Yum

I've been making baby food. A lot of baby food. I never did this with Reagan. I think I was overwhelmed with the new parent feeling and making baby food would have been another thing on my plate. But I've decided to make my own food for Elisabeth for a few reasons.

1. The cost savings. Holy cow! I didn't realize how little it actually took to make my own food. I think I'm averaging about 8 cents a serving. I pay 50-75 cents a serving when I buy prepackaged foods. Wow.

2. The product. I know with baby food, especially stage 1 foods, the FDA is pretty strict on regulating what goes into the food. But how awesome is it to pick the freshest, most delicious peaches and give them to my baby? It's way awesome. And I can mix my own in season fruits and veggies. For example, my yummy plum/banana mixture I made or my fall veggie mix I plan on making in a few months.

3. The waste. I'm a big recycler and try to do my part for the environment. I'm not crazy granola (hello, I drive an Expedition!) but I try to do good when I can. For making my own food, I buy food in bulk, freeze in ice trays and then seal the frozen cubes in vacuum bags. I purchased the ziploc hand pump set for 3.99 and a bunch of quart size baggies. The baggies say not to reuse them but I don't see why not. Probably a ploy by Ziploc to get more of my money. The bags are perfectly reusable! Just wash them out! So, my total waste for this project is the packaging the food comes in, if any. That's cool.

4. It's fun. I've thoroughly enjoyed making all this food. It's fun coming up with flavor combos and I can't wait until Elisabeth is older and can eat more variety. Oh, the possibilities!

So far I've made green beans, peas, carrots, peaches, plums, bananas, mango and I've frozen up some avocado slices. The hardest part is waiting for the ice trays to freeze so I can make more food. The website I used was wholesomebabyfood.com. I really like this site, it tells you how to cook the foods and has different recipes. Yummy!

New

Reagan got her first haircut today. It's been looking a little scraggly at the ends and we'd never cut it, so we decided it was time. And by "we", I mean me and my mom. She was going to give it a little trim but we opted for a real salon professional and I'm so glad we did. Myra is awesome and was so good with Reagan. It turned out adorable and Reagan loves it. Here's the trip to the salon:

The before shots





The "cape"


The first cut


The wash


Being so good at staying still

and cue the cuteness!!!

Buh bye swing

With Elisabeth being colicky her first few weeks of life, we found the only way she'd sleep was swaddled, in her swing with white noise playing. Now that she's starting to be a normal happy baby we are making the transition to her crib. Oh, and the fact that we'll be on vacation in 3 weeks and won't have the luxury of a swing. She's awesome. She's in her crib for her daytime naps and most of the night. She still needs a little help getting to sleep around 7 or 8 pm, so she gets to swing but we're definately making good progress.

Elisabeth is almost 2 months old already which is crazy and very welcomed. She was a rough little stinker for awhile so we're all happy that she's growing out of her fussy stage. She loves her bouncer and her activity mat. She ADORES her big sister! Reagan can always make her smile. Not that she's at all stingy with the grins. She has the cutest toothless smile! Unfortunately, she is suffering a little from second child syndrome and I don't have as many pictures of her as I did of Reagan at this age but I will be making a conscious effort to take more. And not just with my phone.

Here's one of the little champ sleeping away in her crib.

And one of Reagan too. You can see the remnants of her first black eye caused when you sit on the dog and she stands up really quick and you get whacked in the face with a dog tooth.