I am BRILLIANT!!!!

Now that Sasha has been sort of walking, I was thinking ahead about good push toys for little walkers. Almost every young child, myself included when I was a little one, has one of these:

But after Sasha showed much interest in a little Hoover Slider cordless stick vacuum that a waitress was using to clean under tables at our local Baker's Square, I came up with a BRILLIANT idea. Why not buy one of those little vacuums for Sasha and put her to work while she plays!!!
So Sasha is now the proud owner of one of these babies:

I tell you, I am a GENIUS! She loves it and I can already forsee that my young cleaning-obsessed virgo toddler will probably spend hours making sure the carpet in our apartment is spotless.
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Hear my Wookie Baby Roar

My husband has been calling Sasha a "wookie" because she whines and cries like one. I thought it was mildly amusing. But today he downloaded some Wookie sound files onto his computer and kept playing them in a loop while she was doing her Wookie-cries.
Yup, she does sound like a baby wookie when she's crabby. Weird!
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Well, I suppose I spend enough time complaining when we don't get enough sleep. It is only fair that I should rave about how well Sasha and I have been sleeping this week. As I write this, I am recovering from 10 1/2 hours of sleep. Sasha slept 12 hours straight the other day too! My complaint now? Too much sleep! Hah! There's so much stuff I should be doing and instead I'm sleeping my days away.
But like I said, Sasha has been sleeping a lot too. I wonder if it's because she's learning how to walk? (She's still walking back and forth between my husband and I when we have the chance to sit on the floor with her. I enjoy every minute of it.)Anyways you'd think that she'd be in a great mood with all the extra sleep she's been getting but no, she's apparently pretty crabby while I'm at work according to reports from my husband. The moment I walk in the door, she's all smiles for me, hah!

Today, I hope that I DON'T get too much sleep. I want to take the girls to an apple orchard, which I can only do during the daytime (sucks to be night shift when I want to go out and do stuff). It's been tradition. Hopefully we'll make great memories, good pictures, and yummy apple sauces, jams, and pies. If I'm in luck, maybe I'll even get a pumpkin too :)

I should also mention that tooth number 8 is FINALLY making it's way in. It has officially broken through her gums. Explains some of Sasha's recent crabby behavior. Tooth 9 and 10 are lined up and ready to come through soon. I can feel them below the skin of her gums but they might take a few weeks.

Return of Daddy Dance

"Daddy Dance" is one of the most heart-warming memories of my life. When Sasha was a tiny little baby with colic, my husband would fire up iTunes, iTunes visualizer, and some music and he would rock back and forth in front of the computer monitor. The combination of the music, iTunes visualizer, and the swaying would mesmerize Sasha into a state of calmness. She would lay her head on his shoulder, snuggle in comfortably, stare at the iTunes visualizer, and her eyes would gradually get heavier and heavier until she was limp and asleep. It became a special bonding ritual between Sasha and my husband.

But alas, he had hurt his back. We think it was a few too many times bent over the changing table for him, combined with moving an entertainment center. The back injury made "Daddy Dance" painfully impossible and it slowly dwindled away.
Sasha still seemed to show a fascination with all the old Daddy Dance songs even though it's been a long time. To our amazement, the voice of Sarah McLachlan still made Sasha stop dead in her tracks to listen, as if she could almost remember it. She's been happy and cheerful and dancing lately, and so we thought we'd try to bring back the Daddy Dance. We hooked the speakers back up to the computers, dusted off the old special Sasha playlists, and she remembers!

Daddy Dance still has the same mesmerizing, calming effect on Sasha that it used to when she was a little infant. She zones out at the visualizer and slowly drifts off to sleep. I'm so glad to see this ritual return, and I think her Dad is too :)

First Steps

Walking from Mom to Dad.

And walking from Dad to Mom.

She's still only walking very short distances but she thinks it's an incredibly fun game. Back and forth between Mom & Dad. Today, she started walking to objects. Like she just stood straight up and started walking to her Intellitable toy today, at least four feet away! So she's starting to understand she can walk to get to places. I think maybe by the end of the week, we'll have a real walker on our hands. Things should get interesting!
Meanwhile, Sasha has been in a great mood lately. She's been a real joy to be around and lots of fun to play with.

First Steps

Sasha baby took her first steps for her Daddy four different times yesterday!
Although each time she walked, she only walked maybe 2-4 steps each time but it's a start. I don't think she'll be sprinting down the street quite yet but you never know sometimes.
She had pulled herself up to a standing position by clinging to her dad. Once she was standing comfortably, she let go of him. My husband decided to take a step or two back away from her and she was standing on her own. Once she realized she was standing alone away from him, she took the two to four steps required to get back over to him and grabbed him. So I guess she just might be capable if given the proper motivation.

Sasha's Birthday Festivities!

Saturday night, we celebrated baby Sasha's first birthday (and Grandma Carol's birthday too)!
First, Sasha opened her birthday presents. From her parents, she got a toy called a ball popper, and a toy boat for the bathtub. Grandma Carol got Sasha a toy Winnie-the-Pooh book and a Speak'n'Say toy.

After the presents, it was time for cake! Dressed in just a diaper, we put Sasha in her decorated high chair and tried to put a bib on her. She HATED the bib and cried until I took it off. So fine, we went bib-less. We lit the candle on the cakes, lit the candles, and sang Happy Birthday twice, once for Sasha and once for Carol. I gave Sasha her little cake, and we ate cake and ice cream.
At first, Sasha was very timid with her cake. She poked it suspiciously with a single finger for a while but it didn't seem like she would do much with it. She did try to feed it to her father. Once she was given a spoon, however, she really started digging in! She made a wonderful mess, ate lots of cake, and really seemed to like it. It was a lot of fun. When she was done, we gave her a kazoo to play with since she seemed interested in the ones Cassie and I were playing with.
After her cake, it was bath time! She got all cleaned up and then I got to snuggle with a clean, happy baby. Sasha gave her grandma some very sweet kisses and her grandma was smitten.

Here is a slideshow of her birthday festivities: here

Birthday Weekend

We're back! We had a great weekend with all the birthday festivities.
We managed to get the house mostly deep cleaned on Friday. It feels really good to have a nice clean house. Then Friday night, my husband picked his mother up from the airport and she spent the weekend with us.
We celebrated the birthdays for Sasha and my mother-in-law Carol on Saturday, even though their birthdays technically were on Friday. Carol arrived in town late at night on Friday so that was best. Saturday we baked the birthday cakes and went out to breakfast at a local waffle house. Then we browsed around at Ikea. Carol gave us an early Christmas present- a new couch! That was very sweet. She also got us all new bedsheets and blankets. She has a talent for decorating so the sets she put together for us were very nice, not to mention comfortable too.
When we got back home, we did the cake decorations and it was time to do some birthday celebrating! After the presents and cake (a whole post will be dedicated to that in detail), Sasha had a well-needed bath. She was very affectionate that evening and lavished us all with lots of hugs, snuggles, and kisses. She gave her Grandma Carol a huge kiss. After Sasha came down from her birthday cake induced sugar high, we all went to bed.
Sunday, we went to the mall and ate at Ruby Tuesdays. We got Cassie some new shoes. Grandma spoiled Sasha with some cute outfits from Hanna Anderson.
Monday, Cassie was back to school, and Carol's flight left in the afternoon. We took her out to Baker's Square for lunch and when we went back home, Carol went through a lot of our digital photos so we could print them out for her to take home.

Virgo Baby

I figured I was going to do it someday. After all, the name of the blog is "Virgo Baby" right? So what is it that makes MY Virgo baby such a virgo?
Well, first what exactly is a virgo baby? A birthday between August 23rd to September 22nd for starters.
I have an astrology book. Several of them actually. I've always found it interesting how people really do seem to fit their astrological signs. So this one book I have is called "Zodiac Baby: An Astrological Guide to Your Little Star", written by Sarah Bartlett. It's a very cute book. I think I got it at Barnes and Noble. I hope the author doesn't mind if I quote a little section of it because I do recommend her book :)

Virgo Babies:
Why I'm adorable:
- I like to look cute and stay clean all the time
- I'm helpful, kind, and care about animals
- Once I can talk, I say fascinating and funny things
Why I'm impossible
- I'm a very fussy eater
- My organized chaos drives you mad
- I'm very sensitive to noise, pollution, and smells
My Secret Side
- I'm very smart and quick to psych you out
- Give me a routine and I'll thrive
- I prefer the company of grown-ups
I like
- Brand new sheets and clothes
- Looking after my imaginary friends
- Learning new things every day
- Keeping my books in order
I don't like
- Noisy people
- Changes in routine
- Dirty fingernails
- People staring at me

Another source of information on what, exactly, are Virgo baby traits, is http://www.bellybelly.com.au/articles/astrology/virgo-baby. I'll excerpt a bit from that source:
"Virgo – Heaven’s Little Helpers
You’ve got a little Worrier in the making here, so from Day One make a vow not to put too much of a burden on these little shoulders. You won’t have to discipline this little angel too much, for they’ll do it for themselves.

Virgo is the most responsible of all the signs, taking a lot of life’s burdens and responsibilities on their own shoulders and feeling a lot of guilt. Although this won’t really manifest until they are grown, you’ll find that even at a very young age they’ll worry about you, their brothers and sisters, the cat, the dog, grandma, anyone and anything to them....

They are born with a feeling of urgency and if they don’t feel productive, or busy, they get a sense that something is wrong.

By the time your little Virgo is full grown, they’ll be fanatical about pulling their weight.

To stop your little Virgo worrying so much, about the little things, realise that you have one of Heaven’s Helpers here. As soon as they’re old enough, let them help around the house, but don’t make it a chore, or they’ll feel even more responsible. You’re most likely to have a happy little Virgo if you make them feel important and that they are such a big help to Mummy or Daddy, that what would we do without them? Simple jobs will make them happy. They love to feel needed.

There are plenty more virgo baby traits than those listed above. They like things quiet, calm, orderly, and routine. They are discriminating, picky, organized, hard workers, very smart. They are shy and easily upset by strangers but sweet and helpful. They are very sensitive to noises, smells, and thus are difficult babies to put to sleep at night. Every little sound wakes a virgo baby. Virgo babies are picky eaters; weaning a virgo baby may take extra patience and understanding because she's disturbed by change. Virgo babies like their diapers and clothes clean and enjoy simple colors and fabrics. They like books and bookstores. They enjoy games of tidying! They are shy and wary of strangers. They like things to be perfect and like to point out imperfections (Mine loves to pick up carpet lint and hand it to me!).


My Sasha dear is a very typical Virgo Baby. She is very cautious and shy. She loves to watch strangers so long as they are busy, distant, and not trying to interact with her. But the moment a stranger tries to interact with her, she will either hide her face away in shyness or she will start to cry and bury her face in her parent's shoulders.
She is VERY affectionate. She has an endless supply of hugs, snuggles, and big wet face sucking kisses for those close family members that she loves. It's not only the affection that makes her so sweet though. She is very caring and thoughtful and intuitive, especially for someone so young. She gets upset if she thinks something is wrong with her daddy or if he hurts himself. She gets very concerned for us when she thinks something is wrong and tries to make him feel better. She is empathetic and tries to soothe us if she thinks we need it. On more than one occasion, she has taken my face into her little hands, looked me deeply in the eyes, and rubbed my cheek and forehead to comfort me when I was upset about something.

She loves anything to do with organizing or cleaning! The poor girl is a born neat freak among slobs. One of her early favorite toys? A squeegee. She loves to play with pots and pans and cooking utensils. She loves brooms, dust pans, mops. More than her toys of course.

She loves it when I hold her and vacuum at the same time. Earlier this week, as I was holding her and vacuuming, she went into this sort of reverie. She was happily watching every single vacuuming stroke and studying. Eventually she started pointing out spots I missed and would squeak annoyedly until I went back and got the messy spot for her. THEN my husband walked in front of our vacuuming path. She got mad and started yelling at him and gesturing for him to get out of the way! No "yay I'm happy to see you daddy"...just "get out of the way dada we're vacuuming", haha!
She's always hated a dirty diaper, even when she was a very tiny baby. She'd cry worse than hunger if her diaper got wet and cold. I know by comparison that my older daughter, a gemini, never ever cared if her diaper was messy. My gemini baby hated the interruptions that diaper changing time brought her because she was always too busy with something else.
Sasha is high maintenance. By this I mean that she requires constant companionship and company. She does not like to leave our side, nor does she like it if we leave her side. Nor does she like it if she is not the center of our attention, except if we are cleaning and she can supervise. Rare is the moment when she will happily play by herself and allow us to check our email or computer. Sitting down at our computer desk is guaranteed to throw her into a temper tantrum.

Happy Birthday Baby!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY SASHA!
Today, we celebrate our beloved daughter's first birthday. I can't believe it's been a year. To think a year ago today, I was uncomfortable and in pain, yet excited to meet the little new member of our family. I was dying of curiosity to know what she would look like, how she would be, whether we would bond. Once I had her in my arms I fell in love and couldn't let go. I was mesmerized by her perfect little nose, ears, fingers, toes, and that thick head of hair she had.
We've spent countless hours snuggled together. Nursing, sleeping, just carrying her around. I treasured every moment. Even when she was colicky and crying, we loved her and made great memories that will stay in my heart forever. Someday, when Sasha is a sassy teen giving me attitude, memories of "daddy dance" and "peek-a-boo" will bring me through.
I love you baby Sasha! I am so grateful that you are healthy. I love seeing your little personality emerge more each day and watching you grow. I know that your babyhood and childhood will pass by in what seems like the blink of an eye so I want to treasure every moment. I remind myself to enjoy every moment as you are growing so fast. Next thing I know you'll be an adult on your own. I hope that I can be a good parent to you and I can remember that my true purpose as a parent is to raise you to be a happy and successful adult.

A Chihuahua is NOT a dog...

Or so says baby Sasha.
My husband and Sasha walked over to the local 7Eleven. Along the way they saw someone walking their chihuahua. We have a lot of dogs in our apartment complex. Whenever Sasha sees a dog, she usually gets all excited, points at it, makes little barking noises, and does the sign language for dog. She saw the chihuahua, but she didn't really react like she normally does with a dog. So my husband told her, "Look Sasha, a dog!". He pointed at it and did the sign language for 'dog'.
Sasha looked at the chihuahua, looked up at my husband with her best 'Are you on crack?' expression on her face, and vehemently shook her head no. My husband tried several times to tell her that it was a dog but she maintained her stance that no, the chihuahua was NOT a dog.
Personally, I tend to agree with her. :)
Signing babies are so cute.

Grandma is coming!

There will be MUCH celebration next weekend...my mother in law (Sasha's grandma and namesake) is coming to town!
Sasha's middle name is Carol, named after her Grandma Carol. Sasha and her Grandma Carol share the same birthday. As a matter of fact, Sasha was the perfect birthday present for her grandmother's 50th birthday last year. My husband decided last year that he would like it to be tradition for Sasha and Grandma Carol to spend their birthday together each year somehow.
This is great news.
We'll get to do a real celebration. Now I have to decide what kind of cake to make.

Babyproofing

As you can tell from a few posts back where I showed a picture of baby Sasha gleefully playing in my kitchen cupboards, I'm a little behind on the babyproofing. We have those little plug thingies that plug into electrical plugs. I got those as soon as I saw Sasha eyeing up the electrical outlets. But otherwise our baby proofing strategy mostly involved us following the baby around everywhere chanting "Sasha No!".
Well, the carpets in our apartment had been in hideous conditions from a few too many spilled iced teas and the fact that we've lived in that apartment almost two years without any carpet shampooing. My husband had been begging for a carpet shampooer (that word doesn't look right) and he finally bought us one the other day. He immediately shampooed the carpets and the whole house just looks and feels magnitudes cleaner and fresher. Why am I on a tangent about carpets in a post about babyproofing? Well he had to move all the furniture around to shampoo the carpets, and in doing so we decided to rearrange the furniture. The new furniture configuration looks nice and makes it easier to keep an eye on the baby. Suddenly watching her seemed less stressful. There was much less for her to get her hands on and less trouble for her to get into.
Today I went to the store and got a baby gate to block the kitchen off. And baby watching again became so much easier. I wish we would have gone and done this sooner. Tonight Jon made chili for dinner, and Sasha happily stood at the baby gate to watch him as he cooked. It was so nice to not have to worry about her getting into anything. It felt so nice and safe.
We are still in a cleaning and rearranging frenzy. The more work we put into it, the more we feel like doing. I really like the results so far.

Less than one week...

Less than a week to go until Sasha's first birthday. I wish we had family around to do a full-scale party or something. Anyways I'm trying to plan what to do to celebrate the occasion.
Sasha's party will be just Sasha, her mommy, her daddy, and her big sister. (Unless happy of all happy occasions happens and my parents or mother-in-law comes from out of town to celebrate, but it's such short notice now that I'm afraid maybe that probably won't happen.) I think that I will make some cupcakes and maybe decorate Sasha's high chair. And balloons, I think she'd love some balloons. I was looking around online at party supply websites and was thinking of maybe doing something like this:

It's called "The Big One Girl High Chair Kit", and it is a high chair kit that contains a bib, hat, a flag banner to tape to the high chair tray, and a mat to put under the high chair. Sounds exactly like what I need.
My husband says he remembers his first birthday. I have memories of my first birthday also. (I remember my parents wanting me to make a mess out of my birthday cake so they could take a picture, but I didn't want to get messy so they smeared frosting on me to make me messy. I got so mad!) Knowing there's the possibility that she could actually remember her first birthday party makes me wish I could do something a little more... memorable. If we did have some family around I'd have a nice bigger, more grandiose party for her first...and of course there would be presents.
As far as presents go, I haven't gotten her anything yet. I've been eyeing the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn: Learning Home:

It looks like it would flatten out to store away when it's not in use, which would be nice as we are low in living space. It also looks like it could entertain a kid with something for every age for the next few years, not like something that would only hold a one year old's attention for a short time. Unfortunately that gadget costs $60 and I don't really have that much money to spend right now. Thank goodness her birthday falls on payday.
I have been drooling over the toys at http://www.uniquewoodentoys.com/. If I had the money and forethought, I would have loved to get Sasha one of the doll house sets or maybe one of their busy boxes or their pirate ship sets. YARRRRR! Toys that even an adult could have fun with. I just don't have that kind of money as their stuff is expensive.
So far, Sasha has received birthday presents from my parents, and from one of my husband's family members. My parents got her a LeapFrog Little Touch LeapPad, which comes with some books and it reads them to the baby and makes sound effects. Sasha likes to play with it with me. Sasha got a package in the mail with some nice clothes from my husband's step-father (mom and big sister got some comfy sweat shirts in the same package!)
Best birthday present of all would be her Grandma Carol. I HOPE that she can come out here. I really really do.

Signing and Language Explosion

I took two days of vacation, which gave me a four day weekend. I got to spend nearly every second of it with my little Sasha.
At first I noticed that she was very sleepy. She slept a lot more than usual. When this happens, it usually means one of two things. Either a growth spurt (which is usually accompanied by a huge baby appetite), or she is about to suddenly have some new major ability. She wasn't especially hungry so I figured she was going to learn something neat.
And she did! Suddenly one day, she was a signing baby. All those signs I've spent her whole life teaching her, she just suddenly started using. All in the same day! It was amazing. I spent the whole day nearly drop-jawed. My baby was talking to me. She's done a few of the signs before. But usually only for a day or so and not necessarily in the right context, and then she stopped. This seems different.
In her sleep, she would start to stir and whine, and signed "eat" without even opening her eyes. I'd feed her and she'd happily doze back off to sleep. She signed "more" when she wanted more of anything. She signed "eat" when she was hungry, and I didn't even know she was hungry yet because she hadn't even started fussing or whining yet. She signed "dog" when she saw a dog in the lobby of our building. She signed "light" when she was staring at our lights (LOVES lights, it's her obsession). She also said "ite" when she was pointing at the light and signing 'light'. She verbally says "muh muh muh" when she signs more, sort of like the word more without the r sound in it. She says "Duh" for dog. She squeals "DADA!!!" really loud when she wants my husband's attention. Her other obsession is our blue indiglo alarm clock...she smiles and gets excited whenever she sees it. Now she says "ock! ock! ock!" when she sees the clock and points at it. I wish I knew the sign for clock so I could teach it to her.

Cassie was at my parent's house for Labor Day and Sasha missed her. How I know? Well Sasha pointed at the computer chair where Cassie is normally sitting, yelled "EH!" (her name for her sister) and signed "sister" which is what we taught her to sign for Cassie. She kept pointing staring at Cassie's chair looking for her.
Sasha has a little dog stuffed animal, and when I play with her sometimes I pretend it's a real dog. I make it bark at her and lick her and jump around. Now she likes to grab the dog and bark and make it jump around too. It's very cute.

Basically, it just seems like something clicked in her mind and the language light switch just turned on. Watching a child grow from a helpless little infant into a real person is just incredible and it was weekends like this that amaze me.

Baby Feeding Woes

Above: Sasha suspiciously examines some spaghetti noodles. She opted to just throw them on the floor.

Some of this baby stuff is not what I expected, especially when it comes to Sasha's eating.
The way I had imagined it:
-Nurse baby exclusively until she turns 6 months old, then wean after 1 year
-Pump at work and baby takes bottle of pumped milk while I'm gone
-Make homemade baby food and baby is so happy at all the yummy tastes that she develops a complex palate and appreciation for all the fresh and healthy foods
-Baby gradually eats more and more foods until she self weans
-Baby starts drinking whole cows milk from a sippy cup at 11 months replacing the milk she usually drinks while I'm at work

Reality:
-Won't take a bottle of anything
-Fights food and feeding time, hardly eats anything but fresh peaches and a few cheerios
-Insists on breastfeeding and getting milk directly from the source, refuses pumped milk
-Shows more interest in eating bottle caps, pennies, and carpet lint than in baby food
-Is more interested in dumping out the contents of her sippy cup than drinking it

In the beginning, all was well. Sasha was eating well, nursing well, taking her bottles, and seemed to understand the sippy cup concept. Now that is no longer the case.
A few months back I found that there was something wrong with my pumped milk. Sasha started refusing all bottles of pumped milk, so started the headache of having to either run home from work to feed her, or having the baby delivered to my work for a feeding. It's a bit of a pain. Thankfully my work is very supportive of me...for now. But Sasha is about to turn a year old and I get the feeling they expect for me to start weaning her soon, at least from work feedings. So somehow I have to figure out how to switch her over to cows milk very soon at least while I'm at work. I have no idea how to do this.
She is pretty much refusing all other sources of fluid intake. She's known how to drink from a sippy cup since she was 6 months old...but she just doesn't want to. She is really good at refusing everything. She turns her face away from solids feedings. I don't want to turn feedings into power struggles or fights so what's a mom to do? Right now she lives on breastmilk, a small baby-size handful of cheerios, and maybe an ounce of peach baby food a day. I worry that it is not enough, and I worry that the stress of weaning her work feedings is going to be too much to endure. My husband has been very stressed taking care of her lately and weaning the work feedings is going to seriously intensify that stress level.
Ugh, well there's my problem. I don't know the solution yet but we'll see.

Homemade Baby Food - Part 2

Sasha is a great help in the kitchen. Here she is reorganizing my tupperware cupboard.

I thought I would dedicate a post to the topic of homemade baby food. Specifically how I go about it. There are lots of ways to do it, and there are even some fancy shmancy gadgets out there for baby food too (I prefer to use just simple ice cube trays, a blender or food processor, and some freezer ziploc bags). There are a few books and good websites dedicated to the topic. Those that know me know that I tend to overstudy everything, so I spent months pouring over every homemade baby food book and website I could get my hands on before I finally decided how I was going to go about it.

I like to buy a fruit or vegetable during it's peak season. Sure you might find peaches in the store any time of the year, but they taste like crap if you buy them 'off season'. Also, when it comes to babyfood, I prefer to choose organic food. I know that in some cases, organic food can be a sham, but when it comes to my baby I'll take that risk. I want to put as little pesticides in my little girl as I can.
I waited until Sasha was 6 months before I gave her any foods other than breastmilk.

The first two months she ate, I gave her steamed purees. That means all fruits and vegetables were steamed before I pureed them. After she hit about 8 months of age, I started to give her raw fruit purees. Some nutrients are lost in the steaming process but I understand that the steamed purees are easier to digest and less likely to upset a young baby's immature digestive and immune system.

So like, say for example the pears I made for Sasha. I peeled and cored them then cut them into cubes. I put them in my steamer for 5 minutes. I put them in my cuisinart food processor and pureed them until they were competely smooth.
I put the babyfood puree into an ice cube tray. That portions the food out nicely. I freeze the food in the ice cube tray for about 2-3 hours or until it is solid. I try not to let it sit in the freezer unprotected for more than a few hours. I immediately take the food out of the ice cube tray as soon as it is frozen enough to pop out and hold its shape and transfer it into ziploc freezer bags. Not regular zipper bags, it has to be a freezer bag otherwise the cubes will get freezer burn. The cubes can last about 3 months in the freezer. Very simple and no fancy contraptions required.

Then when it's baby feeding time, my husband or I pop a cube or two in the microwave. It only takes about 30 seconds to thaw in the microwave! So feeding prep time itself is very quick.

I am a busy working mother and honestly it doesn't take that much time to make baby food. I can do it at the same time as I prepare a dinner for my family in most cases. I have no problem taking a few hours once a month or so to make a bigger batch of baby food. Yesterday, I made a small batch of some peaches right before I went to work. My 3 peaches made me 17 cubes so if for some reason Sasha decided to eat only peaches every day that would be about 8-17 days worth of food depending on her appetite. Normally I make bigger batches than that but I wanted to use up those peaches before they spoiled.

I thought I'd add a list of resources that helped me:
iVillage Homemade Baby Food Message Board
www.wholesomebabyfood.com
BEST BOOK: Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron- This is like the homemade baby food bible! I have two copies because I thought I lost the first one and was lost without it, then after I replaced it I found the first again, hehe.
Ask Dr. Sears website- neat info about any baby question but great info on feeding babies
Kellymom.com - mostly a website about nursing baby but has good info on feeding baby too. I found the info on why to delay solids until 6 months very helpful

Homemade Baby Food - Part 1

Our freezer door full of baby food cubes. As always, images can be clicked to view enlargement

By request from one of my two readers, haha! Someone (Hi Anj!) asked me to take some pics of my freezer, specifically the homemade baby food cubes so here we are.
Right now, in my freezer, we have the following homemade baby food cubes:
-Mango
-SKWAAAASH! (or squash, as the rest of you call it)
-Pears
-Peaches
-Plums
-Papaya
-Sweet potato
-Broccoli
-Kale
-Turkey
-Avocado (both avocado baby food, and cut up pieces of avocado that she can eat as finger food)
Frozen homemade baby food cubes are soooo pretty. The colors are very vibrant and bright. The broccoli and kale are bright green and the sweet potato and papaya are a brilliant orange.

Sasha's favorites in order of preference are: Peaches, SKWAAAASH!, mango, sweet potato, papaya, plums, pears (gritty consistency so it's not her favorite but she'll eat it). She won't touch the broccoli, kale, or sweet potato. I used to give her homemade cereals but they constipated her so bad that I stopped for a while. Now that she's been away from eating cereals for so long she rejects them now.
She is no longer adventurous when it comes to baby foods. She is downright picky. She'll eat carpet lint with no problem, but I try to give her something she hasn't had before and you'd think I was trying to feed her motor oil or something vile.
So if I had to give advice to moms considering homemade baby food, it is don't be offended if you go through all the effort and baby doesn't like a food you make. Don't make 70 gazillion baby food cubes of zucchini only to find that baby hates zucchini. I've got bags of kale, turkey, and broccoli that I'll have to find alternate use for unless Sasha suddenly develops a newfound like for them. Fortunately her mom likes them so I think I might be able to use them for some sort of pasta or casserole sauce.