Baby's first meal

This week the Sweet Pea had her first "solid food". (Incidentally I know several people who call it people food...as though otherwise babies are eating nonpeople food - what, like dog food?? who knows) Anyway...

I'm not sure she knew what to do with what I was putting in her mouth. Most of the food ended up on her face, bib, and washcloth. But it was kind of fun to try something new.

I have chosen to start my children with meat (specifically chicken) for their first food. My pediatrician pointed me in this direction and after some internet research I decided this would be a good approach for me. There are so many different ways to go when feeding babies, (fruits, veggies, cereal, meat...) and I don't think there is really a right or a wrong way, but many people get very passionate about it. There are LOTS of books about it. LOTS of websites. LOTS of experts weighing in with their opinions. But at the end of the day, babies all eat something and we all seem to be okay regardless of what it was. What did they do 200 years ago when there wasn't someone telling mothers what to do at each phase of their babies development??

I also make my own baby food. I have found it is so easy and a lot less expensive. I love having a freezer full of things for my baby to eat. I have already started to puree some things that she will eat later. Berries were on sale last week so I took advantage and did a batch of them. I'll do some zucchini from our garden soon. For my birthday, Goatee Man bought me a really nice food processor. It makes pureeing food sooo much faster. (I used my blender to make food for the Blobster). So I put in an hour of work and get enough baby food for a month or so. Easy.

Al Fresco

Last night we were eating al fresco. It cooled down nicely after a hot day. In the morning we cooked ourselves at the zoo, so it was so nice to be in our green backyard eating food that I made from our garden.
Here is what we ate.

Lemon basil penne with spinach and pork chops. The Blobster ate all of his and even said it was yummy.
Here is the view from our garden.

Here we are eating outside. It really was a great night.

And after dinner I had a lovely Avery IPA.

Such a nice night.
Makes me want to keep the kids up until the moon is out, but then we would have cranky kids on our hands. So I put the kids to bed and cleaned some lettuce for salad tonight.

Parade

Recently, we went to a parade for the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo. We rode our bikes down and watched horses, horses, and more horses. The Blobster was thrilled!

The Blobster had the best seat in town.

Lucas and Jaime joined us too. It is nice to have extra hands to help with our children. And Lucas' office provided relief from the rain.

Grandma showed up too! The Blobster was spoiled with all the hands to hold him.

Ahh...the Sweet Pea loves her grandma!

And I think she is too cute for words.

Did I mention that we saw some horses??

Family Visit

We recently had some family visit from South Carolina. It was really nice to spend some time with them and get to know our nieces and nephew a little better.

Here they are: Honey, Heaven, and Tom - we caught them playing Angry Birds on Danny's IPAD

The girls took some time to go shopping in Old Colorado City. It was fun to have some girl time. The boys went hiking while we were shopping.

Heaven and Honey are very into music and are really talented. We were able to get them to sing for us a few times. They were nice enough to let the Blobster play with them too.

We had a nice celebration for Honey, welcoming her into womanhood. She is so pretty! (Another girl time! I think the boys were playing in the dirt. Seriously... they were in Bobcats)

We all got dressed up. The girls sang for us again; a lovely treat. We were going to have tea, but it was too hot, so we had punch instead. Susan used her grandmother's china - it was so fancy! I hope Honey felt like a princess.

Here is everyone. From left to right in back - Gage, Danny, Honey, Heaven (sorry you got covered up a bit!), Susan (holding Mia), Don. In Front - Sarah, Greg (Danny's brother), Tom.

Aside from our shopping, and girl time, we also had everyone over for dinner at our house, a bbq on July 4th, and dinner out. They also took a trip to the Royal Gorge and the Air Force Academy. I think overall they had an action packed trip.

So the Hankins' clan keeps expanding, and we are richer to have them all in our lives.

Summer Nursing

Can you believe she is already 6 months old??

Right now my sweet baby is wiggling contentedly on the other end of the couch with only one sock on and her hair plastered down with sweat. She just finished nursing, which in these hot summer days means it is hot, hot, hot. Lately, she has not been eating for as long and is quite happy to be out of my arms as soon as possible. While she eats we both start sweating, her head starts to stick to my arm and we both wonder why we aren’t sitting closer to the fan. When she looks into my eyes there is a sly smile because she knows we are both sharing in the same misery. We are melting into each other in a sweet time of bonding.

But I think I prefer the cozy snuggling in winter. 

What I’m looking at Today

I haven’t had much time to sit down and rest today. We are gearing up for the rest of the holiday weekend and are looking forward to some family visiting. Now it is afternoon, it’s getting cloudy (please rain, pretty please!) and I’m nursing a baby – so I have to sit down for a few minutes.

Here is what I’m looking at…

Vintage Chica: this was my first time to her site, which I jumped to from somewhere else. I love the look of her blog and liked the gardening section a great deal. Her discussion of swiss chard reminded me of what is growing in my garden and the pork chops with swiss chard that I made last week. I tossed the chard with truffle oil, lightly seasoned the chops and baked them together. It was easy and super good. (and made me smile because I’m starting to get to harvest things out of my garden.)

Anthropologie: love this tank! I’m not really in the market for new clothes right now, but I like to “window-shop”. This would be perfect for the hot weather we are having right now. 

So would this:

And a little of this:

I can dream can't I??