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Archive for December, 2011

Baby Food: Buy or Make?

Posted in Firsts, Routine and Rituals, Tools of the Trade on December 30, 2011| 5 Comments »

I am NO Martha Stewart. I proved that many years ago when my hand-painted holiday wrapping looked like a 7-year old made it (I was 30 at the time) and when my dried-flower-wreaths were a hot-glue-gun-mess and epic failure! I do have great creative ideas. I love to invent. It’s just the execution of these crafty delights that trips me up. Anyone that knows me, knows that I completely believe in and support outsourcing. If there is someone who is GREAT at what they do, why not let them continue to do it and then I can be the benefactor of their excellent service. I really do NOT need to be good at everything. Specifically not necessary would be things like cleaning our pool, washing my car, painting my nails. So, when I was asked about whether Bella was going to eat store-bought-jar-food or if I was going to make her food, my answer was… to everyone’s surprise.. a resounding “OF COURSE I’M GOING TO MAKE HER BABY FOOD.” I am a huge fan of all things organic and I hate the thought of her ingesting chemicals or preservatives. So, this seems like a natural for me.

We registered for the Beaba baby food steamer/food processor and my mom’s business partner gave it to us. This machine is amazing and so easy. I just wish it was a little larger. I can steam the food and puree it all within the same machine. Then I freeze the puree in ice-cube trays and transfer to Ziploc bags once they are hardened. Our freezer, which once had vodka, lobsters, lemoncello and ice cream has now been taken over by ice-cubelets of sweet potatoes, avocado, banana and pears.

YUM!

I think Keith is skeptical that this new hobby of mine will last. But, I am having fun with it. So much so, that last night I mentioned that I thought I should start my own fresh baby food business. Yeah, yeah, don’t quit your day job rang through my ears.

I guess the proof will be in the pudding. Bella has just started on “solids” from a big girl spoon. We had our first puree of banana two days ago and she had some sweet potatoes today. She seems to like mommy’s cooking so far. Another BIG milestone for our little girl! And I feel good doing my part to make sure she has the freshest, yummiest meals possible. Although I have heard that chicken and beef can get pretty gross when they are pureed. And that diaper time is not going to be so fun with the introduction of these new things. Oh, and that her nose can turn orange if she eats too many sweet potatoes.

I pride myself on trying at least. And I crown myself the Top Chef of Baby Food. I’m thinking it’s a niche that BravoTV has not yet thought of. Watch out Padma and Tom!

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The Holidays.. Our First with the Baby

Posted in Firsts, Juggling it All, Routine and Rituals on December 20, 2011| 1 Comment »

I always look forward to the holidays!  I love this festive time of year!  Everyone seems to be in a happy mood.  Except for the sour-faced bakery lady at Publix who clearly hates me for asking her for the definition of “half and half cake” (but that could be a whole other blog entry).  Christmas on Las Olas and Boat Parade parties bring lots of outdoor fun for everyone, houses are decorated with pretty lights and the frosty adult beverages get more creative, more plentiful and frequent!

Bella and the Guy Whose Beard she Pulled. A Lot.

There are so many facets to the holidays:  a busy time of year at work, schedules to coordinate, grocery shopping/cooking/food to prepare, presents to purchase/wrap, and parties, lots of them.  It’s ALL good stuff, but sometimes hard to juggle such a busy calendar.  Add in a dab of 6-month-old-baby, a year where we will be remembering Bella’s grandmother, Miriam, who left us too soon, and a mixed-religion household… It can definitely get a bit hectic and stressful.  For me, thank goodness I have running as an outlet!

Keith and I decided we were going to expose Bella to both of our holidays and start new holiday traditions at our home for our daughter.  I was brought up in a Jewish family (we lit menorah candles, but also had a Christmas tree) and Keith was raised fairly conservative Catholic.  No reason Bella shouldn’t see it all.  We are treating this year as our practice year.  Our mulligan, in golf terms – a “do-over” if we don’t get it right.  We get to practice the traditions, get our stories straight, purchase our Elf on the Shelf and make sure we know what we are doing for next year when she actually may understand SOME of what is going on.

The day is finally here.  Hanukkah starts tonight at mom’s house and we have a 5-day countdown until Santa arrives.  We are so excited to share this first holiday with our precious little elf.  Can’t wait to see her soaking it all in.  It will be a great, fun-filled 5 days.  There will be tons of yummy food.  There will not be a lot of sleep.  And lots of family time, though there are lots of family members that we miss dearly, who are celebrating around the country.  But, best of all, we will be together with our new addition to the family, at the beginning of some new traditions.  And if there is any drama or stress (or too much food), I’m going running!

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3 Men and a Baby

Posted in Juggling it All, Missing My Baby on December 14, 2011| 2 Comments »

Another business trip. Another few nights away from the family. I feel so bad. Not because I don’t think Keith can handle her, not because I worry about whether or not she will be ok, but because I know handling a 6-month old on your own for THREE DAYS is hard work! Keith is absolutely the BEST father ever. And Bella adores him. So, I feel very comforted to know the two of them are hanging out having fun while I am in Atlanta.

3 Men and a Baby: Pizza, Beer, Football!

I arranged for our nanny to stay a few hours late each day, so daddy could wrap up his work day before being on baby duty. And my father is in town from North Carolina, so he came to sleep over one of the nights to help Keith out. It was so cute… they packed up Bella, picked up my stepfather and the 3 men took Bella out for pizza, beer and Monday Night Football. A girl couldn’t ask for three better dates than that!

I felt like I was with them, at least virtually. I got pictures texted to me of Bella drinking root beer, chewing on an IPhone and then later, in the bathtub. Everyone had an awesome time and the grandfathers got some quality time with their Princess.

Then, the next night, my mom stopped in to make sure all was in order at my house. You never could tell this is an only-grandchild, could you?

It makes me feel very comfortable going away knowing that my precious jewel is in such caring, capable hands. But, I cannot WAIT to get home tomorrow night. I have been craving some slobbery baby kisses!! And a big bear hug and kiss from Keith. Nothing compares to the feeling of either of those!!

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Where Have I Been ?

Posted in Juggling it All, Rookie Behavior on December 9, 2011| 4 Comments »

I thought I could do it all. I’m Wonder Woman, after all. Of course I’m capable of juggling a career, a charity event, the holidays and a family. Big deal, right? Well, yes, Virginia, it IS a big deal. Much harder than I thought it would be to manage my time. It is amazing how little time I can actually carve out to do things like get my nails done, take a nap, write in my blog or even go grocery shopping (yes, I do like to do that)!

For the past few weeks, I kept saying “I’ll write a blog post tomorrow”. Quickly, however, that became a week, then two weeks. I really missed writing. I had so many ideas in my head, but they just had to sit there in DRAFT. I found myself downloading my blog application on our iPad, so I could write more portably. And then when that was a #FAIL, I downloaded the blog application on my iPhone. Sadly, I found that even I am too OLD to write whole paragraphs and edit on that tiny little screen. Not to mention, I have no clue how you would possibly attach a photo with a caption on that sucker.

Time for Family and Turkey

So, what the heck have I been doing with my time? In the past few weeks, we have been to a hockey game, we have been to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving and a cousin’s wedding, we have had end-to-end meeting-filled days at work, we have attended 2 charity events and a handful of holiday gatherings, we have had a house full of strep throat (everyone but Bella), we had girls-night IN (for Bella and Mommy) when Keith went to Tampa for two days, we went for our 6-month-old visit with Dr. Amy for immunizations and ended up with a low-grade fever afterward, we tried our first food (oatmeal) and we had a marathon sales visit from the hurricane impact window man from hell. All that didn’t leave me with a whole lot of time for bonbons.

But, I vow to write. Because I think the ideas trapped in my head give me a headache. Or it could just be a side-effect of the strep throat. But, also, because I have a new MacBook Air and I’ve downloaded the blog application. I’m Back!

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Check “SICK” Off Our List

Posted in Firsts, Rookie Behavior on December 7, 2011| 1 Comment »

Immunizations.  A surprisingly controversial topic.  And one that mother’s who are against them amazingly find loopholes so their kids can go to school without them.  To me, it’s a no-brainer.  I can immunize my child against a set of rare diseases and guarantee she will never get them or what?  Cross my fingers and hope?  Come on.  Being as anti-germ as we are, we decided to do them.  All of them.  We travel a lot and Bella is exposed to a lot of new people and places, so we are playing it safe and getting her pumped with everything they can think of.  At this point, she’s pretty much protected from everything but athlete’s foot and emotional instability.  For those, she is on her own!

Immunizations come with warnings about side effects.  For the first two sets, our Princess came through like a champ.  Happy as a clam.  This time, however, she didn’t seem to feel so great afterward.  Our normally happy baby was fussy and crying.  A LOT.

SICK. Not a Happy Camper

However, we also tried out our first solid foods that same day.  Oatmeal.  Seemingly harmless.  Did she have an allergy to oatmeal and not a reaction to the immunizations?  No clue.  All I know is that after she had BOTH, her cheeks turned red like Santa Claus, she got rashy-looking spots on her feet and she had a low-grade fever.  The doctor we called (Dr. Amy’s on-call replacement) pretty much laughed at us when we told him her fever was 100.8 degrees.  Apparently it’s not alarming to a doctor until it’s over 104 degrees.  To me, 104 degrees is “holy shit the baby’s burning up and about to combust” temperature, but I defer to him.  He told us to give her some grape baby medicine to reduce her discomfort and bring down the fever.  Thank goodness she slept like a champ!

Although we still don’t really know what caused her to feel bad, her symptoms seem to be going away.  By last night, her cheeks were back to normal, fever subsided and feet were clear and kissable again.  It broke my heart to see our munchkin in pain.  I know this is the first of many little illnesses and I can check “sick” off our list of FIRSTS, but I don’t think it will ever get any easier!

Just in case her reaction was allergic, I have irrationally banned oatmeal from her diet (2 days is enough on solid foods, right?).  I know she needs the iron in the cereal, but can’t she just get it from her formula?  I don’t want to chance having her feel crappy again just for a few oats.  I think Keith is worried she will be going to college and I will still be keeping her from oatmeal!  So, instead, next week we will try RICE cereal – it’s got iron, too.  Wish us luck!

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