Handmade Baby Girl Gifts

A friend of mine's SO is expecting a little girl in April, so this week I have been working on some baby gifts for them. I started with practical and ended up with something very frivolous. Because little girls should have something frivolous, no?

So first, I whipped up a few of the standard crafty baby gift – burp cloths. I used prefolds and cotton flannel. I made three, and bundled them up with some pretty ribbon that was leftover from my wedding years ago:

Next, I wanted to make an oversized changing pad, because the ones that come with diaper bags are small when your baby gets to about 6 months and sometimes those public restroom changing tables are just not all that clean. I realized, however, that it would also work as a small stroller/car seat blanket, or impromptu burp rag. With a pair of blanket clips, it can even work as a nursing cover. So I made two of those, too. By the way, all the material is from JoAnn, with no specific designers attached to the patterns. Unless otherwise noted, the designs are of my own devising, although I recognize that a great many crafters have put together similar items. So here's the blanket/changing pad/whatever with a little soft block with a jingle bell inside:

And blanket clips:

Then I pulled out a little Gerber snap front shirt and, remembering a tute on Handmade by Jill, I made a little "take me home shirt" with some bows and a little "S" patch (the baby's name will be Sophie…how sweet!) and then I put together a little clip that may or may not hold hair. I have never made one before, so we shall see:

Then…oh…I got really kind of silly. I had bought this little patch with a heart and skull and crossbones because it just seemed like something my friend would appreciate on his little girl. But I wanted to counter-balance it. So I ironed it on a onesie and put together a really fluffy tutu to go with it:

I'm hoping the tutu and onesie will fit at the same time and not be so fluffy as to be a suffocation hazard, but I can't imagine anyone would leave their infant in something like that unattended.  Right?

I hope they enjoy these gifts and enjoy their little girl when she arrives!

Being Green v. Saving Green (A Christmas Story)

I struggle a bit as a first time mom with the idea of used baby gear. Most of the used items I have purchased I have loved, and what has held me back from buying almost everything used is safety combined with the wear and tear I see on items at consignment sales. But I was confident that I could buy Jack's Christmas presents (or at least some of them) used this year.

One thing I knew I wanted for him, but was willing to be flexible about, was a Little People set. I wanted to farm, but would have gone with a good quality used set with another theme if it had the pieces and wasn't too banged up. The price had to be right, too, of course.

I was hoping to save both money and a tiny little bit of space in a landfill, eventually.

However, I was unable to find such a set. In fact, I found tons of Little People sets at consignment shops and sales but not one came with the pieces. What is the point of a Little People play set with no Little People? I had to assume the sellers had bagged them and tagged them separately, hoping to make an extra dollar or two on the sale. But it appears that buyers are happily buying the pieces but not the sets.

So when the Little People farm set with extra bonus pieces went on sale for $29 at Target, I snagged it. The best deal I had seen used was half that for just the farm.

His other major gift is toy pots and pans and dishes and felt food I made, along with some wooden food toys we bought and a set of mama-made spices, salt and pepper, and a bottle of hot sauce (he loves hot sauce). I did look for used kitchen toys but the only ones I found were the cheap plastic kind that come with a bunch of cheaply made cardboard food boxes, usually in a really poorly made plastic shopping cart with wheels that don't work… Although I did find a few pieces that go with a kitchen that makes sounds when you put the pans on the stove or something along those lines (the seller wrote this on the tag). I was not thrilled with these options. I had been sure there would be hordes of eco-minded parents out there selling their much loved wooden play food that had made it through 4 kids and still looked just fine. But I was evidently setting myself up for disappointment.

So once again, I kept my eyes open for a good deal and even up saving a lot of green by buying new. The Green Toys cookware and dish set went down to about $20 on Amazon, where I had a gift card on file, and I snagged it for him. I know he will get lots of use out of it, and I imagine his siblings will as well (when he has them…eventually). The best part? Even though it's new, it's kind of green because it's made from recycled milk jugs. It's also gender-neutral – something of an issue when you are looking for a toy for your son that is sold in the aisle next to the barbies.

I've also been looking for a good set of wooden blocks for Jack and have failed to find them used for more than about $5 less than the price for a new set, and usually the used set is somewhat dirty and missing pieces. To me, it's worth $5 to have a clean, new set, especially since we are talking about wood, not plastic.

Have you been able to score some good deals on used toys? Or do you prefer to get a great deal on something new?

Making Holiday Spending a Non-Issue

In years past, we have not done much planning for Holiday spending and that tends to lead to some headaches. This year, we decided to do things differently. My husband had inquired about Christmas accounts at our bank and they didn't offer them and for a while, it never occurred to us that we could do it ourselves. Then one day I realized that we don't have to keep our money in the bank. So every week we put a set amount of cold, hard cash into an envelope marked "Christmas".
Before we started, we determined how much we expected to spend on every person on our list, using the higher amount of the price range we usually aim for, and added everything together. We assumed, for example, that we would spend $100 or less on our son, since he is only 18 months old. He is also the only grandchild for my parents, the youngest by 10+ years on my husband's side, and the newest great-grand child by a similar margin all over. This means that he will typically be spoiled rotten by just about everyone, so there's no reason for us to spend even that much.
We then added all the amounts together and divided by 50, assuming that we would need to be done shopping by mid-December. The number was shockingly low. We don't have a huge number of family members and friends to buy for, so we were able to put that money aside without missing it at all. We expect to be able to do this in 2011, even with our coming mortgage payments, without any issues.
In mid-November, we assigned envelopes to each person, noting the amount we intended to put in each envelope, and started filling them. The idea here is the same as with any budgeting system that relies on envelopes – when the money is gone, it's gone. You can't over spend. You also don't forget anyone. We also had an additional envelope to cover holiday portraits and frames, which were gifts in addition to whatever else we give.
I cannot tell you how liberating it is!
We had never had trouble paying for holiday gifts (although we are still not at a stage where we are tempted to buy an expensive "it" toy for our son…) and have never used credit cards so we haven't had to face a big bill in the mail in January, but we did have certain anxieties about holiday spending. We tended to buy as we went, holding out for another paycheck when needed to finish shopping. Sometimes we spent more than we intended because we shopped impulsively. And I always hated when I discovered the last few days before Christmas that I forgot to get something for someone and had to go to Target and pick from the leftover gift baskets, which I generally find kind of boring and impersonal.
So this year, we finished shopping early, were under budget, and haven't forgotten anyone, thanks to our envelope system. We also were actually able to shave several weeks off and combined with what we had already put aside, we bought new laptops as our gifts for each other and don't feel the pain of the expense.
I'm planning to add birthday envelopes and do more year-round shopping in 2011!
How do you simplify your holiday shopping?

A used toy that taught me just how much my son knows....

A while back I found a listing on Craigslist for one of thsoe big blown plastic play kitchens from Step2.  It was $20 and I couldn't turn it down, and while it tends toward a fair bit of purple, it's fairly gender neutral.  I figured it would be a good way to see if it is worth investing in a bigger one, new or used, in the future.  I thought he was too young, but would grow into it.  I was delightfully wrong.

He loves it.

He started putting his sippy cup on the "water dispenser" in the fridge door almost right away.  He was about 14 months old when I bought it and I had no idea that he realized we were getting drinks from the door in the big fridge.  But he was watching more than I realized.

Since then, I have been amazed at what he understands about the goings on in the kitchen, and the rest of the world around him.  He brings his toddler plates (which he steals from the dishwasher when we are unloading...or loading...ew) and "washes" them in the sink.  He will put his cup or snack in the fridge when he is done with it, and if I'm not paying attention, it might just stay there a day or two...yuck.

We bought him a set of Melissa and Doug "Pantry Food" when he was about 15 months old and he knew without being told what most of them were.  My dad held up the box of "frozen waffles" and asked him what it was and he said, "faffles," before I had ever heard him say the word before.  If we asked him to go get the juice from his fridge, or the butter, or the milk, etc., he would go in the play room, open the fridge, find it, and bring it back.  And he closes the fridge door, which I love.  He understood right away that it was play food.  I made him felt cookies and he pretended to nibble them without actually putting them in his mouth.

While Jack was saying many of the early toddler words by his first birthday (mama, dada, nana, papa, etc), I didn't think he was ahead of the game.  And I had no idea how much of a sponge he was.  By 14 months, he was regularly using at least 2 dozen words.  Now, at 18 months, he can repeat just about anything and is speaking in 2-4 word sentences frequently.  He is no longer using signs unless, for example, his mouth is full of food and he wants his sippy cup.

He is learning the alphabet and numbers.  If you say the alphabet, he will usually say the next letter rather than repeat the one you say.  It blows me away.  His pediatrician told me that this language skills are very advanced.

There is the unfortunate side effect of having him repeat what I say in frustration at another driving in the car.  No cussing, but a fair bit of impatience and not-so-niceness.  But the benefit is that I told him that cars say Hi by beeping their horns and if you ask him, "What does a car say?" he responds with, "beep beep! hi!"  Adorable.

He knows the animal sounds for about a dozen animals, thanks in part to Sandra Boynton's "Moo, Baa, LaLaLa," a personal favourite.  If you don't have any of her books, you need them.  A big step up from Goodnight Moon.

Today, we waited in the car while my mom ran into a store and he kept saying, "Hurry, Nana. Go, Go, Go! Run! Come on, Nana, Come on, Nana," and when I asked him why Nana should hurry up, he said, "Guggle."  Guggle is his word for Snuggle, or Hug.  He wanted to give Nana a hug.  Sweet, no?  He's going to be sad when we move.

But I think the best thing is that when I say, "I love you, Jack," he says, "I love you, Momma," and kisses me.  Melts my heart every time.  I'm trying to pretend this age will last forever.

Yes, I'm "still nursing"

In this country we  have cultivated ideals about parenting that are simply not beneficial to children.

For example, I have never been terribly fond of the baby entertainers and I skipped registering for them.  I bought a boucy seat at a consignment store so I would have a safe place to put my son that was easily portable and visual for me, but I believed they were not a healthy place for a baby to spend a lot of time, especially asleep, so I didn't try to put him in it a lot.  Mostly just so I could take a shower every now and then.  He hated it and I would have all of five minutes to shower if I was lucky before he flipped out.

Why?  Because babies are not hard-wired to want to bounce in a seat alone, strapped into a harness, with some silly little stuffed animal dancing around in their faces.  They're hard-wired to want mama (or maybe sometimes dada) and they want her all the time.

All.  The.  Time.

And that's normal.

Maybe there are a lot of babies out there who are perfectly happy to sit contently in a bouncy seat or on a play mat/gym or in a jumparoo.  My kid is not one of them, and I never really expected him to be.

He wanted to be held.  So I held him. 

I held him while he slept because by his third day, I already knew he slept better and longer if he slept beside me.  I held him 90% of the day at least and at night he slept beside me - first in a cocoon, but soon enough in bed with me.  In the cocoon, he slept okay, but I didn't.  I fretted all night.  Beside me in bed, we both slept well for many months.

People told me he needed to learn to sleep alone.

People told me I was spoiling him. 

Personally, I find it hard to believe that an infant has the capacity to manipulate, so I responded to his needs.  I couldn't imagine anymore why I ever expected him to spend time alone, especially when I was right there beside him.  It felt natural, and right.

It reminds me a little of what I dislike the most about disposable diapers.  Yeah, of course, I WOULD find a way to bring that up!  But in all seriousness, the new Pampers Dry Max is touted for being dry for up to 12 hours, giving babies more uninturrupted play time.  But is 12 hours in a wet diaper a good parenting choice?

I like to think that most parents, at least those who can reasonably afford adequate diapers (disposable or otherwise) do not limit diaper changes to 2 per day.  No one believes this is ideal.  And yet, I kind of think parents who use disposables sort of expect to get a lot of milage out of each diaper.  They don't want to change it and throw it away if it isn't, well, "full".  Other moms have told me this in person so I'm not making it up in my head. At about 25 cents a pop, you're spending money every time you cahnge your baby.

But my point is illustrated nicely in this because many parents these days seem to think that parenting is largely hands-off.  Babies sleep in cribs, play in play yards or on mats or in contraptions they cannot escape, and get carried around in their infant seats, which are now often referred to as "carriers".

But it all comes down to our need to control things we cannot control.  If you force your infant to sleep alone and play alone, s/he won't "need" you there all the time and you can have your hands free.  Wean, and you get your body back.

But the fact is that babies should be in control of what they need.  Parents are there to meet those needs in the way they feel is best.  Ignore the diaper and formula commercials, the huge list the baby superstore gives you for a regisrty guide, even forget what your mother tells you.  No one else knows what is best, and no product in a store will make parenting easier.  They may even do more harm than good!

Raise your children with love and care.  They are precious and before you know it, they will stand up, take a few steps, and start an all too short journey away from you.

As for Jack?  I have a 14 month old son who is quite secure.  Yes, he is "still nursing" and he's happy as a clam about it.  So am I!  He also wanders off and explores his world.  He isn't attached to me all the time anymore, but it's up to him.  Boogie decides when he needs to be near me and when he can explore.  But he has limits, which he tests constantly.  But I live day by day, secure in the knowledge that my son will continue to test me for as long as it takes to him to see exactly where the boundries are.  It's a journey we are taking together.


Blogger Templates

Baby's Favourite Banana Pancakes

Finally getting around to posting this.  I've been tinkering with a few batches, but since we generally freeze them and they  last a while, it's taken time to get it just right.

Please note that there are several substitutions and I have tried no more than one at a time.  So doing all at once may cause a mess for all I know...

Baby's Favourite Banana Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 T sugar (optional)
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c milk (no to dairy? try apple juice)
2 T melted butter (I assume, but don't know, that oil or a veg. butter substitution would work.  Haven't tried this one though)
2 eggs (or just egg yolks, or omit them and add a little more banana, or applesauce)
1 ripe banana, mashed (as ripe as can be!)

Method:

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to the flour mixture and stir to combine.  Don't over-mix!

Too wet?  Add a little more flour at a time.

Too dry?  Add more milk a little at a time.

Allow the batter to sit while heating a griddle or pan to med-low/med. heat.  I butter the pan before each new batch, but feel free to use the pan lubrication option of choice.

Drop 1/4 c at a time into hot pan, flipping when the edged are dry and any bubbles have popped.

Should make something in the neighborhood of 16 pancakes, but my batches seem to vary from about 12-18.  Feel free to make smaller or larger for your child's preference!

We serve them up plain and then freeze teh rest, layered between wax paper sheets.  They reheat in about 30 seconds in the nuke, or toaster "frozen" cycle if they are big enough.

Enjoy!  Next up will be our new favourite, Apple Cinnamon Oat Pancakes!






Blogger Templates

Goals for the next year...or so

So far in my journey I have made a few minor and a few major changes to the way we live that hopefully will impact not jsut our health, but the environment as well.

Using cloth diapers was never an environmental choice, but I love that something we chose to do anyway is so good for the earth.  And even better for the earth is my recognition that I can get rid of all disposable products (ah...except toilet paper.  Let's not go there).  So my first goal is

1) Stop using disposable paper and plastic products (except said TP).

Perhaps my biggest goals, though, are related to health and nutrition.  I have been researching how contaminated produce can be and have focused on buying organic produce for Boogie.  But I also buy him only free-range organic chicken, organic tofu, beans, grains, etc. for him.  I have had a hard time convincing myself that I deserve the extra cost of organic foods, too.  And since I am perfectly capable of making just about everything from scratch, my next three goals are

2) Buy only whole, organic foods for myself and my family.
3) Make all of our bread from scratch using the recipes in my copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
4) Eliminate as much processed food from our diets as possible.

One thing I want to mention.  Before getting pregnant and having my son, I never really thought much about organic foods.  But I did always kind of hate carrots.  They always tasted weird to me.  Since I switched to buying only organic carrots (which are quite affordable - they are the same price at my local grocery store as conventional), I have noticed that they never have that weird taste.  Which repulses me because now I feel like I have been eating pesticides my entire life.  My son will hopefully never know a carrot that tastes like chemicals.

My husband likes the diet soda so we have talked about ending his relationship (at least on an everyday basis) with this chemical-laden beverage.  I know it is asking a lot of him to change his lifestyle so much, so I'm planning to go easy on this one.  I won't be buying it but if we go out to eat, I'm not going to begrudge him a little caramel colored artificially sweetened water.  For now.

And, finally, I have one more goal that will make our budget a bit happier.  Other than avoiding impulse spending and using sales, coupons, and a rather large freezer to save money, when we get relocated I am planning to

5) Buy used and save the difference.

The now-famous Duggar family (of 19 Kids and Counting fame, for those who haven't seen TLC in years) have been known to use that phrase to describe how they lower their carbon footprint with such a large family, and how they afford the everyday expenses of life.  I believe this can make a big difference in many aspects of our life.

So, for now, we are still camping our with my folks until my husband's career relocates us at an undetermined point in the hopefully near future.  I believe we will be moving in the next 3 months or so, so some of these goals will take a little longer.

Does all this mean that my child won't ever blow his nose with a tissue or enjoy some store-bought graham crackers?  No, of course not.  But I'd love to raise him in a world of handkerchiefs and homemade, wholesome snacks because I believe that he will continue into his adulthood to consume less, spend less, and love the earth that yields so much for us.

If I can manage at least most of this over the next year or so, I'm hoping we can add in an organic garden next spring/summer...wherever we are...


Blogger Templates

Making cereal - it's cheaper and easier than you think!

Making Boogie's cereal seemed like a chore when I first learned it was even possible.  Perhaps I was being naive, but I never realized that I could give him cereal that didn't come in a box from the supermarket.  When I first read about it somewhere on the internet, I was kind of blown away.  Did people really do that?

Besides, baby cereal is cheap...right?

Turns out it isn't.  I wish I could give you a true cost comparison but I haven't taken notes recently and all I know for sure is that on a week-long trip to NJ recently, I spent about $1 on whole grains - oats, millet, and rice - from the bulk bins at my friend's favorite supermarket.  All were organic and the grains lasted for the week without any left to spare and without leaving us underfed :)

The same amount of commercial cereal (a one week supply) would have cost about $3.99 because we prefer Happy Baby HappyBellies organic cereal, but I could have gone with Earth's Best for about $2.79.  And he would have taken care of most of the package.  So even if you assume that he would have eaten about half the Happy Baby cereal, that's still $2, or twice the cost.

I bought a giant bag of Organic Quinoa recently for $8.99 at Costco. That works out to $2.25 per pound, which is less than what the bulk bin cost is at Whole Foods here.

A word of caution -   If you batch grind your grains, you will need to measure differently.  They will fluff up after grinding and you may need 1 1/2 x as much for a batch of cereal than if you measure, then grind, every couple of days.  This isn't really a problem, though.  You just measure it, grind it, and then measure it again to see how much to use later.  Just store any pre-ground grains in the fridge in an air-tight container.

Here is 1/3 cup of Quinoa before grinding.

...and here is the same Quinoa, after grinding.  It's hard to see but its about 1 1/2 x as much.  My little red bowl has a marking inside for 1/4 cup, and the full bowl is 1/2 cup.  I should probably have levelled the contents for the picture, but I didn't think about it.

Here's my 1/4 cup of Quinoa, again, before grinding.  Maybe this is too many pictures but it also illustrates how it grows after grinding.  I use a simple Krups grinder - it is reserved ONLY for grinding baby food and things baby can eat, like flax seeds, so that I don't have to be super picky about cleaning it since it can't be submerged in water.

See how big it gets?  Okay, you get the idea.  Let's move on.  Before you grind, measure out 2 cups of water and put it in a small pot on the stove to boil.  If baby is only easting a few tablespoons of food a day, you can half this and you'll want to use less cereal to water.

When it comes to a boil and your grains are ground into a nice fine powder (look for a flour-like consistancy), whisk them in.  This is important because if you don't use a whisk, you'll have undercooked lumps floating around in watery mess and your baby will look at you like you are a martian if you try to feed it to him.  Also, undercooked grains are not good for baby!  Set the timer for 10 minutes, and whisk every couple of minues until it's done.  ALWAYS taste it to make sure it is cooked well.

Measure the first time and then guess the next.  I have 6oz bowls and this is what 1/2 cup of cereal looks like in them.  I pour the first three, then put the rest in a bowl with two cubes of fruit (if its breakfast) or veggie (dinner) to help it cool down easier.  Some people believe it should go directly into the fridge.  I let it cool for about 5 minutes before sealing the lids and sticking it into the cold.

Here's Boogie's breakfast.  Once the apples melted and the cereal was nice and cool, I added a dash of cinnamon because Boogie loves cinnamon!

Yup, he's an eater.

Down the hatch!

All gone!







Blogger Templates

Yogurt for Boogie

I love to give Boogie yogurt every day because I believe that it will help keep his digestive tract healthy.  So far, we haven't had any stomach sickness (or, for that matter, any sickness!) so I'm going to assume it works until we have a problem.

I started out buying the little individual cups of YoBaby from Stoneyfield Farms.  The plain is, in my opinion, the best way to go.  I add our own fresh fruit puree for flavor sometimes, but we take it plain most of the time.  I think it is important for him to not get used to having added sugar in yogurt.

I realized one day that I was spending too much on yogurt this way.  Those 6 cups, about 4oz each, cost about $2.99.  That's about 24oz, or about $.13 cents per ounce.  If I buy the 32oz organic "cream top" (whole milk) yogurt for $2.99, it's only about $.09 per ounce.

Because it is "cream top" yogurt, you do have to stir it up well to mix the cream in, but you need to do that with the little cups as well because they do the same thing.

I typically freeze half of the yogurt so that it keeps longer, because he isn't eating 32 oz of yogurt in a week, and after 6-7 days I start to feel like it's not fresh enough anymore.

So I freeze 4 6 oz glass bowls with about 4oz of yogurt in each one and when there is only about 1-2 servings of yogurt left in the original container, I take one out of the freezer.  They sometimes take a whole day or longer to completely thaw (my fridge is cold, what can I say?)

I'm still a fan of the individual cups for travel.  If we are going to be out for lunch, they fit nicely into a cooler bag made for holding a bottle/sippy cup.  Our glass bowls with the lids fit well, too, but they are a tight squeeze.  In general, though, I recommend feeding yogurt with no added sugar at least 90% of the time so that as your kids grow older, they are not accustomed to that extra sweetness.  You can always add fresh fruit puree and it will naturally sweeten without additional sugar.  Boogie even likes veggies with his plain yogurt, such as sweet potato.  The other day he wanted his broccoli mixed in!



Blogger Templates

Save money on organic juice by not buying it

I save money on juice by not buying it.  But that doesn't mean Boogie only gets to drink water.  Mostly, he is still getting his "drinks" from mama, but I do offer him a sippy cup of water (and sometimes when I'm feeling lazy I just put water in a cup and hold it for him) with every meal and he typically drinks about half an ounce to an ounce.

But I do give him what I call "juice."  When I cook apples to make apple sauce, I save the cooking liquid, strain it, and freeze it in ice cube trays just like I do his purees.  I do the same with pears, peaches, mango, etc.  Soon I am going to add veggie "juice" as well, though I will probably mix it with apple or pear at first so that he can get used to the taste.

I suppose I could just not ever give him anything but water, but I offer him a cube of "juice" mixed with water (I estimate it to be about 25% fruit liquid) has the same effect that straight juice does as far as his, ah, diaper issues.  His pediatrician told me to give him straight juice if his stools are firm or if he seems constipated, but I just cannot fathom buying a bottle of juice and then throwing most of it away.  I did this once, and ended up boiling and freezing it into trays and it was a bigger pain in the bum that just freezing the cooking liquid, since I'm already in baby food mode.

This way, any nutrients that come out in the cooking water, go right back into Boogie later :)

And when he starts drinking veggie "juice," my hope is that he will get accustomed to drinking things that are not sweet.

As you can see above, one batch of apples also yielded about 14oz of "juice."  This lasts us a good two weeks and its FREE.



Blogger Templates