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Maddox helping to shell the Fava beans…

He was actually really good at getting the bean out of the pod.  I was impressed. I’m doubting he’ll be able to do the next step of getting the bean out of the sheath, but I guess there is still time for that.

I’m looking forward to cooking them up for dinner. Yum.

Soule Mama is making Violet Jam!  Yummy!  Her blog post about it was too enticing not to share with you all.  Go check it out.  I only wish I had access to all those violets!  The flower jam possibilities are making my head spin.

I totally want this RIGHT NOW!

It is white bread, butter, and sprinkles.  It makes me feel like a kid again just imagining those flavors in my mouth. I used to eat something very similar to this when I was growing up. My neighbors were Dutch and they used to make us kids white bread, butter (probably margarine back in those days), and chocolate sprinkles (the long ones that look like rice). This recipe with real butter and quality sprinkles and quality artisan bread could be a winner!  I bet my one and a half year old would agree!

The recipe and photos are from Sarah over at iatebrisbane.com.  Thanks so much for the inspiration and memories!

[Photo by Robyn Lee]

A fun way to enjoy Peeps this Easter season!
Check out the tutorial at Serious Eats.

Recently I threw a May Day themed baby shower. Which basically means flowers and tons of them. Because the shower was in February and because I’m crafty, I decided to make a variety of paper flowers. The pom pom “flowers” were hung from the ceiling at both ends of the house. I think I made about 20 in a range of sizes.

The shower was for my dear friend Minna who is expecting her first little nugget on May 1st (thus the theme).

Here are a couple shots of the food and drink spread.

The cupcakes in the previous post are shown here with frosting and decor. All in all I think we made 250 mini cupcakes. Needless to say we had a ton left over. Once I get into production mode, I just keep going!

Adorable mini paper cups from Bake It Pretty.

A little while back I started to incorporate purees back into the dinner routine so Maddox could get some practice with the spoon and bowl.  By the end of the meal there is goop above his eyes, on his nose, in his hair and smeared all over his tray. Here is a little video of him finishing up dinner tonight.

Maddox’s 1st birthday is coming up and I’m pulling together some ideas for kid food. The party will be small and mostly adults, but there will be a few kids. I’m not sure if anyone still feeds their kids hotdogs these days, but these sure look fun!

I wonder if the pasta inside the dog actually cooks or if its a hard little toothpick of pasta.

Maddox has been doing really well adjusting to “solid” food. He is beginning to be more picky, but for the most part he is a good eater. He used to eat a ton, but that has tapered off and he is satisfied with one small bowl of food and a handful of “O’s“. He LOVES O’s. I thought he’d love picking up all food and putting it in his mouth, but not so – just O’s. He is perfectly happy being fed chunks of banana, cheese, potato, etc, but if I put them on his tray he just pushes them over the edge in denial.

I need to start feeding him more big boy food. I have a book of recipes that I plan to get started on any day now. It appears that I will have to make more food a la minute, and less can be frozen ahead.  Joy.  Beyond pureed vegetables and fruits he eats scrambled egg yolk, cheese, O’s, banana, plum (from our tree), cottage cheese, and yogurt.  Not a huge repertoire, but its a start. He pretty much wants to live off of fruit and yogurt.  Anything else is received with a squished up face and much gagging and shuddering. Its all very dramatic, like I’m trying to poison him. He also will wave his entire arm back and forth as to say  ”No. Yuck, get that thing away from me!”. This is a similar arm motion that sends chunks of food other than O’s flying off his tray.

This squished up nose face above is his current smiling on purpose look.  At least that is our guess. Since this photo was taken last month there are more variations on the face.

Now that the weather has been better, we have been spending more time in the back yard. I’ve ripped up a big ugly bush/tree that was taking up valuable yard space and replaced it with a bed of shade plants. The area is a bit raised from ground level, so I had a carpenter build me a cute little retaining wall out of that fancy modern hardwood, Ipe. According to the history channel it’s fire rating is the same as concrete! I’ll post photos once I’ve finished putting in all the plants. This past weekend Dallas and I put in the 3 giant Hostas, but I have some smaller filler plants to install still. These sorts of projects get dragged out for a while when there is a kid involved.

Here he is sitting in his little bouncy chair by the lavender.

He has been getting increasingly more mobile. He is not crawling or pulling himself up yet, but he does somehow move around just by rolling and sitting and rolling and sitting. Every once in a while he’ll smack his head on the floor which makes mom freak out on the inside, but he handles it all in stride.

Eating is the current focus. I’d love to wean him sooner than later. I figure it is a long road ahead, so I’m going to start trying now. Baby steps. He eats 3 “solid” meals a day, and has for a while now. These meals make up a good amount of his total food intake. For breakfast today he had pureed blueberries with smooshed banana and multi-grain cereal. I tried to get him to eat the smooshed banana chunks with his fingers off the tray, but no go. He just pulled them off his tray and threw them on the floor then demanded real food. Ugh. Same thing happened when I offered him tofu pieces, and cereal soaked in milk. Moving on from purees is a whole other thing I realize.

Yesterday I introduced him to mango puree. He hated the first spoonful, but he always squishes his face at the first spoonful of anything (even the beloved apple). So I gave him a second spoonful – same reaction. Then he made a funny sound and Blegggha… He threw up all over himself, the highchair, and the floor. Guess mangos are a no-go. It hadn’t even occurred to me they would be offensive.