First crack at solids - what a "grind"!

OK, so I lied. :) We weren't planning to introduce Starryn to solids until closer to 6 months, however we decided to go for it tonight. Why? Well, she's been super-interested and grabby during recent meals, she's a skinny li'l thing and Granda Mary was over today who we knew would LOVE to get in on the experience as well! Also, Ange mentioned yesterday when we were over for a visit that she's been preparing homemade rice cereal for Sam and I *loved* this idea! Super cheap and all natural - no additives!

You can use either white or brown rice to make cereal. Commercially available rice cereals generally use white rice, however brown is more nutritious. We opted for simple white basmati for this initial "experiment" as we had a bag handy, it cooks nice & quickly and we thought that this might be the easiest for Starryn to digest for meal #1.

There are two main methods for making homemade rice cereal:
1) Cook the rice whole and then puree it
2) Grind rice into a powder using a food processor or coffee/spice grinder and then cook it

We opted for 2). Ange mentioned this is super-easy to do; she uses a coffee grinder which creates a very fine powder and simply adds boiling water which "cooks" it within less than a minute. She also mentioned that the first method results in a pasty cereal which isn't ideal.

We ground the rice using our Oster combo blender/food processor which did a pretty good job, however the resulting powder apparently wasn't fine enough to cook using the boiling water method. We also didn't add enough water initially. We ended up adding a bit more and then nuking it for 30 seconds which got the job done. (As it turns out, 4 parts water to 1 part powder is an effective ratio to get a nice, semi-solid consistency; probably would have been ideal to look this up ahead of time but you know me - I rarely measure in the kitchen ;)

So the big question - did Starryn like it? Well, she was pretty eager from the get-go!

She eagerly welcomed the first mouthful by grabbing the spoon and gumming around at it, and then opening up for more when Mommy was finally able to get the spoon back. Whew!! The "Hmm I'm not sure about this" faces did come as she took a moment to contemplate the texture and taste of this new stuff in her mouth...

 ...but in the end I'm pretty sure she swallowed more than the amount that ended up either drooled onto her bib or splattered across her cheeks. So that's good, right?

Here's a clip showing our li'l eater in action!

 

So that was lots of fun! Though really it was an experiment more than anything at this point (and, happily, a successful one!) We might try again tomorrow or we might give it a few more days until next time. I'd like to read more about homemade cereals - incorporating breast milk, ensuring she's getting enough iron, expanding to other grains, etc. before we plunge forward with gusto. Alternatively, we might try out banana or avocado rather than more cereal as a next step. Lots of great sites out there with helpful tips, including wholesomebabyfood.com and homemade-baby-food-recipes.com.Squee! I loooove food, so I'm so excited to share this love with our little love! <3

"Name the Diaper" contest - requesting your help!

I don't really heart online popularity contests because they kinda require you to write posts like this one

BUT!

I really want to win Starryn a cute li'l pink MiniMaestro diaper! She currently only has one "girly" dipe so I'd love to add one to her stash. Plus, I've been wanting to try MM diapers for awhile!

If you could do me a huuuge favour and "Like" my entry here, I would be eternally grateful! The dipe looks like this:



My submission is called "The Pink Pants-er" (which I feel is clever if I do say so myself :) and my profile name is Kristy AC.

I believe you need to "Like" MiniMaestro's page to do this, but I recommend liking them anyway as they're a great company with some awesome products! (I have one of their wetbags and it's fabulous!)

I'll be sure to post a pic of S in her sweet new dipe as well if, no I mean WHEN, she wins! ;)

If you have any submissions you're proud of us well, let me know and I'll return the favour!

Thanks all!

Mail SCORE Redux

A few weeks back I wrote about the exciting mail score of three, count'em, THREE fluffy packages on a single day!

Well yesterday's daily check trumped this! I'm pretty sure I jumped up and down like a little girl when I saw the FOUR packages that were waiting for me in the box. woooo000o0o0o0o!!! (Perhaps this was the Canadian election gods telling me that they approved of my vote? ;)

Here is the unopened loot:



Any guesses?

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You sure you're ready to know? (This is like one of those email chain letters :)
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OK here we go!!

 

Item 1 (top): A pair of baby leggings from the Stinky Moose Facebook 500 fan giveaway!

Item 2 (left): gWipes from Not Just Baby Brain's baby shower event!

Item 3 (middle): Ultra-soft Organic Bamboo Velour wipes by Two Sweet Potatoes, from a giveaway at So Easy Being Green!
Item 4 (right): A chili pepper Sprout Change diaper won at Lindsay's Family Reviews and Giveaways!

Squee!

So any exciting mail scores for you mamas (& papas) recently??

Menu Plan Monday

I've been meaning to start menu planning for awhile now, but aside from my Indian Inspiration Week haven't gotten around to it. However I've decided to commit to it starting this week! So many reasons to do so:

• Shop JUST ONCE for the whole week rather than 3-4+ small, rather disorganized trips. This should also encourage us to eat earlier in the evening as I won't need to shoot out to the store to grab something last minute (and as we mamas know, there's never really a "quick trip" per se when you have a little one!)
• Reduce or eliminate wasted food as there'll be a plan to use everything
• Healthier eating in general; no need to bust out the Lean Cuisine 'cause there's not enough time or ingredients to make a "proper" dinner .
• Less expensive eating; more home cooked meals = less eating out & takeout PLUS we can plan a menu around weekly sales items which'll save additional $$.
• Find ways to use existing ingredients lying around the house before they go bad.

Plus, I found a great blog called Food and Whine which has an EXCELLENT page dedicated to meal planning. If you like the idea of meal planning yourself but haven't gotten started yet, or if you plan but feel your approach could use some work, I highly recommend checking out her page! It includes some sample menus and a bunch of links to other helpful sites as well. The site I heart the most is http://www.supercook.com/. It allows you to type in a set of ingredients and it generates recipes containing these ingredients. Funny thing is that I had an idea to build this type of app a few years back but then forgot about it. Turns out it already existed! (Either that, or the Supercook creator read my mind and went from there. ;)

I've noticed some mamas plan out all three meals each day, however I'm going to start with dinner alone as we usually eat leftovers for lunch and we always have ingredients on hand for breakfast (hot & cold cereal, eggs, pancake mix, smoothie fixings, etc.) Also, I'm just doing Mon-Fri as we very often end up eating out or at a family member's house for dinners on the weekend so I don't want to overplan and end up wasting food.

Without further ado, here is my inaugural Menu Plan Monday menu! It is inspired by the fact that we have lots of chicken & shrimp in the freezer, and by hubby's desire to ingest a lot of veggies following his meatball & wing-laden UFC guy's night. :)

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Monday:

Spinach salad with strawberries & almonds (This recipe looks good so we'll try it!)

Mediterranean chicken breasts (frozen, pre-seasoned)

Tuesday:

Broiled salmon *

Steamed broccoli

Mashed potatoes w/ garlic and parmeson cheese

* We buy our fish from TJ Seafood, a local establishment which has the most fresh, high-quality fish I've ever tasted and also makes its own delicious smoked salmon in-house. TJ supplies to numerous restaurants in the KW region. So technically this is a separate trip, but a very catered one and so worth it! :)

Wednesday:

Asian stirfry w/ shrimp, tofu and LOTS of veggies (zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, peppers and other goodies)

 

Thursday:

Spinach & Mushroom pasta bake (we'll try this one and use the tri-coloured vegetable fusilli in the pantry!) 

Friday:

Chicken Parmesan over pasta (how about this recipe?)

Some veggie - we'll probably just go frozen for this one!

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For all you veteran menu planners out there, how does this look? :)

Charis Designs giveaway: WINNER!

Congratulations Amanda! You have won a fabulous diaper cover wrap from Charis Designs!

I have sent you an email. Please respond within 72 hours to claim your prize or I will need to draw another winner. Congrats again!!

"S" @ 5 months: Let's Make Some Noise!

The months just continue to fly by! One more and our sweet little S will be half a year old!

Her 5 month "birthday" took place on Easter, so we thought it fitting that her official pic reflect this adequately. :)

(Compare to months one, two, three and four!)

No doctor appointment this month, so we relied on Wii Fit for her weight which came in at 6.2 kg or about 13 lb 11 oz. Subtracting the weight of her sleeper (say 2 oz) puts her closer to 13 lb 9 oz. A little over a pound heavier than last month, so gaining steadily!

We've been LOVING the bumbo chair this month! She's the perfect age & size for it.

She spends the most time in her bumbo during meals. While Chris and I eat, she continues to hone her understanding of cause and effect with games like "throw the ring links on the floor so that Mommy picks them up!" and "drag the loud plastic rattle back and forth repeatedly across the table":

 

(At least she can't cast away her Sophie since we have the giraffe snugly tethered to her car seat!)

The back to front roll maneuver has become a cakewalk for her, and she now does this almost every time she's placed on her back. Check out the efficiency, even as early as 4 months, 1 week!

She also sleeps fully on her front now. We were concerned about this initially, but we're now feeling quite confident that she's aware & strong enough to move if breathing becomes an issue. Plus, outside of tying her down, there's not much we can do about it at this point!

When she's on her tummy, she sometimes gets a li'l lazy and just hangs out there with her head down and to the side. But she is also starting to do the "mini pushup" moves and thrust her bum up in the air, downward-facing-dog stylez. (Yup, it would appear she's paying attention during baby yoga!)

All that said, she has yet to demonstrate mastery of the front-to-back roll. I've seen her do it a couple times now so I know she can do it, but I think she either forgets or doesn't really enjoy that move.

She's starting to get more active in her rainforest jumperoo! She has learned how to rotate herself around to access the various toys, and she's starting to bounce with the aid of a couple strategically placed phonebooks. She has this funny little side to side hopping move; I remarked to Chris that it looks like an early incarnation of the wedding shuffle. :) No vid yet - will definitely get on that this month.

It appears she now grasps the concept of object permanence. For example, when we're playing with one of her puppets during a diaper change and I move the puppet down out of sight, she continues to look for it. And when we play "Where's S?" with a prefold over her face, she will now reach up and pull it away (whereas before she'd just flail around until I took it off myself.)

Socially, there is no end to the smiles and laughs! She definitely has her more serious moments (when she's focusing, learning and/or reflecting) but when she's happy and she knows it she REALLY WANTS TO SHOW IT! Check out the big gummy grin:

Big laughs for her lion toy. RAWRRRR!

She continued to play around with new vocalizations this month. Once again, Baby Center hit the nail on the head by asserting that she'd be blowing raspberries by the end of her 5th month. Indeed, she was! She has also started doing an open, close, open, close chomping motion with her mouth. On a related note, she is now DEFINITELY showing an interest in food! She always checks out what we're eating and will open her mouth eagerly if we bring food close to her. So far I've given her sips of water, "tastes" of pieces of food such as carrots and banana (really just letting her mouth them a bit) and diluted prune juice when she hadn't gone poo in 13 days. However, we won't officially try solids for another couple weeks as she's still fully satiated from da booby and we don't feel the need to rush things here.

Finally, knock on wood, but we may have been wrong about her being allergic to cats since she hasn't really exhibited any of these symptoms since Lucy came back! I'm cautiously optimistic about this as it would really suck to have to find a new home for our li'l tuxedo cat.

Well that sums up the highlights from Month 5. As always, looking forward to what the next month will bring for our S!

Kawaii giveaway: WINNERS!

Well, it's been an exciting two weeks following the action on my very first giveaway for 2 Kawaii Snazzy Minky OS pocket diapers! 524 total entries - what a great turnout! Welcome to all my new blog, FB and twitter followers and hope you enjoy what you find here at Manager to Mom! I have a whole slew of ideas for upcoming posts, and I'm just putting the finishing touches on my PR Friendly page which should lead to more great giveaways very soon!

Without further ado, here are the two lucky winners of the Kawaii giveaway:

Winner #1: Ashley, you won the cow print diaper!

Winner #2: Lindsey, you won the leopard print diaper! 

 

Congrats Ladies! I am emailing you both shortly. Please respond within 72 hours to claim your prize or I will need to draw another winner. 

Finally, a quick announcement/reminder - the Charis Designs Diaper Cover Wrap giveaway is still on (until May 1st) and currently has LOW ENTRIES! If you haven't done so already, enter it here!

Family-Friendly Giveaway Roundup for Canadians - 04/29

Here is an up-to-date roundup!

04/29: Bummas cloth wipes (CAN/US)
Hosted by: The Nurse Mommy
Mandatory entry:Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:222

04/29: Flip cover and inserts (CAN/US)
Hosted by: One Smiley Monkey
Mandatory entry: GFC follow; Facebook like
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 2; current entries:675

04/30: Sloomb knot longies (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Knocked Up and Nursing
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:614

04/30: Sloomb starter kit (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Dirty Diaper Laundry
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:425

04/30: Oh Katy diaper (WORLDWIDE)
Hosted by: The Nurse Mommy
Mandatory entry:Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:373

04/30: Charlie Banana cloth wipes (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Dirty Diaper Laundry
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 2; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:313

04/30: 2 Itti Bitti cloth diapers (CAN/US)
Hosted by: The Momccupation
Mandatory entry: GFC follow; Facebook like; website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 5; current entries:556

04/30: Virtual bra fitting event (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Dirty Diaper Laundry
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 5; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:211

(NEW) 04/30: Cloth Wipes from Sweet Bobbins (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Cloth Diaper Contests & Giveaways
Mandatory entry: N/A
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 2; current entries:230

05/01: Crane Humidifier (CAN ONLY)
Hosted by: Multi-Testing Mommy
Mandatory entry: Facebook like; Twitter follow
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:254

05/01: Bummas cloth wipes (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Mom Always Finds Out
Mandatory entry: Facebook like; Twitter follow
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 2; current entries:248

05/02: 3-pack of Day Pads from GladRags (CAN/US)
Hosted by: A Mommy's Blessings
Mandatory entry: GFC follow; website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 0; current entries:76

05/02: 2 ComfyRumps diapers (CAN/US)
Hosted by: The Reynolds Mom
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 2; current entries:503

05/02: MiniMaestro cloth diaper (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Not Just Baby Brain
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:188

(NEW) 05/02: Envibum diaper + absorbency pad (CAN/US)
Hosted by: The Cloth Diaper Fairy
Mandatory entry: Facebook like; Twitter follow
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 0; current entries:196

(NEW) 05/02: 2 ComfyRumps diapers (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Sweet T Makes Three
Mandatory entry: GFC follow; website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 2; current entries:285

05/03: 3 BumGenius 4.0 diapers from Euphoria Baby (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Mama B
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 4; current entries:1485

05/03: 3 Mama Cloth pads from Moms Crafts 4 U (WORLDWIDE)
Hosted by: All Aboard (the review & giveaway train!)
Mandatory entry: N/A
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:184

05/03: Bumkins Superbib (CAN/US)
Hosted by: The Nurse Mommy
Mandatory entry:Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:98

05/04: Swaddlebees Econappi snap diaper (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Marni's Organized Mess
Mandatory entry: GFC follow; website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 28; current entries:742

(NEW) 05/04: Best Bottom system (shell + 3 inserts) (CAN/US)
Hosted by: One Smiley Monkey
Mandatory entry: GFC follow; Facebook like
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 11; current entries:508

(NEW) 05/05: 2 Itti Bitti Diapers (CAN/US)
Hosted by: The Reynolds Mom
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 2; current entries:397

05/08: Flip, BumGenius and Thirsties Duo from Ten Tiny Piggies (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Mama B
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 2; daily entries pp: 4; current entries:890

(NEW) 05/09: Best Bottom system (shell + 3 inserts) (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Oh So Savvy Mom
Mandatory entry: Website visit; GFC follow
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:360

(NEW) 05/9: Blissful Booty AIO diaper and booster (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Dirty Diaper Laundry
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:320

(NEW) 05/10: Wash & diaper cream OR wetbag & Flip from Baby Bottoms Boutique (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Mama B
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 3; daily entries pp: 4; current entries:518

05/10: Zookies cover (WORLDWIDE)
Hosted by: Mama's Passions
Mandatory entry: GFC follow; website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:69

(NEW) 05/10: Zookies cover (WORLDWIDE)
Hosted by: A Mommy's Blessings
Mandatory entry: GFC follow; website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 0; current entries:47

(NEW) 05/10: Spark Story Starters (CAN/US)
Hosted by: West Coast Mama
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:5

(NEW) 05/10: Envibum diaper (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Happenings of the Harper Household
Mandatory entry: GFC follow
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 6; current entries:624

(NEW) 05/10: $75 to Zutano Organic (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Natural Mommie
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:N/A

(NEW) 05/11: Sleepy Wrap (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Not Just Baby Brain
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 1; current entries:58

(NEW) 05/15: AppleCheeks prize pack from Snuggle Bugz (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Mama B
Mandatory entry: Website visit
# winners: 1; daily entries pp: 4; current entries:623

(NEW) 05/17: Bye Bye 'Sposies - 2 grand prize packages! (CAN/US)
Hosted by: Double Duty Mommy
Mandatory entry: GFC follow
# winners: 2; daily entries pp: 24; current entries:N/A

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Notes:

• Giveaways are listed in chronological order by closing date
  
• Most of the giveaways I'm currently scouting out are for cloth diapers and related products, so there is a heavy lean toward these
• All giveaways I post will be open to Canadians; some exclusively. I'll indicate whether a particular contest is CAN/US, CAN ONLY or WORLDWIDE beside each listing.
• To help you decide which giveaways to enter, I will list the mandatory entry, the number of winners (# winners), the number of daily entries per person (daily entries pp) and the current number of total entries at the time of this writing (current entries).
• Giveaways which have just been added to the list this week have a NEW tag.
• If you know of a great family-friendly product giveaway open to Canadians which is missing from my list, feel free to leave a comment and let me know. Thanks! (Note - I may add a linky to this post in an upcoming week.)

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Easter from S and Great Grandma Catherine!

Aaaaaand SWITCH!

Being present

Yoga is one of the activities I have enjoyed the most over the past several years. It's so wonderful for the body, mind and spirit, and it's also a nice way to spend time with good friends (as I learned during my prenatal classes and more recently during mom & baby yoga w/ S.) One of the core principles of yoga which I believe is so important is the ability to be present. We so often live in the past (evaluating what has taken place) or in the future (planning all the things we need to do) that we don't spend a lot of time just being conscious, alert and mindful of what's going on right now. While it's important to learn from the past and plan for the future, we are living in the present and will never get back the moment that is happening RIGHT NOW!













Now that I have a beautiful daughter, it's never been more important for me to be present. S is growing and changing so much every day. Sometimes I just gaze at her in awe of her sweetness and innocence, or feel totally in the moment as I rock her to sleep, singing and drinking in her beautiful baby smell. But then other times I catch myself lost in thought while I'm with her. For example, I'll be playing with her while changing her diaper and then something will cross my mind which will monopolize my focus (for example, a blog post I want to write, people I need to call back or how I plan to schedule my time over the day), then all of a sudden I'll come back to the present, see her looking at me expectantly and have no idea how long I was gone for! 1 minute? 3? And what was S thinking or feeling while I was lost in my own mind? Was she worried? Confused? Hurt? I'd inevitably feel a bit sad and guilty in this moment, and tell myself not to let it happen again! But yet it would happen again. When it comes down to it, that's me - I'm a thinker, a reflector, a planner and somewhat of an introvert. It's easy for me to get lost in my own head! I like that I have the ability to do this in general. It allows me to delve deeply into a problem which needs to be solved and block out noise when I need to focus on the task at hand (certainly a boon when I was working!) And it helps what could otherwise be a mundane event (for example, driving somewhere or showering) become more interesting and productive. It's only a real problem when it creeps into other activities which need me to be alert and mindful. Case in point - those beautiful moments with my child that I can never get back!

So today I made a vow to myself. I am going to make a conscious effort to be present when it comes to spending time with S. I'm sure that saying is true - that no one ever looks back on their life and wishes they spent more time cleaning (or planning, or scheduling, etc.) But many people do, unfortunately, look back and regret that they did not spend more good, quality time with their loves ones. I don't want to be one of those people!!