Tag Archives: baby

Top 25 Vegan and Vegetarian Moms

HerGreenLife is in the running for Circle of Moms’ Top 25 Vegan and Vegetarian Moms.  To support HerGreenLife,  just follow the link and scroll through the candidates to vote.  (You can vote once every 24 hours, and voting closes on February 14th.)

I’ve been vegetarian for just over seven years now. I know a good bit about nutrition (I have enough college credits in nutrition to be considered a “nutritionist,” though not a dietitian, by most employers), and that foundation makes me confident in my dietary choices.

Though I don’t need outside validation, the last 15+ months provide some satisfactory evidence that my diet is not lacking.  Over nine months, I grew a big, healthy baby on a vegetarian diet*, and for the last 6 1/2 months, he’s thrived on nothing other than mama’s milk 🙂

As I wrote earlier this week, the time has come to expand The Dude’s one-item food menu, and we look forward to introducing him to our way of eating, meals filled with flavor, variety, and lots of nutrients, striving to eat in a way that is good for the body and gentle on the planet.

*In the interest of full disclosure, I took a high-quality fish oil supplement while pregnant, so I wasn’t quite vegetarian, technically speaking.

Read more about my thoughts on a vegetarian diet:
Vegetarian I
Vegetarian II

Fun with food: Baby-led weaning

We started letting The Dude experiment with solid foods in mid-December, when we handed him a stick of either rutabaga or turnip (we don’t remember which anymore, but either way, it was from our garden).  He enjoyed it as an alternative teether as much as anything.

Since the beginning of the month, we’ve been making a more concerted effort to let him sit at the table and try some solid food at least once a day.  After reading the eponymous book, I decided Baby-led Weaning made a lot of sense:

Baby-led weaning is a way of introducing solid foods that allows babies to feed themselves – there’s no spoon feeding and no purées. The baby sits with the family at mealtimes and joins in when she is ready, feeding herself first with her fingers and later with cutlery (from the BLW leaflet).

So far, he’s tried rutabaga/turnip, carrot, sweet potato, rice cake, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, pear, apple, pumpkin, oatmeal, and homemade bread.  Many of his first foods came from our garden.

Yum, broccoli!

As this photo (and later, his diaper) attests, he was pretty into the broccoli.  Actually at one point during this “Fun With Cruciferous Veggies” meal, he was double-fisting broccoli and cauliflower.  At another point, he put the cauliflower in his mouth, leaving his hands free, one to hold broccoli, the other to hold cabbage.

Squash facial mask

Although this picture might look more like conventional puree spoon-feeding, the difference is that The Dude is “feeding” himself.  Also, we did not cook and puree this squash for him, we just happened to have extra from a big batch we prepared for pumpkin bread.

In addition to the website link above, you can read more about Baby-led Weaning here.  So far, we’re taking it slowly and having fun introducing the delicious, wholesome foods that make up a regular part of our diets.

2011 Year End Review — The Second Half

And now, for the rest of the story . . . .

Parting shot
I plan to eventually post the entire birth story here (or at least an abridged version, as it was quite the saga), but for now, you’ll have to accept bits and pieces, in no particular order.  The end is a decent place to start.

Under the knife
Two weeks ago today I underwent major surgery . . . for a tummy tuck and a boob job.  Okay, not exactly, but it kind of looks like it.   Here’s what really happened . . . .

Bicycle dreams
I continued processing the idea, and a few moments later, reality cut through the sleep-deprivation and Percocet-induced haze, and I thought to myself, “Self, you just had major abdominal surgery three days ago, I don’t really think you’ll be riding your bicycle anytime soon.”

A slow return to active transportation
Thursday, at six-and-a-half weeks post-op, I rode my bike for the first time since the surgery.  Those weeks of limited mobility gave me time to think about the limits of active transportation.

Psst, psst: The EC update
Reading about Elimination Communication (EC) midway through pregnancy activated my green radar — baby peeing and pooping in the toilet (or in a little potty or other receptacle) equals less dirty diapers to wash.  Less washing means less water and energy used — what wasn’t to love.  I read Diaper Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh, and it all seemed pretty straight forward.  And then I had a baby . . . .

When baby’s away, Mama plays
My to-do list included picking up a fifty pound bag of whole wheat pastry flour from Local Harvest — not exactly something I could toss in the milk crate on the back of my bike.  I was resigned to driving the car for the 1-mile trip when I remembered . . . the new bike trailer!

Blue green mama
Yet, when my blues set in 2-3 weeks postpartum, my initial reaction was denial . . . . Gabriel’s smiles finally snapped me out of my denial.  He started smiling around nine weeks, this adorable little grin, yet I found myself so emotionally drained that I often couldn’t return those smiles, and that made me feel even worse.

Two’s company
My rationale going in was, sure, we’re adding an additional person, but a very small person, and we’re committed to minimizing stuff for that person, so it will be no big deal, right?  Not exactly.

To resist the spirit of consumerism and materialism

Baptism

All I want for Christmas
Would that be the two bottom teeth?  Or the two top teeth?  Either way, The Dude has it covered now.

Happy New Year!

All I want for Christmas

Would that be the two bottom teeth?  Or the two top teeth?  Either way, The Dude has it covered now (photo evidence of the bottom teeth in yesterday’s photo).  I’m glad that’s all he wants for Christmas, because that’s all he’s getting, at least from Mommy and Daddy.

I’m definitely a Christmas slacker this year.  We don’t have a Christmas tree (no room in the inn!) or any decorations.  We do have a few strings of colored LED lights in our front room, but we pretty much leave those up all winter, to combat the dark dreariness, so they don’t count as holiday decorations.

I planned to take a cute picture of The Dude in a Santa hat, and send it out as a Christmas greeting, but we don’t own a Santa hat, and I haven’t gotten around to buying, or, ideally, borrowing, one.

It all feels like just one more thing this year — something for which I have neither the time nor energy.  I feel a little guilty, a bit like Scrooge or The Grinch — after all, this is “Baby’s First Christmas,” which only happens once.

The thing is, he will remember absolutely nothing about the holidays this year. And, to be fair, we’ll be spending Christmas at my parents’ house, where we can enjoy their tree and decorations. Plus, the various sets of grandparents will make sure that there are presents under the tree with The Dude’s name on them.

Also, while I can do without the commercialism and consumerism of the holidays, I am excited to experience them through the eyes of a child in the years ahead, so I am NOT a total Grinch.  I anticipate celebrations filled with the love, warmth, and family traditions that really make this season special.  Until then, I hope The Dude enjoys his two four front teeth 😉

Update: I may not be the first to claim the title, but I dubbed myself the Green Grinch — it has a nice ring to it!

Percolating

Number of draft posts started in the last week (and by “started,” I mean they have titles): 6

Number of published posts in the last week: 1

Sigh.  Maybe one of these days . . . .

Until then, here’s a gratuitous baby picture to make up for my lack of posting 🙂