Wild Times

Our growing girl is now too big for her infant car seat, so we invested in a bigger one that should last her a few more years.

Joy is watching carefully to make sure Daddy fastens her belt correctly his first time.

Joy has taken an increasing interest in local wildlife lately.

Sometimes the wildlife isn't too pleased about that, but hey, what do you expect from a bird who is scared of lettuce?

Speaking of wild, remember that fungus? It seems to have "bloomed." And sprouted twigs. Weird.

You Talked Me Into It

Since there's been such overwhelming demand for the pumpkin cookie recipe, I'll be happy to post it. I've been thinking of putting some favorite recipes on our website, anyway.


Unfortunately, I know virtually nothing about website management at this point (which is why the site is pretty spartan right now), but I've been meaning to learn, and hopefully my tech-savvy husband will be able to help with that. If I haven't figured things out by the end of this weekend, I'll just post the recipe on the blog. Deal?

Strolling in Overalls

Joy has reached an important developmental milestone, everyone.

Yes, she's pulling herself to a standing position, but far more significantly, she wore overalls for the first time today. That's right up there with rolling over or eating your first bug.

Also, for your viewing pleasure, here are a couple photos from our walk today.

Three fun guys having a jam session outside the library . . .

. . . and a bunch of fungi on a local tree.

Devil's Food

I know - devil's food usually contains chocolate. Nevertheless, I sure felt I'd strayed to the culinary dark side when I gingerly lifted these babies from the grocery store shelf.

When I was little, a friend offered me a Twinkie and I thought it tasted like heaven. Years later, I indulged in another one to relive that childhood memory, and was so revolted by the synthetic nastiness that I could barely finish the thing. So why, after that terrible experience, did I voluntarily spend good money for something I consider a gastronomic crime against humanity? Because my husband and I were invited to a Gourmet Twinkie Party.

Yeah, you read that right. The hostess (no pun intended) sent us a link to the official Twinkie recipe page, which can instruct you in the creation of Layered Twinkie Delight, Patriotic Twinkie Pie, and the exotic Twinkie Fantasy. It was one of those ideas that was just bizarre enough to sound fun - kind of like strapping on a parachute and jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

I chose to try the Mini No-Bake Twinkie Cheesecakes, mainly because they seemed like the least frightening option. Basically, you put slices of Twinkie in a mini-muffin pan, dollop on a cream cheese mixture, then add a bit of cherry pie filling.

The above photo was taken after the party. As you can see, several brave souls actually sampled these little dainties. To our surprise, we found that these and a few of the other recipes like the Twinkie Toffee Treat weren't too bad. Ironically, the dishes that we enjoyed most were the ones in which it was hardest to recognize Twinkies as a main ingredient (e.g. with the cheesecakes, the cream cheese mixture masked the identity of the "crust" lurking beneath).

A word to the wise: If you're feeling adventurous and decide to try this cheesecakwinkie recipe for yourself, be advised that it's best to eat them within a few hours of assembly. By the next day, the Twinkie crusts will have become rather tough and spongy. Yum.


P.S. The cream cheese mixture (8oz cream cheese, 1 cup sour cream, and 1/2 c sugar) was actually rather good. If you're craving cream cheese but not in the mood to make a full-blown cheesecake, you might try putting that into a graham cracker crust or little pre-made tart crusts, like these ones that I bought on impulse weeks ago with no idea what to put in them. Fortunately I had more cream cheese mixture than I did Twinkies, so the tarts were able to fulfill the measure of their creation. I love happy endings.

Happy Autumnal Equinox

It's the first day of autumn, and there's a chill in the air. That's the signal for birds to head south, for stores to stock bags of Halloween candy, and for me to make pumpkin cookies.

These babies are basically little, freeform loaves of pumpkin bread, studded with butterscotch chips. Autumnal ambrosia, I tell you.

Joy wanted to take part in the seasonal festivities . . .

. . . and I figured, hey, these contain no peanuts, citrus, chocolate, honey, or any other baby no-no's that I'm aware of, so I went ahead and let her sample one.

She actually ate most of it, and said I should make several more batches of them this fall. At least, I think that's what she said. It's hard to understand her when she talks with her mouth full.

Peppers and Tomato-on-a-Stick

Here are a few more self-indulgent pictures of home-grown produce.

Considering that our two pepper plants only produced a single quarter-sized fruit in their first two months on our porch, I'm impressed by their recent yield. These three bells went into a pot of chicken chili. Mmmm.

Talk about determination. Our two other tomato plants have done pretty well, but this one has always struggled. Not sure if it's the variety, the soil, or what. It has only managed to put out a couple tiny branches from its single stalk, but this is the third tomato it has given us. Thanks, little plant. Much appreciated.

The Power of Books and Beta Carotine

Do you know what this is a picture of?

It's a picture of Success. Victory. Triumph. Somebody's going to put this photo on a workplace poster with the word "PERSEVERANCE."

This is a picture of our baby holding an EMPTY jar of strained carrots. As I fed Joy the last bites of rice cereal and carrots I had served up, she kept opening her mouth with such enthusiasm that I got the jar out of our fridge and fed her the rest of it. It's the first jar of baby food she's finished before it expired and had to be disposed of.

HUZZAH!!!

In other news, I caught Joy raising herself up on her knees to get a better look at the contents of this top shelf. We Hendrickson girls will do just about anything for books.

Baby Etiquette

It's funny how many rules of etiquette are reversed for babies. For example:

1) Burping is encouraged.
2) The "no shoes, no service" rule does not apply to them.
3) Drooling is socially acceptable.

And last but not least . . .

4) Sticking out their tongue at you implies that they like you, and is actually rather endearing.

Different Strokes

We babysat Nathan Pulsipher tonight. It shouldn’t surprise me that babies can be so dissimilar, but I was still struck by the vast difference between these two children. Nathan is five days younger than Joy, yet he crawls twice as fast, pulls himself to a standing position, and even walks if you help hold him steady. He has an enormous amount of energy, and is constantly switching from one toy to another. He also has a perpetual smile on his face.

Joy, meanwhile, stays pretty stationary, content to play with one toy for a while before moving on to the next one (that may be partly because Nathan’s toys are all new to her, and therefore hold her attention longer). She is also much more serious than Nathan, which is no surprise considering her parentage. I think there were a few times when she found her playmate’s energy overwhelming, and wanted us to pick her up so she could distance herself from the whirlwind of activity on the floor for a few minutes.

Another Mushy Post

As I suspected, the animal noise trick didn't work very long. Still, we seem to be making progress. For one thing, Joy is voluntarily opening her mouth more often at each meal. What's more . . .

. . . she's learned which end of the spoon goes in her mouth, and she often likes to try her own hand at this new game. Of course, every time I put food on the spoon with the specific intention of letting her feed herself, it ends up on the floor. I've started feeding Joy over the kitchen linoleum to facilitate cleanup.

We've also offered Baby that time-honored toddler delight: Cheerios. She's still getting used to this new culinary experience, and for now she seems to prefer keeping them outside her mouth rather than inside.

Incidentally, thanks to everyone for their advice and well wishes. They've been both helpful and reassuring.

Update on Mush Consumption

Well, I've made a (very minor) breakthrough in my efforts to spoonfeed Joy.

I've discovered that if I can get her to smile (by making silly animal sounds, etc.), I can insert the spoon in her mouth and the food generally stays inside. In fact, Joy probably ate more cereal this morning than she did in the entire week previous.

Of course, this method only works until the animal shtick gets old. I noticed lunch wasn't nearly as successful, though that may have been because breakfast was so huge.

Advice Welcome

OK, I have a confession to make. Unlike some of her buddies who have been craving extra food for months now, Joy has been pretty content to just keep nursing. I've fed her some rice cereal now and then, but she just didn't seem that into it, and I admit I didn't want to deal with one more mess/hassle/expense if I didn't need to.

Well, this week I read up on baby feeding, and discovered that Baby is old enough not only to eat cereal and mushed-up veggies, but also pureed meats and even finger foods (goodness knows she has enough teeth to eat a pastrami sandwich - #5 and #6 made their appearance in her lower gum this week). So I determined that I would start spoonfeeding more and nursing less.

There's just one problem:

Joy's still not that into eating from a spoon. She'll open wide for the first bite or two, push most of that food back out with her tongue, then refuse to open again. Not in a "don't wanna!" sort of way, but in a "ho hum - there must be something around here more interesting than a spoon with bland mush on it" sort of way.

So far, the best strategy I've developed for getting food into her mouth is to give her an extra baby spoon or other easily-washed item, then slip my laden spoon into her mouth when she opens to chew on her toy. Sneaky, I know, but it's the best I can think of right now.

Trouble is, I wonder whether I'm sending the right message. Should I just quit after her one or two conscious bites so she at least learns that eating is a voluntary thing? Or should I just keep shoving food in at unexpected moments so she gets used to eating? Any thoughts or suggestions would be very welcome.

In the meantime, I've at least figured one thing out. Joy hates having her face wiped, but if I start cleaning her up with two wet cloths and let her have one of them to suck on, I can scrub all day with the other and she doesn't mind a bit. At least meals end on a good note.