Beaba Baby Cook

I love to cook. I love to make delicious meals that make my audience’s taste buds explode with flavor! So you can imagine my disappointment, last May, when my darling Elle took the first bite of her homemade pureed zucchini and wondered why I was trying to poison her. I love zucchini and thought it tasted delicious. We struggled through the zucchini and graduated onto baby’s first peas. She gave me that same “how can you do this to me” look. This time I agreed – I hate peas in all shapes and forms – but enjoyed her reaction so much that I continued to feed her. It was hilarious! Elle shuddered with each bite and finally in protest rubbed the peas all over her pretty hair and beautiful face. Luckily I caught it all on camera!

Sweet potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, and winter squash have all been met with love and joy. Asparagus brought the same panged expressions as the peas and zucchini. Three weeks ago I reintroduced zucchini and peas, and my darling’s taste buds must have matured, because the girl loved the zucchini, and will tolerate the peas, but doesn’t ask for more.

Last week we finished round two of asparagus, but this time I added basil and a bit of butter and my girl can’t get enough of fancy asparagus! The two meats we’ve tried are ground turkey and lamb. She dislikes both of them, but is okay if I mix them both with finely pureed apples and pears.

On the fruit front she has eaten apples, bananas, pears, blueberries, cheeries and peaches. All but the peaches tickle her taste buds – but I will have to say, this is one sour batch of peach puree. Hopefully I can find some sweeter ones that will help her cultivate a lifelong love of peaches – like I have. *

I prepare all these delicious meals with the Beaba Baby Cook. I love it! It is a steamer and food processor in one. My only complaint is that all the parts have to be hand washed, and like I mentioned before, I love to cook, not to clean. Besides the cleaning part, and that it is a bit smaller than I'd like for it to be, the Beaba Baby Cook is great. It makes me feel so holistic and granola! Three stars and cheers for the Beaba Baby Cook!
*Since I wrote this blog, I’ve tried peaches again, only this time I let them ripen to pure sweetness. This gal has a sweet tooth just like her momma and loved those peaches!

Rocky Top, you'll always be home sweet home to me

When I was growing up, every summer and every-other-Christmas my family would make the drive down I-40 to a small town just outside of Knoxville, TN called Clinton to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I have such lovely memories of my family time and all the love that was showered on us when we visited. Since my grandparents passed away 6 years ago, I’ve only been back once, and have really missed being there.

When Elle was born I told her I wanted to introduce her to her Tennessee great-grandparents Byron and Muriel Johnson. July 9-12 I introduced her to them as bestasI could. All of Byron Trent and Muriel’s family joined together for a family reunion. There were 26 of us in total!

We had a great time visiting with the family and the extended family, hugging Unlce Roni, eating at Hoskins and Big Ed’s, visiting Granny and Papa, and spending time at Chris, Barbara, Hunter, and Oliver’s house.

We love Tennessee and our family! My sister JoDee put it the best, “Our Tennessee trip felt like one giant hug!”

Clapping, crawling, and Cheerios

Elle Belle is acing all her developmental milestones. Clapping started on July 7, crawling, and pulling herself to a standing position started about 2 weeks ago. She babbles mamamama, babababa, and all sorts of adorable baby babble most of the day through and I just can’t get enough of it.

Now that she is crawling I have to have superhero vision to watch her every move. Our house is not even 20% babyproofed yet and I have a baby that is exploring. Does anyone know of any good baby proofing companies? I need some guidance!

I’ve just began to introduce Cheerios and Elle does not know what to think of them. She doesn’t like the taste and inhales them instead of chewing them. The gagging frightens me so that the only time she get the Cheerios is when JP is home.

I need some brushing up on the infant CPR, but JP has it memorized. When Elle was tiny – a week or two old – and she must have swallowed her milk funny because she started to cough, JP said to her, “Don’t worry Elle! I know baby CPR!”

Happy August everyone!