High Maintenance Mom

I had gum surgery 10 days ago and am still recovering. In my quest to find things I can eat (drink?), I've been revisiting many of the foods we gave to our kids when they were younger. My favorite appliances, not including the TV/TiVo which provided entertainment for three days of icing my face, have been our Waring Bar Blender and Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender. I use each of them at least once a day. I started with smoothies and from there have been looking for additional nutrients in a blended form - much like I did for my kids. One of the challenges I face is that I can't digest dairy foods or handle lots of sugar. Many smoothies, puddings, and soft comfort foods contain a lot of sugar so I've had to work hard to find things that won't make me miserable. Below are a few of the foods I've been eating. The next post will cover other comfort items...

I am blessed to be able to breastfeed my 3 month old son and hope to continue to my 6 month goal (I nursed my daughter for 7 months) but understand that there are many mothers who do not have that option and need to feed their child formula from day 1. I reached for a popular formula brand when my daughter was 7 months old and felt OK with my decision. Now, it seems that between the new choice of organic formula and formulas with added DHD/ARA, they are new questions.

The recent recall of Veggie Booty an all natural, vegetarian snack made of puffed rice and corn (this one with spinach and kale) made me furious. Yes, furious! I am pregnant and have a 20 month old and do everything I can to eat right for my unborn child and buy foods that are good and fun for my toddler and my husband. So, I go out and buy organic this, all natural that and sleep a little better at night.

Being a huge fan of Dr Brown’s Wide Neck bottle, I was eager to try their new Natural Flow Training Cup (www.drugstore.com). My daughter did not take to the wide variety of bottles I exposed her to in an attempt to have a life away from nursing so I took the advice of many mothers and tried the Dr Brown’s brand. While she didn’t love the standard bottle, she did love the wide neck series. It most replicated the breast and the easy, fast and efficient flow made it all the better.

I really wanted to whole family to eat dinner together this evening and it's been challenging in the past few weeks as we've all been fighting some horrible cold that makes us cranky. I made lasagna and heated up the leftover spaghetti for anyone who didn't like their noodles pre-mixed with sauce, meat, and cheese. I also gave both kids cups of diluted apple juice (a treat) in special Thomas cups. The issue was that I had used all the sauce in the lasagna so B started to whine and cry before he was completely in his seat...

B walked into the house, sat on the couch, and said in a loud voice, "what's that horrible smell?". I replied that I was cooking mushrooms. He started to complain loudly, "yuck, I don't like mushrooms, why are you making mushrooms, I'm not eating them," and so on. So I told him I was making N's birthday cake. "Want to guess what type of cake I'm making?", I asked. "What is it?", he replied. "A mushroom cake!", I said. "Can I see the mushrooms?", he said in a very excited voice. "Of course, come into the kitchen, I'll even let you try them". "Would you make me a mushroom cake too?", B asked. "Yes, I'm making two cakes so one can be for you."...

We weaned B from a bottle around 14 or 15 months to help him get ready for his new room at daycare. Baby Entropy just gave up his bottle at about 15.5 months. In both cases it was exciting to move all the bottles out of the kitchen and in both cases I was scared about the kids continuing to sleep through the night. Luckily, like everything else, kids adapt and it was probably harder for me than it was for them...