ELEVEN months

I can not believe that Sal is only a month away from his first birthday. Part of me wants him to stay a baby forever, and the other part of me can't wait to watch him develop into a little man with opinions & likes all his own.

Showing his personality..
Mama, I want to be outside with you!!! Why you lock me in here?

He has started showing little signs of his individuality this past month. He has never been a pacifier kid, or very attached to anything for more than a day or two at a time. However, we are seeing signs of favorite toys--he digs in his toy basket for them and plays with them above and beyond all others.

His favorite toy?

Trucks.

We also think that one of his words might actually be "truck".

Or, it could be "fuuuu--fillintheblank"...



Vroooooom goes the fuhk tuhk.

..we're going with "truck" since he is head-over-heels for anything with four wheels these days. He drives his trucks across the floors, over the coffee table, and our sofa making  little spitting raspberry vroooom noises.  

He has a best big buddy here that he tries his darnedest to keep up with. Both boys share a love of trucks and other four-wheeled-vehicles, and I love watching them interact with one another.

 

Sal has also taken a liking to a particular blanket that his auntie Charlee made for him. It's got minky dots on one side, and plaid on the other ( I take his monthly pictures on it/with it). I started hanging it on the side of his crib when December 1st rolled around because I thought it made his room more Christmasy to have a white cuddly blanket hanging on his crib to go with his red and white sheets. Well, he pulled it down one day during nap, and now it lives IN his crib. He grabs it as soon as we lay him down, and cuddles with it.



"the" blanket.



So darn cute and innocent.

Bedtimes have improved since last month. The 10:00p waking still occurs from time to time, but he seems to put himself back to sleep MOST of the time--It's about time. NZ and I have actually gotten to sleep through the night on a regular basis. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have a good night's sleep.  

Mama, please tell them how much I enjoy smearing myself with eating beans.
 

Our little man still loves goldfish  crackers, apple slices, green beans and meatballs. He prefers to feed himself, so I've been trying to make everything "finger friendly" that I can. He's got great dexterity, and has outsmarted our attempts of placing vegetables under a goldfish in hopes that he will swoop in for a handful. He is able to perform surgery to get his goldfish free.

Our ayi brought us a load of fruit last week, which included some fruits I wouldn't typically buy, and he liked them both. One of them is a dragon fruit, white fleshy inside with little black seeds...he loves them, but I'm gonna have to remember them as a great natural remedy if he ever gets constipated. We'll have to limit the amount of dragon fruit consumption from here on out after a couple near blow-outs.



A & Sal. Notice a trend here?
 Lots of stroller rides together.

The colder weather has limited our outings to Starbucks, indoor malls and friend's homes. We usually walk to the vegetable market once or twice a week, and on a quick errand or two on our own. Sal's great grandma gifted him a "footmuff" for our Quinny stroller, and he LOVES riding all cocooned up in it.



Mama,  I move this chair to your bedroom, okay?

He has thought about taking unassisted steps, but has yet to do so. He's a speed demon around the house pushing furniture to-and-fro, and his furniture pushing has evolved from dining room chairs to our sofa. He does balance checks every now and then--so someday soon, I'll be posting videos of my son walking like he's the only kid ever to walk in history.

Finally sitting still for a picture

Happy ELEVEN months Salvatore!

Baby Pancakes

With six chompers and one more currently working it's way in, Sal was cleared to start transitioning from purees to soft cooked foods after our most recent pediatrician appointment. And call me crazy, but I got excited about all the things I could start giving him. Visions of soft cooked carrot cubes & green bean pieces, peas, sweet potato & apple chews, shredded chicken and beef danced in my head.

His favorite meal thus far, aside from carrot zucchini oatmeal--he loves oatmeal like his mama-- are the baby pancakes I have been making. I call them baby pancakes, but they could also be considered vegan, I think. I'm no vegan expert, but I think that the absence of any animal products make these vegan. Maybe I should call them vegan baby pancakes--or not.

There's this whole list of foods that most pediatricians will advise parents to steer clear of for the first year, for reasons ranging from allergies to digestion issues to choking hazards. I'm doing my best to abide by the advice of my pediatrician, and keep Sal's diet milk and egg free til he hits that magical one year mark. Apparently egg yolks are okay--but we still haven't tried those. Living half way across the earth from the only health care I really trust is a pretty good deterrent for jumping the gun. Emergency services here are not as--how shall I say???--dependable or efficient. I'm sure that sooner or later we'll have a split chin that's gushing blood on our hands, and we will be forced to experience the local hospital emergency services, but for now, I 'm perfectly happy being cautious.

Anyhow, I've devised a couple of pancake recipes free of EGG and MILK...and bonus--they sneak in vegetables and fruit.

Boo-to the-yeah.

Thought I'd share em.

These are super simple to make and store well in a refrigerated airtight container for breakfasts, etc.  I take one out in the morning, tear it into bite size pieces, and watch Sal devour it.

 

CARROT OATCAKES

1/4 c. pureed carrots
1/4 c. pureed zucchini
1/4 c. Applesauce
1 mashed banana
1/2- 3/4 cup oats
1 tsp Cinnamon ( we love cinnamon!)

Mix together in a bowl. Let sit in the fridge once mixed, for two hours so that the oats soak up the water from the purees. The "batter" will be quite thick.

Spray pan with olive oil.

Heat pan over medium heat.

Spoon in pancake batter to make silver dollar size cakes.

Cook 1-2 minutes per side, or until browned.



PURPLE POTATO PANCAKES

1 cup mashed purple potatoes
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup flour
1 mashed banana
cinamon to taste
optional: chopped blueberries

Mix together in bowl.

Spray pan with olive oil or butter.

Spoon "batter" into silver dollar size cakes ( I had to use the back of a spatula to spread the batter out a bit)

Cook 1-2 minutes per side, or until browned.

Freeloader

What kind of parent freeloads food from their own kid?

This mom.

Yes, apparently, pureed carrots are a delicious addition to my beloved oatmeal. I don't even recall what posessed me to try it, but it is divine. Tastes nothing like carrot cake. Cinnamon, raisins, oats and a cube of carrots. It's what's for breakfast.

I suppose I better make a double batch of carrots next time I hit the market.

Babyfood on a dime

I've been dead set on making my own baby food since before I ever got pregnant. It was homemade babyfood and cloth diapering...those were my "musts" as a mom. I realize that not everybody has the time, patience or desire to do either of the following, but if you only knew how easy it was ( and cheap!) you'd probably try it just to see if I'm lying.

Part of my baby food making is out of necessity right now, so I am super glad it was something I wanted to do long before a move to China was in our future. If baby food making isn't your thing, then I'm sorry, this post will most likely bore the life out of you.

So, first things first, we purchased a blender at Carrefour. There were not many to choose from ( nor are the directions in English) so I went with the one that looked the simplest.

Two buttons. Mince and Crush.

Nice. Easy.

 I can totally run this machine! Another feature I initially liked were the small cups that you could blend single servings into, but after my first batch, I decided that the full blender was the way to go.

Why make just one serving when you can make a zillion and freeze them?

I bought  pears, broccoli and carrots this week.

Here's where living in China makes preparing baby food even more economical. I paid 4.11 RMB (64 cents) for 4 giant carrots, 2.99 RMB (47 cents) for 3 pears and 5.44 RMB (85 cents) for a head of broccoli. I was able to get 20  one ounce servings of carrots, 7 servings of pears, and 10 servings of broccoli from this bounty. The breakdown??

3 cents per serving of carrots

7 cents per serving of pears

9 cents per serving of broccoli

Not bad, right? Compare that to at least $.99 per jar of prepared baby food, and the savings add up quickly.

I thoroughly washed both the carrots and pears, then peeled and rinsed again. I chopped the carrots and sliced the pears into chunks the same way I would if making an apple pie. I have a microwave steamer that I use to steam. I fill a bottom reservoir with water, then I spread out the fruit or vegetables on a steam tray, put on the lid, and nuke for 10 minutes. From there, I pour my steamed food  into the blender, add water and blend till smooth.

Easy as wash, peel, chop and steam.

Once blended, I pour into ice cube trays, then let them freeze and set overnight. Once frozen, I pour them into gallon size ziploc bags, labeled with the food type and date they were prepared. They will stay good for up to 2 months, but I am sure we will power through this batch in a matter of a few weeks.

I currently use two ice cubes worth of food to equal one serving, because my ice cube trays here in China are 1/2 ounce each. Apparently ice is not as loved over here, and just finding an ice cube tray was a whole day expedition. When I finally found some that were bigger than the size of a dime, I jumped on them and bought four. I'll have to stock up on American size trays next visit home. I guess ice is no exception--in America, everything truely IS bigger!

So, there you have it.

Making baby food is EASY. It's HEALTHY. And best of all, it's CHEAP!

Bananas over Bananas

Look who's bananas over banana's!

Sal loves to eat bananas by himself through his mesh fresh food feeder.

What a big boy!

Give Peas a Chance

This week we asked Sal to give peas a chance.

I had this grand ol plan to introduce veggies first, and work our way towards sweeter fruits, etc.

We're still getting our footing and learning what it safe, and not safe for foreigners to purchase locally, and what should be imported. Veggies, unfortunately, are one of the items we've been warned about. So, due to lack of selection of imported produce, I settled on frozen peas. I had hoped to do green beans or asparagus first, but peas were available, so that's what I intended on introducing first.

 

From the face on Sal, you can see how he felt about giving peas a chance.

Not a fan.

 

Even worse, mom and dad laughing in the poor guys face..that was, until I tasted them myself and they were the bitterest peas I have ever had in my life. Poor guy!

 

Determined to introduce a solid this week, I scavenged our freezer and found a frozen banana. 

 

Yes, Mrs. I-won't-serve-my-kid-fruit-before-veggies, did just that. Aborted the whole pea mission after two bites ( which were promptly sent back my way), and gave Sal his first bite of banana. It went over much better. He's still not sure of the texture, but he did allow for more than two spoonfuls and ate it again this morning mixed with his rice cereal.

 

Parent fail or parent picking-and-choosing her battles? I rate myself somewhere in the middle.

 

I won't give up on peas just yet, and I am on a mission to find a different brand of peas before I subject Sal to any more.There's a TESCO in town, as well as a CityShop in Shanghai which delivers to Wuxi once a week and tends to have great fresh produce imported. It's pricey, but if the peas are good, they'll have me hooked.

 

Next week we're going to try Sweet Potatoes. Our neighborhood is scheduled for a two day blackout next week, so I am leary of making a huge batch of anything, since our freezer will be out of commission for 2 days. (Welcome to China!) We are moving our frozen and refrigerated goods to a friend's place, and we will probably find shelter in a hotel, since it is much too hot here on the 25th floor with a baby and no A/C.