Yummo!

He started a little slow, but he's catching on!  Finn loves to eat!

Spring pictures

Wow, it looks like we're a couple of months behind on the ol' blog!  Sorry about that.  Here are some pictures from this spring so far.

Trying his second food, pears.  He is not sure about this.

Playing outside with the big kids

Bare feet and bubbles - hooray for spring!

Proud in his T-ball uniform!

Elijah is playing t-ball this year.  We thought it would be a fun way to get in some extra gross motor skills practice, which he always needs.  He loves it!  He is getting better at throwing and catching and hitting, but has a really hard time paying attention during games. =)  (Really surprising, right?!?)  His best friend Isaac is on his team, which makes it even more fun.  The town's baseball and softball leagues have a fun festival on opening day, and the big kids really enjoyed it.

They got to check out the fire truck

and a race car from the local race track

Elijah had an Easter concert at school again this year.  This year he managed to sing and do the motions for all the songs.  It was cute.

Miss Molly loves her fancy dress.

Looking so handsome and grown up!

Finn is starting to overwhelm Molly's lap - but she doesn't mind.

Three cute kids!

Chicken soup

I made some baby chicken soup this week for Elijah and Molly. Molly loved it! She has really been eating lots of new and different foods lately. She still prefers things to be pretty soft, but she is eating lots of finger foods and is trying lots of things. (We did learn that she doesn't like rice yet, unless it's been through the grinder - she carefully took each individual grain out of her mouth and put it back on the tray.) We are using the baby food grinder so that she can eat more of what we're eating, too.

Here's a long, but sometimes funny, video of Miss Molly eating her soup. Enjoy!





For the soup, I made some adjustments to a couple of Rachel Ray chicken soup recipes that we like (like this one) to make it suitable for baby food. This time, I knew I was going to be putting Molly's into the blender, but soon I'll stop blending it and start dicing the chicken and veggies super small. Right now, I just do a fine chop, small enough for Elijah to get several different things in his spoon. =) Here's my version:


Baby Chicken Noodle Soup

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1 rib celery, finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and diced

[When Molly gets a little older, I'll start adding a half a bay leaf and a little poultry seasoning.]

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

3 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable stock

leftover chicken, diced

[When Molly's older and I'm not putting hers in the blender, I'll add some frozen peas, too.]

Heat a medium soup pot or sauce pan over medium high heat. Add olive oil. Add the onions, celery and carrots, adding them to the pot as you chop them. [Add bay leaf and season with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning], cook 5 to 6 minutes to soften them a bit. Add flour and cook another minute then whisk in 1/2 cup stock and cook off a minute more. Add remaining stock and put a lid on the pan or pot and raise heat to bring to a quick boil. Add chicken [and peas].

I cooked about a cup of tiny pasta shapes [I use either ditalini or the tiny stars or alphabet pasta I found in the Mexican food aisle - I wish I could find some tiny pasta somewhere that was whole wheat, but no luck yet] separately, then added about half of the pasta to the soup. I divided the soup in half - half for Molly and half for Elijah. I added the remaining pasta to Elijah's half, and it was ready. Molly's half I put in the blender on a low setting just until most of the chunks were gone. Then I made some pastina and added it to the blended soup. Done!

It sounds kinda long and involved, but it was actually pretty easy. This recipe made 2 servings of soup for Elijah and 4 for Molly. If you were making it for just one baby you could freeze some for later.

In my kitchen

Most days I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. This week, it seems like that's all I've done - clean the kitchen, make a mess, repeat. I feel like I've been getting a lot less accomplished lately - since Elijah is now able to completely destroy three rooms in the time it takes me to put the clothes from the washer to the dryer, I just feel like I'm not quite keeping up. On Friday, the sink stopped draining, and I couldn't clean up the everyday mess that just happens because there are three people living and eating here. I don't love cleaning, but I really missed my sink when it didn't work! Patrick got it running again Saturday evening (hooray! Apparently our disposal is not up to all the peels that making baby food creates - must be more careful). The little bit of cleaning I managed after that didn't make much of a dent. We were gone all day on Sunday, and by Monday morning it was a big, scary mess. I spent all of my free time on Monday cleaning it up. Monday evening Patrick had a meeting and Elijah and I had swimming lessons (more about that later). So we didn't start making dinner until after Elijah went to bed, and left the kitchen a huge mess again. Yesterday my mom came over and spent the day with us. While she and Elijah played, I cleaned the kitchen again. I'm not sure how Patrick and I got to be so talented, but on Tuesday night we managed to get every knife and every cutting board we own dirty (that's a lot of knives for two people!). Anyway, after I got everything all cleaned up, I made dinner and some baby food, and now I have to clean the kitchen again. I may never get to do anything else ever again.

What a mess!

Well, my house was clean, this morning. I was so proud of myself! (It really doesn't happen that often - and usually Patrick's done all the work while I'm sleeping.) But when I realized that we were down to a few cubes of frozen pureed sweet potatoes, I knew that it wouldn't last. During Elijah's afternoon nap, I started cooking. Elijah's baby food is all homemade - except for the occasional jar for travelling. Mostly, I enjoy making his food. It's the cleaning up that really kills me. Anyway, I've been having fun trying new things now that E is chewing more and eating more kinds of food. I have a baby food cookbook called First Meals that I like a lot, and I currently have one from the library called The Well Fed Baby. Today I made black beans and rice, my own version of baby chicken noodle soup, and pureed peaches. Before I go to bed, I'll cook some oatmeal and blend it with rice and fruit for breakfast. Considering that I am now out of ice cube trays (in which I freeze the extra portions of whatever I'm making), the pureed carrots, Elijah's special spaghetti sauce, and the applesauce are going to have to wait until another day. It's a good thing - the dishwasher is full, too. Happy eating, Elijah!

Elijah learning to eat - beginning of January