berf – Baby KERF

High In A Chair

We’re nearly a year in and have gone through lots of gear. I’m sure I’ve been disappointed in a few items (although now I can’t think of any off the top of my head..) but overall, most things have been great. Love our BOB. Love our new Clef Foonf car seat (should that be another post?). We love our crib and our our video monitor. Our OXO wipes container and cloth diapers. We have changed very little about our nursery.

This post, however, is about our high chair – the OXO Tot Sprout chair.

The Sprout chair is definitely not on the cheap end of the spectrum, but knowing it would have prime real estate in my kitchen/dining room for years, I wanted something that would be pretty to look at and functional. Plus it matches our dining room light shade!!

We have been super happy with both the high chair’s look and function! Luckily it was a gift from my parents. It sat in a box in the attic for about 8 months until one day we decided it was time to get Mazen used to sitting in it at mealtime before he was ready to join us for solid foods. We brought it down and it was assembled in no time.

One of the best parts is that it’s really easy to clean. If you haven’t heard, babies make HUGE messes while eating. Food in hair. Food on floor. Food in every crack you could imagine. Thus, I have to give the high chair a good cleaning after every.single.meal. Luckily, this chair has made that easier for me.

The material is fabulous for wiping down. We used a cloth-seat chair while at the beach and I was shocked that such a chair existed. The cloth was impossible to clean without putting it in the washing machine. The Sprout chair wipes clean so easily, but the cushions also velcro off and are easy to run under the sink. The straps could be easier to clean, but I wipe them down and they are fine. Caitlin showed me how her Chicco high chair had the worst grooves for collecting crumbs. Luckily there are very few grooves on this chair, so crumbs don’t get stuck.

I love that the tray is small enough to fit entirely in our wide one-basin sink. HUGE plus. The high chair at the beach had a reallllly big tray, which I guess is a plus if your baby likes to push food around, but it was much harder to clean. I haven’t had any staining at all with the tray either, berries galore included.

I do have two minor complaints: 1) The sides could be deeper to help keep food on the tray when hands start fingerpainting and swiping food off the edges and 2) On occasion water gets inside from the front lever, but I have learned how to avoid this problem.

I added a hook to the back so I had a place to hang M’s bib to drip dry. So handy! I keep the chair tucked away in the corner of our dining room when not in use. I love that it’s on the petite side.

Love the wooden legs. When M is hungry he crawls over to the chair, pulls up on it and looks back at me as if to say “Please can I get in!?”

Pros: Easy to clean. Pretty. Small-ish.

Cons: Price. Low tray sides.

Mazen gives us two thumbs up too!

Anyone else have a high chair they highly recommend?

Almost 11 Months

What’s new with my lil’ man? Lots of things!

Primarily….walking-ish, not napping and lots of kisses.

Shoulder kiss action:

Mobility. M is up, down and all around these days. He can practically run when pushing the ottoman around the basement and loves to stand and cruise around. He isn’t standing or walking on his own yet, but it can’t be too far away. He gets more and more confident everyday.

With that confidence comes more accidents. Poor M gets hurt more these days as he’s learning to crawl fast and walk. We saw blood for the first time last week when he bonked his lip, and he got a goose egg bump on his forehead after laughing his way into a windowsill. It breaks my heart when he gets hurt, but these are all accidents that just come with the territory of learning to move.

Playing. It’s really fun that now that he is mobile he can really play with other babies. He and Henry played chase, and it’s fun to watch him interact with his friends. Most of his local playmates are older than he is and he has gotten bit, hit and slapped in the face recently! Most of the time this is over the sharing of toys. Poor M.

Talking. I don’t really want to proclaim that Mazen has said his first words yet, but he is working on them. I’m not really going to count mama and dada because those are givens (he says DADA very clearly for Matt these days!), but we are very close to getting a true “dog” and “cat” out of him. Right now they are “duh” and “aht” but there is a connection. He also said a very clear “EGG” the other day, but I’m not sure it was a real word with meaning.

Teeth. We have four prominent upper teeth and still just two on the bottom. The worst is when he grits them together! It makes an awful sound, but I have no idea how to discourage that. Teeth brushing has started…at least for practice. My ped said to just get him familiar with the toothbrush for now. He seems to like it and giggles every time.

Naptime. Since sleep training M has been a stellar napper. We’ve been on a really predictable and wonderful schedule of naps at 9 and 2 for 1.5 hours each (roughly) for MONTHS. It’s been awesome. Just this past week M has started to fight naps. He rarely cries for more than a minute when I put him down, but lately he has been really screaming. So much that I wondered if it was separation anxiety or a fear of something. After getting in the crib with him (that was fun!), I ruled those out. I think he’s just transitioning to dropping his morning nap. It’s just happening in a way I wouldn’t have expected. He has missed his morning nap once and his afternoon nap once and for the first time took a 1-3pm nap recently. I’m looking forward to one nap because it will give us so much more flexibility, and I hope we can get back on a schedule soon.

Nursing. I’ve been able to drop the post-nap feedings this month and am happy about that. {At least until our naps got all screwed up!} We’re down to about 4 feedings a day. I didn’t know how long I’d breastfeed when I first became a mom beyond my goal of a year. I’m really glad we’ve made it (almost) to a year, but I’m not sure how much longer I want to go on. On the one hand, I’m eager to get a little bit more independence for us both, but on the other hand it makes me really sad to think about nursing being over. M still seems to want to nurse, but he doesn’t seem to be obsessed with it or tugging at me all day, so I think I could probably wean him easily when the time comes with distractions and snacks. I don’t plan to force wean him over a weekend or anything, but I think I’ll start thinking about it after his first birthday.

I’m also testing out this new nursing cover – the Momcho Poncho! The fabric is super soft and of course I love the grey chevron. It’s compact and easy to carry around because it’s so lightweight. It’s also good for hot summertime because of the open sides (although sometimes I do wish the sides were more filled in for more privacy). I’m not sure I’d wear it as a real outfit (would you?), but I like it as a cover.

Two things I’m really tired of:

Wiping runny noses (do you cringe when you hear a sneeze like I do!?) and cleaning the kitchen floor. In fact cleaning all of the food-related things has gotten really old. As one would expect, food goes everywhere at mealtimes. At what age does that get better? 2? 5? 10? 18?

Other things:

Holding my heavy baby is getting easier, as he’s learning how to hold on to me. The first time he put his hand on my shoulder I nearly died of the cuteness.

He is also really good at giving kisses – big sloppy ones that he holds there and giggles through. Sometimes he shows so much affection all at once, and it’s heart melting.

We have tried peanut butter! I put some in a banana smoothie and gave M a taste. No signs of any changes – whew!

xoxo

Battle Of The Sippy Cups

We started giving Mazen water when he was about 7 months old and we went to Arizona for vacation. It was hot and in the dry heat he seemed to be thirsty beyond his breast milk intake. As his solid food consumption has increased over the past 4 months, he now drinks water with his meals and I offer it to him on walks and throughout the day as well.

When we first started offering water we used a bottle because he was familiar with how to drink out of it. That way we could gauge exactly how much water he really wanted rather than using an unfamiliar cup. We have gradually transitioned to a sippy cup, but it’s been a long road finding the best one. For the longest time M couldn’t drink out of it by himself – we had to hold it up to his mouth for him.

Then we discovered THE STRAW. What a genius invention. I can’t remember exactly how M learned to use a straw, but I would let him practice on my adult straws and he seemed to get that pretty quickly. Learning the baby cup straws just clicked for him one day (after lots of straw chewing first!)

Here are the sippys we have tried and their pros and cons in order of preference:

Babies R Us brand sippy $4.99

Love: Nothing

Cons: No handles so it’s hard to hold, sippy mouth is hard to sip, leaks from top

Babies R Us Purely Simple Training Cup $5.99

Love: Baby-friendly top, good handles

Cons: A bit leaky, M couldn’t figure out how to tip it up, not the cheapest

Munchkin Click + Lock Sippy $3.75

Love: price, the click + lock feature is awesome, big handles

Negative: M doesn’t drink out of it well

OXO Tot Straw Cup $6.99

Love: straw, awesome locking lid tucks straw away, chic colors

Cons: straw is high flow so it spills out easily but would be good for thicker smoothies and things, price, no handles so hard to hold

Munchkin Click Lock Flip Straw Cup $4

Love: straw, price, click lock is great, no leaking

Cons: no handles so hard to hold

Zoli BOT Sippy Cup $12

Love: this was our favorite for a long time. Handles are great, straw is great once M learned to use it, love the straw flip for upside down drinking, if necessary, spill proof, lid is nice

Cons: surprise puddles started leaking from the rim during our Williamsburg trip. A huge negative with fancy cameras and cell phones in the diaper bag! Price is high. Straw is hard to clean (I wouldn’t serve smoothie in this)

Nubby 2 Handle Flip n Sip Straw Cup $6

Loves: Our current favorite because it has handles, flip straw, no leak and low price

Cons: None so far

So the Nubby wins – for now. I’m sure our preferences will change, and I’m keeping all of these in case Mazen learns to sip the spouts in time.

Every baby is different, so what’s your #1 sippy?

The Time I Made Homemade Mum Mums

I can’t say I really recommend this, but I wanted to share my experience anyways.

You know the Baby Mum Mum crackers? Mazen LOVES them. Like goes bonkers when he sees the package. I haven’t given him too many of them, so I’m not sure why the reaction is so dramatic, but it must be some kind of shared baby thing. I don’t have a problem with them nutritionally at all, and I think they are great for teaching babies to crunch food. But I don’t love that they are from China. The distance just seems…far.

So I searched the net for a homemade recipe and decided on this one. Wholesome Baby Food has a handful of teething biscuit recipes too. I wasn’t after a hard cookie for M to gnaw on, rather, I wanted something light and airy that I wouldn’t have to worry about choking so much. {I tried this brand from Whole Foods and while I loved their taste, the choking hazard scared me too much because they were so hard.}

So back to the homemade crackers. I bought rice flour from Whole Foods and used applesauce as my puree. I used my food scale to get the weights perfect since I knew texture would be key here.

I rolled out the dough

Lookin’ good

I cut them into little crackers

And then this happened:

Take two had me scoring them on the pan, and that worked out quite well. I made a few different shapes – from logs to long crackers to shorter rectangles.

After 25 minutes in the oven they seemed hard to the touch and I pulled them out.

And? They were rather bland, crumbly and chewy. Mazen really liked eating them because they were new, but he had lots of trouble. Some coughing. Goo falling out of his mouth and getting everywhere. Ball of chew making me nervous for choking. They were hard for a baby to eat. So…I give these a thumbs down. They probably needed lower temp and longer bake, but I doubt I could ever have gotten them crispy like the real things. Have any of you had mum mum success?

In other news, M tried pancakes this week and loved them! We have a new breakfast food in our rotation.