Baby Food - Baby Cereal

Our son was exclusively breastfed for six months.  At that point, we started him on solids.  We decided to make our own since it would be healthier and also more cost efficient.  There's a lot of wastage when it comes to baby food since a good part of it will go to his clothes, any body part other than his mouth and on the floor.  Plus, you're not always sure just how much the little one will eat.

We started with cereal - brown rice, oats and barley.  Making your own baby cereal can be daunting at first but you'll eventually get the hang of it.  

Here's what we do:

1. Grind the grains. You will have to do this in small portions especially with the harder grains.  The first time my husband did this he thought he killed our blender - it overheated.  I usually do a couple of table spoons or a fourth of a cup at a time. The finished product should resemble some sort of powder.  (Our handy-dandy appliance of choice is the Philips Mini Blender.  It works quite well for making baby food since it's not bulky and quite easy to clean.)
2. Cook the cereal.  Bring water to a boil in a sauce pan.  Add the powdered cereal.  I usually use 1 part cereal and 2 parts water.  (I just eyeball it though and don't actually measure.)  Simmer for 10 minutes while stirring with a whisk.  You may want to add water if it gets too thick.  I prefer a thick consistency then just add water or breast milk when serving.
3. Cool the cereal.
4. Feed and/or store.  I make a small batch and put it in ice trays with lids so that I have individual servings ready to be popped in the microwave. Since the ice trays aren't exactly air tight, I also put them in ziplock bags when storing in the freezer. 

Philips mini blender

cooked ground oats in ice trays

brown rice cereal mixed with breast milk

There are a lot of options when it comes to grains - rice, barley, oats, millet, flax, etc.  My son likes brown rice and oats.  We've tried quinoa but there are days when he doesn't seem to enjoy it.  He probably finds the flavor too strong so we make sure to feed it to him with something he likes.   We mix his cereal with different kinds of pureed fruits or vegetables and even mashed hard-boiled egg yolk.

Raising a Book Worm - Starting Early

As first time parents, my husband and I made a conscious choice to expose our son to books early on.  We also try to not to let him look at the television for too long (tempting as it is).  No, we are not anti-technology.  In fact, my husband works for a video game company – his dream job ever since he played his first video game when he was seven years old. And one of our favorite past times is to watch our favorite shows together.  

But we were both bookworms as kids.  In a world full of smart phones, tablets and other gadgets, it’s easy to forget the magic books can have – especially on children.  We would like to give our son that gift.

I am now a stay-at-home mom but I taught preschool for many years.  I loved storytelling in the classroom and saw how it fed my students’ imaginations. I started collecting children’s book while I was still single in preparation for the time I could share them with my child.  I’d like to think I saved my husband some money by buying books years ago.  We continue to buy our son books and borrow from our community library.

This is a peek into our journey of TRYING to raise a bookworm.  We are not sure it’s going to work.  But so far, so good.  Our son is ten months old and he seems to love books – looking at the pictures, listening to us read to him, turning the pages and even tasting the books (we’re giving him board books for now so he’s free to do as he pleases).  When we’re out of the house and he starts to get fussy, we recite passages from his favorite books and he calms down and just listens.  It’s like a switch. 

Our little one seems to have an ear for good writing and an eye for good artwork.  We’d like to share our family favorites.

Favorite Things - Puj Tub

One of the most stressful tasks as a new parent is giving your newborn a bath.  During the first few weeks of being a mother, my least favorite part of the day was giving my son a bath.  I watched I imagined a lot of things going wrong - water too cold or hot, getting soap in the eyes or mouth, baby peeing or pooing in the water, infecting the umbilical cord stump and most especially dropping the baby or drowning him.  Add to this the strain of having to squat on the floor (if you have a tub that will only work on the floor or you don't have enough table or kitchen sink space to accommodate a baby tub).  I had to use a regular tub the first few days after I gave birth and it was nerve wracking.  My baby would cry and shriek and I would get so anxious.

We got over that phase though.  I don't remember when exactly he started loving baths (maybe around the second month).  It's one of his favorite parts of the day I believe.  I think three specific things contributed to bath time being a soothing experience for him.

First was hot water.  My mom gave me this advice when she noticed that her grandson always crying during bath time.  Of course, the water shouldn't be hot enough to burn him but it definitely worked better when the temperature was more than just warm.

Next,  I started singing to him.  Just the same song over and over again - "Little Sunny Water"  (but I changed "Sunny" to my baby's name.

Lastly, I really owe a lot to the PUJ TUB.  It's a foldable tub made out of foam that you can put right in your bathroom sink.  The features that I loved about it are:

1. Since it fits in the sink you don't have to squat and you're in a better position to hold your baby and other things needed to give him a bath.  
2. It is made of soft foam that cradles your baby quite well.  No risk of hurting is head.  
3. When assembled in the sink, there are holes in the right places so the water level isn't so high.
4. You can unfold it and hang it which saves you a lot of space and it doesn't have to be such an eyesore. It also dries quite well.

The only negative thing I can point out is that you can only use it for a few months since the baby will be to big for it.  I was able to use it for about six months.  When your baby moves around more, he might squirm or stretch out and his head might go over the tub.  However, by this time, you won't need such a fancy tub since you're baby is no longer as fragile and (hopefully) bath time has already become a fun activity.

 

Puj Tub Website

Favorite Book - Flip, Flap, Fly

This is a book about mamas and their babies.  With amusing rhymes, it has a wonderful rhythm to it.  The words and the pictures capture the excitement babies (albeit baby animals) can feel when learning new things with their mothers by their side.  A wonderful book to have as a mother of a young baby.  My own baby seems to love the funny word combinations injected throughout the story – paddle and skedaddle, polly, wolly paddle, ziggle zaggle wiggle, etc.   

It would also be a good read for older children because it tackles many different concepts – rhymes, colors, animal sounds and animal movements. 

I loved this book so much that I made a point to memorize it.  Not exactly all that hard if you read it often enough.  But if can be confusing since it’s very easy to confuse the order of the animals or the description of the surroundings.