who's the cutest baby of them all?

man are they cute at 1? or what!

ian is 15 months old now

and he started walking last month.  cool!!

so he's been practicing that a lot and its so fun to watch him because at this age when he learns something new he doesn't concentrate on it like older kids and adults do. he just tries it out while playing. like he's trying to walk but then he also wants to grab something or kick a ball or throw himself on the couch or something else silly. its cute!

He's also signing a lot now too.  

Every morning when he wakes up his daddy has already left for work so he looks in the hallway and says and signs "dada" and then does the sign for work.  He does the sign for G.G. (G.G. stands for Great Grandma! and i use the sign for the letter G and shake it twice which is also the sign for green and G.G. loves everything green! so its the perfect sign for her) and he does the sign for tree all the time and leaf and we learned some new food signs from watching SigningTime.  He easily picked up the signs for lettuce (hit your head on the side with you palm) and will actually eat it now that he can sign it, and the same for carrot.  He wont eat more than a taste of them but thats all I can hope for at this stage.  He does the sign for grapes really well too and strawberry, pear, apple, cheese, and water!  Oh Water!! Water is the most frequently used sign and he signs it whenever possible.  When he hears it from sprinklers or the shower or sink, and when he sees it from the hose or rain or puddle or in a book! or when he wants some to drink or he sees us drinking it.  Rain is fun because he signs rain & water.  And he's SO CUTE with the signing! he gets so excited to communicate it with us that he'll drop everything in his hands to do the sign for it.  With signing he can talk in sentences too. Yesterday Ryan was playing guitar for ian in the other room and ian came running out into the livingroom to tell me with speech & signs "DADA! GAAH! DADA GAAH!!!" and signed Daddy and Guitar!  he lllllloooooovvvvveeessss the guitar!

Yep, 1 is fun!

my latest findings - i likey

here's what i've been really wanting to do lately:

ART!

i'm subscribed to the Artful Parent's blog i really like her weekly art group with the 2 year olds - i think thats such a great idea. i hope to be doing that soon here.  and i really like her freezer paper stencils!  i got to try it a couple of weeks ago with my sister.  i really like the simplicity of the artful parents designs. a bird or a truck. very nice

knit!  i want to knit!

check out these cute bunnies and other cutie-pie animals! i totally want to learn how to make them.  i know how to crochet (ive done blankets and scarves) but i really want to knit now - 

and aside from the cute animals i want to make socks too.  

and a wool soaker diaper cover  

this one is that is koolaid dyed (for overnight cloth diapers) 

the theory is that the wool breaths so the diaper dries somewhat and doesnt stay wet all night to wake up the baby and so it shouldnt require painful (for mommy and daddy) 2am diaper changes just for a wet diaper.

so the only hitch in the knitting thing:  ian will be way more into the ball of yarn than a cat! plus when am i sitting around with nothing to do?  but still.. i wantsa to knit!

compost

i dont have a yard, only a patio. and i'm really trying to figure out how to do this composting thing because my awesome plants that grew from seed in my cute walmart jiffy greenhouse died after i planted them in my pots with .. um.. walmart potting soil (bad idea - i found out that it doesnt have to even be "soil" to be called potting soil)  

so i decided that i need to compost so that i can get the good stuff for myself and have amazing plants instead of sad ones.   i think i want to make mine out of a metal garbage can

since i think it will look nicer than a plastic one (plus, i wonder how non-toxic a heated up plastic garbage can in the sun could be, and then i'm suppose to use the soil for my garden of veggies? - us new mommies have heard all there is to know about how bad plastic is .. and bpa and pvc etc.) or maybe i could get my hands on an old wine barrel. 

and researching that brought me to this:  Uncle Tom's Garden - THEY HAVE CHICKENS! and all 3 each lay an egg a day! and raised flower beds :D with copper bands to keep the snails out - how cool and their own compost bins (nice sized too) how do you have enough left over kitchen scraps to feed a compost bin and chickens? wish that was my problem to have.  

hmmmm....  and dreaming of living in the mountains :D

feeding the baby for real

in my opinion breastfeeding (after the initial month) gets really easy (except for teething & sickness and the nights that never end etc.)  but now my baby is getting big and is 1 so i have to give him more actual food and i'm finding that difficult since it takes so much research an preparation and i just like how easy breastfeeding is.  but my little boy is still growing (his daddy says "he's not HAVING a growth spurt, he IS a growth spurt!). he eats ALL THE TIME! when he's not nursing he's hungry for food and then when he's done eating he wants to nurse!

so i'm trying really hard to find good recipes for my big baby/little kid.  He didnt really start eating until at 11 months  (he's 14 months now) seems he wasnt really interested in food, and i really didnt want to push starting it with so many kids having wheat/dairy/autism problems - and i read that if your still breastfeeding (we are) you dont have to really feed them any food until they're one and you dont really have to worry about it all that much until 2. Just offer a variety of super healthy stuff and let them decide what they want.  the mom just has to offer. before they turn 1 its just for "fun" so they can play at texture and tastes. they dont even have enzymes to break it down and get anything from it until 9 or 10 months - why oh why do they push eating at 4 months old!! oh yea - because all the info a dr. gives you in America is based on formula fed babies so much of the advice they give you is based on what they do for formula fed babies which is totally different than a breastfed baby! - hmm to be discussed more in another post. 

so i've been looking for food that he would even try while trying not to get stressed out that he's boycotting the veggies right now. and i found this goodie from Expectant Expat who was preggers in Italy - check out this awesome Italian recipe for baby (I WANT MORE LIKE THIS!)

Pumpkin and Rice for Baby (Ricordate che i bambini adorano la zucca e questo bel piatto arancione e’ una deliziosa tentazione**.)

1.You cook or steam brown rice

2. You add sprig of rosemary when the rice is 75% cooked

3. You then add small chopped pieces of pumkin (fresh best of course, but not necessary) and stir until the rice is cooked.

4. Before serving to your delighted baby, you sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil and a little parmegiano.

Delish.

**this is taken directly from the recipe that i translated and reads: “remember that babies adore pumpkin and that this beautiful orange dish is a delicious temptation!”

isnt that amazing? I want to eat that! that's the kind of baby food i want to make. since we are in the he-can-eat-anything but i dont want to give him just "anything" he's a BABY stage of eating.

in in that post she comments on the theory about how pregnancy and breastfeeding opens up the babies tastebuds to like what the mom eats. its totally true! my anti-veggie baby (who is so good at selectively spitting out the only veggie from his mouth full of food its amazing) he drank carrot juice today AND LOVED IT! and the only thing i could think was "yea your mom likes it too! and i drank a lot of it when i was pregs!" so thats cool.

and one more recipe 

this one i made up all on my own!  inspired by the idea of being a "sneaky chef" like Jerry Seinfeld's wife i made pancakes with finely shredded carrots and zucchini and banana and blueberries in it and WOW IT WAS SO GOOD! i personally am a huge fan of carrot and zucchini bread and banana bread and so this was so good in my opinion. but it turns out that it was also really good in my baby's opinion - he ate a whole 5" pancake! I got my little baby to gobble up zucchini and carrot!! and my husband really liked it too. You barely see the carrots and dont see any of the zucchini so it looks just like a regular old pancake. and the mashed bananas are so good in it that you dont have to have syrup or add the 1 tbsp of sugar that you normally would to plain pancakes (i tried it without syrup because i ran out - it was really good with just butter! and baby doesnt get any syrup on his. just butter for the extra fat).

so here's my very first "my" recipe!

Super Yummy Banana Blueberry Pancakes (with carrot & zucchini!)

this is your basic pancake recipe (also calls for 1 tbsp of sugar but i dont need it for this one)

1 c whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk or plain yogurt*

1 lemon (added to the milk to curdle it)

1 beaten egg

2 tbsp cooking oil (i've used melted butter before too)

-here are my variations 

you can use one or all of them and its still very good

1 carrot shredded fine 

1 whole or 1/2 small/medium zucchini shredded fine 

1/2 banana mashed with fork until soupy

1 c frozen blueberries (unless the fresh ones are in season/cheaper)

*this is very very good with the plain yogurt instead of the milk!  

if you use the yogurt you might also need to add a splash of milk or cream (or water if youre out of milk) if the pancake batter is too thick

and another substitute for the milk - you can also use cream or even spoiled milk if you happen to have it. spoiled milk actually makes better pancakes

Recipe:

Dry mixture

in a medium mixing bowl add flour and shredded carrots and zucchini and mix together to coat the carrots and zucchini.  add baking powder and salt and mix.

Liquid mixture

in a large measuring cup (or another medium mixing bowl) add milk and juice of the lemon and stir (or substitute the milk & lemon for Plain Yogurt).  beat 1 egg and add to the liquid mixture.  add the cooking oil and the smashed bananas and mix it all together.

add the Liquid mixture to the Dry mixture all at once and stir until just moistened. add the blueberries and stir (dont over mix - batter should be lumpy). if mixture is too thick (like cookie dough) add a little milk.  if its too thin (like soup or gravy) add a little flour.

for standard sized pancakes pour about 1/4 - 1/2 cup batter onto an already hot medium-heat skillet (iron skillets work best! $9.99 at IKEA). Cook about 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.  turn it to the 2nd side when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry.  make sure its cooked all the way through - they tend to take a longer to cook through than regular pancakes because of all the good stuff in them.  If its cooked dark on the outside and the batter is still raw in the middle turn the heat down.  serve warm with butter and real maple syrup, or whip cream, or butter and powdered sugar. 

these are really good! enjoy.