make salt dough is super easy... all you need is flour, salt and water.. the measurements depend on how much dough you need. We wanted to make handprints and footprints, but his little feet were too chubby, so the imprint was not visible enough. We then spray painted them with glitter spray (found at AC Moore), wrote a little note and threaded the red string through a little hole, and voila! 

Everyone absolutely loved them. They don't look 100% perfect, but they are pretty cute and I'm glad I managed to do this little craft with M. 

Cereal & Baby Food

The topic of when and how to start feeding your baby cereal and "solids" (aka pureed foods) is apparently quite controversial. I learned this from reading various posts on the BBC birth board I am a part of. Even though this is my first child, I strongly believe that with your pediatrician's guidance, you should make decisions that you are comfortable with and not care what anyone else thinks. Everyone should respect each other's parenting styles. (unless it is neglectful or abusive of course) 

On that note, I am excited to announce that Michael is consuming both cereal and "solid food"! Up until his doctor's visit, I had been exclusively breastfeeding him. However, for a few weeks I had started to get the impression that my milk just wasn't enough. He always seemed hungry and had started waking up during the night..hungry. His pediatrician suggested we start cereal in the evenings, so I went out and purchased "Earth's Best -  Organic Rice Cereal" and started that night (Nov 19th). 3 tablespoons of breastmilk mixed with 1 tablespoon of cereal, fed to Michael with a spoon. I was super excited to see his reaction and whether or not he would enjoy it. Well, after getting the hang of eating from a spoon, it turned out to be a huge success! So much so that he tried to grab the spoon and feed himself! The picture below was taken right before we started...he looks petrified!

This is after a few spoonfuls...he was definitely more comfortable with the idea and thought it was interesting that mommy's milk was coming from a strange plastic thing instead of her boobie!

From that day on, he has been getting his cereal once a day around 6:30pm for his dinner. Unfortunately, after a week of feeding him rice cereal, he developed some constipation so we gave him an ounce of prune juice via dropper in order to get him poopin' again. Poor little guy didn't poop for 2 days straight! After that, I switched him to the Earth's Best Organic Oatmeal Cereal which is less binding and easier for his little body to digest. We haven't had any constipation issues since!

Yesterday, I decided it was time to introduce M to solids. I did a lot of research online to make sure I was making the right decision. He exhibited all the signs of being ready...he turns 4 months on Sunday, is able to hold himself upright when sitting in our laps, is VERY interested in my food (constantly tries to grab my fork and plate, stares at my food like he is starving, etc) and no longer has the tongue reflex to push things out of his mouth. He is very good at swallowing food presented to him on a spoon. He has a lot of practice with his oatmeal cereal. I did some further research to see what kinds of foods I should start with. I found this AWESOME website which offered great insight and help. Following the guidelines of beginning with yellow or orange vegetables, I decided to start with sweet potato. Using my amazing Beaba Babycook food blender/steamer, I steamed some chopped up sweet potato and then pureed it. I then added some breastmilk to make it very fine and liquidy. Note: the Beaba is freaking amazing! It is a bit pricey, but I put it on my registry and got it as a gift. I love that it can both steam and blend the veggies or pretty much anything else you put in it. And it is so easy to clean! Love!

As it turns out, Michael loves sweet potato! I gave it to him around 11am this way if he has any adverse reactions, I would be able to take him to the doctor while he was still open. He will be eating sweet potato for a week before moving on to another food. His food schedule now consists of nursing in the morning, eating sweet potato with breast milk for "lunch" nursing in the afternoons and then having his breastmilk & oatmeal for "dinner before nursing again before bed. Note: I still breastfeed on demand and DO NOT refuse him the breast at any time. I am getting him used to other tastes and slowly introducing him to solids, not replacing the breast milk. As long as I am able, I'd like to nurse him to at least 6 months, but ideally, one year. 

Below are the before and after pictures of Michael eating sweet potato! His little cheeks were all orange afterwards but the mess was minimal...he still has a thing for trying to feed himself...so independent already!

Speaking of independent, the most incredible thing happened tonight! Background: Michael doesn't take a bottle- he hates it!! I tried pumping and having his dad, and both his grandma's give him the bottle but he screamed bloody murder and just wouldn't have it. I kind of just gave up on the idea and assumed that eventually as he got older, he would become more interested in the idea. Well, as I mentioned earlier, he shows a lot of interest in "big people" food, to include drinks. He finds it fascinating that I drink out of a cup and is constantly trying to grab it. When he succeeds, he immediately brings it to his mouth and tries to drink out of it aka he sucks on the edge. Tonight I decided to see if he would be able to drink out of a little hard plastic cup if I put some breastmilk in it. To my surprise - he LOVED it! I put a little bit to start and he chugged it within seconds... and no mess! I expected him to get some all over his chin and mouth, but nope. He slurped the whole thing up! I couldn't believe it! He even grabbed both sides of the cup with his little hands and tried to do it himself! I, of course, helped him, but it was so cute. I mixed 2 ounces of breastmilk with his oatmeal cereal and put some in the cup a little at a time. He drank everything within a few minutes and then he wanted more! Looks like we'll be giving him his nighttime cereal via cup from now on...he seems to enjoy it so much more! My mom was telling me that some babies skip bottles altogether and go straight from nursing to drinking from cups...so maybe M is one of those babies. I guess as long as there is pumped milk and a little cup, people other than myself will be able to feed him...FREEEDOMMM!

Crocheting - a new hobby?

Even though I have found myself super occupied 99.9% of my day (mostly with my precious baby boy), I decided that I wanted to find a new hobby...something on the creative side...I just didn't know what. Someone on my BBC birth board posted pictures of a beautiful little hat she had crocheted for her daughter and a youtube video that showed step by step instructions on how to do it. I figured I would watch the video and if I felt I understood each step well enough, I would go out and get the necessary items to make M a little hat. I was never a good sewer nor was I ever really into the whole knitting scene so I had my doubts. The video made it all seem easy enough so I decided to give it a go. Off we went to AC Moore. I picked out the correct crochet hook and some yarn. (I had no idea yarn came in different thicknesses!) 

After Michael went to bed, I set myself up on the couch in front of the fireplace, put on some christmas music, and pulled up the youtube video. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but soon enough, I was on a roll. Little did I know, the blue yarn ball was becoming a giant knot and I had to stop for the night. I enlisted the help of my dad and 2 hours later we managed to untangle the entire thing...120 YARDs of yarn!! I finished the hat the next morning and sewed on a little pom pom! Unfortunately it is a bit big for Michael's head, but it should fit him next year probably. I felt so inspired after that, that I actually made a second hat in a different color scheme which fits him perfectly! I still need to attach the pom pom though...check it out! 

Here is a link to the youtube video I used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3K9nbkOwJQ 

For those of you that are curious, I used a size M(13), 9mm hook and Size 5 yarn...although I think I should have probably used size 4 instead.

Finished product!!

I really don't think I have ever been so proud of myself! While I don't think I'm going to go pro with crocheting, I definitely want to continue for fun and perhaps make a blanket or a little scarf to match his hats :)

The second hat I made.. slightly different style/color scheme. As I mentioned earlier, I still need to attach the white pom pom. Between these two hats, I used both balls of yarn. (120  yds each) That's a lot of yarn! Hopefully I'll be able to find some cheaper yarn at Walmart so I can keep up this little hobby!