Fun with Food

Nolan is at a difficult age food wise. He isn't a fan of baby food purees but can't yet feed himself well. He will flat out refuse most of my homemade purees and takes some of the store bought ones if he is in the mood. Because of this, I've been trying to make meals for myself that he can just  have part of. I got sick of steamed veggies every meal so I've been searching for ideas! Yesterday at the grocery store I stocked up and had a few new recipes in mind.

I spent Nolan's nap making turkey and vegetable meatballs and veggie noodles. I had a bunch of previously made and frozen baby purees but with him rejecting those I wanted to put them to good use.

The turkey meatballs were simple. I took plain lean ground turkey and mixed in an array of pureed veggies (sweet potatoes, zucchini, peas, green beans, and spinach). Some of the meatballs had oatmeal flakes for stability and some did not. Once I figure out which he eats best, I'll know for next time. They were then simply baked until brown and frozen for easy preparation.

For the noodles, I used whole wheat flour, a single egg, and the rest of the veggies mix above. I made it into normal noodle dough and used our great pasta machine to roll out. After boiling all the noodles, I froze small portions separately for easy prep time later on. 

Nolan tried the first helping at lunch today and it was a hit!! Nice and simple and I know exactly what ingredients are in everything!

Great finds

This was definitely a week of great deals for Nolan!! I bought his birthday present (yep a whole month early) because Toys R Us had awesome coupons on just the item I wanted. It'll be a surprise to everyone reading this until his birthday or until I breakdown and start using his gift early...probably the latter!

Besides that find, I went to our favorite thrift store and got the Busy Gears I blogged about earlier and a Melissa and Doug wooden farm puzzle. For just a simple puzzle, those things are crazy expensive new but we only paid $1! 

This morning was a bi-annual consignment sale for baby items. Nol and I headed over there and braved the crowds. I couldn't bring myself to scour the racks upon racks of clothing because they usually seem over priced and I can buy new at Carter's outlet with coupons for the same price! We did, however, find a few toys! Those are the fun things anyways, right?

For a whole $4 we got three wooden cars! These are great and are made in Finland (not China for once!). They roll easily over the carpet in the playroom!

The blocks on the smaller vehicle come off and are perfect for a teething boy!

 

Our final great deal of the week was a table top bead maze. Nolan plays with one of these at the library and has enjoyed having his very own so far. I sat him in his high chair and it was perfect entertainment. This was a whooping $3 and is brand new looking!

Well, now I need to get off the computer and go straighten up all those toys lying the floor!!

Doggy Fun

I'm working on giving Nolan free time out in the main part of the house. We've been super cautious up until now because of all the hazards - biting bird, hardwood and ceramic tile floors, dog hair regardless of how often I sweep, and the 3 beasts themselves. He loves it though and now that he can walk and is a speed demon at crawling he is a little less helpless. Here are a few pics of his fun today.

Kahn did great even though Nolan stole his favorite toy (and in case you're wondering I had just washed it).

Kaya isn't too sure what to think when Nol decides to scream and crawl at high speed towards her.

Lainey stayed conveniently out of reach on the couch!

...and yep as you see in the pics I moved his playgym out here out of his play area and out of commission for a little while to give myself a few minutes without having to grab him off the top or fear he was gonna fall and crack his head.

Busy Gears

So I bought this for Nolan yesterday at our favorite thrift store.

It was $2 versus the Toys R Us price of $18! I really like toys that encourage thought and imagination but it seems like the more simple the toy the more it costs. The cheapest all wood teether I've found is close to $20! Yep it's just a nice piece of sanded wood! Needless to say we don't own one and instead Nolan utilizes the crib (even though I went to all this trouble).

Nolan really likes the gears on the play table at the library so I thought this would be perfect. The gears at the library table are all permanently connected to the table. As you rotate one, the others spin. The gears on this toy, however, come off. That leaves us with 10+ pieces and a table that no longer spins. Once Nolan figures out how to put the gears back on it will be better but for now I'm stuck finding the gears, putting them back on, and then hoping he plays with it for a while before removing them all and starting all over! Good news though, apparently the gears themselves are yummy to chew on!

Baby Music

Nolan has his own radio/clock/mp3 player in his room so he can have nighttime music or fun playtime music. I decided this weekend to organize the songs into different playlists on his Ipod so it would stop playing lullabies when he was playing! We made a classical song playlist full of Baby Mozart songs and his nighttime playlist remained pretty intact with the "Under the Green Corn Moon" CD.

That CD is from the library is of melodic Native American lullabies. I play it during all of his naps and recently started using it at night very low. It seems to be helping him wake less and calming him when he wakes alone. It's very peaceful!

The newest playlist created was for his play time songs. I decided to keep it full of only lively kids songs with words and fun beats. This morning while while we were in his bedroom folding laundry I played the new playlist for him. All of a sudden, I realized there was a pretty strange song on. I heard the following lyrics:

Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap, oh I wish I were a little bar of soap for I’d slippy and I’d slidey over everybody’s hiney, oh I wish I were a little bar of soap.

Oh I wish I were a little mosquito, oh I wish I were a little mosquito for I’d nippy and I’d bitey under everybody’s nightey, oh I wish I were a little mosquito.

Who would have thought I'd have to censor a ten month old's songs!

Cotton Babies

Our favorite cloth diapers by far are the BumGenius (3.0 or 4.0) One Size diapers as anyone who has read this Blog knows. Cotton Babies, the store owned by the makers of BumGenius, has been having a Cloth Diaper Give Away week. They've given away LOTS of diapers and their final giveaway is wrapping up now. Just thought I'd share their webpage and give myself an entry into the giveaway.

www.cottonbabies.com

These boots were made for walkin'

I pointed out Nolan's first few steps a couple posts back so I thought I'd update everyone. I'm sure the few people that read this have already seen it on Facebook though. Nolan is taking real steps now and walking all over on his own!!

Yesterday at the library storytime Nolan took off and went half way across the giant room. Here is a little video I have been able to capture. Of course, his biggest stretches of walking never get caught on video!!

My little baby is growing up too fast!