Happy First Birthday to My Baby Girl and Do-It-Yourself Finger Paint! January 16, 2012

Daily Smoothie Habit: 1 grapefruit, 1 lemon, 1 apple, 1 cucumber, handful of spinach, 1” knob of ginger, 1/2 scoop Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder all blended up without water- YUM this is one of my FAVES!!!!!

 

My baby girl turned one on Sunday! Birthdays for us are not about presents or birthday cake. Instead, we focus on the person celebrating the birthday and spend the day doing fun things that person wants to do. In the future, celebrating Harpers’ birthday will probably entail a party and dessert of some kind. This year, however, she is one and really not interested in that sort of stuff yet so we decided, why bother? Instead we decided to do something that she would think was fun.

 

The fun thing about having a one year old is that pretty much anything new is fun for her. She also LOVES making a mess. So, we decided this year for her birthday we would introduce her to something new that she could make a huge mess with: FINGER PAINT!

 

 

I found this recipe online via several sources and decided to test it out for the following reasons:

 

1. It was easy and used minimal ingredients

2. It was edible so when Harper tried to eat it (which was inevitable) I did not have to worry too much about it

3. It was easily washable from clothes and surfaces so I could let her make a big mess and not worry about it staining anything.

 

Harper had a ton of fun making a big mess with these paints but if you plan on letting your little one create a work of art that you can keep as a precious momento do NOT use these paints. The paint looks very faint on paper and is great for little ones who make a big mess and stick some in their mouth every now and again but it is not making any masterpieces!

 

Anyways,

 

Here is the recipe I used. Enjoy.

 

Homemade Non-Toxic Finger Paint

 

1/2 cup cornstarch

2 cups of water

Food coloring (you can get all natural food coloring from India Tree)

1. Add the cornstarch to a medium saucepan and slowly add water, whisking constantly so that no clumps form.

2. Once the water and the cornstarch have been mixed, heat the pan over medium heat and stir constantly until the cornstarch mixture thickens. It will look something like this:

3. Remove mixture from heat and divide evenly into separate bowls. Add food coloring and mix until desired color is achieved.

4. Store covered until ready to use.

Note: The paint might harden a bit if you let it sit too long. Just add a little water and mix it well until desired consistency has been achieved.

 

Here are some pictures of Harper having fun with finger paint!

 

1st Birthday Fun! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Introducing Solids to a Baby the First year and a Baby Food Recipe January 13, 2012

Daily Smoothie Habit: 1/2 banana, three handfuls chopped kale, 1 large zucchini, about half a bag of Trader Joes Very Cherry Blend Frozen Berries, 1 inch knob of ginger, fresh squeezed orange juice from three oranges.

Note: It is the end of the week and I’m running low on fresh fruit and veggies! So this smoothie is a concoction of what I had left. Needless to say it was not my favorite, but still drinkable and so healthy!

 

 

My baby girl is turning one on Sunday! I cannot believe it has been a year already! Time has flown by! When it came to introducing solid food to my baby I think I took everything the doctor told me and basically threw it out the window and did the exact opposite! I am a huge advocate of breastfeeding and I knew that for the first year of Harpers’ life and as long as she wants after that, breast milk would be her main source of nutrition. So when it came to solid foods, I was not too worried about what she was eating or how much and I really only fed her solid foods as an introduction. I wanted her to learn the look and feel of food, I wanted her to get used to sitting at the table with us, and I wanted to tickle her taste buds with all kinds of new tastes and textures!

 

Harper had her first experience with solid food at six months old and it was avocado. I do not think a single bite actually passed her lips but she had fun making a huge mess! After avocado, she had banana (First doctors rule I broke: introduce vegetables before fruit) and then hummus (second doctors rule I broke: introduce a single food at a time and wait three days before introducing a new food). From 6-8 months I only fed Harper solid food about once every three days or so and for the most part she just played with it. If any of the food passed her lips it was usually by accident.

 

By 8 months old Harper was actually starting to ingest the food as well as play with it so we started feeding her more regularly, about one to two times per day. Avocado and Banana were now her favorite foods and I found she preferred feeding herself to being spoon fed so we did a lot of finger food including tofu, steamed carrots, steamed broccoli, avocado, banana, diced soft fruit, beans, steamed sweet potato, etc. Most of the time I would just feed her bits and pieces of what we were eating. Again, the majority of the food got smooshed, spread across the high chair, or fed to the dog, but her poop changed so she was definitely ingesting some of it! It was around this time that Harper learned how to drink from a straw as well so we started giving her water at her meals and she shared a lot of smoothies with me!

 

Now that she is almost a year old, Harper is eating three meals a day. Some meals she will only eat a bite or two, while others she eats quite a lot. She is still breastfeeding a ton so I do not worry so much about the times she does not eat her food. I am however, trying to find sneaky ways to get more greens and super foods like chia, hemp, and flax seeds in her diet. I also introduced nut butters into her diet a couple months ago as well. I started mixing almond butter, tahini butter, coconut butter, and sometimes peanut butter in with her foods(Third doctors rule I broke, avoid introducing nuts the first year of life). Harper has 6 teeth now so she does well with more raw foods. She loves chewing on slices of apples, carrots, and cucumbers and LOVES rice cakes. I have tried different grains with her but she is not really a fan of oatmeal, rice cereal or any other type of grain cereal. I let her have some homemade rice pilaf the other day and she loved that. She is very curious and is willing to try almost anything. I always give her sips of my smoothies and bites of my salads and more often than not she likes them! I always have a lot of options for Harper at each meal because after a few bites she is usually done with that food. I also make sure she has a mixture of spoon fed foods and finger foods because she usually insists of feeding herself!

 

I am a huge advocate of fresh food. I hate eating anything that is frozen or canned. I think because of this I have a huge aversion to buying pre-made baby food AND to making big batches of baby food and freezing it. To be honest, I have not felt the need to. I have always been able to find finger foods or make a quick one serving meal for harper in a flash and it is so fun to see her trying all these new foods and figuring out what she loves and what she thinks is just ok.

 

 

This recipe below is something I made for Harper today and will definitely be a recipe I use a lot in the future. It is so easy to make, so healthy, and she LOVES it! It uses Chlorella and Spirulina, two green superfoods that are packed with a TON of micronutrients, vitamins and minerals. I get mine in pill form here. I usually ground up 2-3 pills with my mortar and pestle and stir them into her food. You cannot even taste it.

 

What kind of foods were staples in your babies diet the first year? How did you get your child to eat his or her greens?

Green Monkey Mush

Vegan, Raw, Gluten-Free, Dairy Free, Sugar Free

Makes 1 Baby Serving

 

1/2 banana

1 teaspoon almond butter

2-3 tablets Chlorella and Spirulina tables, ground to a powder (or use Chlorella, Spirulina, or some other green powder. Start with a very small amount as slowly increase it as your child gets used to the taste.)

 

Directions:

 

Add everything to a small bowl. Mush the banana with a fork and stir to until all ingredients are blended together. Feed to your baby. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.

When Your children are At their Worst… January 11, 2012

If you have young children at home:

 

print this out, post it on your fridge, and read it everyday. I call it the Mom’s Mantra For Sanity. It helps. I promise.

 

When Your Children Are at Their Worst…

You need to be at your best.

You need to set the tone. Quietly.

You need to calm down.

You need to use your hands gently to help.

You need to approach your child in a true manner that shows you actually want to help them.

You need to be able to pass this duty to someone else in your family if you cannot do it right this minute. This does not mean you have failed, it means you are human.

You need to still be able to love your child, even if you do not like them right this minute.

You need to know, this too shall pass.

You need to know there is no perfect peaceful house.

You need to know your child is not doing this on purpose.

You need to know your child loves you and wants to connect with you more than anything.

You need to acknowledge you are doing your best and you cannot do more than that.